Page 19 of King

I looked around and noticed the lights set up. It made me wonder how we were underground right now and a garden was thriving.

“What is this about?” I asked, circling my hands around at all the lights. “How can you sustain a living underground?”

“Well, it was tough at first, but since we put in these UV lights, we could live down here for months if we wanted. We get the UV we need, and all our food is cooked by a chef. Do you miss the light?”

I hated to admit it, but I didn’t. I continued looking down at the flowers to break the gorgeous gaze that had landed on me. His eyes felt like they could invade my thoughts.

“I know that one,” I said, looking over at the familiar light pink flower. “Oleander.”

“That’s right,” he said. “You like it?”

“It’s pretty, for sure, but it’s also lethal. My mother warned me away from it for years.”

He nodded. “Every part of it is toxic, in some plants, it’s just the sap or the leaves but this one is pretty bad.”

“There are heaps of different flowers here, are they all poisons?” I asked him, taking in the dark blossoms.

“No, some are simply dark flowers,” he said. “Such as this one, it’s called a queen of the night tulip.”

I looked at the black tulip flower and marveled at how beautiful it was.

When you looked at Halen, you didn’t expect him to have a beautiful garden like this or to know what they were.

“Do you have this here for anyone?” I asked, suddenly very aware that Halen was a hot guy, someone girls would claw their way to get with. Maybe this was his wife’s.

“No,” he said. “It just seemed like a nice piece to add to the mansion. I had an aunt growing up who loved flowers and she had a great big garden that I would hide in when my brothers were mean to me as a child.”

“I can’t see you being bullied,” I told him.

“I wasn’t always big,” he said with a smirk. “My brothers were horrible to me. I guess all brothers are, aren’t they?”

“You still hate Zane now?”

He nodded. “Yeah, we never quite got over our feud.”

I continued to look over the flowers and looked through another stone archway, a large tree with red fruits sat in the middle. A large tree I’d never seen before.

“Apples?”

He looked in and saw where I was looking. “No, pomegranates.”

I’d enjoyed pomegranate juice before but never the actual fruit. “You’re a mystery, Halen.”

He smiled just as someone called out to him. “Are you hungry?”

“Ah, sure.”

“Chef has prepared lunch.”

I accepted his proffered arm and he led me back into the mansion. As he led me into the dining hall, instant flashbacks to our heated exchange flashed through my mind.

“Take a seat.”

Luckily, the entire table was full of people. I didn’t have to worry about a repeat situation where my body was betraying my mind. Ben and Rusty were sitting next to another man who looked just like them. One I didn’t think I had met yet. There were a few others I’d not seen either. I sat down next to Rusty and accepted a plate. Halen sat next to the one I’d seen once or twice but he never spoke to me.

“Take what you want,” Rusty said. “There’s no rules here.”

I grabbed a set of tongs and started to grab food and put it on my plate. Everyone was talking, and Halen’s attention was elsewhere so I started to eat and keep to myself. I was still a captive but everyone treated me with respect.

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