Chapter 100: [PS Bonus Restrained [3]

[I know you guys didn’t hit PS requirement, but I felt sorry for you after seeing how hard you tried so I’m being nice and giving you one Chapter. Enjoy. ;)]

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Nicholas had not spoken since they came in.

He had stood in the same spot near the door, watching Alden. His fists were closed at his sides, and his face had the look of someone who had been doing math in his head for a while and just arrived at a number that made him feel sick.

He walked forward.

Three slow steps and then he stopped in front of the bed, and then without pausing or hesitating or saying anything first he dropped to both knees on the stone floor.

Leon sucked in a quiet breath.

Roselle turned.

Nicholas stared at the ground between his knees. His shoulders moved once.

"I’m sorry."

Alden blinked. "Nicholas?"

"I am truly sorry," Nicholas said. He did not look up.

"For what?"

Nicholas’s fingers pressed into his own trousers over his knees. "For everything." A slow, unsteady breath. "I was wrong about you from the very beginning. I judged you before I knew you. Every time you did something I could not explain I told myself there was something wrong with you, something suspicious, something I needed to watch out for." He swallowed. "I was the one who was wrong."

The cell was very quiet.

"You saved our lives on that mountain. You saved Senior Seris. You put all of us on the dragon and stayed behind alone, and you fought the entire vampire army alone all by yourself, and now you are sitting in a palace cell being treated like this—" his voice broke slightly on the last word and he stopped and steadied it, "—and you are sitting there saying you are fine."

He finally raised his head.

His eyes were red at the edges. He looked at Alden directly with the blue gaze that had looked at Alden with suspicion in dormitory hallways and across council tables and in every arena encounter they had shared.

It did not look like suspicion now.

"I should have understood who you were a long time ago," Nicholas said. "I am sorry I didn’t. I am sorry for the dorms. For the assumptions. For every time I chose to believe the worst of you instead of looking properly."

He lowered his head again until it nearly touched the floor.

"Please forgive me."

The dungeon cell was very still.

Alden looked at him. At this person he had written in a past life sitting on his knees on cold stone in a palace dungeon, his pride somewhere behind him, his sincerity completely visible.

He had written Nicholas Ashford as someone who was difficult. Headstrong and proud and slow to open his mind once it had been made up. But he had also written him as someone who, when he finally arrived at the truth, arrived at it completely. There were no half-measures or excuses, only the full weight of it, owned without hesitation.

The character on the page had done exactly what he always did.

’No matter how much this world strays from my original manuscript...’ Alden’s cracked lips moved. ’He’s still the exact same protagonist I wrote in my past life.’

"It’s fine, Nicho." His voice was rough and dry. "Stand up."

Nicholas lifted his head.

"I did what I did because I wanted to," Alden said. "Nobody forced anything."

Nicholas stood slowly. His expression had settled into something firm and resolved, the grief and shame of the apology replaced by the thing that came after it in people like him.

"But, tomorrow at the trial you’re going to..." Roselle looked at the floor. She could not finish the sentence.

The thought of his death hung in the air, though no one said it out loud.

Alden’s eyes moved to Isabella in the doorway. She was watching the scene with her usual expression. Their eyes met for a moment.

He already knew what tomorrow looked like. A royal council full of people who had just lost their prince. A king who had already shown him tonight what his grief looked like with a weapon in its hand. And whatever the legal process was, it would be running through a room that had already decided.

Before anyone could say anything else, Nicholas straightened to his full height.

"No."

Everyone looked at him.

"I will not let that happen." He said it the way he said everything when he had fully made up his mind. "I am not going to let you die here."

His eyes held Alden’s.

"I promise you that."

The word landed different than the others. Promise. Alden sat with it for a second.

His mind went somewhere else for a moment. To silver hair and crimson eyes and a garden fountain at midnight. To one tear wiped away before he could say anything about it. To a hug that had lasted just long enough to matter and the word thank you said quietly into his shoulder.

"By the way." He looked at Leon and Roselle. "How is Seris?"

Leon’s expression shifted, turning careful the way people get when they try to give you the gentlest version of the truth. "She’s stable. Resting in the academy infirmary under guard. The blood you prepared worked, and to think you already knew about her..." He shook his head. "Anyway, she’s just unconscious from mana exhaustion."

Roselle spoke up right after him. "And with the Headmaster’s help, he made sure everything was covered. Her identity is safe, and she’s resting somewhere no one can reach her."

Alden let out a slow breath through his nose.

Something in his chest that had been wound tight since the mountain pass came down a fraction.

Good.

Isabella checked the small watch at her waist and stepped fully into the cell. "It is late," she said. "He needs to rest. All of you should go."

Leon nodded, standing. "She’s right. Tomorrow is going to be long."

Roselle wiped her face with the back of her hand and stood, forcing herself upright. "Then we go."

They moved toward the door. Leon paused to look back once, his usual energy stripped down into something simpler. Then he turned and went.

Nicholas did not move immediately.

He stood in front of the bed for a moment longer. Looking at Alden the way someone looks at something they intend to see through.

"Alden."

Alden met his eyes.

"Be ready tomorrow," Nicholas said, turning toward the exit. "I am getting you out of here."

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Author’s note:

Wow, from Chapter 1 to 100... from Nicholas resenting Alden to finally acknowledging him. We have come so far, and it is all thanks to you guys. Your gifts and comments kept me motivated to keep writing.

Thank you so much, and happy reading!