Page 3 of Take My Throne

“Lucas! Archer! No!” I try to pull Lucas away, but he easily shakes me off.

“Leave them to it.” Declan takes me to one side, safely away from the fight. “You’ve got to understand that we’re all really upset about what’s happened.”

“But we’ve got to do something!” I desperately want to go over and separate the boys, but Declan’s calming hand on my arm is enough to keep me away.

“Believe me, you don’t want to get between those two,” Declan advises. “I don’t think Archer’s ever going to forgive Lucas for endangering Milly and that’s without him putting a ring on your finger. He’s been practically climbing the walls this last week, wanting to know what’s happened to his sister. There were all sorts of rumours flying around about where she was. The Knights were this close to putting together an army and going door to door in this town to find her. Then when she came home with the news that she’d been forced to witness your wedding to Lucas Donatello, well… This is exactly what he said he’d do.”

I watch in horror as Archer lashes out at Lucas, raining down blows. Lucas is a good fighter but he has nothing on Archer. Archer is known for being a tough guy. Nobody messes with him. Not only does he spend hours in the gym, his father has made sure he’s been trained in multiple martial arts, so he knows how to take care of himself. But if he thought this was going to be an easy fight, he’s as surprised as the rest of us at Lucas’ ferocity. The man fights like someone possessed. He takes everything Archer throws at him and gives it back tenfold.

“Somebody do something!” I cry out, unsure as to what exactly I wanted to see happen. I only know that someone has to stop this. As much as a small part of me is happy to see Lucas getting beaten on, I don’t like Archer being hurt.

I meet Romy’s eyes over the fight, seeing him leaning against the lockers and I beg him to help without saying a word.

Romy finally moves over to them. He grabs Lucas’ jacket and pulls him back, shoving him against a locker.

“This has gone too far. If you want us to kill you, then we will, but not in front of her. What the fuck are you doing getting involved with Ivy’s dad? Or Ivy, for that matter?” He slams him one more time into the locker. “You know she is ours and we will never, ever let her go. You fucked up, Lucas.”

“Fuck off,” he growls and punches Romy hard in the side of his face. Romy falls and Archer growls as he gets ready to attack Lucas again.

“That’s enough! Break it up, you two, Break it up!”

At last, Mr Pilkington appears. Without hesitation, he strides over to the two boys and somehow manages to get between them. Some sort of self-preservation kicked in, Lucas and Archer recognising that hitting the principal isn’t a good move and the two of them step back, panting.

“Romy!” I run over when it’s safe, crouching down beside him. He is out cold.

“Ms Andrews. Call an ambulance, please,” Mr Pilkington orders one of the staff members who’d come with him to break up the fight. She nods and pulls out her mobile, calling for one of the private ambulances which serviced the House hospital. “Now, would somebody care to tell me what’s going on here?”

“I have no idea,” Lucas growls.

“Yes, you do.” Archer reaches around Mr Pilkington and shoves Lucas, who pushes back.

“I said, that’s e-nough. Don’t make me get the guards to restrain you.”

Lucas and Archer keep their focus on each other, but they put down their hands, releasing their fists. Now that the fight is over, I can see that they’d both hurt each other. Archer is going to have a black eye, and Lucas is holding his left arm awkwardly.

“Mr Donatello. Tell me your version of what’s just happened.”

“Archer is jealous of the fact I married Ivy. He wouldn’t leave my wife alone, so I had to defend her.”

“Ah yes. I hear congratulations are in order.” Mr Pilkington nods briefly in my direction. Was it my imagination, or did I detect a faint hint of disapproval? “And Mr Knight. What do you claim happened?”

“Lucas pushed me,” Archer smoothly replies. “He thinks he’s something just because he blackmailed Ivy into marrying him. I couldn’t let him dishonour House Knight like that.”

“You don’t need me to dishonour the Knights,” Lucas counters. “You can do that all by yourself.”

“All right, all right.” Mr Pilkington put his arms out to keep the pair of them apart. “I’ve heard enough. House politics are for you to figure out between you-–without using your fists. You know our school policy on violence. The pair of you are suspended for the rest of the week. I want you to go to the hospital to get yourselves checked out. Make sure you haven’t done any serious damage to each other while you’re under my watch. I’ll phone your parents to let them know the situation. Once the doctor signs you off, you’ll be sent straight home. Now sit down over there and wait for the ambulance.”

Lucas and Archer stride over to a bench down one side of the room and sit on opposite ends, casting filthy looks at each other. Mr Pilkington comes over to me to check on Romy, who’d just woken up.

“How are you doing, Mr Navarre?” he asks.

“What happened?” Romy struggles to pull himself up, the movement clearly hurting his head, so he falls back down again. I kneel down, gently supporting him. Putting his head in my lap, I stroke his hair, wishing I could do something more productive to help.

“Someone hit you and you fell over. You must have banged your head,” I tell him. “You’ve been unconscious for a couple of minutes.”

“There’s an ambulance on the way,” Mr Pilkington says. “Stay where you are until they get here.”

Ms Andrews comes over with a blanket and drapes it over Romy, who closes his eyes.

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