Page 92 of Kingdom of Death and Hope

Mother lets go of my arm. “I’m going to go check on baby James.”

I turn to Kieran and rest my head on his chest, taking in a deep breath and slowly letting it out.

“Are you okay?” he asks.

“I’m tired,” I mumble.

Kieran picks me up and holds me in his arms. “Then let’s get you back in bed.”

CHAPTER 32

“Have you gotten any closer to finding where Avira is?” I ask, anxiety rolling through me like harsh waves hitting the beach.

Kieran looks up from his paperwork and shakes his head. “She is hiding out somewhere. But we are trying to figure out how to kill her when we do find her.”

What?

My eyebrows bunch together. “It’s not as simple as putting a dagger in her heart?” I tilt my head to the side.

“No, it’s not. My father said there was a certain way to kill her, but he never told me what it was or how.” Kieran sighs and looks up at the ceiling. “We have a way to confine her to one of the cells if we do find her, but there is still the problem of how to get rid of her. She is going to be a problem for the rest of our lives if she stays alive.”

“But she doesn’t remember a lot of her spells without the book,” I point out. “She told me that she doesn’t remember most of them.”

Which is still weird to this day. How old is she and she doesn’t remember her spells?

“She wasn’t the brightest between her sister and her. She slacked off and wrote everything down while her sister memorized them,” Kieran explains. “The book has been locked away in the palace and there is no way for her to find it or even be able to get to it.”

I relax in my chair with those words.

“Do any of the Fae know how to kill her?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “None of them know. Back when my parents were ruling they didn’t want the knowledge to get out and someone kill the witches and start a war. So only a handful of people knew and they are all dead now.”

“Maybe your father wrote it down somewhere. A special object?” I try and think of anything.

“There’s something bothering me about this. Like I should know the answer to this,” I mumble to myself. “It’s almost like I know the answer but I can’t remember.”

“Sweets, you probably don’t know the answer to it and it’s okay. You’ve helped out so much already,” Kieran says.

“But I feel like someone told me,” I reply, frustrated. “I just don’t know why I can’t remember anything.”

Everything is a haze right now. Things that I think are real aren’t and I’m missing parts of my memory.

“I think the lady told me,” I say. “She said something to me but I just can’t recall what it was. It’s almost like it’s been suppressed for a reason.”

“Adeline.” Kieran cups my face. “It’s okay. You don’t have to remember. Everything is going to work out on its own eventually. We are going to figure this out.”

“But I feel like I should know.”

“Look me in the eyes,” Kieran commands.

We lock eyes.

“You don’t have to know everything right away. You don’t have to put so much pressure on yourself to figure things out on your own. There are a lot of us looking for the answers and we will find them soon. I just need you to know that you aren’t alone in this any longer and we can work as a team,” Kieran says as he runs his thumb across my cheek. “Do you understand?”

“Yes,” I mumble. “Could he have written it down somewhere and hidden it?” I ask, bringing it up again.

“I’ve been looking through the palace but they got rid of almost all of my father’s things when they took over,” Kieran explains. “They didn’t want any trace of anything to prove that they were wrong.”