Nothing.
“The two of us could probably lift Comet and sort of toss him up. Do you want to try?”
I might as well be talking to the magma wall. I use my cuffed hand to scratch an itch on my nose, because my left arm is once again throbbing in pain. The red streaks have grown, and pus is oozing from the stitches. If I die chained to Victoria, I wonder how she’ll react.
“This wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t run off.Twice,” I say.
“Are you joking?” She turns to me with fire in her eyes. “You are acompleteblighter! None of this would have bloody well happened if you weren’t here! You should have stayed in Chicago where you belong and out. Of. Our. Lives.”
I bite back my smile. “And that’s how you make a princess talk to you again.”
She screams in frustration.
“I’m sorry, okay! I’m sorry about the handcuffs—I’m well aware this is all my fault, trust me. And I’m sorry I ruined your life.”
She rolls her eyes with a huff. “Don’t be dramatic.”
“Sorry.”
She drags a hand over her face. “Stop apologizing to me! I’m not the one who needs to hear it.”
I jerk my head back. “What does that mean?”
She whirls on me, her eyes blazing. “I don’t like you because Theo was utterly gutted when he came home! All I knew was that you spent a week with him, and he had your dog for some reason, and he tried not to talk about you, but he sucked at it, and every time he mentioned your name it was obvious that he’s still bloody in love with you, but you were nowhere to be found!”
Defensiveness flares in my chest. “It’s not that easy to get in contact with the King.”
She looks unimpressed. “You should have tried harder. He was devastated about our mum’s death, and what else?” She taps her mouth with her finger. “Oh right! There was this small thing about assuming the throne and planning a coronation he never wanted.” She glares daggers at me. “You should have been there.”
“How? By scaling the palace gates?” I shout, my annoyance with her reaching a boiling point.
She keeps talking like she didn’t even hear me. “And you should have thanked me for taking care of Comet for three months.”
“I might have if—”
“And now you and your stupid wedding are going to bring our family an astronomical amount of press at the worst possible moment. The entire world is just waiting for Theo to screw up because he’s young, and people are going to use the fact that he married an American stranger as an excuse to call him a nutter, and when you leave, he’s going to be heartbroken all over again, and I won’t be able to help him!” She furiously blinks away the tears building at the corners of her eyes, and it finally hits me why she’s so mad at me.
“I love him too,” I say softly.
Her head snaps up. “What?”
“You’re worried about him, and you love him. We have that in common.”
She crosses her arms, letting my wrist hang painfully in front of her. “We’ll see how much you love him when the tabloids are stalking you and printing lies about you and acting like your private life is their public business just because you’re with Theo.” She quickly swipes away an errant tear. “Mum always said we have to give the press something to talk about, but he’ll never give them you, and that’s why it won’t work out.”
“We know what we’re up against, and we’re not going to fight it.”
Her brows knit together suspiciously. “I saw you two tangled up together this morning.”
My heart surges, making it painfully obvious to myself how much I wish Theo and I could find a way to make this last. “It’s only until we’re rescued.”
Red splotches appear on her cheeks. “So, you’re not even going to try?”
I’m confused by her sudden outrage. “Youjustsaid that we’re doomed!”
“And you proved me right.” She sweeps her eyes over me in a way that makes me feel indescribably small. “He deserves better than you, anyway.” She turns away. “And I would never, ever sell him out to the tabloids. If you don’t know that, you don’t know anything about our family.”
I slump against the wall as we lapse into a strained silence. The longer we sit here, the more the walls feel like they’re closing in. Victoria leans to the side and dry heaves, and I realize that she needs a distraction as badly as I do. “Will you tell me about your family, then?” I ask.
