Page 60 of Kingdom of Betrayal and Unknown

My left hand shakes as I stand from the chair and make my way toward the prince. Everything in me wants to hide the evidence of what happened, but I am not going to. He knows what happened, but people in my town don’t.

“Did Hilga treat you well?” Prince Archie asks as we walk out of the room.

“Great,” I whisper.

“What was that?” he asks.

“She was great. Taught me really well.” I try to hold it together as we walk through the palace.

I never want to return here. I never want to take another lesson from her. What am I going to tell my mom? What if it hinders some of the work I have to do? This isn’t good, and the prince thinks it’s perfectly fine.

“Good. I will talk to you later. This guard will take you to the front gates of the palace, and then you are free to go.” Prince Archie stops in front of a guard.

I bow before standing fully and smiling. “Thank you, Prince Archie.”

He leaves, and it’s just me and the guard. I take a deep breath and look at the guard, waiting for him to move. If I were alone, I would get lost and never find my way out of this place.

“Follow me.” His gruff voice fills the empty hallway.

I follow him, turning every once in a while.

“Going through lessons with Hilga?” the guard asks, catching me off guard.

I look around to see if anyone else is around, like the prince.

“You’re safe.” The guard chuckles.

“Yes,” I gently reply.

“Everyone here goes through them and ends up like that on the first day. Don’t punish yourself too much for it.” He looks back at me briefly.

I want to ask his name, but I don’t want to get to know him. I need to be careful. He says I’m safe, but he could report everything to the king and I’m not going to take the risk.

“We’re here. Someone will be here next week to pick you up and take you to the room,” he says. “Good luck.”

I don’t even say goodbye as I make my way through the gate and head back home. Before I know it, I’m standing in the entrance as my mother looks at me.

“Adeline!” she yells. “What happened to your hand?”

I stand at the entrance, not knowing what to do or say. I look down at my red, swollen hand.

“Adeline.” Mother holds her hand out to grab mine.

Moving it to my chest, I cradle it so she doesn’t touch it. The pain has finally started to go away, and I don’t want to make it worse.

“What happened?” Mother gently asks. “Come sit, and I’ll get something to help with the pain and swelling.”

She carefully guides me to the chair, and I sit, letting out a breath and relaxing slightly. I never want to go back to the palace. I never want to see Hilga again. If she died tonight, I would rejoice.

She is an evil woman, and I want nothing to do with her.

“I’m going to carefully apply this to help.” Mother lowers in front of me. “It’s going to hurt a little bit, but it will help in the long run, and you need that.”

I do.

“Bite on this if it hurts too much.” She hands me a leather strip.

The same leather strip I bit on as a kid when I hurt myself and my parents needed to clean or bandage it.