Page 90 of Enchanted Kingdom
CHAPTER27
Iwoke to voices; they were hushed but both deep voices, a third joining in shortly after. Then I thought I also heard Renna, but that couldn’t be. Why would she be in my room? She hadn’t even known I had been with the king.
Then the darkness was pulling me back under, my eyelids too heavy to bother lifting for a peek of whoever it was.
When I woke the next time, there was again a voice. A beautiful voice. There was a cadence and rhythm to this voice that I could get lost in forever.
“They were trained to hate one another, but in that moment, he knew it needn’t be so. Mortal enemies were not inherited, they were decided upon for each person within a mixture of deeds and intent.”
I laid still listening to Keir reading to me, realizing that I had never paid attention to his voice alone.
“So the warrior realized he and the beast were not at war with one another but were instead at war with their fathers’ decisions, forever carrying the burden of generations of poor choices upon their shoulders. He and the beast were not so different. They were one and the same.”
Keir sounded so into the story, I had to open my eyes to see his face. Whatever he was reading, I could tell he revered it.
He noticed I was awake right away.
“Jorah.”
There was movement in the room and then there were three male faces in front of me, two princes, and one stubborn guard.
“Hi.”
“How do you feel?” Keir asked.
I thought about it for a moment. “Thirsty.” I moved to sit up a little and added, “But oddly rested?”
Owen snorted. “You just slept for twenty-four hours straight, so I’d hope so.”
“What?!”I looked toward a window, just to realize I was not even in my own room. “And where am I?”
Keir took my hand and gave it a squeeze. “You’re in my room, Jorah. Krew brought you here when you passed out.”
If I thought my room was large, Keir’s room was a monster. His bed sat on one wall. And there was an entire sitting area with multiple couches, a large bookshelf, and a fireplace. There was another room around the corner that I could see through the fireplace that was also a part of Keir’s room. Perhaps rooms, plural, was a more accurate way to say it. This was at least three or four of my already behemoth room. There was a soft looking navy couch that I wanted to feel and see what kind of material it was, and I was itching to see the view out the windows, but I was just taken in with how much open space there was and how tall the vaulted ceilings were.
“What happened?” I asked groggily.
All of a sudden Silvia was also there, handing me some headache tablets and a water glass.
They were all quiet a moment, but it was Prince Krewan who finally spoke up. “He didn’t poison you, he was trying to knock you out. And he must have anticipated you not drinking whatever he gave you, because it was very powerful. Powerful enough to knock you out like that just by inhaling it.”
Keir shook his head. “What an asshole.”
Prince Krewan smacked him on the back of the head. “Language. Come on.”
So Prince Krewan didn’t like cursing, but murdered on a whim? What kind of messed up moral compass was he working with?
“We think he wanted to get your blood to use in his laboratory,” Owen stated. “That would explain why he only wanted to knock you out. But for long enough to run a few tests on you.”
I yawned. “Okay. And did he get my blood?”
Keir shook his head. “No, he did not.”
I stole a glance at Prince Krewan and wasn’t sure if I believed that or not. I had to take a moment to think on all they’d just told me. “Wait. If a full day has passed, didn’t I miss an evening dinner?”
Owen nodded. “Almost two.”
“I told everyone you fell ill, not to worry,” Keir said with a squeeze to my hand.
