KotLC Texting

Bonus Chapter

Hi everyone!! Sorry I haven't updated in a while; my Wattpad notifications aren't working and I keep forgetting that I actually have this app. But anyway, as a 350 reads (!!!!) special, here's a little short story about Oralie and Kenric because I'm feeling sad today. Enjoy! Also, the video is I Am Damaged from Heathers. It has nothing to do with Keeper of the Lost Cities, but it's really, really good. I should probably promote that on my Heathers story, but this is the one I'm updating, so🤷‍♀️

"The stars are gorgeous tonight," someone whispered just as I was about to go home. I turned around, and there he was.
Kenric.
I laughed, unfazed. "It's cloudy," I pointed out. "You can't see anything."
Kenric shot me a sly smile. "I was talking about the stars in your eyes." He gave me a gooey smile, and I felt my already pink cheeks turn red.
"Don't be cheesy," I told him, my heart in my throat.
Kenric smiled at me again. I could fall in love with that smile.
Have I fallen in love with that smile?
"You love it when I'm cheesy," he smiled wider, and then dropped something on the ground next to me.
A picnic basket.
He took out some of that human stuff–rum–and poured me a cup, which I accepted gratefully.
"You really like your alcohol," Kenric told me as I knocked back my cup, a slight grin on his face.
I shrug. "My dad sold human alcohol for a living. I grew up on this stuff." I was a bit woozy now, and I could feel my cheeks heating up with every sip.
Kenric shifted besides me. I was suddenly very aware of how close we were, and how his arm had miraculously appeared around my shoulders. I blamed the floating feeling in my stomach on the rum. Obviously it was the rum. We weren't allowed to feel this.
But when Kenric took his hand and cautiously wove it through mine, a fire in my stomach lit that had nothing to do with alcohol.
"Do you think Sophie will be all right tomorrow?" I asked him, squeezing his hand lightly. "She's still only a child." My child. My illegal child.
Kenric gave me a look, a deep, searching look. "She will be," he told me confidently. "How dangerous can Fintan be in his broken state?" He squeezed my hand, and for the first time, I noticed his emotions. They were all jumbled up, though there was a lot of affection there. But it wasn't allowed, we couldn't-
Kenric cut off my thoughts by kissing me.
I had never felt so alive. I was floating. His lips tasted like Mallowmelt, and every second our lips were interlocked-
But I couldn't do this. Not to myself, and certainly not to Kenric.
"Stop," I told him breathlessly, placing my hands on his chest. "We have to stop."
Kenric's eyes had the same look that my childhood mercat got sometimes—lost and hurt. I felt my own eyes well with tears, but I wiped them away.
He took my hand away from my face and interlocked his fingers in mine. "Oralie?"
I gently took each one of his fingers and unwound them.
"We can't do this, Kenric," I told him. "We can't."
Kenric gave me the puppy dog eyes again. "We could resign," he informed me, but I saw him come to the conclusion that we couldn't. We can't.
I kissed him one last time, slow and sweet. "I'm sorry," I told him, tears spilling down my cheeks as I ran down the mountain. "I'm sorry."
"Oralie, wait!" He cried out, but I was already gone.

Sorry.🙃