The King's Bride

Chapter 52

November Dufort

Once Killian had left the room, Nova was by herself. She was forced to reflect upon their entire interaction - which consisted of him being far more grateful on receiving the painting than she had predicted, kissing her forehead, and telling her that he trusted her over his family.

...Which seemed ridiculous. Why on Earth would King Killian trust her over his family?

It just didn't make sense to Nova at all.

However, unlike Killian, Nova wasn't... fond of being by herself all that much to begin with. She sought out comfort from other people - but it was obvious that King Killian wasn't interested in the company of anyone else at the moment.

Therefore, once she felt like she had composed herself enough, Nova slowly pushed herself up onto her feet. She made her way out into the living room, where the other members of the royal family were currently comforting each other, and crossed one of her arms over her torso to grab her elbow.

"Nova," Eleanor spoke first, a frown on her lips. "How's Killian?"

Nova found it slightly amusing that Eleanor asked how Killian was before asking how she was, but she also understood to an extent. Killian was her son and Nova was just... the woman he forced to marry him. "Scared." She said with a slight nod. "...Scared, but okay. Just... shaken up. He's... better though." Seeing Eleanor stand up, likely to go speak to Killian, Nova added, "He just wants some time alone, right now. That's all."

"He's my son," Eleanor said, defending her action.

"He just had an attempt made for his life." Nova responded, standing her ground. "Just... give him some space. I feel like he'd prefer a text over seeing people." She said with a slight frown on her own face. Hell, even Nova was more inclined to text King Killian before she went to see him next time. Partially because she had just gotten her replacement phone the day before and she was still getting used to it.

Eleanor stared at Nova, a firm frown on her face before sitting back down in her spot. She crossed her legs unhappily, and a bit huffy, before turning her head away. Nova could practically see Killian's mother's distaste towards Nova. She likely was thinking things, such as how unfit Nova was to be married to a King and how she doesn't have pure royal blood like the rest of them.

But... Nova wasn't going to argue. Because a part of her agreed if Eleanor was thinking those thoughts. However the only reason Eleanor would likely be thinking those thoughts was because Nova had verbally held her back from visiting her son.

"Are you okay, Nova?" Erika said from the side.

Nova put a slight smile on her face and shrugged her shoulders. She closed her eyes, giving a slight exhale, before opening them again. "As good as I'm going to be when something like this happens." Nova murmured simply.

Seeing that Nova didn't feel as welcome in the main room, at least to Eleanor, Nova decided to retreat. She murmured a few more words before making her way down the hall into a different room.

It... actually wasn't a room that Nova had been in before, but she saw it on the blueprint weeks ago. She just never had the courage to go in there before, since it wasn't a space she had been taken to before.

Library.

Like Nova had expected, the library wasn't nearly as large as massive, public ones. It was small, quaint, but cute. It looked exactly as Nova had predicted a library in the palace would look - decorated with paintings and all.