Page 20 of Kingdom of Betrayal and Unknown (Kingdom of Bellhollow #1)

S everal minutes go by and I’m still not asleep. Worry flows through me as we continue to lay there.

“I don’t think I can fall asleep,” I whisper, tears pooling in my eyes. “I’m sorry.”

The guilt building inside of me increases as the seconds go by. It’s the middle of the night, and he has to work tomorrow, yet he is lying in his tent talking to me. I grip his shirt, and take a deep breath without looking at him. I can’t bear this anymore.

Kieran gently cups my face, and I look up at him.

“You’re okay. We’ll lie here for a while until you feel safe enough to fall asleep. You have no reason to be sorry. You’ve just been through something traumatic,” he gently says.

“But you have work in the morning.” I blink several times, letting the tears fall.

“I do, but so do you. It’s okay. We’ll get sleep tomorrow night.” He smiles.

I lean into his touch and close my eyes, loving the way his hand feels against my cheek.

“I never want this night to end,” I mumble.

Kieran kisses the side of my head, and I sigh with contentment, snuggling into his chest.

“Soon, it won’t ever have to,” he replies.

I blink up at him, fighting sleep with every ounce of energy I have. “Soon?”

He nods. “Soon things are going to change, and we’ll be able to be together.”

“Like what?” I slur my words as he runs his hands through my hair.

He hums and doesn’t say anything, but continues to massage my head.

“I know what you’re trying to do.” My eyes are closing.

“And what is that?” There’s amusement in his voice.

Moving my hands, I pry my eyes open to look at him. “I’m not going to fall for it. You are trying to put me to sleep, and while I feel guilty that you are staying up, I also don’t want tonight to end.”

“Okay, you got me.” He chuckles. “I was just trying to help.”

I glare at him and let go of his shirt as he stops running his hands through my hair.

“I have a confession to make,” he mumbles.

I raise my eyebrow. “Confession?”

What could he possibly want to say to me ?

“I don’t like it when the prince is near you. I don’t like him trying to pursue you when you are mine . Mine and only mine,” he growls. “I want to go up to him and rip his head off, showing everyone that you belong to me.”

I place my hand on his chest. “But you can’t. Not unless you want to die.”

He sighs and closes his eyes for a couple of seconds. “I know, but it doesn’t mean I don’t think about it often. Who does he think he is trying to pursue you when you are clearly mine.”

Tingles run through my body as it slowly starts to warm up from his words. I can’t help but bite my lower lip and look at Kieran with half hooded eyes.

Hot.

Sexy.

Handsome.

Possessive .

Everything I thought I didn’t want in someone and yet Kieran is changing my mind bit by bit. Never has someone said they wanted to kill someone for trying to pursue me.

Time passes by as we just lay there in each other’s embraces, enjoying the quiet surrounding us. The birds aren’t chirping around us, like they know we are here and giving us privacy.

“Tell me something about your childhood.” My words are filled with hope.

I want to learn about what Kieran was like all those years ago. I want to know what it was like before the Fae became slaves.

“I used to run circles around my mother while Father was gone.” Kieran laughs.

“She would try her hardest to get me to sit down and do something productive at the table, but I didn’t want to.

I always wanted to explore Bellhollow. Sometimes, she would let me go alone.

I knew there were at least two Fae guards following me from a distance to make sure no one hurt me, but it was the freedom I always wanted.

Every once in a while, she would come out with me, trying to keep up, telling me not to fly when she was around so I didn’t get lost, all while meeting with the townspeople and making sure they were listened to if anything was going on.

But I always caused trouble and never listened to the no-flying rule. ”

I giggle.

“And then my father would come home during the middle of the day to check in on us or at night, and he had his ways of getting me to concentrate. Mother always wondered how he could manage to do it. My father blamed it on me already being tired,” Kieran gently says.

“Was that the real reason?” I ask.

He looks down at me, a small smile on his face. “I don’t know. That could be part of it. I didn’t mean to make her so exhausted every night, but I wanted to explore. I wanted to meet the people who were soon going to be my people. I wanted to get to know them and be like my father.”

I gently cup his cheek, running my thumb across his skin. “Did you ever spend time with your father to learn or watch what he did?”

“A couple of times,” Kieran replies, placing his hand over mine, keeping it against his cheek. “When I got older and could understand things better, he started to take me along so I could learn how to listen to people.”

“That’s a good father.”

“He was.”

Kieran and I sit in silence for several minutes, just looking at each other. My body is fully relaxed as we lie here, heartbeat slow and steady. But I’m not panicking this time.

“Tell me something about your childhood,” Kieran prompts me.

I think about that for long seconds. What do I want him to know?

“I don’t know,” I whisper, feeling bad all over again for not having an answer.

“There have to be some happy times that you can remember.”

My eyebrows pull together as I really think about it. “My father used to take me for walks in the forest when I was younger?” I offer.

“Anything else?” he asks.

“I almost tumbled down the well one time.” I grimace at the thought.“But that’s not really a happy memory.”

“How did you manage that?” He raises his right eyebrow. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone falling down the well, human or Fae.”

“Because they now have a guard standing by it for that reason, but also other reasons that are dumb. I don’t know if it was because of me, but they implemented that when I was younger,” I explain.

“And how did you almost fall into the well? I need to know that story.”

“Well, I was helping my mother out, and she needed water. I wasn’t nearly strong enough to get the water out of the well. I wasn’t tall enough either, but I was determined to help.” I chuckle at the end.

“My little helper,” Kieran mumbles as he looks at me with love in his eyes. “Even at a young age, when you should have been playing with other girls and being a child.”

I look away for a brief second. “So I walked up to the well and started to pull, but I wasn’t expecting it to be so heavy so I nearly fell in. Thankfully, Marvin was there to help catch me.” I ignore his earlier comment.

I know my mother wanted me to have a normal childhood, and for a lot of it, I did. But as I grew older and realized there was a lot to be done around the house when Father was away, I knew I had to help. There was no other way.

I wish there was, but this is the society we live in and every girl and boy has to help out when they hit a certain age.

“I’m glad Marvin was there to help save you.”

I nod. “Me too. I’m not good with water above my head so if I went down there, I don’t think I would have come up alive.”

“Anything happy?” Kieran kisses my forehead.

Sighing, I close my eyes for a couple of seconds. There has to be something good I remember from my childhood.

“My mother makes clothes. She makes a lot of clothes in town so if you see anyone wearing something new, it probably came from her,” I tell Kieran.

“I grew a lot over one winter and wasn’t fitting into any of my clothes, but I was still wearing them.

Then one day Mother handed me this beautiful purple dress and said it was mine.

A brand-new dress all for me,” I whisper.

“I didn’t take it off for a week. I showed everyone in town and was so proud that my own mother had made it.

I let everyone know that little detail and it helped a lot. She got so many orders from it.”

It was one of the best times of my life.

“After that, Mother got to splurge on a couple of things that we normally wouldn’t have. That was a really good week,” I mumble toward the end. “I honestly don’t even remember everything we got, but it was amazing.”

“One day, you’re going to have all of those things again. You won’t have to repair your clothes to try and save money,” Kieran softly tells me. “I’ll buy you all the dresses you want and any food you desire. You’ll never want for anything.”

I hum in agreement. “That would be nice.”

Letting out a breath of air, I dreamily look at Kieran and smile. He looks so handsome, lying on his side, completely relaxed.

“What are you thinking about?” Kieran whispers, his thumb sliding across my cheek.

My cheeks heat up, and I look away from him.

“Hmm, I think I can guess,” he teases.

“I was not,” I quickly reply and look at him.

He raises his right eyebrow. “I didn’t say anything.”

Biting my lower lip, I groan. I just gave myself away… once again.

“What were you thinking about, Sweets?” His eyes are half open, giving him an even sexier look.

“You,” I breathlessly reply. “I was thinking about you.”

A huge smile splits his face, his eyes lighting up as I say those words.

“Just like you’re supposed to,” he cockily preens.

Chuckling, my eyes start closing as the weight of exhaustion rests on my shoulders.

“Time to sleep.” He runs his hands through my hair, pushing it behind me. “I’ve got you.”

“I don’t want to,” I whine, but my eyes are already closed. “I’m scared.”

“Just relax and let me worry about everything. I’m here for you, nothing is going to happen,” he whispers and kisses the side of my head. “I’ve got you, Sweets. I’ll always be there for you.”