UNWANTED

CHAPTER 8 - R3.23 - LIZAVETA

That night, I let Natasha in again. My mental state was no excuse for rudeness. She told me it would be better to do the scan in the hospitals like the Chaves Center where there would be more accurate imaging, but I didn't listen.

The country just lost their king, they just went through a traumatic fireworks display, and they didn't need another reason to worry. The empire couldn't take another show of weakness. They couldn't know I was there.

After a while she took note of all my metals, my necklace, my anklets. I couldn't take them off. The key was at the crypts somewhere in the rubble. Eventually she adjusted the machine to ignore the metals.

"Your imperial highness... did you adjust the rate?" Natasha pointed at the roller clamp of the IV now on the stand in the other room. I could see her from a small window across the ring I was currently lying in, making the claustrophobic tube a little less so. "We need to put that back by the way."

"Um... no. Why?" I wanted to make it slower since the cold was bothering me, but I rolled it up once and it only got worse. This was why I chose not to go the medical route... I was much better at smashing things that taping them back together.

"Well, I guess you weren't that close to the explosion as Malak was." She smiled at me, relieved. "I thought you were there together. At least you're completely fine. Malak is having hearing problems even with the earplugs he put on so some tinnitus. I can't imagine how it would have affected someone without mufflers."

"Yeah, I was far from him actually." Lying was easier now without Ilyaas.

She nodded back at me as I came out of the ring. "No internal bleeding. If there were cuts or bruises, the nanites took care of them."

"I had a bleeding ear..." The ringing was nonexistent by the time I arrived at the House, but it still bled every now and then.

"Was probably a ruptured eardrum... I didn't see much damage when I took a closer look earlier, your imperial majesty, the nanites must be working faster than I'm used to."

"So, I'm fine." I hoped I was. I already got the ear cleaned before I was put inside the loud machine, and my hearing seemed normal already despite the blood. The princes would arrive today with the grandfather's sister. It was already two in the morning, and I hadn't even slept.

"Hot and cold compress near your ear if you feel uncomfortable. That's it."

"Thank you, Natasha..." I stepped off the machine. "And I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier."

She blinked at me, and a corner of her mouth turned up. Her smile brightened. "I understand, your imperial majesty. You made sure the people were safe first."

"He would have done the same." I said, referring to my grandfather, as she finished putting a new needle in with the same bag.

"I highly doubt that."

Natasha went through the automatic sliding doors first, looked both ways and gestured for me to follow her out. She was nicer than I thought.

The marble was cold underneath my bare feet, but I liked it somehow. After feeling the heat of that explosion earlier, anything cold was welcome... Except the nanites.

"Your imperial highness, it would be advisable if I have the ability to take off your jewelry, especially for emergency purposes."

I looked at my anklets. "Yeah, I guess so." The key was hidden somewhere in the dark crevices of an empty tomb I had to intention of going back to. "I don't know how to get them off." My hand found the thin solid choker around my neck. "But if it's silver, nitric acid should do."