The King's Bride

Chapter 23

Killian Dufort

Though they had begun driving, they didn't quite have a destination; just west. However, it wasn't an overly long time before social medias started to come up with a location for Nova. Which, wasn't surprising. In fact, Killian had kind of been banking on the press acting as his bloodhounds today.

It worked out quite well.

"Got her," Killian said after a glance at his phone, upon which was a Twitter post bearing a picture of Nova sitting in a café. Obviously Nova had been unaware of the photography, for she too was looking at her phone. But, it was definitely Nova. Recognizing the café she was in, Killian informed the driver and off they went.

The last time Killian had seen Nova react to a crowd, she'd seemed uncomfortable even to him, and she'd only confirmed that she had anxiety of the clinical sort. Knowing that she was likely going to get swarmed before he got there, he could only imagine what kind of state they were going to find her in.

It wasn't going to be positive, that was for certain.

"You look troubled, my lord," Bertram observed, seeming confused by this.

"That's because I am," Killian muttered in response, gazing out the window and twitching his leg.

"But we've...found her," Bertram said, a bit of an unhappy lilt in his voice at that. "Shouldn't you be relieved?"

Killian huffed softly. "You would think," he admitted. "But I won't feel better until Nova gets home."

Bertram tilted his head. "Why that's awfully...kind of you," he said, with surprise it seemed. "Are you feeling alright?"

"At least when she's home I know where she is."

"...Right."

Killian chose to leave out the part where he knew about Nova's anxiety. He wasn't sure why, but something about that fact made him feel...strangely bad for her. And feeling bad wasn't something he was generally used to. It probably had something to do with the both of them having issues with a certain emotion of theirs very rudely taking over. Sure, for her it was fear and him anger, but it was a similar problem.

He...felt for her.

Weird.

As the driver stopped the car, Killian was the first out, which was unusual, seeing as generally a bodyguard or two exited first. However, Killian was both a degree of genuinely concerned, as well as inclined to make it look like he was more concerned than he actually was.

But he was somewhat concerned.

So he didn't need to fake all that much.

He also wasn't surprised that a few café staff were trying to contain the media personnel; get them away from Nova, get them to leave, but it didn't seem to be working all that well. At the arrival of the king, the reporters shifted to try and get him to answer questions, but all he said to any of them was "Not now." Killian pushed his way through to find Nova cowering from the presses, her eyes wide in a pale face. She was crouched on the ground, her knees pulled up and her hands up by her ears. Why the press didn't get the fucking message seeing a person like that was beyond him.

Killian crouched down in front of Nova, a deep frown on his face, but he wasn't so much upset at her anymore than he was at the media. He brought his hands up to hold her face, and keep her eyes on him. Considering they weren't exactly on good terms, seeing his face probably wasn't going to make her feel a whole lot better. But, at least a calm familiar face, if one she hated, was better than a swarm of strangers. "Hey," he said firmly, making sure she was listening. "Nova. It's okay."