Love & Loss

Chapter 73

Marcus' POV:

I quickly paced back and forth in front of the door in Xander's room.

Doe had been gone for too long, and that just added to the many things I was currently panicking about.

I chewed at the nail on my pointer finger, head shifting towards the door at any minuscule noise, hoping that it would be Doe or Xander.

Mostly Doe.

I mentally cursed myself for not trying harder to stop her from leaving this room, but she was completely set on finding Xander.

Carlo never mentioned anything about Doe, but my frenzied mind seemed to be coming up with every terrible possibility the longer she was gone.

Part of me wanted to go looking for her, and on the way stop by Nico's room to see what happened with Khloe.

My pacing quickened with my breaths.

Carlo told me that he was sure Khloe wasn't in danger, but absolutely nothing was sitting right.

That stacked on top of the crushing feeling of helplessness.

Of failure.

It all felt like it was eating me from the inside out.

My breath hitched as the sound of the doorknob hit my ears, my head turning almost immediately.

A hint of relief as Doe opened it, my feet moving towards her.

But I stopped midway once I noticed the tears running down her face.

She met my gaze, her breaths uneven and stuttering.

I finished my route to her, new worry building as she closed the door.

Almost on instinct, I looked her over for any sign of injury but got cut short as she grabbed onto my shirt and pulled me into an embrace.

Then her sobs began, and the underlying feeling of dread that had been present finally showed itself.

I returned the gesture, bringing my arms around her as I practically had to force myself to ask this question.

"What happened?" I managed to get out.

The sudden tension in her body and the harder grip on my shirt told me that even she wanted to avoid that question.

So I came up with an easier one.

"Did you find him?"

She just nodded against my chest.

Okay, that was good at least.

She pulled her head back, taking in a couple heavy breaths to try to regain herself.

I had never seen her like this.

I loosened my hold on her as she pulled back to look at me.

"He- He was down in the cells," She sputtered through her sobs.

My breath stopped entirely in my throat.

"He was down there with Nico, a-and Nico was all chained and... and." Her voice died after that last word, another wave of tears showing in her eyes.

Even with just what she had told me so far, any hope I had left in this situation diminished.

Both of the princes were behind bars.

Nico was chained.

How did everything go so wrong?

What happened?