Chapter 144

[ 1,003 words ]

Arabella:

I rushed through the hospital corridors, barely noticing Bradley following behind me.

“Where is Maya?” I asked the first nurse I saw in the burns unit. “The one they brought from the palace.”

“She’s being treated right now,” the nurse interrupted gently, stepping in front of me when I tried to move past her. “You can’t go in yet, miss.”

“But I… I need to see her,” My voice rose despite my attempt to stay calm.

“I’m sorry. The healers are with her. You’ll have to wait.” She held me gently by my shoulders and gestured towards the row of seats along the corridor.

My chest tightened. I took a step back, trying to breathe through the panic crawling up my throat. When I felt a hand on my shoulder, I spun around and found Toby standing there.

The guy was looking like he had walked straight through the fire himself. Dark patches of smoke stained his shirt, tiny pieces of debris clung to his clothes and hair, and his face looked exhausted.

“Toby…”

He didn’t say anything and just shook his head. The next second, he pulled me into his arms. A broken sob left him as he buried his face against my shoulder, and whatever little control I had left disappeared with it. I wrapped my arms around him and cried against his chest.

“Oh, Toby,” I whispered as the guilt twisted painfully inside me. “What did I do? Why did I do it?”

He immediately pulled back. “Hey. No.” Toby wiped the tears from my cheeks with his thumb, even though his own face was wet. “You can’t blame yourself for this. I was the one who asked you to say it, remember?”

“But I—” I couldn’t get the chance to finish the sentence when Bradley spoke behind me.

“And how come you’re all right?”

I turned and found him watching Toby closely. When I looked back at Toby, he wiped his face with the back of his hand before facing Bradley.

“I wasn’t in the room,” he explained. “I went to the royal kitchen to get some snacks. We were planning to watch a movie, and Maya wanted popcorn and coffee.” He paused, rubbing a dirty hand over his face. “And beer too.” He tried to smile.

“We already had the popcorn packs. I only needed to microwave them, so I wasn’t gone for long.” His eyes drifted toward the closed doors behind which Maya was being treated. “When I heard all the noise, I thought it was coming from another part of the palace.” He swallowed hard. “I never imagined it was my own room.”

Bradley only nodded and turned away to talk to a doctor. I watched the closed door and wanted to slap myself. My friend was in there because of my stupidity.

I didn’t even know how badly she was hurt yet, but whatever had happened in that room, I was responsible for it.

That was enough. I wanted to tell Bradley everything. He needed to know this, but before I could speak to him, Toby’s hand landed on my shoulder. He pulled me against him again and hugged me tightly, his body shaking as he silently cried.

I wrapped an arm around him and began patting his shoulder.

“Don’t, Arabella,” he whispered close to my ear. That made my hand stop for a few seconds. I frowned but didn’t pull away. He was warning me not to say anything.

I closed my eyes and gave a small nod, even though there was no way he could see it. I couldn’t argue with him here. Not with Bradley standing right behind us. But this couldn’t stay between Toby and me anymore.

Maybe I would talk to my friend once we were alone, but after what had happened to Maya, I was done pretending this was something we could handle ourselves.

Lucien and Bradley needed to know what I was capable of before I could cause something worse.

***

“Are you nuts? Why would you tell Lucien or Bradley about it?” Toby kept his voice low in the deserted waiting room.

I stared at him in shock. “Maya got hurt. Didn’t you see her, Toby?”

“Of course I did.”

“Then how can you ask me to keep quiet?” I demanded. “She’s in the hospital because of those dragons. Dragons that appeared after I said…”

“I know what you said.” Toby came closer and took my cold hand in his. “But Maya is safe now. The healer said there’s no serious damage.”

“Well!” I threw my free hand in the air. “That doesn’t make it okay.”

“I didn’t say it does.” His fingers tightened around mine. “I’m saying we don’t know enough yet. Those were just two baby dragons, Ara. They barely had time to do much before the warriors got there.”

“Oh, Toby,” I placed my hand on my forehead.

“Hey.” He cupped my cheek. “They didn’t attack or chase anyone. They just got panicked and threw fire. Warriors saw them jumping out of the window the moment they tried to catch them.”

I started rubbing my forehead in frustration. “You’re making it sound like this is normal.”

Two dragons appeared out of nowhere in his room because I said a few stupid words.

Toby caught my other hand too before I could turn away. “Listen, Ara. Please. Trust me on this.” He started rubbing my cold hands between his palms. “At least wait for Maya to gain consciousness.”

I swallowed and glanced toward the hallway leading back to Maya’s room, wondering if keeping quiet was really the right thing to do.

Finally, I nodded at him and exhaled a long breath. “Not even Lucien?” I asked him, “At least, Lucien should know about it or…”

“What should I know?”

We both turned around when we heard Lucien’s voice. Standing in the doorway, he was looking at us with a deep frown.

Toby’s hands went still around mine. Oh, Goddess. How much had he heard?

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