Page 148 of Vicious Knight

I dip my head respectfully to acknowledge his gratitude, but I feel like a failure.

Chapter 35

Ivy

“Concussions can make you feel really sick.” The nurse gives Mom and me a sympathetic smile. “If you feel any nausea or discomfort, please let us know.”

“Thank you. I will,” I answer.

“Get some rest. You’re going to need it. I’ll come back to check on you later.”

I nod and instantly regret it. My head still feels like it’s going to fall off. I’ve been given mild painkillers but all they did was take the edge off.

It’s better to feel the pain than being dead. Nothing can describe the terror I felt when I saw that gun and heard the bullets flying. I didn’t see the shooter but I guessed it was someone to do with the scar-faced man.

That was the second time in my life I’d been in danger. This time Thorne saved me.

Mom and I watch the nurse leave.

I gaze out the door when she walks through it, hoping I can catch a glimpse of Thorne and Levgen.

Levgen went outside to speak to Thorne before the nurse came in. He hasn’t been gone long, but it feels like forever.

Visiting hours will be over soon. Thorne has been with me the whole time but I hope to see him again. And I want to know what Levgen said to him.

I told my parents everything, so all the secrets are laid out on the table.

The door swings shut and I look back at my mother.

I know she’s mad at me. Of course she would be. I did everything she told me not to do. I awakened an assassin, put myself and our family in serious danger by exposing our secret, and I lied. I lied terribly.

I’m mad at myself, and I’m also embarrassed that Mom got the confirmation that Thorne is my boyfriend when she walked in on us kissing. As if things weren’t bad enough.

I saw the way she looked at his tattoos. Especially the dragon on his neck. Then there were the ones all over his left arm. The arm that got grazed by a bullet.

She’s used to the two little Knight tattoos Levgen has on the underside of his wrist, but to her, Thorne must have looked like the rebel.

My mother is not showing her true emotions only because I’m lying in a hospital bed. She’s glad I didn’t die.

“I’m sorry,” I mumble, keeping my gaze on her.

She’s looking at me, too, her eyes filled with so many emotions it hurts me. I see worry, terror, grief and disappointment. That last one really hits hard.

“I wish you’d told me what was going on. Now that I know you’ve been dating Thorne Ivanov I understand why you were so secretive.”

“I didn’t mean to be.” I try to sit up, even though my head is protesting in pain. It feels too awkward to talk to her about something so serious while I’m lying down.

“I don’t know him.”

“But I do.”

“Sweetheart, you are young.”

“Maybe so, but I know what my heart tells me.”

“Thorne’s uncle is the man who sentenced us to death. How can you think that we are safe now?”

I have to believe what my heart whispers to me. That Thorne would never expose us. “It’s been months since he found out about us. He could have told his uncle who we really were, but he didn’t. He put himself in danger to find that man who set Dad up.”

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