Page 17 of Kingdom of Betrayal and Unknown

“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.