The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy

Chapter 0731

I'm honestly not aware of much as we fly to...wherever the hell we're going. I mostly just concentrate on my mom's warm presence at my side, and the soft murmuring things she says to me, even if I don't know what they mean. Still, something about them dulls the

gnawing ache in my heart.

An ache which seems to get bigger and bigger as the moments pass, like a cliff, or a quarry, with unsteady edges - my whole world threatening to just tilt in and smash to pieces at the bottom.

But my mom holds me together. I feel her healing magic sweep through me as she strokes my hair, feel her healing all the little cuts and bruises from the battlefield, the tiny scrapes and bumps. I only lift my head to stop her once, when the magic brushes against the cuts on my palms.

The ones Gibson left with that slash of his knife in the moments before he opened Tony's throat.

"No, please," I croak, shaking my head. "I need them - they're all I have left -"

"Oh sugar," mom whispers, stroking my cheek. "We all have to heal sometime."

I nod, knowing she's right. "Can you - can you not heal it smooth? Can you leave scars?"

"Yes, baby," she whispers. "We'll leave you the scars so your hands can always bear witness to what Tony gave for you. Okay? I promise."

nod, tears slipping

and sob as I

I know she tries to smooth it as best she can, I can feel it take shape into the other scar that I will bear

Luca's mark, which claimed me as his minutes before

but because...it's a door closed. I'll never not bear it. Every time I look in the mirror and see it I'll remember that moment, that terrible mistake. "Now now, baby," mom murmurs, stroking her hand long over my back. "We'll take it from here. You just let us

support too, and I do feel

still the ache - it's bone deep. Perhaps deeper, to beyond

fast once the

small, very elite and - most important to mom - very discreet. I don't know what the hell she must have paid to have the whole place cleared out for just the four of us - but,

look up at him curiously kind of confused, but he just smiles gently at me and carries me away to

with me, and puts on movies that I don't watch, and we all sit very calmly for a long, long time. Mom gives me a sip of

drooping.

at her. "You drugged me," I murmur, my lips barely moving as the sleeping medicine she must

stroking a hand over my hair. "You can thank me in the

I can even think about whether or not I'm mad to be

Daphne is propped up next to me in a very lush robe, her hair lovely and shining