Page 12 of Volatile King (The Kings of Wayward Academy #6)

T heo

Fucking Vicky. Ren didn’t seem bothered, but any of the terrible shit Vicky had said could be floating around in her head. The last thing Ren needed was negativity.

We sat on the garden bench, and Ren nestled her head on my shoulder as we held hands. I could feel her tension. She had something on her mind, but I couldn’t figure out if it was solely about Vicky.

“Th…Theo…love…broken me…still?”

Ren’s words came out slow, each one a painful fragment of the girl I knew. The girl I loved. I blinked, trying to keep my emotions in check.

“Okay,” I said, teasing through the lump in my throat, “I know you hit your head, but did you lose your mind, too?” Ren tilted her chin up, giving me that smirk I’d fallen in love with, but her eyes didn’t smile back.

They stayed haunted. “Of course, I love you. We all do. That’s never going to change. ”

My words seemed to shatter her. Tears spilled over, and her lower lip trembled. I pulled Ren into my lap and held her tightly as she clung to me. She pressed her face into my chest and cried, really cried, for the first time since she had woken up.

“I’ve got you,” I whispered, arms tightening around her shuddering frame.

We’d all been waiting for this. The moment when her new reality finally settled in.

She faced a long road, and I knew Ren would fight like hell, but still…

there was the possibility that she would never remember Halloween night.

She might always struggle to speak, to write, to be who she was before the crash.

Doctor Boyd said her recovery was miraculous. Ren was doing better than anyone expected. But even miracles had limits, and hope came with razor-sharp edges.

I kissed the top of her head, breathing her in like the pages of my favorite book.

But I was splintering, too.

Was there more I could’ve done?

Could I have stopped Owen?

I’d tailed him like a lunatic, weaving behind the truck, desperate to draw his attention, to make him come after me instead. But he didn’t. He’d made his choice.

Every night, I woke up choking on air as the memory clawed back into my chest. Ren’s limo had flipped like a toy, glass exploding, the metal screaming as it twisted.

Liam had reached for my hand and told me the memories would fade. But I had my doubts. They were so vivid that it felt like I was right back there again as they played on repeat.

The fear.

The rage.

The guilt.

Knowing that I almost lost her. That I failed to stop Owen. And that failure…it was as carved into my heart as Ren was a part of my soul.

I waited until she’d settled before speaking.

“My mom will be here soon. Do you want to head inside?”

Ren wiped the tears from her face and nodded. As we stood, I stopped her from walking ahead, held up my hand, and signed.

I love you. No matter what, we are in this together.

She mirrored my actions to sign, I love you, and I smiled. The connection I had with Ren was inescapable. I never thought I’d feel that with anyone but Liam. Being with her was like finding a second half that made me whole. Right now, Ren was hurting, and that meant I was too.

Hand in hand, we walked slowly toward the automatic doors, but just before we got there, Vicky ran out crying. Tears were streaking down her face along with her normally perfect makeup. This wasn’t one of Vicky’s shows for attention. The pain in her sobs meant something was very wrong.

She didn’t even look at us as she raced by.

Ren stopped walking and looked over her shoulder.

Vicky had treated her terribly from day one, but there was compassion in her eyes.

How she managed to still care for people who didn’t deserve it was beyond my comprehension, but it was part of what made Ren… Ren.

Ren looked at me and placed her thumb on her forehead with her fingers wide as she signed, Father . She was concerned that something had happened to Mr. Genovese, who ironically was also her father she couldn’t remember.

“No, I don’t think anything has happened to him. I think it’s something else.”

Her eyes narrowed.

“Don’t look at me like that, I’m not saying anything until I know I’m right.” I gave her a wink. “You should know that about me by now.”

Ren laughed, the sound amazing to hear after days of worry.

I’d no sooner gotten Ren back into her room when my mom arrived with goodies from her favorite bakery. She handed me multiple bags, like I wasn’t even there, as she enveloped Ren in a hug.

I’m so happy to see you awake. I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you woke up. It was a stupid business trip, and I couldn’t get it changed.

Mom realized by the look on Ren’s face that she was going too fast for her to keep up.

“She said that she’s really happy to see you awake, and that she is sorry she wasn’t here when you woke up. She couldn’t get out of her business trip,” I said, peering into the bags.

Muffins, Danishes, cookies, and squares, the heady aroma of baked goods filled my senses.

“I’m here. I’m sorry I’m late,” Blake said, out of breath as he walked through the door. “I’m going to be tutoring kids.” My eyebrow raised, but he waved me off. “Long story, but I needed to meet with Mr. Willis and Mr. Martelli to get everything I need to start next week.”

Blake reached into the bag I was holding and pulled out a raspberry Danish.

“Thanks,” he said and sat down to start working with Mom and Ren.

“Don’t mind me, I’m just the creeper in the corner,” I grumbled, but they were already engrossed in the signing lesson.

Setting the bags down, I stole a double chocolate muffin and headed for the door. Ren snatched my hand as I walked by. She didn’t say anything, but her eyes spoke volumes. Giving her a smirk, she let go of my hand, and a blush crept across her cheeks.

Leaving them to the lesson, I closed the door behind me and started peeling the paper off my muffin. Nash seemed to materialize out of the wall right beside me.

“Damn, that looks good.” He reached out and took the top of my muffin. I glared at him as he bit into it. “What,” he asked, mumbling around the mouthful. “I’m starving.”

“Yes, fading away into a shadow of your former self,” I said as I took a big bite before someone else decided to come along and steal my food.

“Your sarcasm is noted,” Nash said as we walked down to the small visiting room. I closed the door, and we sat down.

“Are you going to tell me why Vicky left the hospital hysterical, or should I guess?”

“I was considering just letting you guess,” he said, placing the stack of folders he was holding on the table between us.

“How much does she know?”

Nash shrugged. “Not sure. I left before the real blowup happened.”

“You didn’t have anything to do with that, of course,” I said, then popped the last piece of the chocolately goodness into my mouth. I rolled the wrapper up into a little ball and watched it sail in a graceful arc toward the garbage by the door.

Liam walked in, and like a fucking cat, swiped it out of the air. He looked at it before dropping it into the bin himself.

“Really,” I said, shaking my head at him.

“What can I say, I have great reflexes,” he said, the corner of his lip twitching.

“Are you coming in and joining us or just going to act as an annoying doorstop,” Nash asked.

“Good to see you’re back to your aggravating self. Such a shame we only had a day of nice Nash,” Liam said. He walked across the room and sat down beside me.

“You wouldn’t know what to do if I wasn’t an asshole,” Nash said. He pointed his thumb at the door. “Where’s Myles?”

“Not sure. He got a call and left, didn’t say where he was going.” Nash tapped his fingers on the arm of the chair. “I don’t think he is out plotting your death or anything if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“Funny, but no. It’s not like Myles to leave Ren. It had to be important, but not saying where he went is weird,” Nash said.

I hadn’t thought about it like that. We didn’t normally check up on one another, so it didn’t cross my mind to ask.

“Anyway, as far as Vicky goes…she knows we aren’t engaged. Hence the freakout,” Nash said.

“I was going to ask you about that,” Liam said. “I was parking when she jumped into a waiting car, and it drove away. She was clearly upset.”

“Yeah, well, I can’t do shit about that. I didn’t tell Vicky we were engaged. The person she should be pissed at is her mother. Apparently, it was Patricia Genovese who told her we had a contract.”

“Why would she say that if it wasn’t true,” Liam asked.

Nash shrugged. “No clue. Like I told Theo before you arrived, I left the room before the screaming started. I didn’t get a chance to ask, but if I was to guess…”

Nash leaned back in the chair, and I could see the devious part of his mind in full swing.

He was trying to put himself in Patricia’s position.

It was an odd gift he had, but it allowed him to figure out opponents’ moves.

It was similar to how Liam read people and knew what they were thinking or going to say.

“She overheard…no, eavesdropped, on my conversation with Edmundo when I was there. She assumed that the marriage contract we mentioned was for Vicky. Hell, I don’t even know if she knows who Ren is to Edmundo. Then she ran off and told Vicky.”

“Speaking of her…does anyone else find it weird that Patricia hasn’t shown up here at the hospital to see how her husband is doing?”

“It’s odd,” Nash agreed. “But who am I to say? My mother took off when I was a kid, only I found out later that she came back years ago to have secret red room sessions with my father, who never said a word, and…well…my father is fucked in the head. So simply not showing up to a hospital seems tame to me.”

Liam smirked. “True, but worth looking into. If she is all Team Vicky, then she won’t be happy when Vicky calls and she finds out it’s not what she thought.”

“Good point. Set up a meeting for tomorrow with Rory at Volatile. I’ll get him on this,” Nash said.

Liam and I shared the same confused glance. This was huge and would normally stay between the five of us.

“Okay…why,” Liam asked. “And don’t give us the bullshit reason. No more lies or hiding shit, remember?”

Nash rolled his eyes.

“A few reasons. One, we need to get Rory and Cory more involved in daily issues. Two, because this will be a good test for him outside of school limits. And lastly, because Edmundo wants me to see if I can ensure his parents’ vote when the time comes to remove my father.”

Liam and I nodded at the same time.

“So basically, you’re luring him in to use him,” I said.

“Please, if that was all I ever did, would you two still be my friends and loyal to me? Yes, this is a move, but isn’t everything?” Nash stood. “I need to leave for a few hours. You both staying here?”

We nodded and watched Nash leave.

Liam looked at me once the door was closed. I sucked in a gasp as he grabbed me by the throat and pulled me toward him. My pulse skyrocketed as he licked the corner of my mouth.

“Mmmm, you taste like chocolate,” he growled, and I squirmed at the look in his eyes. “Get your ass up and come with me,” he ordered.

I might have argued two weeks ago, but now…life was too short.