Page 21 of Kingdom of Betrayal and Unknown (Kingdom of Bellhollow #1)

“ A deline,” a gentle voice says. “You need to wake up.”

I groan and keep my eyes closed. I’m warm and comfortable. I haven’t felt this way in years, and I don’t want this to stop.

“Come on, Sweets,” Kieran whispers. “You need to wake up.”

“No,” I mumble back, snuggling into his chest.

Even though I’m lying on the hard ground, I’m comfy and want to stay right in this position for days. Maybe it has something to do with Kieran, but I don’t care.

He chuckles. “You need to wake up or you’re going to be late getting to your parents’ house, and I’ll miss check in.”

My eyes slowly open, and I look at him. “Don’t want to.”

His hand softly trails up my face. “I know you don’t want to, but you have to. People will be looking for you, and I don’t want to get you in any trouble.”

Sighing, I nod and close my eyes for a couple of seconds, taking everything in one last time. When will I be able to be with him like this again?

An ache in my chest forms when I don’t have an answer to that. This is cruel.

“I know, Sweets.” His voice holds the sadness I feel. “I wish we could stay here forever as well, but we can’t.”

“It isn’t fair,” I mumble before I can stop myself.

“Nothing in life is fair, but it’s going to be okay. We are going to get through this. We’ll have another night like this, I promise,” he reassures me.

But how does he know that? There is no guarantee we are going to be able to be in each other’s embrace like this again. This was already unique since I was coming back from Hellhollow, but I’m not doing that again anytime soon.

“Come on, we need to get going before guards come to my tent to see where I am and find you here,” he says as he helps me up from the ground. “I’m not ashamed of you, understand that. But I don’t want you to get into trouble with them. I want you safe and unharmed.”

Smiling, I nod. “I know you aren’t ashamed, I think since I don’t really know you that well, but it wouldn’t be me who would get hurt. It would be you. They would think the worst and harm you, maybe even kill you.”

“They won’t kill me,” he replies. “They know if they kill me, they will have a riot on their hands.”

Right. He’s the High Lord. If he dies, the other Fae won’t care if they have their powers back or not. They will kill anyone and everyone.

“Elias dropped your bag off earlier,” Keiran says as he points to my bag.

“You’ve been awake for a while?” I ask, looking up at him.

He’s sitting on a little stool, but even then, he’s still taller than I am by a lot.

“A couple of hours, just looking at you sleeping,” he honestly replies.

“That’s not creepy at all,” I mutter. “Some people might think you are a stalker.”

“A stalker wouldn’t help you in the middle of the night, keep you warm, and talk with you,” Kieran points out. “I’m no stalker.”

“But staring at me for several hours is creepy and you didn’t deny that.” I pick my bag up from the ground.

He shrugs but doesn’t say anything. “You may think it’s creepy, but I don’t. I’m looking at my mate. I could stare at you for hours, days, and never get bored. You are my life.”

Blushing, I look away. My heart flutters with his words, and I can’t help but smile and want more. Kieran knows the right things to say to make me melt.

“I wish I could walk you home, but the guards will be patrolling right now and I don’t want them to spot us together.” Kieran bends down in front of me. “I will keep watch of you, though, to make sure you get home safely.”

“Thank you,” I whisper. “Thank you for everything. For saving me. I don’t know how I’m ever going to repay you.”

Kieran leans forward, kissing my forehead. “You don’t have to repay me. It was my honor.”

Tears pool in my eyes as I look at him.

“Shh, it’s okay,” he whispers, cupping my face.

“I’m worried I’m never going to see you again, and I don’t know how to feel about it,” I reply, choking up.

“We are going to see each other again, I promise.” He kisses my nose. “Nothing is going to keep me away from you.”

“Promise?” I ask.

“I promise, Sweets. Nothing is going to keep me away from you.”

Sighing, I nod and pull away from his touch. Kieran leads me to the front of his tent and helps me out. Wrapping my arms around myself, my teeth start to chatter as the cold seeps into me, taking any of the warmth I had.

“I found you when you were walking,” Kieran says as he takes several steps with me. “I will find you again.”

“Okay,” I whisper.

I stop and stand in front of him, not caring that other Fae watching us. I crane my head back, trying to get a good look at Kieran. He bends down in front of me.

“I was worried about you yesterday,” he informs me. “I couldn’t find you all day.”

“I told you I was going to the store after I saw you at the market,” I mumble.

“I know, but I was worried about you. I was hoping you hadn’t gone since the snow was coming. I was hoping you would postpone it until later and be safer,” he says honestly as he looks into my eyes.

I shake my head. “I always knew I was going, I had to. There was no other time. The longer I waited, the more snow was going to fall.”

He sighs. “I know but I was hopeful. Now, go walk home so you don’t get sick. When you get home, drink something warm and stand next to the fire to warm up. Understand?”

“I will, I promise.”

Kieran kisses me on the forehead before standing to his full height and taking several steps back.

“Everett is going to follow you from a distance until you get to the edge of the forest to make sure you get home safely. I’ll be watching, but I’m needed at the roll call,” Kieran explains. “Be good.”

I give him one last smile before turning and making my way home. My body shakes the more I walk.

“You need better clothes,” Everett tells me.

“T-thought you were just following m-me,” I stutter.

“I am, but Kieran didn’t say anything about not talking,” he points out.

I stay silent. I know I need better winter clothes but I wanted all the new clothes to go to the market so people could buy them.

“You need better clothes,” he reiterates. “Ones that will keep you warm in weather like this,” Everett says. “You could have died last night.”

“I know,” I finally respond. “I know I could have died, but I didn’t.”

I don’t want to think about what happened last night and how bad it actually was. If it weren’t for Kieran, I would have died, and my parents would have been devastated.

“This is as far as I can go.” Everett stops.

“Thank you,” I mumble, stepping out onto the snow-covered cobblestone road and not waiting for him to reply.

My pants are soaked as I make the last of the journey to my parents’ house. My arms are still tightly wrapped around my body. The door opens before I can take my hand out to knock, and my worried mother comes into view.

“Come in.” She ushers me out of the cold. “Put the bag on the table and get by the fire.”

I do as she says, not fully seeing everything around me. I know I’m not close to hypothermia and dying, but I don’t feel right. Something is off inside of me, and I don’t know what. I feel lost, in a daze, and not fully conscious.

Could it be from nearly dying, or is it from spending the night with Kieran?

“Come on.” My mother pushes me toward the fire. “Sit on the chair and warm up. I’ll get you something hot to drink.”

I sit in silence, staring at the fire dance in front of me like I did with Kieran. Something changed last night but I don’t know what changed.

It’s almost like spending time with him last night slid something into place, something that should have been in place long before last night.

I brush off the feeling and focus on what’s in front of me. I’m here with my mother, something I didn’t think would happen last night before Kieran rescued me. Sighing, I close my eyes for a couple of seconds.

Everything reminds me of Kieran. Will I ever stop thinking about him?

“Are you okay, Adeline?” Mother asks, handing me a cup of broth. “Slowly drink that to warm your insides. I want to see all of it gone. No arguments.”

She will get no arguments from me. I haven’t eaten or drunk anything since I left the house yesterday to head to Hellhollow. My stomach gurgles, begging me to chug the broth down, but I do as my mother tells me, not wanting to get a scolding.

I can still feel some of the effects from last night. I have an internal chill that I can’t seem to shake as I sit in front of the fire. I felt it a little when I was with Kieran, but I thought it was just being close to him. Now I know it wasn’t, it’s from almost dying.

“Did you set out early this morning?” Mother asks as she sits down next to me. “Did you walk all night in the cold?”

I open and close my mouth several times, trying to figure out what to say. I can’t tell her about Kieran and his friends saving me. She wouldn’t understand and may tell me to show the guards who helped me, and I don’t want to get them punished.

I’m not going to do it.

“I walked for most of the night,” I softly reply, taking a sip of the broth.

The heat slides down my throat, and it settles in my stomach, warming me slightly.

“I did stop and build a fire with some small twigs that hadn’t been touched by the snow yet.

I warmed a little before I started the journey again. ”

I feel guilty lying to her, but it’s necessary.

I have a connection with Kieran that no one would understand, and I don’t want to put it at risk.

We haven’t been able to explore what it is, and if anyone finds out, it will be all over.

I have so many more questions for Kieran that only he can answer.

Shock fills her face as she looks at me. “You know how to build a fire?”

I give her a small smile. “I’ve watched you make one every single day,” I honestly reply. “I figured I knew how to do it, and I had to try. If I didn’t get in front of that fire, I wouldn’t have survived.”

And that is the truth. If Kieran hadn’t brought me back to his tent and put me in front of that fire, I would have frozen to death. I probably wouldn’t have succumbed to hypothermia with only his body heat warming me up, but the fire with his body did wonders in warming me up slowly.

He saved me.

I owe him my life.

“I know I don’t like building the fire here, but I can do it if I need to. I’ve practiced once or twice before when you weren’t around to see if I could actually do it. Just in case you might not be able to when you have the baby,” I point out, trying to make her believe my lie.

Now I’m going to have to go out one day when I grab ice and see if I can truly make a fire. I don’t want her to ask me to do it and not be able to. She would look at me so weirdly and I don’t need her asking questions.

“I should never have let you go yesterday,” Mother whispers. “I’m sorry.”

I stare at her in shock, not knowing how to reply.

I do this every single year, and she has never said anything like this before.

What’s changed? Is it because she knows if I die, she wouldn’t have anyone to help her with the baby and things around the house when Father is gone?

I don’t want to think ill of her, but the only thing that has changed is her being pregnant.

It has to be that.

“Did you really walk all night and only stop once?” There’s skepticism in her voice.

I nod. “I knew I had to power on to get back to you. I didn’t want you to worry if I stayed overnight in Hellhollow, so I started my journey. I kept at an even pace so I didn’t overexert myself. You need me here.”

If only she knew what actually happened last night. How close I was to actually dying and not returning home. What would she have done then? Would she have sent someone or gone to look herself for me?

“I’m grateful you made it home, I really am.” Mother squeezes my arm. “I was getting really worried and almost called your sister to help me find you.”

And that’s what I didn’t want. I don’t want Avira coming to find me and give me a scolding about making mother worry. I can’t just say it was mother's idea for me to go every single year after the market to the next town over to buy things. It would make her look bad and give me another lecture.

“I’m fine, really. I’m here and alive.” I take the last sip of the broth.

My back straightens as I feel his eyes on me, and I search through the window, trying to find out where he is. My eyes scan the crowd in front of us, but I can’t make anyone out, especially not his eyes.

“Today, you’re going to stay by the fire and take it easy. You can sort through the spices or fabric, but you aren’t going to do anything else,” my mother declares. “Understand?”

“Yes,” I reply, still trying to find his eyes once again.

But before I can, the feeling goes away, and my whole body sags in the chair. I need to see him again. Something inside of me is begging me to find him right now and stay near him.

“Good. If I find out you don’t, there will be consequences,” she says, and I snort.

Yeah. Consequences. I roll my eyes and look back at the fire, thinking about the night I spent with Kieran.