A/N: I absolutely hate it when Kevin or Harry is hurt. But he kinda is in this chapter!

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Iris's POV

The dining hall is another set of luxuries. A long table occupies most of the length of the room and there are grand chairs placed with equal distancing around the table. The table is covered in a white table cloth and gold-rimmed plates of different sizes paired up with beautiful gold culinary are placed on top of it. A huge candle stand stands on the center of the table and a magnificent chandelier hanging directly on top of it.

"Honestly, I don't feel surprised by grandeur now," Kevin remarks.

"Please make yourselves comfortable, the queen will arrive shortly." announces a very kind looking lady.

"Akele, these are my friends, Kevin and Iris." 

"Pleasure to meet you dears" she greets us and shakes our hands. Kevin speaks something to Akele, but I am too caught up admiring the beauty of the room. "I guess Iris is mesmerized by the place." she tells, "Don't worry dear, you can tour the whole palace today. " Akele pats me on the shoulder and then leaves.

"We're going to eat our breakfast with these?" Kevin asks Karen picking up a golden fork.

"Yup, but breakfast is better than the culinary." she winks.

A moment later, the grand doors to the room open, and the Queen makes her way inside the room as gracefully as ever. She greets us, shaking our hands, and then moves to her place across us and all of us sit down.

"I hope you had a good night's sleep because we have some speaking to do today," she informs.

"We did your majesty!" Kevin tells and shoots a glance my way, making me blush profusely. This guy really has a way with girls.

The 'palace people' or whatever they are called, start serving us our breakfast. They place different baskets full of freshly baked croissants, baguettes, buns, pain au chocolates, and other kinds of breads that I have never even seen before. Plates full of different fruits, cut in fancy shapes forming a colorful multitude of fruits accompany them along with big jugs of orange, apple juices, and milk.

Along with this, a set of non-veg food also arrives consisting of fluffy scrambled eggs, sizzling sausages, and crunchy bacon, and even just hard-boiled eggs. Then lastly, they place both black tea and coffee along with a jar of cream and some sugar.

I gaze at all the food in front of me. All I have had for breakfast ever in my life might be toast, pancakes, or some cereal with some coffee or tea. Seeing all of these delicacies placed in front of me just for breakfast makes me wonder about the lunch. 

How greedy of me?

I look at Karen for confirmation and find both her and Kevin already loading their plates. The one thing common between the three of us would be our love for food.

There is an awkward silence as the queen doesn't speak anything. And we are not supposed to speak unless she starts. But it's better if it stays this way so that I can enjoy this once-in-a-lifetime breakfast.

However, the breakfast doesn't go completely quiet. The occasional idle talk is exchanged but I stay silent the entire time because I am still not comfortable talking to a freaking queen, not to mention the fact that she is Karen's birth mother. I still don't fully believe it though.

We finish the feast called 'breakfast' and then head out of the room so that the 'palace people' can clear the remains.

"Your Highness, when are we going to...you know, talk?" asks Karen. "There is something I have to tell," 

The Queen smiles. "Why don't you kids take a stroll outside? Go to the garden, the lake. Clear your mind and have some fun. We'll talk after lunch. I'm pretty sure you want to take a look at the surroundings, don't you?" she asks.

"Yes, your majesty! We would love to take a look." I say. The queen nods and just as she is about to walk away, Kevin call her. 

"Would you mind if I asked your name, your highness?" he asks politely.

"It's Entonia, son," she replies with a sweet smile and leaves with her maids.

Kevin turns to us.

"She is a sweet lady, isn't she? She is not proud or anything and her eyes are full of affection whenever she talks to us. But I am mad at the fact that she called us kids. We don't look like kids. I certainly don't." he says.

"Yeah, we really don't!" I tell.

We stroll the entire palace with Karen, both mine and Kevin's jaws mostly on the floor due to all the luxuries. This place will haunt me for the rest of my life with all the extravaganza, I witness. I swear nothing could get more luxurious. Not even Rihanna's mansion!

When it gets too stifling to look at, I grab Karen's arm. 

"Karen, stop! I can't do this anymore!" I pant out and Kevin looks at me in confusion.

"What happened?" she asks.

I direct my hand around us. "I am sick...sick of this gold...and all this...extravaganza! I really have to see something different. Honestly,...my eyes are...hurting!" Kevin bursts out laughing and Karen looks hilariously confused.

"No matter how ridiculous that sounds, I agree with her. This is just too much." Kevin laughs.

"Oh...okay! We'll go to the garden! That place is different." Karen tells, uncomfortable with our uncomfortable-ness with luxury if that makes any sense.

The garden as promised is different, way different. 

It is too beautiful but in a different way. There is no gold. Instead, there are fountains, bushes, trees of different kinds, benches on which I long to sit, and the best of all, drawings formed out of the arranged growth of different flowers. The whole place is mesmerizing.

I like the garden much more than the palace because I am not a person for the extravaganza. It suffocates me. 

We walk through the garden, mostly giggling at Kevin's lame jokes, strolling down his and Karen's memory lane, and occasionally, gaping at something unique.

I slip my hand onto Karen's and walk holding her hand like we always do but then I notice the frown on Kevin's face. 

Please don't tell me that he's jealous again!

My other hand lightly touches his and he throws me a questionable look. I huff, annoyed at him not getting my message, and slip my other into his large ones, interlacing our fingers together. The smile instantly reappears on his face but I bet on the moon, to him, it must feel like holding a small kid's hand.

I stare at our entwined hands, amused at how my hand feels like it is molded to be fit in his. when I look up, those emerald orbs gaze at me, making me feel like he sees something in me that I don't. 

What could be special in me? 

A strong urge to bring up my hand and trace his face, those perfect jawlines, and eyebrows build up inside me. I want to run my fingers through his brown curls and tug at it. But I resist them, fearing that all these could just be my imagination.

"You know, you could have just told...I would have left. You could have had your personal time?" a voice sounds, breaking my trance. My head turns in the direction of the sound and I find Karen, at least five feet away from us.

When did she reach there?

"W-What?!" I stutter, confused. 

"You know how long it has been since you left my hand and then both of you just stopped walking and just started staring at each other?" she asks. 

Did we stop walking? Oh, we did!

"Kevin, Iris please should I leave?" she asks, seriously as though she is actually disturbing us in the middle of something. Well, technically we did have a moment there but-

"NO!" we blurt out.

She pauses for a second, and smirks. And, Karen doing that, is not good! Her legs begin stepping backward. 

"I'll just.... leave you guys, alone!" she shouts and then sprints away. I call after her but she ignores me and now, I am left alone with Kevin. 

Great!

"She just makes things more awkward between us," I state but he raises an eyebrow. 

"Not if don't want it to be awkward," he says and then links his hand with mine again, resuming the walk.

"Yeah, not awkward at all!" I agree, sarcastically. "You didn't answer my question though, why were you jealous of Karen?"

 He smiles. "You are so stubborn, aren't you?"

"Why can't you just answer the question?" 

"Fine, I was jealous because you cuddled with her," 

"That's a stupid answer! Why would you be jealous because I cuddled with her?" I persist.

"It's...I don't know...I just felt like that." he sighs. I stop walking and look at him.

"Kevin," I begin, "We're here in this strange place to help our friend. We don't know what's waiting for us. Whatever it is, we're going to help our friend find her place, and that won't be easy if we keep secrets from each other. It just won't!" I cup his cheeks in my hands. "We're friends, remember! We shouldn't keep secrets from each other." 

He said that himself!

"I am not keeping secrets, Iris," he tells again, looking away from me.

"Say that once again! Look into my eyes and say that once again." I challenge. He looks into my eyes but remains silent and I see a tinge of guilt in his eyes. He doesn't speak anything, just looks into my eyes, breathing. His lips slowly curve into a smile, the dent of his dimple faintly appearing on his cheek before he speaks again but completely out of topic.

"I just love your eyes so much!" he marvels, taking my face in his large hand but I huff and push his hand away.

"You are impossible, Kevin! You just won't answer my question at all and all you do is lie!" I yell, and to anger me further, he starts laughing. "I hate you!" I tell him, before screaming into the air for Karen. He strangles me to the ground, trying to pin me down and muffle my mouth, afraid that I might alert the guards.

"Shut up, Iris!" he urgently whispers but I ignore him and keep screaming Karen's name until the bitch decides to show the hell up.

My eyes catch the vision of her sprinting towards us and before I know it, Kevin is pulled off my body, landing on the ground far away from us with a dull thud.

"What the hell do you think you two are doing, Iris?! You looked like legit toddlers fighting!" she screams in my face. I look over at Kevin who lies at least fifteen feet away from us, groaning in pain

"Karen...you..." I ignore her question and limp toward Kevin who is clutching his stomach and coughing non-stop. "Kevin, are you alright?" I ask, helping him stand as he fights for breath.

"How did you do that?" I ask a very astonished Karen in disbelief.

"I don't know...I..." she looks into her hands. "Kevin...I am so sorry..." she walks towards us. Kevin has pure terror spread across his face, his emerald eyes dark with fear. 

"Karen...you literally threw me away from her. You took me...by my shoulder and threw me here. We were...there!" he says breathlessly, pointing at the place where he was strangling me. 

"How did you do that? He's so heavy!" I ask but Kevin glares at my comment.

Karen whimpers, helplessly. "But...you felt so light...I swear...I don't know what's happening to me!"

"We're going to the Queen, now!"