Page 41 of Take My Place

My heart aches with the beauty of the music. I’m always the one to write the songs. Nobody has ever written one about me. It is gutting me that I can’t throw myself at Declan and kiss him thank you. But how can I possibly acknowledge this thoughtful gift he’s given me? Nobody knew about that time in the music room. Nobody could ever know about it.

I feel myself pale as I realise that after this, there is every chance Romy will guess what happened.

Declan looks over at me and winks. I realise he knows exactly what he is doing. He is probably hoping Romy would guess.

I’m not sure how I feel about that. If things were different, I’d leave Romy and see how things went with Declan. But they weren’t different. I’m under House Navarre protection. Declan and I never seriously discussed relations between our Houses. I have no idea if his family would take me in the way Romy’s has. I can’t take that risk.

My mind in a whirl, I want to leave the stage and lose myself in the rest of that bottle of wine, but I know that would be the most suspicious thing I could possibly do. All I can do is sit here, a sick smile on my face, as I wait for the final chords.

“Thank you very much.” Declan nods and waves to the crowd when he finishes singing. “I want to dedicate that song to a very special lady. It’s early days in our relationship, so I don’t want to name names, but she knows who she is.”

As Declan walks backstage, I can only stare at him. His words, his song running over and over in my mind.

“Your song was beautiful,” I say.

“And true,” he replies, making my heart beat so fast. Everything hurts as I stare at Declan, wondering at what point he snuck into my soul and made himself home. The song just made everything so much clearer. I realise I don’t know how to be away from Declan.

Romy walks around Declan to me, and I have to snap out of it.

“Hey.” I say, clearing my throat. “I was just telling Declan how much I liked his song. What did you think of it?”

“It’s all right,” says Romy, casting a cold glance at Declan. “Not really my kind of music.”

“Yeah, well, it’s still a work in progress.” Declan shrugs. “It needs a bit of tweaking to get it to where I really want, but the audience seemed to like it.”

“Whatever.” Romy turns to me. “Are you ready to go, Ivy? There’s a party at Archer’s if you want to check it out.”

“I’d love to, but I think I’ve got a migraine coming on.” I put a hand against my forehead. I’m not completely lying. The adrenaline rush from performing is wearing off and combined with the stress of the situation, my head is pounding. “If it’s okay with you, I just want to go home and go to bed. You can go if you like. I wouldn’t mind.”

“You think I’d abandon you to party when you’re not feeling well? I don’t think so.” Romy says. “You don’t look too hot. Let’s get you home. I’ll get Johnson to make up one of his famous headache remedies. They really work.”

“Okay.” Romy puts his arm around me and we turn to leave.

“You were great tonight, Ivy,” Declan calls after me. “See you on Monday.”

Of course. I have music first thing on a Monday morning with a guy who just sang the most hauntingly beautiful love song to me.

A song I will never, ever forget because it stole my heart.

Chapter Thirteen

Ispend the whole weekend locked up in my apartment, ignoring Romy’s attempts to talk. I know he knows something is up, but I’m not in the mood to deal with his reaction, not when I am still trying to work through my own complicated emotions.

No wonder I spent a couple of days in bed with my duvet pulled over my head. I barely emerged for long enough to make myself a bowl of cereal when I was hungry.

Romy knocked on my door a couple of times to see if I was okay, but he left me alone after I rang his mobile and treated him to a few cut words about being bothered when I’d locked myself away. After that, he took the hint.

But now it’s Monday morning and I don’t have any choice. I have to face the world and pretend everything is okay.

Putting on my makeup, I feel like I’m putting on war paint. The look is more aggressive than usual, with dark purple lipstick and heavy eye makeup. By the time I’m done, I know that nobody is going to mess with me today. Not if they don’t want their head bitten off.

As I walk out to the car to take us to school, I see Romy is already there waiting for me.

“Wow, Ivy.” He does a double take. “You look…”

“What?” I ask.

“A-amazing,” he says with a grin. “Definitely amazing.”

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