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?

I felt the tips of my fingers begin to tremble as she worked up the energy for her next words.

"Khloe's dead." the words came out in a whisper, causing my whole world to stop.

My heart dropped into my stomach as a lump rose in my throat, every worry I had prior being confirmed in two words.

"No..." The words just barely passed my lips, "No no she couldn't."

As much as I wanted to, I couldn't dispute her words.

All this time I knew I couldn't let her get into the Lord's hands.

That bad feeling I had over this entire situation meant something.

One on my hands held itself over my mouth as the whole fact of this situation kicked in.

Carlo dragged Khloe to her death.

Doe closed the space between us again, her cries sounding louder than before.

Her tears wet my shirt as mine slowly yet surely began to form in my eyes.

I could have stopped this.

If I had just gotten Carlo out of the picture, or gotten him to hold off a little longer.

If I hadn't just so easily fallen victim to what he did.

There were so many things I could have done.

"Alex said that we... we need to stick together until he gets back."

I wiped my eyes with the hand that was over my mouth.

"How long will that be?" I asked.

She hesitated for a second before she admitted quietly.

"I don't know. He said soon but h-he didn't sound too sure."

I just nodded, holding her close as we both mourned.

My chest ached with every breath I took in, the sickening feeling of guilt making it that much worse.

I failed Khloe, I let down Nico.

My eyes squeezed shut, tightening my hold on Doe once again.

There was absolutely no way I was going to let anything happen to her.

I couldn't.

We stayed like that for a while until I eventually pulled back.

"I'll stay here with you, but I need to get some things from my room, and I want to get them before it gets too dark."

Her eyes widened in worry.

The last thing I could imagine was being alone right now with this kind of news, but I didn't know if anything else was to come, and I wanted to act fast.

"I'll be quick I promise," I assured her.

"Please." Is all she responded.

I just nodded before opening the door and running.

My lungs burned with the terrible mix of crying and running, but I didn't let that slow me down.

I tried not to focus on the thick feeling in the air or the all to quiet sound of this mostly vacant floor.

I just kept my head down until I reached my room.

My hand paused on the handle, a bead of sweat running down my forehead.

As soon as I opened my door, I froze.

Although I wasn't as surprised as I thought I might be.

I knew that part of me expected this to happen. For him to be here.

Carlo sat on the edge of my bed, eyes wide as he spotted me.

Such a sight used to fill me with some sort of relief or even happiness, but this time was drastically different.

The only thing I felt was anger, hatred even.

Despite everything, I told him. Despite every plea that came out of my mouth, and assurance that I would be okay, he still went through with his plans.

Even though I knew his actions were built from an order from the Lord, he still could have waited.

He could have held off like I asked. like I begged.

Just for two more nights, then Khloe and I would have been gone.

We would have been safe.

"Marcus," He spoke my name with an essence of relief as he stood from my bed to walk towards me, "I was worried about you. I tried to find you after I was done but you weren't there anymore and I-"

He stopped once he got close enough to see the burning look in my eyes through the tears.

And it was then that I noticed the cut on his lip and the bruise under his eye.

"Get. out." I spoke through my clenched teeth.

He drew back in shock and confusion but didn't respond past that.

At least not until I lifted my hand and pointed at the door.

"Look, Marcus. I'm sorry about knocking you out, but all of this is over now. Nicolas is probably pissed at me, but other than that everything's okay now so why are you..?" He trailed off eyes searching me.

My rage burned even more.

He didn't know. He didn't know the consequences his actions heald.

The possibility of it didn't even pass his mind despite how worried about it I was.

"She's dead, Carlo," I spat, "You finally got to your goal and she's dead."

His brows rose and lips parted, "What?"

I took a couple breaths to get myself under control.

"You got Khloe killed and both of the princes put in cells!" My hand fell to my side, my nails stinging my palm. "You couldn't have just waited, could you? You couldn't have just listened to me!?"

We had so many arguments discussing this, and not once did he ever consider complying. No matter how I assured him that I would be okay.

"I didn't think he was going to kill her!" He rebutted.

"I told you repeatedly that I was worried about that and that it wasn't a risk I wanted to take! I didn't care what whether he planned on hurting her or not, I didn't want you getting to her!"

He looked over my stance yet again.

"Even so, who's to say her life was more important than yours!? We both knew that if you got sent back then you would have died a-"

A sharp pain stung through my palm as it hit his cheek, effectively silencing him.

Everything was still for just a second, his eyes going round as his hand slowly lifted to where I had struck him.

"My life was fine! Nico had everything figured out to keep me safe, but I owed her everything and now she's gone! She was the reason I even managed to get here in the first place! My life there was shit compared to this one, even before the worst of it, and just knowing her somehow managed to get me out of that. I would have suffered for god knows how long and probably died from starvation or bloodloss inside that shit hole cell I was in if it wasn't for the fact that we became friends. I owed her my life and I was willing to repay that!" My voice echoed through the room, frustrated tears running down my face.

Every part of my body ached, this betrayal from someone I had grown so close to.

The loss of two great friends.

A part of my anger slowly simmered into sorrow again

"But you... You and your stupid kiss caught me off guard enough for you to succeed and look what happened."

He didn't say anything for a while.

I don't think he even knew what to say.

He looked like he wanted to approach me to offer some sort of comfort but he knew better.

Both of us knew I wouldn't accept it.

"I'm sorry. I didn't thi- I didn't know the situation enough to know what was going to happen to her."

I just shook my head, tearing my eyes from him.

"Just leave. I have other people I have to comfort, and I can't stand seeing you right now."

He waited a bit too long to start walking. Even once he did, he stopped right after he passed me for a moment, before beginning to walk again.

My chest ached more with every step he took.

Tears fell from my eyes once again for so many separate reasons once I heard the door close.