Chapter 29
“Before I get started, do you want to sit up so we can face each other or do you want me to continue to hold you?” he asks. “Blink once for yes and two for no. Or move your eyes once for yes and two for no.”
I chuckle and all I want to do is cup his face and tell him how cute he is right now. Does he realize that what he said makes no sense? How am I supposed to say yes or no to a question that I need to pick one or the other?
“Why are you laughing?” he asks and then his eyes go wide. “Shit. Once for the first option and two for the second option. I don’t want you to talk too much and hurt yourself. Maybe I should get the doctor first so he can look over you.”
“Kieran.” I say his name gently.
“Shhh, lets get the doctor first. I’m not trying to get out of telling you but I want to make sure that you are okay before we do anything. I need to make sure you are okay.” He looks into my eyes. “Alaric!”
“Yes, High Lord?” Alaric replies as he walks into the room. “Oh, she opened her eyes.”
“Can you check over her to make sure she is alright?” Kieran asks.
“Right away. Can you please lay her back down and I’ll look her over,” Alaric says.
Kieran puts me down and Alaric starts looking over everything.
“Are you feeling alright?” he asks and then looks at Kieran. “Can she talk? How have you been communicating?”
“Tired,” I mumble weakly before Kieran can say anything.
Alaric’s head snaps in my direction, eyes huge. “Oh, I didn’t know you were talking. That will make things easier.”
“She goes into a coughing fit whenever she talks a lot,” Kieran says. “I’ve given her some water and told her not to talk much.”
“She has been out for three days and before that she wasn’t well hydrated, and as much as I’ve given her fluids through IV, her throat hasn’t gotten anything,” Alaric says. “She just needs to slowly talk again and continue to drink to soothe her muscles.”
“And there is nothing else wrong with her?” Kieran asks. “Everything is okay?”
“She is weak from getting stabbed, dying, and coming back to life. It’s going to take a while for her to regain her strength, but if she eats and gets enough rest, she should be able to regain strength fairly quickly,” Alaric explains.
“But other than that, her wound has healed from your blood but also you healing her.”
My eyes connect with Kieran’s. “You healed me?”
He nods. “Your wound was still bleeding and you had already lost a lot of blood. When I realized the curse had been broken, it was the first thing I did.”
“And I didn’t get to witness it?” I push my bottom lip out.
Kieran has talked about it so many times and I wanted to be able to witness it with my own eyes. I wanted to be part of it.
He chuckles. “Of course you would be disappointed that you weren’t able to see it. Hopefully you never get hurt again so you won’t be able to witness it.”
“Can I get a paper cut?” I ask before going into a coughing fit.
Alaric holds the glass up to my lips and I take several sips of water.
“Try not to talk as much,” he tells me again. “I know you are regaining your strength ever so slowly and Kieran is here, but you don’t want to damage any of your vocal cords.”
Kieran could just heal me if something like that happens. Not that I want to get hurt, but now I don’t have to worry as much about how I’m going to heal because the curse is broken.
“You are not going to purposefully hurt yourself so you can watch me heal you.” Kieran walks over to me and cups my face. “Do you understand? We are not going to intentionally harm ourselves, so you can be part of the process and watch me heal you. I don’t want you to get hurt again.”
“I wasn’t going to,” I mumble and close my eyes. “I never was going to do it. I just—” I stop talking and sigh.
“Everything is going to be okay,” he says. “I just needed to say that in case you were thinking it. I didn’t want you to harm yourself.”
“I promise I won’t.” I open my eyes and look at him.
“Good.” He kisses my forehead.
“I’ll have someone cook some food for you to eat,” Alaric says, interrupting our stares at each other. “If you need anything, just call me.”
My eyes go wide and Kieran looks at me with alarm.
“What’s wrong?” he asks as Alaric walks out of the room. “Tell me what’s wrong so I can make it better.”
“The curse is broken,” I whisper.
He smiles. “It is.”
“Can they hear my thoughts?”
Kieran chuckles and shakes his head. “No, they can’t. You won’t have that ability until you start to turn Fae.”
“I don’t want them to hear my thoughts,” I quickly ramble.
He cups my face again, forcing me to look into his eyes and calm down.
“When the time comes, I am going to teach you how to block them out so you won’t accidentally say something to everyone when you aren’t supposed to.
And if it happens once or twice, they aren’t going to harm you over it.
They know you are new to everything revolving around us and are going to be very gracious. ”
“And a lot of the kids haven’t ever been able to use this ability, so you may hear some of their thoughts until they master how not to broadcast them.
Don’t worry, right now everyone is going to be super patient with everyone since it’s been hundreds of years since we’ve used our magic,” Kieran explains.
“You aren’t going to be the only one going through a hard time. ”
“Okay,” I mumble. “Now can you tell me about what happened after I passed out and before?”
Kieran sighs but nods. “When you said you went to the palace to talk to the prince I had a feeling something was off. Then I felt your terror and that’s when I got several of the Fae to come with me and go to you.
Several of them knocked out guards so that we could get there fast enough, but I still didn’t get there in time. ”
“You knocked out the guards?” I ask.
“Yes, we didn’t want to kill them but we also didn’t want them to cause any trouble.
They are all getting treated and have all woken up,” Kieran says.
“You know what happened when I got to you. I held you while you were unconscious and healed you. It wasn’t until the prince and king came into the throne room that I let you go and knocked them out. ”
“Where are they?”
“They are locked up in a cell. Don’t worry, they are getting food and water once a day but they will remain locked up until I figure out what I am going to do with them.”
I open my mouth but quickly close it, afraid of how Kieran is going to answer that question.
“Tell me,” he insists.
“Wh-what are you going to do with them?” I ask.
“The king I don’t know, but Prince Archie…
I’m going to make him suffer for what he has done to the Fae but also for what he has made you go through,” Kieran replies.
“He is not going to get away with making you watch me get a whipping twice, watching your best friend die, and also making you witness all the horrible acts he has done to the Fae. Not to mention the way he looked at you and talked to you.”
I huff out air in frustration as my arm won’t move. “Grab my hand and pretend I’m squeezing it.”
Kieran chuckles and does as I say.
“I want to be there if you do anything to him. I want to see the expression on his face when he realizes who you are to me. I want to tell him all the promises I made were actually lies and I was never going to marry him,” I tell Kieran and throw myself into a coughing fit.
“Sweets, you need to stop talking as much,” Kieran gently scolds me. “You are supposed to be resting, not making it worse.”
“Please,” I manage to get out before he holds up a cup to my lips and I drink.
“Don’t worry, I already promised you would be there,” he says.
“Adeline?” Mother walks into the room holding the baby. “I heard you were finally awake and rushed over here!”
“Mom,” I whisper.
Kieran stands up and grabs the baby from my mother’s arms as she makes her way over toward me, wrapping her arms tightly around my body.
“I was so worried you were never going to wake up,” she mumbles into my ear. “Kieran kept reassuring me that you were going to but I just couldn’t wrap my head around it. Not after he told me you died and then magically came back to life.”
Mother pulls away from me and sits on the edge of the bed.
“How?” Mother asks as she searches my face.
“Oh, I can take the baby back.” Mother holds her hands out. “I didn’t mean for you to hold him.”
“It’s okay, I wanted to hold him. I can continue to hold him while we all talk. Give you a little break,” Kieran replies.
“Are you sure?” Mother looks at him hesitantly.
He nods. “I’m sure. We are family.”
Mother looks at me, her mouth hanging open. “I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to him saying that.”
A smile forms on my face as I look between both of them. I never thought they were going to meet each other in person but here they are, getting along so well like they’ve known each other for their whole lives.
“How did you come back to life?” Kieran asks. “It wasn’t me. I didn’t have the magic to do it.”
I try to think back to what it was when I remember the shadowy figure who touched my head.
“I don’t know who it was,” I whisper as I look at Kieran.
“It was a person?” He cocks his head to the side.
“A woman,” I say. “She was shadowy, like she wasn’t fully there but she touched my forehead and that’s when I woke up and looked at you before passing out again. Did I really die?”
Kieran nods. “You were dead for several minutes. I felt you take your last breath, felt your heart beat for the last time in my arms. Your body went limp and there was no bringing you back.”
Tears pool in my eyes as I remember him crying out for me and not being able to do anything. What if I had actually died and that was the end of it?
“And then all of the sudden you gasped, looked at me for a brief second, and passed out,” he continues to say as he rocks the baby.
I can’t wait for the day when he is holding our kids, rocking them to sleep while we talk. Kieran briefly smiles down at the baby before looking at me.
“That’s when I felt the curse break and knew I had to heal you, but at that moment you had already lost so much blood and I knew I had to rush you to one of the healers,” Kieran says.
“That’s when the king and prince came into the room and I let you go for a brief moment to apprehend them before I rushed back to you. ”
“And the following days after?” I ask.
“I stayed by your side. I never left because I didn’t know how you would react. The first time I had to leave was earlier today when I had to talk to everyone,” Kieran replies.
“What happened to me when you left?” I hesitantly ask.
“Your heart stopped.”