Page 161 of Kingdom of Death and Hope

Tears blur my vision and I push my face into his chest, taking in his scent.

“The doctor is here to look at your thigh,” Kieran says as he puts me down on the ground.

“Hello, Adeline. I’m Hayden, one of the many doctors of the Fae. I heard you have a nasty cut on your thigh that is giving you problems. Can I take a look at it?” he asks.

Nodding, I pull my dress up so they can see the bandage. “My mother didn’t want my dress to rub up against it and make it worse.”

“That is very smart of her to do. I have brought a new one to wrap it up with after I take a look at it. Do you want me to take off the bandage or do you want to do it?” He looks up at me, a small smile on his face.

“You.” I gulp. “I can’t look at it.”

“You let me know if it hurts at all,” the doctor tells me. “I will be as gentle as possible.”

I grab Kieran’s hand, squeezing it tightly as the doctor starts taking it off. I look at our conjoined hands, giving all my attention to it.

The healer hums.

“Is it okay?” I ask. “Am I going to lose my leg?”

“You won’t lose your leg, but if we don’t get this under control it may eventually lead to it,” the doctor discloses. “I want you to take extremely good care of it from now on. Clean it twice a day and make sure that you are not walking too much on your leg.”

“Okay,” I whisper.

“You are going to be just fine though. We are going to get you all healed up and brand new, like it never happened.” The doctor gently pats my leg.

“Can you do something similar to my memories as well?” I joke. “Heal it and make all the bad memories go away?”

Tears pool in my eyes and I quickly close them. I just couldn’t keep my mouth shut.

“I’m okay,” I quickly say but my voice is full, a key indicator that I’m about to lose it all and break down.

“Oh, Sweets,” Kieran says gently, wrapping his arms around my upper body. “Everything is going to be okay.”

I bury my face into his chest and grip onto his shirt.

“Sadly I don’t have anything for the memories, but soon they will be distant and you won’t think about them. You are so strong for what you went through,” the doctor says. “And I’m sorry for saying that it would be brand new like it never happened. I shouldn’t have said something like that with what you went through.”

“It’s okay,” I mumble into Kieran’s shirt.

Silence fills around us as the doctor starts to clean my cut. Kieran continues to whisper sweet nothings into my ear every time I wince from the pain.

“All done with the cleaning,” Hayden announces. “It’s looking a lot better than before.”

I turn my head to look at it, but Kieran keeps my head in place.

“Don’t look at it,” he whispers. “Don’t force yourself to look at it.”

Nodding, I bury my face into his shirt again.

“It won’t be full proof, but Kieran is going to put some of his saliva in this bowl with some of the other herbs and salve and we are going to put it back on your cut to help it heal,” the doctor explains.

Right. I completely forgot that somehow Kieran can heal me. I pull away from him and look at the doctor.

Disgust shows on my face. No matter how many times they mention mates can heal each other with their saliva, it will always gross me out.

The doctor chuckles. “Everyone thinks it’s a little weird, but it works and we are going to do it.”

“How did you guys even find out it’s a thing?” I can’t help but ask.