Bonus #1
KIERAN
“Iwant to go get some of the lemon candy.” Adeline tugs on my sleeve. “Please can we go out now? They are all going to be sold out if we don’t leave now.”
I cup her cheeks and bend down so our faces are mere inches away from each other. “You do know she always puts a bag aside for you, right?”
“I’ve told her many times not to and maybe she finally listened to me. You never know.” She pushes her bottom lip out.
I shake my head. “She is never going to listen to you on this matter. She knows how much you love them and is always going to set them aside for you. Trust me. Be thankful she is even allowing you to pay for them.”
“Do you know how long it took me to get her to accept money from me?” she grumbles under her breath. “I’m not going to stop trying.”
“Sweets,” I say. “Pick your battles. She is allowing you to pay for the candy. Don’t force her to do something else she doesn’t want to do.”
“Okay,” she mumbles.
I let go of her face and grab her hand. “Let’s go get your bag of candy.”
We walk in silence out of the palace.
Things have settled down in Bellhollow. Everyone is starting to thrive and get along with each other.
Adeline has stopped having nightmares about killing Avira, thankfully. We buried Avira’s body at the edge of the land where no one can find her.
“Can we also stop by my mother’s shop?” she asks. “Maybe I can see if she needs any help washing the clothes or sewing.”
I chuckle. “Are you that bored?”
“Not really,” she says quietly. “Okay, maybe a little. I went from not really having the time to just breathe, to all of the sudden having all of this free time and I don’t know what to do.”
I turn to Sweets. “I don’t want you to overwork yourself.”
“I’m not going to but it would be nice to be able to do something,” she replies.
“What would you like to do? Do you want to try anything new?” I ask.
We start walking again and Sweets stays silent.
“What have you always wanted to do but never had the time or money to do?” I ask.
“I don’t know,” she mumbles. “I never really gave myself a chance to think about it. I didn’t want to give myself false hope of something that may never happen.”
“Think about it and when you come up with an answer, tell me. You’ll be able to do it.”
Adeline shakes her hands in front of her. “I don’t—”
“Adeline, everyone has the chance to do something that they’ve always wanted to do right now. It’s your turn to really think about what you want to do and give it a shot,” I say.
I want to be able to give her the opportunity to do something that she has always dreamed of but knew she couldn’t do while under the old king’s rule.
“Just think about it. You don’t have to give me an answer today but I want you to really think about it.
And if you have no clue, then come up with several things that you would like to try and we can do all of them.
Then you can figure out which ones you really like and which ones you don’t,” I continue.
“Your mother has decided to start making baby clothes. She told me it was something she has always wanted to do but she wasn’t able to since not a lot of people were having babies. ”
“What changed?” she whispers.
“The curse was broken. People are now finding their mates and falling in love. I have no doubt soon we are going to have a lot of babies and there won’t be enough clothes for them all.
So your mother decided that since she has always wanted to do it she was going to start now so when people have kids, she can sell them the clothes,” I explain.
Her mother had come to me several weeks ago to talk about wanting to start it but was unsure. But with some nudges from me and another Fae female who used to make baby clothes, she finally succumbed to our suggestions.
“Just think about it,” I urge her.
“Okay, I will.”
I hold my hand out and she grabs it, allowing me to lead her to Nila.
“Oh good, you are here! I was wondering if you were going to come today or not,” Nila says as she pulls out a bag from under her stall.
“We would have come sooner but Kieran wanted me to think about something,” she giggles. “I think he secretly wanted me to forget about it since it’s a bad habit of mine.”
Nila laughs and shakes her head. “He would never do that. It brings you too much happiness for him to tell you to stop. Isn’t that right, High Lord?”
“Guilty.” I smile. “I will gladly take you to get anything you want every day if it brings a smile to your face.”
“Oh, Kieran.” Adeline gently slaps my arm. “Stop.”
I grab her free hand and bring it up to my lips, planting a gentle kiss on the back of her hand. “I will never stop. I want you to be so happy. I don’t want you to ever be sad again or go through anything hard.”
“I would think hard about those words, High Lord,” Nila says, interrupting me. “Being pregnant isn’t easy and giving birth is a whole other thing.”
“I guess you don’t want kids then if you don’t want me to go through anything hard?” Sweets asks.
I shake my head and rub my thumb across the back of her hand. “Then I’ll have to think of a different way to say it because I want kids, and many of them. So many that we’ll have to hire someone to help us take care of them so we can have a break.”
“Kieran.” She slaps my arm and giggles.
“But it’s all up to you and what you want,” I say. “You are the one who is giving birth to them. So if you don’t want a lot, then we won’t.”
Her whole body melts into mine as I say those words.
“You have always had a way with words,” Nila says as she shakes her head. “But enough of that. Do you want to learn how to make candy?”
I look down at Sweets to see her looking at Nila with hesitation written all over her face.
“If you want to learn how to make candy, you can,” I tell her. “You can do anything you want.”
“I don’t know,” she mumbles.
“If you want to learn, you just let me know. But you have to promise me something,” Nila says.
“Yes?” Adeline leans forward.
“If you do want to learn, you have to promise that no matter how good you are, you will still come and get candy from me. I want to see you every day. Do you think you can do that?” Nila asks.
Adeline chuckles. “Of course. I have no doubt that it will taste better if you make it for me.”
“Well, we are going to go to the next shop. I have something I want to show Sweets,” I tell Nila. “We’ll see you tomorrow.”
They wave at each other as Adeline and I walk away from the stall.
“Where are we going?” she asks.
“A surprise,” I tell her.
“Is it in town?”
I chuckle and look down at her. “It’s a surprise, so I can’t tell you anything without giving it away.”
“But I want to know what it is.” She pushes her bottom lip out.
“And in a couple of minutes, you will. Be patient.”
Adeline squeezes my hand. “That’s never been my strong suit and you know it.”
Chuckling, I walk in the direction of a painter.
“I bought something for you,” I finally tell her.
“What?” she asks. “You didn’t have to buy me anything.”
“I wanted to.”
We stop in front of my favorite painter, Michael.
“High Lord! I was wondering when you were going to stop by with her.” Michael turns around and smiles. “Come this way. I finished it up a couple of days ago.”
Adeline’s eyebrows bunch together as I pull her into the shop.
“You bought a painting?” she asks.
I nod. “Not just any painting, but I had him paint a special one for you.”
“Kieran, you didn’t have to do that. I still have the other one,” she whispers.
“You don’t. You had it on you when you were stabbed and it got soaked with blood and ruined,” I tell her.
I didn’t think her having the painting of my eyes would mean so much to her, but I had caught her countless times looking into my eyes or thinking about them. The amount of times she accidentally broadcasted her thoughts about my eyes to me was a lot.
“Kieran” Her voice goes soft. “I have you now.”
“I know, but now whenever I’m on official business somewhere and you can’t come with me then you can look at it,” I tell her. “This painting is a little bigger than the other one. And one day we are going to come in here and sit so he can paint both of us together.”
“Why don’t we do it now?” Adeline asks.
“Because I didn’t give him a heads up,” I whisper toward her.
“I have time now if you want to get started on it. I have a really good memory so once I get the outline down and the base colors, I can finish it off later,” Michael says. “But that is only if you want to do it now.”
“I want to do it now.” Adeline smiles and jumps up and down in place.
“How could I say no to you?” I mumble before turning to Michael. “Are you sure you have time?”
He nods. “I will always have time to take any commission from you two.”
“Maybe one day you can get one of me and my mother. Or maybe one of my mother and father. Can he see memories like you can?” Adeline asks as she turns to me.
“I can,” Michael replies.
“Then I think it would be a good present for my mother. One with her and father. She doesn’t have a picture of him anywhere and I know that she would love one.”
I cup her face in my hands. “That would be lovely and I know she would appreciate it a lot.”
“I just wish he was here to see this. I know he would be happy.”
“And proud of you and everything that you have gone through,” I say.
Tears well up in her eyes and I gently wipe my thumb under her eye.
“I’ll pay for both of them now. You can look at Adeline’s memory to get a picture of her mother and father. Take your time with them, especially the one of her parents,” I tell Michael.
“Yes, High Lord.” He bows. “You two can sit here and I’ll start on the painting.”