Page 8 of Kingdom of Betrayal and Unknown (Kingdom of Bellhollow #1)

H is breath is hot on my ear as he speaks, sending a rush throughout my body. I’ve never had a reaction like this before, not even with my teenage crush, and here I am, getting turned on by someone I’ve never met before.

“Such a naughty girl, Sweets,” he whispers. “My naughty girl.”

My brain turns to mush as his words penetrate my mind. Never in my life have I been called someone’s naughty girl.

An object appears in my hand. A hilt? Without thinking, I turn, holding my hand up and thrusting whatever I’m holding between us.

A dagger.

I’m holding a fucking dagger. How did that get there? I’ve never seen this in my life.

“So sexy,” he purrs, the tip of the blade touching his neck.

I shouldn’t let his words affect me so much, but a shiver runs through my body, and my eyes flutter shut for a brief second.

“My sexy girl.” His voice is smooth as I make eye contact with him once again.

His cobalt blue eyes stare into my brown ones, but I don’t dare get sucked into them. I take my time looking over his features. His jawline is sharp, his ears pointed, and his dark brown hair is long enough for me to run my hands through it, tugging if I wanted to.

Tugging as he thrusts into me.

I suck in a shallow breath and stare at him. Never in my life have I had those thoughts, yet with this random Fae, I’ve had several bizarre thoughts.

“What has your cheeks going all red, Sweets? Tell me.” His voice goes deeper.

I shake my head, keeping the dagger still. There’s no time to think those thoughts.

He’s Fae, and I’m not.

“Oh, come on, won’t you tell me, Sweets?” He smiles. “Be a good girl, my good girl, and tell me what you were thinking.”

It takes everything in me not to melt into him when he calls me his good girl.

“N-no,” I stutter out.

“No fun. We could have so much fun together, mate .” His voice drops further as he says that word.

“Just the two of us, but I don’t think you’re ready for that.

Probably for the best. Someone as powerful as I am, you’ll need patience and a slow pace.

I can do that. I’ve been waiting for you for over four hundred and fifty years.

Waiting a couple more won’t be that hard. ”

I need patience and slow pace? He’s powerful? Who is he? But those thoughts quickly fly out of my mind, completely forgetting them.

He leans into the dagger, making my eyes go wide.

I don’t fully focus on his words, my mind still on the fact that I have a dagger in my hand and not knowing how it appeared.

Did I put it in my hands? No, that can’t be possible.

I’m a human, and humans don’t have powers, but Fae don’t either.

Not since the witch took their powers away.

“St-stay back!” I raise my voice. “You can’t harm me. You don’t have your magic!”

“Don’t I?” He cocks his head to the side, the right side of his lip curling into a little smirk.

I keep the dagger between us still. I’ve never had to fight anyone off before, so I don’t know what I’m doing. Will I be able to defend myself if I need to? He could easily overpower me and show me who is really in control.

“How do you think the dagger got into your hand?” he asks.

I stare at him, not saying a word. Did he put the dagger in my hand? No, he couldn’t have. Fae don’t have magic, the witch took it away.

“No,” I whisper, shaking my head.

My arm starts shaking with the weight of the dagger in my hand, but I will myself to keep my hand up.

I need to protect myself.

The man in front of me hums. “Watch,” he breathes, but I don’t take my eyes off him. “Watch the dagger.” His voice is hard.

Everything in me knows not to look away from him, but I can’t help it with his commanding tone. I look at the dagger as it disappears from my hand. Gasping, I look at my hand, turning it around. Where did it go? I look up at the man to see it in his hand.

“H-how?” Fear courses through my body as I stare at him.

He smiles and cocks his head to the side. Taking a step back, I shake my head. Who is he? How does he have magic? I thought all Fae were stripped of their magic.

No.

The king and prince have said several times that we have nothing to worry about.

The man makes a tsking sound. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. No more steps away from me, Sweets.”

“And if I do?” I want to sound strong, but I can hear the terror in my voice.

“Hmm, I don’t know if you’re prepared for that answer.” He takes a step forward, leaning closer to me. “Are you, Sweets?”

“I’ll scream if you come any closer!” I shout. “They’ll come looking for me if you kill me.”

He chuckles. “We both know you aren’t going to scream, so why don’t you save your breath? And if I wanted to kill you, you would already be dead. Even if I was just playing with you, I could kill you before you even were able to open your mouth.”

I take another step back, my whole body shaking in absolute terror.

Danger. Danger.

He sighs. “I thought I told you not to step away from me, Sweets. Are you always going to be this naughty?”

Before I can say anything, his arms wrap around me, my back pressing against his chest. Heat radiates off him, warming my body and making me calm.

“Such a good girl. Relax into me,” he mumbles into my ear. “I’ll take care of everything.”

Take care of everything ?

“If you kill me, they’ll make your people suffer,” I barely get out.

“Some might think it’s worth it. To make humans suffer for killing a loved one. So humans feel what we’re going through.” He nips at my ear. “Some might even torture you with pain or pleasure before killing you.” He trails his tongue up the side of my ear.

Pleasure courses through my body as I suck a breath in. My panties dampen, making me squeeze my legs together. As he takes a deep breath, his body hums.

“You smell so good,” he purrs, taking another deep breath, his nose close to my neck. “Like vanilla and cinnamon.”

My mouth falls open as shock engulfs my body. He lets go of me, and I turn around, holding my hand between us so he can’t grab me again. But we both know if he wanted to, he could.

“Ju-just stay there!” I point my finger at him like it’s going to do anything.

But it makes me feel better, as if I’m doing something to keep myself safe. It counts for something… I’d like to think. He knows I mean business and am not joking around.

“I’m not going to kill you. I will never harm you.

” He looks serious, all the playfulness and pleasure gone.

“I will die before I harm you. I would chop off my arm before I could lay a malicious hand on you. You are too precious for any harm to come to you. I would put a dagger in my heart before doing anything bad to you. You are everything to me. My everything.”

I suck in a breath as he confesses those words. I’m his everything? What does he mean by that? We don’t even know each other and yet he’s confessing things like this.

“You are like the stars when sailors follow them to find their way home. One look at you and I know I’m home, where I’m meant to be.

Right next to you. Always next to you. You are my lifeline,” he whispers, a faint smile flittering across his face before he stands tall, towering over me.

“So I will never hurt you. Why would someone hurt their home? Their lifeline?”

“How do I know you’re telling the truth?

” I ask, pushing everything else he said to the back of my mind.

I can’t focus on his sweet words right now.

Even if they make me feel like the only thing in the world, the only thing he can see, or the way my heart flutters with every word.

I can think about them later, when I’m alone and won’t be bothered. “You’ve already threatened me!”

“I did not.”

“You totally did!”

“No.”

I scoff and shake my head. Are we really arguing? I don’t know this man, and we are arguing like we’ve known each other for our whole lives. It annoys me so much that he doesn’t think he threatened me when he clearly did.

“What’s your name?” I ask, taking another step back as I try to get further away from him.Put as much distance between us in case I need to get away quickly.

Maybe I can get his name and tell one of the guards about it. But I quickly shut down the thought of telling the guards. If I talk to them, I might bring attention to myself, and I don’t want that.

I groan as I’m stuck in this predicament. But even if I didn’t have the eyes of the prince on me, I still wouldn’t go to them. I would feel extremely guilty if anything happened to the Fae.

His eyes narrow on me, and I still. One wrong move and he could snap my neck before I could say anything. But part of me believes him when he says he isn’t going to hurt me.

We have a connection; one I can’t explain.

And that scares me.

I’ve never felt a connection like this before. It almost rubs deep inside me, like it’s been lying dormant for my whole life, waiting to wake up and click into place.

“Kieran,” he finally answers, approaching me.

“Kieran what?” I push, wanting to know his full name.

“You don’t get to know that… yet. What’s your name, Sweets?” he asks. “Unless you want me to call you Sweets for the rest of your life. Maybe even if I know your name, I’ll still call you Sweets some of the time. It suits you.”

“Just some?” I cock my head to the left.

“Yes, just some. At first, I thought you were this sweet little thing, but you are feisty,” He growls. “I like that. I may have to come up with another name for when you’re being sassy.”

I roll my eyes.

“Now, name?”

“Adeline, but a lot of people call me Addie,” I ramble before I can stop myself. Why did I just tell him that?

I close my eyes for a couple of seconds and take a deep breath. It just fell out of me. I want to tell him everything. I want to get close to him and know everything about him.

But that’s wrong.

He’s Fae. A very handsome Fae at that. One I wouldn’t mind climbing like a tree and having my way with.

Stop.