Boys of King Academy

by Rose, Louise

  “Stay away from my wife if you know what’s good for you,” Lucas coldly warns.

  “So it’s true?” Romy looks at me, his face twisted with hurt and pain but mostly anger. So much anger. And it hurts me to see any of it. I never wanted to hurt him, I just pushed him away because I thought it was the best thing to do, but the truth of it is, I am in love with him. So in love with him. I just wish this wasn’t the moment I realised my heart belongs to the kings of the academy.

  I can’t speak. I can’t say a word as I move to Lucas’ side and Lucas grabs my hand, showing off my ring.

  Archer swears, his gaze flickering between me and Lucas. “I don’t know how you managed it, but I know you don’t love him.”

  Archer moves right into Lucas’ face, basically spitting his words out. “How can you sleep at night?”

  “Very well, thanks, with my beautiful wife to keep me warm.” Lucas puts his arm around my waist and pulls me to him. I stand there limply, not knowing what to say, and I hate that this has made me so weak.

  How can I fight my dad? How can I have the men I love in my life?

  Either way, this all ends in heartbreak and I can’t have my heart broken anymore.

  “Can’t you see she’s not happy?” Declan asks, his hands shaking with anger.

  “Who, Ivy?” Lucas kisses me on the top of the hand he is still tightly holding. “She’s head over heels in love, aren’t you?”

  “Yes,” I bite out.

  “All right. That’s enough,” Archer says. “Ivy, you need to apply for an annulment. There’s no way this sham of a marriage can be allowed to continue. Milly will sign an affidavit to say you got married under duress and this can be undone in no time. I’ll give you the money for court fees. You’ll be free to marry whoever you want. Romy. Me… it doesn’t matter. You’re our girl.”

  My heart feels like it is shattering into a million pieces at the intense look in his eyes. I’d love nothing more than to take him up on his offer, but I know my father would never let me get away with something like that. He’d threatened to kill Milly, and I hadn’t doubted he would have carried through with it if I hadn’t done what he wanted. I don’t like to think what he’d do if I divorced Lucas to go off with someone else. Probably burn the whole town down.

  “Back off. Ivy’s married to me, so you’re going to have to get used to it, because we’re in it for life.” Lucas pushes Archer in the middle of his chest to emphasise his point. Big mistake.

  Archer doesn’t budge an inch, so Lucas shoves him again with both hands this time. Archer doesn’t even stumble as he pulls back his fist and punches Lucas in the face. I fall to the side as they start fighting and I crawl to my feet.

  “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 s
upporting 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.

  “All right, you lot.” Mr Pilkington addresses the crowd of students who’ve gathered round to watch the drama. “Move along now. You’re late for class. Stick around here and I’ll be giving detentions to each and every one of you.”

  There’s a lot of grumbling and muttering as the students disperse to go off to their lessons. I stay where I am, worried about Romy.

  “You can go in the ambulance with him if you like,” offers Mr Pilkington gently. “I can imagine how you must be feeling right now. You’ve been through a lot this past week or so.”

  “That’s one way of putting it,” I mutter.

  A siren can be heard wailing in the distance, getting louder and louder. Not longer after, a few paramedics come rushing through the Academy doors.

  They worked efficiently, clearly used to cleaning up clashes between the Houses and knowing that there is more than their jobs on the line if anything happened to one of the heirs. As they bundle Romy onto a stretcher to get him into the ambulance, Romy’s eyes open. He reaches out towards me.

  “I love you, Ivy, and I will save you.”

  He passes out before I can reply. Before I can tell him I love him too.

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  I ride to the hospital with Archer; Romy and Lucas both in their own ambulances. I wanted to go with Romy, but he needed urgent medical care and they told me to stay out of the way. I know I should have gone with Lucas. As his wife, I am his next of kin so I should have stayed with him, but I just didn’t want to be around him. If he’d hurt Romy, I don’t care if we are married. I’ll kill him myself.

  When we arrive at the hospital, we are ushered into separate rooms to wait for a doctor to come and check the boys out. Archer and I are alone for the first time in over a week and I want to make the most of it.

  “So…” I say.

  “So…” Archer can’t even look me in the eye.

  “I am so sorry.” I can’t think of what else to say.

  “Why? It’s not your fault your father is an overbearing, controlling megalomaniac.” Archer shrugs, but I still feel like I was to blame. “As long as you don’t actually love him, we can fix this.”

  “You have no idea how bad I feel about all of this,” I tell him. “I was being forced into marrying Romy, but at least I liked him and his parents didn’t have to threaten anyone to get me to agree.”

  “No, they just threatened you,” Archer points out. “Be honest, Ivy. You wouldn’t be marrying anyone right now if we didn’t have parents who like to control every aspect of our lives.”

  “I guess not.” I sigh.

  “Have you slept with him?” The question caught me off guard.

  “Who? Lucas?”

  Archer nods.

  “No.”

  Archer visibly relaxes with relief.

  “I know you all hate Lucas,” I say. “But he’s not too bad when you get to know him. He’s been a perfect gentleman. He hasn’t even laid a finger on me, even though we’re sleeping in the same bed. We have to,” I add quickly, seeing Archer’s face darken. “My father told us that this is to be a real marriage, and he’s forced us to share a room. I wouldn’t put it past him to do something really messed up and spy on us to make sure we’re sharing a bed. It’s not something worth making a big deal about when Lucas is willing to keep his hands to himself.”

  “But for how long?” Archer clenches his fist, clearly still filled with anger. “Ivy, no man could sleep beside you and be happy with just sleeping. You need to watch yourself with Lucas. He’s not like the rest of us. He’s not one of the Houses. He’s got his own agenda and none of us know what that is. My father’s spies have been trying to find out information on him, but the man’s like a ghost. Nobody has a clue where he’s come from or what his motivation for being here might be. He’s going to find a way to get whatever it is he wants from you, and you won’t know you’ve been played until it’s too late. If he takes you from me, really takes you, I don’t know what I’ll do.”

  There is no way of reassuring him with words, so I did the only thing I could think of. I kissed him, slow and deep.

  “Lucas can’t take me away from you,” I whisper, as we pull apart. “My father’s the one you need to be wary of.”

  Archer shakes his head. “You’re wrong. I know all about your father and the kind of games he plays. We all do. He’s a known quantity and my family has measures in place to make sure he doesn’t overstep his bounds. But Lucas? None of us know anything about him, what he’s capable of, the kinds of resources he has to hand.”

  “But Lucas is still at school,” I protest. “How much of a threat can he really be?”

  “Never judge by appearances,” Archer says. “I’d have thought you’d have learnt that by now. Someone needs to put Lucas in his place, and I’m more than happy to be the one to do it.”

  “Are you sure that’s such a good idea?” I gently run my hand over the bruising surrounding Archer’s eye and he winces. “Maybe the two of you should talk. I know, I know. That’s a very strange thing to do in this place. Talk instead of fight. But perhaps it’s time to try a new way.”

  Archer reaches up and takes my hand in his. He is about to say something, but the door opens and Lucas strides in. I move to pull away from Archer, but he grips my hand tightly, sending a message to Lucas.

  Lucas narrows his eyes. “Come on, Ivy. It’s time to go home.”

  “She’s staying with me,” Archer replies. “Try and take her from me. See what happens.”

  “Is that right?” Lucas smirks, tilting his head to one side. “Ivy, while I appreciate you may have fooled around before we met, it’s time to put those attachments aside. You made a commitment to me, to our marriage. Do you really want me to tell your father what you’ve been doing with him? Are you willing to see how far your dad would go to make sure you had no one but me left in your life? Stop playing princess, Ivy. We have a kingdom to rule and you belong at my side.”

  “This isn’t your kingdom, Lucas,” Archer growls out.

  “Let me go, Archer.” I have to leave with Lucas. I don’t know what my father would do if Lucas told him I’d chosen Archer over my husband, but I know it won’t be good. I am going to have to tread carefully around the boys if I want to keep Lucas-–and my father-–happy.

  Archer squeezes my hand one last time, his eyes on mine, and I know he understands. This isn’t the time or the place to stand our ground. The fight isn’t over…it’s just beginning. He slowly lets me go and my heart hurts the moment we aren’t touching anymore. Lucas grabs my arm and roughly pulls me out of the room.

  “What do you think you were doing in there?” he hisses. “Have you forgotten your wedding vows already? It’s not just your life on the line here.”

  “You and I both know I said those words under duress,” I remind him. “How valid can they really be?”

  “As valid as Solomon wants them to be,” Lucas replies. “This marriage is important to him. It’s important to me. We need to make this work. Look, Ivy. You know I’m a reasonable guy. I’ve slept next to you and respected you all that time. I’ve never done anything you didn’t want me to, and I never will. But you’re going to have to accept the fact that this is for the long term and we need to make the best of it. Your father wouldn’t like it if you cheated on me and neither would I. Yes, we barely know each other, but from what I’ve seen of you, I admire and respect. You’re intelligent, feisty, strong willed, just the kind of woman who’d challenge me for the rest of my life and I love that. I want to lov
e you. If you’ll let me. Give our relationship a chance. You never know what it might become if we both work at it. Can’t you say you’ll at least try?”

  I don’t want to. I don’t see how anyone forced into getting married could fall in love with their spouse. But there was a twisted kind of logic to what Lucas was saying. While my father is head of House Archaic, he could make life very unpleasant for me if I didn’t fall in line. It did make sense to at least pretend to be happily married.

  And if I want to see any of the boys, I am going to have to be a lot more discrete in how I go about it.

  Screw being the princess of this kingdom, I’m the damn queen and I’m going to make my own happily ever after.

  Lucas and my father be damned.