Page 45 of Kingdom of Betrayal and Unknown (Kingdom of Bellhollow #1)

“ M other.” I walk into the kitchen the following day.

There she is, sitting at the kitchen table, working on a jacket.

“Mother?” I call out once again, but she doesn’t move.

What’s wrong with her? Why is she just sitting there and doing nothing?

“Are you all right?” I walk further into the kitchen, hesitantly stepping toward her, but she doesn’t acknowledge me. “Hello? Are you there?”

Walking around the table, I stop on the other side of her and gasp as I look at her. Mother’s face is paper white as she stares at the jacket she is working on.

“Mother?” I look at her in worry. “Are you all right?”

Her head cocks to the side as she looks at me, her eyes dead looking and void of any sort of recognition. “They are looking for you. They want you dead, child.”

My eyebrows pull together as I listen to her words. “What are you talking about? Who is after me? Who wants me dead?” I ask, taking a step back.

“You know who, High Lady. Beware. Watch your back at every turn,” she whispers.

My eyes follow her hands as she picks up the scissors off the table.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

Before I can say or do anything, her hand flies up with the scissors and she stabs herself in the neck, blood gushing everywhere.

I sit up screaming, heart racing as I stare at the wall in front of me.

My eyes search my room, trying to find Mother, but she’s nowhere to be seen.

After pushing the covers back, I stand on my shaky legs and walk out of my room and toward my mother’s.

I suck in a breath as I lean against the wall, trying to calm myself.

Get to Mother, my mind screams at me.

I push forward, forcing myself to walk to my mother’s room. There she is, lying on her bed, sound asleep. Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath and lean up against the wall. She’s all right. There is no blood anywhere. It was just a horrible nightmare.

But I can’t get the horrible images out of my head. I can’t get the sight of my own mother taking the scissors and jamming them into her neck. Why would she do something like that?

“It was just a dream,” I whisper to myself. “Just a nightmare.”

Pushing off against the wall, I head straight toward the kitchen and grab my jacket before heading outside. Mother is fast asleep, and there is no way she is waking up, so leaving in the middle of the night to go walk isn’t going to matter much.

I stuff my hands in my pockets, trying to keep warm, and grab hold of my pocketknife.

Nighttime is more dangerous than daytime.

The lighting is non-existent, and men love to hang around the middle of town, looking for anyone to mess around with but I need to get out of the house.

Somehow, I need to get the image of what my mother did in my nightmare out of my head so I can fall back asleep.

I stay close to the buildings as I make my way through the town and toward the forest, not wanting to gain any unwanted attention. My shoulders relax a little as I walk into the forest, but I can’t help but start to shake as everything comes crashing down on me.

“It’s not good to be out here alone.” Kieran’s voice flows through the forest, but I don’t react.

I need to keep walking around to get my attention off everything. I need to forget, or I’m going to go crazy.

“Sweets.” Kieran’s voice is calm. “What are you doing? Are you okay?”

I bring my hands out of my pocket and take a shaky deep breath in, trying to calm myself, but after almost an hour, my body is still sweaty and shaky like I just woke up from a nightmare.

Am I ever going to get the image out of my head? Am I ever going to get past this and be able to look at my mother the same way?

“Sweets, what’s wrong?” Kieran cups my face. “Why are you so sweaty and shaking? I felt your panic a couple of minutes ago and rushed to the forest. Is everything all right? Why are you not answering me?”

I open and close my mouth several times. Am I okay? Physically, I am, but mentally, I don’t think I am. What kind of nightmare was that? I’ve never had anything like that before in my life. Why now?

“Sweets, talk to me. Are you all right?” Kieran asks again.

“I don’t know,” I whisper, tears pooling in my eyes.

Panic is all I see in Kieran’s eyes as we look at each other. I don’t feel all right.

“What happened, Adeline?” Kieran continues to cup my face.

The warmth of his hands seeps into my skin, making me feel less numb and out of place. It’s bringing me back to him and not letting the nightmare continue to run through my mind, pulling me into it every chance it gets.

“Nightmare.” I close my eyes, letting the tears slide down my face.

“I’m going to look,” is all he says, and I don’t argue.

I wouldn’t be able to tell him what the nightmare was about. I don’t want to think about it anymore.

“Oh, Sweets.” He pulls me into his embrace. “I’ve got you.”

I grip his shirt, holding it tight as he holds me against him.

“Why?” I whisper. “Why me, and why that?”

I’ve never had anything like it before, so why now?

“I don’t know, Sweets, but we’re going to figure everything out. You might be worried since you lost your father, that you are going to lose your mother,” he tries to explain.

“Then why was she telling me people were after me, and why did she call me High Lady?” I ask, pulling away so I can look up at Kieran. “She doesn’t know what that is.”

I don’t even really know what it is either.

“People are not after you… yet. Once they know who you are and who your mate is, there will be a couple of people who won’t like you being in the High Lady position,” Kieran says.

“High Lady. I’ve heard you being called High Lord, but what is a High Lady, and why is it in my nightmare?” I take a step back and wrap my arms around myself.

I want to be back in his embrace, feeling his warm and muscular arms wrap around me, but I need to know. I need to know why I’m getting called this and what I’m going to do about it.

“I am the High Lord of the Fae, which means I rule over them. The king is what it’s equivalent to,” Kieran starts to explain. “You are my mate, which means you are the queen over them, their High Lady.”

“Say that again?” I look at him with wide eyes, not expecting him to say that.

I should have guessed it was going to be something like that, but I didn’t. Maybe deep down, I knew and didn’t want to believe it. I never thought I would be someone in power, someone important.

And yet here I am.

The Prince of Bellhollow has taken an interest in me and wants me to get married to him, and I’m mates with the High Lord of the Fae.

“I rule over the Fae, and you are my mate, which makes you a ruler over the Fae as well,” Kieran simply says. “You are to stand beside me and help me rule them.”

“But—”

“I know we are enslaved right now, but there still needs to be law and order. I know you are human and can’t be around my people—your people—much, but they still look at you when they see you. They look for you when they are working to see if they can get a glimpse of their High Lady.”

“That’s why they’ve been glancing over at me more often?” I ask.

Kieran nods. “After I was whipped, I needed to explain who you were to them. I couldn’t keep it a secret any longer, and I shouldn’t have to begin with. I should have been honest with them from the very beginning, but I was unsure whether you were going to accept me or not.”

“Why should you have told them sooner?” I look at him, confused.

“So, in case anything happened to me, they would know who to turn to. I know you don’t know much about Fae, and you didn’t believe me back then, but I had faith that you would one day. I knew you would,” he gently says. “Now, come here. I want to hold you a little bit longer.”

Sighing, I gladly take a step closer to him and wrap my arms around his torso. I melt into his embrace as he holds me with his strong arms.

“Why do you think I had that nightmare? Why do you think she said that?” I ask after a couple of seconds. My mind can’t shut down. “Do you think it was some kind of warning?”

He holds me tighter. “I don’t know, Sweets, but we aren’t going to dwell on it too much. We will be cautious from now on, but we aren’t going to let it dictate our lives. We knew we were going to have to be careful, but we are going to continue with our lives.”

My shoulders relax, though I still have this feeling that we should be paying attention. My mother would never say something like that, and I have to take it as a warning of some kind. First, I’m going to enjoy this, being in Kieran’s embrace and not having to worry about anything.

“I’m sorry for scaring you earlier,” I mumble. “Is there a way to block out you feeling my emotions?”

“There is, but I don’t want you to learn it. I want to be able to feel your emotions, even if they scare me at times with how intense they are,” Kieran explains.

“But what if one of us is in a dangerous situation and needs to block the other out to focus? I don’t want to block out my emotions either but I need to know how in case of a situation like that.”

“Then you think of placing a wall between us in your mind, and it should work. I don’t want you to do that unless it is absolutely necessary, do you understand?” Kieran pulls away a little so I can see his face.

“I understand and I won’t unless it’s absolutely necessary,” I reply, repeating his words.

Hopefully, it never comes to that for either one of us. Hopefully, soon the curse will be broken, the prince will be dead, and we can live our lives.

Kieran pulls me back into his embrace, placing his hand on the base of my neck to hold me. I close my eyes and take several deep breaths, enjoying our time.

“I wish this could be different,” I mumble.

“Me too?—”

“Hey!” a man yells. “What are you doing?”

My whole body stiffens as I try to pull away from Kieran, but he holds me close to him, hiding my face from the man.

“I’m talking to you!” the man continues to shout, his voice getting closer.

“Kieran, let me go,” I plead with him.

This situation is dire. We were never supposed to get caught. This was never supposed to happen. Why is it happening to us now after so many meetings? Zahra’s warning echoed in my head, but we are meeting at a different time than the regular one. Is that what caught the man’s attention?

“I’m just comforting her.” Kieran’s calm voice fills the forest. “We know each other.”

“Let me go,” I whisper, trying to push against his chest, but Kieran doesn’t budge an inch.

“Stay still.” Kieran hisses at me. “Keep your face hidden.”

“More like you are going to eat her!” His voice is angry. “Let her go, and I won’t report you to the prince. Let her go, and nothing will happen to either of you.”

No.

He can’t be reported to the prince, not when he’s already been whipped because of him. I don’t want Kieran to die. I try to wiggle free from his embrace, but Kieran holds me tightly against him, even though it doesn’t help with the panic seeping into my body. This is all going wrong.

“I will do no such thing and neither will you.” Kieran sounds confident and worry floods through me. “Nothing is going on here.”

“Then I guess we will have to deal with it here,” the man replies. “Come over here so I can kill you.”

Kieran pulls away from me, cupping my face. “You stay right here, and no matter what happens, don’t do anything to interfere. I want you out of harm’s way.”

I open my mouth to argue with Kieran, but he gives me a pointed look before standing to his full height and striding toward the man. Gasping as I take the man in, I realize it’s the town drunk, Marvin. What is he doing in the woods in the middle of the night?

Marvin opens his mouth, getting ready to say something, when Kieran’s hands wrap around his head, snapping his neck. Marvin’s lifeless body hits the forest ground, and I stare at it in shock.

What… what just happened?