Stealing Your Heart {Solangelo Royalty AU}

Chapter Thirteen

Wpov

"I-I'm sorry." He said, looking ashamed. He started to get up and leave but I grabbed his hand and he reluctantly sat back down.

"No, don't be sorry... but Nico, where did you get these?" I said, staring in disbelief at his scarred stomach. You could see his ribs from him not being able to eat very much.

He winced. "Being caught gave me a couple."

"And the rest of them?"

He shrugged. "I'm an easy target."

So many emotions started swirling around inside me I wasn't sure which one to focus on. Anger? Worry? (Love?) Sadness? Or the need to protect him? He saw my expression and shrank back a bit, like he thought I was mad at him.

"Nico, how do you put up with this?"

"I'm fine."

"This isn't fine, Nico. This is terrible..."

"Really, I'm okay. Most of them don't hurt anymore."

"Most of them?!"

"There's a couple that were reopened."

"When?"

"Earlier when your dad caught me."

I bit my lip. This wasn't right. Nothing my dad did to him was right....

He sighed. "Just heal me and I can go home." I was a little hurt, but I guessed he just wanted to see his sister again.

He doesn't want to be with you, that evil part of me said. I pushed that part away, I needed to focus on healing him.

I looked at his arm first and winced. I'm not going to lie, it was bad.

Nico looked at too. "It's gotten worse." He noticed.

"Yeah." I agreed.

He groaned. "Wow, thanks, you're really making me feel better."

"Sorry, but its true. It must've gotten infected."

He glared at me, "You're not helping."

I shrugged, but got out some equipment. Nico watched me clean the cut and watched me wrap it as well. It made me nervous. Was he judging my work?

When I did what I could with his arm, I moved on to his stomach and chest. I bit my lip. There was a mess of scars, some faded and barely noticeable and some red and swollen.he had a few bruises and scrapes hidden among the scars as well.

"It's no use trying to heal them. People will just make more."

"How could anyone do this?" I asked myself quietly.

"I am a thief, Will. I kind of deserve it."

"No one deserves this."

Nico shook his head, "You don't have to pretend to care about me, Will."

"I don't pretend! I do care about you."

He raised an eyebrow. "I'm a thief. I steal things. All I do is make the kingdom angry and poorer. Why would you, the prince of the kingdom I'm making worse, care about me?"

"It's not like you have a choice or steal big things, it's just bread and fruit."

"That doesn't change anything."

"It changes everything!"

All of a sudden, hundreds of guards started marching out of the castle. My eyes widened and Nico hid in the shadows of the castle wall.

My dad was at the front of the army, yelling things to them. They started getting on horses.

"WE ARE GOING TO CATCH THE THIEF AND KILL HIM AND HIS SISTER! THIS IS THE ONLY WAY TO PUT THE KINGDOM BACK INTO ITS OLD GLORY THAT THE THIEF HAS RUINED! HE IS WORTH NOTHING TO THE KINGDOM AND WE MUST KILL HIM!"

I looked over at Nico, who had gone pale. "Bianca..." he whispered.

"Maybe I can stop them..." I said, then ran in the direction of my dad, shoving my way through troops. Finally I reached him. "Father stop it! You can't kill either of them!"

"They are nothing! Just nasty, ignorant thieves! The kingdom will be happy that their gone..."

I realized Nico was hearing all of this, which made me even more angry. He pretty obviously already hated his scars and the fact that he was a thief. They didn't need to rub it in.

"You think they chose to be thieves?!"

"I would've rather them starve themselves than become thieves."

"That's horrible! I know for a fact neither of them would want anyone to starve."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"They're better people than-" a couple of guards grabbed me and I started panicking. Would they kill me?

"Hold him there so he can't go save his precious little thief. The rest of you- come with me!" I struggled but it was no use. The guards were stronger than I was and there were two of them. I had given up fighting when they both suddenly let go. I swiveled around. They were both unconscious on the floor. Nico was standing in between them. (Yes, he did put his shirt back on.)

"Let's go save my sister." He said. We both started running towards the forest and took the path into town. We were about halfway through when we bumped into someone. I stumbled and fell.

The hooded figure took down their hood...

Hello. I bet you guys are really upset with my chapter-ending skills...

But, hey, this is the sixth chapter I've posted in two days. I'm on a roll.

Word count: 864 words