Page 129 of Kingdom of Death and Hope

“I was just at her house and her mother told me she has been at the palace for the last week and a half. But I don’t recall her moving into the castle. Then I got an anonymous letter saying she has been in the dungeon the whole time. Care to explain why I would get something like that?” Prince Archie asks. “Care to explain why my future bride is in this cell, battered and bruised?”

Tears run down my face as Prince Archie and I make eye contact. I never thought I would be so close to see him.

“Unlock this gate right now,” Prince Archie demands. “Don’t worry, Adeline. I’m going to get you out of here.”

Kieran, I’m coming home, I whisper, hoping he can hear me.

Avira glares at me while she opens the door and Prince Archie rushes to me. The magic around me leaves and I twitch my finger.

“I’m going to pick you up and take you to our wing of the palace and call the royal doctor,” Prince Archie tells me.

“I just want to go home,” I whisper, letting the tears continue to run down my face.

“You aren’t going home.”

My eyebrows bunch together in pain as I push myself to sit up straighter.

“Prince Archie, I need to go home. I will heal there with my mother taking care of me. I will feel the most comfortable there,” I try to reason with him.

“I don’t like that. You are going to stay here in the palace and heal,” he declares.

I bite my lower lip and grab onto his hand. “Please, Prince Archie. I have missed my mother and younger brother terribly. I just want to go home and be with them. I want my mother’s food.”

He peers down at our hands and lets out a sigh. “Okay, I will help you there.”

Shaking my head, I run my upper teeth against my lower lip. “I do not wish for bad rumors to spread about you if you take me back home. People will wonder if you did this to me and I would hate for that to happen. Let me go by myself and if people ask then I can say I was walking and got mugged.”

“Prince Archie, you cannot be cons—” Avira starts.

The prince holds his hands up, not looking back at Avira. “What Adeline says is very true. Even if I told them what happened, they would always second guess if I was telling them the truth.”

Yes. Continue to think this way and just let me go home by myself.

“Do you want me to send the royal doctor with you so he can check you over at your house?” Prince Archie asks.

I shake my head. “I don’t think that would be wise either. Everyone knows what the royal doctor looks like,” I lie.

But he sure would stick out like a sore thumb if he came into our town. Everyone would know he came from the palace, and if he was seen with me the rumors would spread.

“No one from the palace can come with me. I don’t want you or your father to get a bad name if people start talking about you guys doing this to me. It’s better if I go alone so that I can control what comes out and lead them toward me getting mugged instead,” I explain, my ribs aching with how much I’m talking.

He looks up and down my body. “Will you be able to walk back to your house?”

With enough grit and breaks.

“Yes,” I whisper. “You can even have one of your guards in the town keep an eye on me from a distance and watch me go into my house.”

He hums. “I like that idea. They will come and report to me after they see you enter your house. Do not go anywhere else.”

“Prince Archie.” Avira steps into the cell.

“You and I will be talking to my father about this.” He stands up and looks at her over his shoulder. “Let me help you up and guide you out of the palace.”

Every muscle in my body screams at me as Prince Archie grabs under my arms and slowly lifts me up. Heaving, I close my eyes tightly, trying to fight off the swimming vision threatening to send me to the ground.

How am I going to make it to the house in this condition?

“P-Prince Archie,” I hesitantly say as I look over at him.