Lycan King's Regret: Punished The Wrong Daughter novel Chapter 144

Chapter 144: 144- Did he hear?

Arabella:

I rushed through the hospital corridors, barely noticing Bradley following behind me.

"Where is Maya?" I asked the first nurse I saw in the burns unit. "The one they brought from the palace."

"She’s being treated right now," the nurse interrupted gently, stepping in front of me when I tried to move past her. "You can’t go in yet, miss."

"But I... I need to see her," My voice rose despite my attempt to stay calm.

"I’m sorry. The healers are with her. You’ll have to wait." She held me gently by my shoulders and gestured towards the row of seats along the corridor.

My chest tightened. I took a step back, trying to breathe through the panic crawling up my throat. When I felt a hand on my shoulder, I spun around and found Toby standing there.

The guy was looking like he had walked straight through the fire himself. Dark patches of smoke stained his shirt, tiny pieces of debris clung to his clothes and hair, and his face looked exhausted.

"Toby..."

He didn’t say anything and just shook his head. The next second, he pulled me into his arms. A broken sob left him as he buried his face against my shoulder, and whatever little control I had left disappeared with it. I wrapped my arms around him and cried against his chest.

"Oh, Toby," I whispered as the guilt twisted painfully inside me. "What did I do? Why did I do it?"

He immediately pulled back. "Hey. No." Toby wiped the tears from my cheeks with his thumb, even though his own face was wet. "You can’t blame yourself for this. I was the one who asked you to say it, remember?"

"But I—" I couldn’t get the chance to finish the sentence when Bradley spoke behind me.

"And how come you’re all right?"

I turned and found him watching Toby closely. When I looked back at Toby, he wiped his face with the back of his hand before facing Bradley.

"I wasn’t in the room," he explained. "I went to the royal kitchen to get some snacks. We were planning to watch a movie, and Maya wanted popcorn and coffee." He paused, rubbing a dirty hand over his face. "And beer too." He tried to smile.

"We already had the popcorn packs. I only needed to microwave them, so I wasn’t gone for long." His eyes drifted toward the closed doors behind which Maya was being treated. "When I heard all the noise, I thought it was coming from another part of the palace." He swallowed hard. "I never imagined it was my own room."

Bradley only nodded and turned away to talk to a doctor. I watched the closed door and wanted to slap myself. My friend was in there because of my stupidity.

I didn’t even know how badly she was hurt yet, but whatever had happened in that room, I was responsible for it.

That was enough. I wanted to tell Bradley everything. He needed to know this, but before I could speak to him, Toby’s hand landed on my shoulder. He pulled me against him again and hugged me tightly, his body shaking as he silently cried.

I wrapped an arm around him and began patting his shoulder.

"I didn’t say it does." His fingers tightened around mine. "I’m saying we don’t know enough yet. Those were just two baby dragons, Ara. They barely had time to do much before the warriors got there."

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