The Rejected True Heiress (Liora) novel Chapter 53

Chapter 53

Liora

The rain didn’t bother me.

Mia would shrink away from it, try to avoid the frizz or the cold or the mud. But I always would something oddly comforting about the way it blurred the world a little. Like everything was smudged in watercolor, and if you stared long enough, nothing really looked that sharp. Not even the people throwing

trash at you.

The crumpled paper ball bounced off my shoulder. I didn’t flinch.

Another one arced toward me. Missed.

“Oops,” someone snickered behind me. “Trash attracted trash.”

I tugged my hood further up and kept walking, letting my boots squish in the puddles like it didn’t matter. Because it didn’t. I was over it. Over all of it. The whispers, the snide comments, the disgusted stares like I’d spit in the school’s holy water.

Let them waste their energy. I had classes to get to and a perfectly good coffee cooling in my hand.

I turned the corner to around the outside bricks of the school, keeping close to the awning when I froze.

Under the roar of the rain, sitting under the the awning by the vending machine, was Zane.

I narrowed my eyes. It was wasn’t often you’d see him alone. Sure it’s happened, but day to day, he was usually surrounded–girls orbiting like perfume–soaked satellites, even when he was in a tree or ditching. Usually someone was with him.

But today, he sat on the concrete cobble stone, nursing his hand with a distant look I’d have yet to see on

him.

I started my walk to him and slowed, stopping just shy of his feet.

He looked up. His knuckles were raw, Split. A strip of fabric hung loose, stained dark from the rain and whatever he was trying to stop from bleeding.

I stared for a second too long.

He looked back down.

…Oddly…not talkative today either.

Without fully thinking it through, I knelt down.

“I have bandages,” I said flatly, pulling my backpack infront of me.

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Chapter 53

+15 BONUS

He didn’t look surprised to see me. Just… tired,

“Always the hero,” he said, voice low.

“Theres that annoying mouth.” I pulled a small roll of gauze from my bag. “Hold still.”

He did.

The drizzle softened to a mist around us as I started wrapping his hand. His skin was cold. My fingers

were colder. Neither of us commented on it.

“You punch a wall or a face?” I asked finally, my voice dry.

Zane blinked at me like I was an unexpected pop quiz. Then he smirked crooked.

“Face,” he said. “Definitely face.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Anyone I know?” Though, I had a hunch.

He snorted, held up his bloody knuckles like a trophy. “Your favorite bonded mate.”

That made me blink. “Wait, you meant that the other day? You actually punched Callum?”

“Twice,” he said, like he deserved a medal. “Didn’t even hit me back.”

I pulled his hand back toward me, annoyed, trying to wrap it. The skin across his knuckles was split, the kind of cut that would sting every time he made a fist.

“Idiot. Just hold still,” I muttered.

“Bossy,” he teased, but he didn’t move.

We sat like that for a moment. Rain misted over our shoulders. The courtyard was quiet, but not empty, and somehow, it felt like we were in our own little pocket of air.

“So,” I said, wrapping his hand gently. “I’m guessing you landed those hits on my behalf?”

“Bingo.”

“I’m not thanking you,” I said flatly. “You shouldn’t have messed with him.”

Zane tilted his head back with a dramatic sigh. “Yeah, well. Someone had to get the truth.”

My hands paused. “The truth?”

“Yeah,” he said, watching me work. “He admitted it, he’s the one who turned the school on you.’

“Figures.”

“That’s what I thought,” he said quickly. “But he also said he was… trying to protect you.”

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