Page 14 of Kingdom of Betrayal and Unknown (Kingdom of Bellhollow #1)

“I will be allowed to go out if you want me to marry you,” I calmly say, trying not to anger him but not wanting to back down either. “Being outside gives me peace. Being outside lets me be calm when life is stressful. Do you want me to be stressed and on edge all the time?”

I hold my breath as his face hardens. I shouldn’t have said that, but I couldn’t help myself. He just makes me so angry, and I want to gouge his eyes out. I want to make him suffer a long and painful death for everything he has said.

Sure, I don’t know the origin of how Fae became enslaved. I don’t know what it was like, but nobody deserves that much hate. I don’t know what they’ve done to Prince Archie, but I’m pretty sure they haven’t done anything that terrible to warrant them being executed.

Prince Archie stands, and two guards flank him. I crane my neck to look at him, and anger is written all over his face. I suck in a breath and wait.

“I need to go attend to matters.” His voice is cold as he looks down on me.

I want to chuckle at the semblance of him towering over me, but I keep my mouth shut. I have not won any favors from anybody recently. I don’t need to anger him any more than I already have.

But maybe I should. Skylar told me to talk about the forest so the prince realizes I’m not going to back down so that he loses interest in me.

I bet the prince will want a woman who will bend over backward for him, but that isn’t going to be me.

He will not take away my right to go walk in the forest.

“And don’t think I haven’t forgotten about the class we talked about. I still need you to give me a day of the week and when you can attend. Then I’ll set it up with the tutor.” He gives me a small glare.

I nod. “Sorry, Prince Archie. I didn’t mean to forget about it, we have just been so busy preparing for the big market coming up that it slipped my mind.

I still need to talk with my parents to make sure when will be best for me to be gone for a couple of hours, but I promise to make sure to get the message to you as soon as possible,” I rush out.

I hadn’t forgotten to ask my mother about it. Deep down, I was hoping he would forget about it. I was hoping he would also forget about me after all these weeks, but neither of those hopes came true. Sadly.

“Make sure that you don’t forget this time,” he says, turning around. “You may enjoy the rest of the food if you want to. A guard will be back in an hour to collect the basket and remaining food.”

And with that, Prince Archie and the guards walk away, leaving me by myself in the peaceful forest. I take several deep breaths, letting my whole body relax for the first time since he approached me earlier.

I didn’t realize how tense I had gotten with every passing minute I was near him. Could he tell?

I look over at the food and clench my jaw.

I hate how he spoke like I wasn’t allowed to eat or touch this food without him here, but I guess it technically doesn’t belong to me.

But the way Prince Archie said I may enjoy the rest of the food just rubbed me up the wrong way.

It was like he was giving me permission to enjoy eating.

“You can come out now,” I tell Kieran. “The prince and his guards are gone and won’t be back for an hour.”

Kieran strolls out from the trees in front of me, and I can’t help but smile when I see him.

There’s just something about him that I long for, that I feel at peace with.

I might be going crazy, but I don’t really care.

It’s not often I feel this calm and at peace with somebody else.

Even with Skylar, I’m a ball of nerves. It’s hard to be anything else but nervous with her.

She gossips and talks really loudly, and she doesn’t care if she offends anyone, especially the Fae.

“No one should talk or treat you like that,” he announces, taking several more steps toward me.

“He’s the king’s son, so technically he can talk to whoever he wants like that.

I’m just a commoner; there’s nothing I can do.

I’ve already started digging myself a hole with talking about the forest and wanting to be out here all the time.

” I look away, not able to handle the intense stare he has on me.

“If I had my powers, I would kill him for you in a heartbeat. Nobody gets to talk to my mate like that and get away with it,” Kieran growls toward the end.

I can’t help but chuckle. “Prince Archie said you have a curse over you. If you killed him and everybody else who has done me wrong, you would never be able to break it. Isn’t that what you want, to break the curse and take over so then we are the slaves and you can treat us like we’ve treated you? ”

He crouches in front of me, and I can feel the heat coming off his skin. “We do want to break the curse, but we aren’t cruel like he says we are.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” I whisper, looking into his deep blue eyes.

And just like every single time, I get lost in them. A smile tugs on his face, and I try my hardest not to blink so I can stare at him for as long as I can.

Marvelous.

Beautiful.

Breathtaking.

That is everything Kieran is when he smiles. I want to beg him to always smile for me.

“What have you seen to make us seem so cruel?” he asks, his voice soft but full of curiosity and hurt.

I hate that pain in his voice. It goes straight to my heart, and I just want to make everything better. But life doesn’t work like that, and I can’t make everything right. Sometimes it’s so cruel, and right now it’s cruel to the Fae.

“I’m not sure,” I whisper, looking away in embarrassment.

I’ve never seen them be cruel, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t been. So many people have told me some stories about them, and I don’t know if I should trust them.

“Do you know what the prince has seen?” Kieran asks.

I shake my head. “No, but he said he just went to another town to put the Fae in their place since they were trying to kill people and break the curse, I’m guessing. And maybe it is true since it’s not the first time I’m hearing something like this. People talk when things happen.”

“People lie,” he rebuts.

I shrug. “We live in a world full of lies,” I say gently.

“No one really knows what happened all those years ago, besides the witch and some of the Fae as well. I’m not sure the king actually knows what happened, and he probably only heard stories or read about it in school, but those could have been doctored.

Only certain people know what’s actually true, and we don’t know who those people are or if they’re actually telling the truth. ”

I could go on and on about this. I just want to know the truth, but it’s so hard to find when people might be trying to cover something up.

“Can I show you something?” Kieran asks.

My eyebrows furrow as I look at him. He hasn’t moved an inch from where he’s at, so what could he possibly be wanting to show me?

“Yes?” I reply, unsure whether I should really agree to it or not.

What if he shows me a group of Fae who are going to beat me up? Kill me? What if he shoves me in the stream and drowns me?

I push those thoughts to the back of my mind. Kieran hasn’t done anything bad to me… yet. He has been nothing but a gentleman, besides threatening me the first time. With everything else, he has been kind, considerate, and has helped me when I didn’t ask for it.

Kieran moves closer to me, his movements smooth, like he’s done this a hundred times already. I intently stare at him as I wait for him to show me what he wants me to see.

“You don’t have to be afraid,” he gently says. “I’m not going to hurt you, and I won’t let anyone else hurt you.”

It shouldn’t reassure me, since he’s Fae, but it does. There is just something about Kieran that makes me trust him and be calm around him. What makes him different from everyone else?

“I’m going to touch your temple and show you something.” He brings his hands closer to my face.

I stare into his eyes as he comes closer. He’s moving his hands slowly like he’s trying to show me that he isn’t going to hurt me. Which is really sweet if it’s what he’s doing.

Gasping, I hold onto his hands when he touches me. Colorful trees surround us before the scene changes into a busy street where Fae and humans are walking.

No one is in chains.

No one is scared of one another.

What is this place? My eyes scan around the town I live, but everything is so different. Humans are laughing with the Fae, some are even hugging and kissing.

I yank my head away from his hands and stare at him with wide eyes, not knowing what I just observed. That couldn’t have been real. It looked so peaceful, and everyone seemed to be getting along with each other.

“Wh-what was that?” I whisper, searching his face. “What did you just show me?”

“I showed you what it was like before the witch cursed us,” he explains. “What it was like when the Fae were ruling.”

I shake my head. “No, that can’t be real.”

Kieran gives me a small smile. “But it is. It’s what it was like before.”

“If it were true, what changed? What happened? Were you alive back then? How did you just show me that?” I rapid-fire questions, wanting to know everything.

“One question at a time.” He chuckles, sitting on the ground in front of me.

“I was alive back then, but I was young. My parents were still ru—” He stops himself.

“They were still alive back then. But I do remember, even though the Fae were ruling, that everyone lived in peace and no one was enslaved.”

“How do I know you’re telling the truth?” I ask. “How do I know you aren’t just lying to me?”

“Because Fae who can show the past can’t make things up. They show what they have seen with their own eyes and nothing else. It’s physically impossible for us to show a lie,” Kieran explains.

“I don’t know what to believe. This is all so much to take in,” I mumble. “How did you get like this, then? I thought Fae were so much stronger and had magic.”