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“Hmm, she doesn’t look so tough now,” Gabriella mused.
“Tell me, Sinclair,” Everleigh said, “is Victor worth this?”
Saylor crouched beside me. I cried out as she snatched my bad hand, forcing the engagement ring off my finger. “This is for you.” Something dropped next to my head. “Be punctual.”
“Y-you...” I rasped. “You’ll... pay—”
“There’s one more thing I was supposed to do,” Saylor said. “Piper, what was it—? Oh yeah, this.”
Saylor punched me in the face. My skull bounced on the concrete, black spots dancing in my vision.
“We’re done here, ladies. Let’s go. Douglas is waiting with the car.”
I lay there long after they left. Dozens of students passed by, but no one helped.
Chapter Ten
“Are you sure you’re up for this?”
Rafael helped me off the bed. Despite the question, he held up my jacket for me to put my arms through. “I’m watching the whole thing from a distance. You can too from the comfort of your sheets.”
“No,” I mumbled. Every word out of me stumbled over my busted, swollen lip. “I want to come.”
“You have a broken wrist.”
“Bruised.” I shuffled across the carpet, wedging my feet in a pair of flats. “Ice, rest, and a few days in the brace and I’ll be fine. Let’s just go, Rafael. I’ve been waiting for this all day. I won’t...”
I trailed off as a warm hand caressed the back of my head. “We should’ve been there.”
“They planned it so you guys and Victor wouldn’t be there. Lured me right out of class into their ambush. Saylor said it’d only get worse for me.” My eyes fluttered shut under his touch. “It’ll take me all night to redo those assignments. And the textbooks. The shopping spree emptied my bank account. My stepfather won’t give me more money until the end of the semester. If I tell him I need more because the Burberry Bitches attacked and shredded my books, he’ll stop paying my tuition—deal or no deal.”
“You have a deal so he’ll pay your tuition? Because they didn’t want you coming here after Winter,” Rafael said, getting it in one. “Neither of those things is a problem. I’ll pay to replace your textbooks.”
“You don’t have to—”
“I wasn’t there to protect you, Luna.” The hard edge in his tone smothered my denial. “I do have to. At the very least, let me keep you here, so I can protect you always.”
I held my hand over my heart, and Winter’s letter. It wasn’t safe to have it on me these days, but then more than ever, I needed my sister with me.
“You guys have taken me in like a little wounded bird,” I whispered. “Why do you care so much about me?”
“Don’t ask me why we’re not like those shits who walked past you like you weren’t there.”
I winced. “I’m sorry, I just— I want to go, Rafael. Turn this into a good day. Please.”
“That I can do.” A kiss pressed to my temple. “Give me ten minutes. I’ll be back.”
Ten minutes turned into thirty. A knock sounded on my frame as I sat at my new desk, redoing my homework. A glance at the clock read eleven.
Rafael was a figure cloaked in shadows. They disappeared into his midnight blue shirt and black pants, and formed a halo around his headphones, a dark crown for a dark prince.
“Is it time?”
“It’s time.”
Rafael helped me up, encircling my waist and taking my hand in his. I let him hold me. Be kind to me. Comfort me. I needed it after crawling across the concrete, a certainty settling in my bones that the world had none of either left.
Rafael helped me downstairs and across campus to his car. I would’ve whistled at the black Grand Sport Bugatti taking up two spaces, preventing anyone from parking too close, but my lip hurt at the thought.
We didn’t say much as he turned down the unlit road, putting Regalia University in our rearview. It didn’t occur to me to fill the silence. Rafael’s whole world was noise. I’d let him have quiet and he’d give me my revenge.
I rested my forehead against the cool glass, a soft sigh fogging my sight. A lot could be said about the town of Regalia. It’s exclusive, snobbish, unwelcoming. But no one would ever say it wasn’t beautiful.
The trees were losing their green and gifting the seaside town a blanket of reds, oranges, and burnished golds as their final farewell to autumn. Mansions towered in the horizon, but it wasn’t just the soaring spires, rising columns, and dancing topiaries on their grand estates that lent Regalia its beauty.
It was the willow trees stretching their branches across the road, their limbs entwining like laced fingers, hiding where one began and the other ended. It was the rolling hills, historic structures, cobblestone streets, and a memory of a time I was happy here with my two favorite people—giggling as Mom chased me and Winter through the park.
