The Dragon's Kiss

"Didn't he tell you that his soldiers are rounding up all my people right now?" Soren taunted, his fiery eyes locked with Kel's. "What did you think? That he wanted to invite them to a ball?"

"No, stop!" Kel shouted.

She already knew the emperor's soldiers were here. She was well aware that there was only one reason for them to be here.Â

But still, she couldn't bring herself to believe that the emperor had any malicious intent. As she'd learned over the past few months, the man always had a reason for his actions. Always.

Looking for reassurance, she glanced wildly at Thane, Lucy and the emperor in turn, who all seemed to be focused on various spots of the floor, none of them looking at her. Why weren't any of them speaking up and saying that it wasn't true?Â

Why weren't they saying anything at all??

Finally, Kel's gaze landed on Lila. The woman was still standing quietly behind Soren. She wasn't directly avoiding Kel's eyes, but she stared ahead with a detached expression.

Silently, Kel pleaded for her to say something. Tp say anything. If there was a time she needed the librarian's seemingly endless clarifying knowledge, it was right now in this moment.

"Mark my words, Princess," Soren declared, snorting at the lack of rebuttal from the emperor. "That man will use you, throw you away and kill you if you get in the way."

"He won't!" Kel retorted angrily.

He wouldn't. Not the emperor she knew.Â

The conversation with the emperor in her bedroom earlier flashed through her mind--his awkward flirting attempts, his intoxicatingly sweet kiss, the way he claimed he did want to use her while his lips brushed against her skin.

The emperor's grip on her hand suddenly tightened as Soren took a step forward, his hand extended.

"Come with me now," he said softly to Kel. "At the very least, I've been honest about my intentions from the beginning.. Unlike someone."

He shot the emperor a glare as he spat the last two words.

Kel shook her head. After all the things Soren had done until now, did he really think his offer was tempting?Â

Power, whether from Soren, the Dragon Emperor, or anyone else, wasn't something Kel desired. She'd already made her stance abundantly clear. On top of that, how could she think to join hands with a cold-blooded man like Soren, a killer.

But wasn't the emperor a killer as well?

One the surface, Kel couldn't articulate what exactly was the difference between the two men.

Soren held her hostage.

Well, so did the emperor.

Soren viciously murdered Spencer Regan's entire underworld.

But the emperor had more than his fair share of blood on his hands as well.

Soren wanted to take over the continent.

The emperor harbored a similar goal.

When it came down to it, the thing that set the emperor apart from his half-brother, the reason Kel was so willing to choose one demon over the other, was her gut feeling.

After everything she'd seen and been through with the emperor, she knew he wasn't like Soren. While Soren's actions always felt greedy and slimy, the emperor's never did. She didn't always understand the Dragon Emperor's complex mind, but, for some reason, she knew she could trust him.

Somehow, she just knew.

"You'd still choose to side with him?" Soren growled, observing Kel's expression as it changed from doubt to determination. "Even after the demise of your friend?"

"My friend?" Kel froze.Â

Immediately she thought of her uncomfortable meeting with Soren outside of Dash's house. If the man was capable of somehow knocking Dash out in between the time Kel left the house and met the devious man.. What else could he do?

What else WOULD he do?

She didn't want to be concerned about Dash. In fact, she shouldn't be. Though she'd been in contact with her old friend, it wasn't as if their shattered relationship could be repaired by a couple cordial chats.

In spite of that, however, she couldn't shake the apprehension rising in her chest.

"W-what did you do?" she demanded.

"Me?" Soren smirked. "Your emperor over there was the one who led your fellow hostage to his death, no?"

Fellow hostage? It wasn't Dash he was talking about, after all. If that was the case, he could only mean Barclay then.

But wasn't this whole mess started because of the revelation that it wasn't the emperor's fault Barclay was in the forest or that he died there? Lila, herself, had revealed that she (more likely the Yellow Marguerite) had a hand in the matter.Â

Kel had only snuck into the dungeon that night because she wanted to ask Lila more about it. She wanted to find the answers to her friend's unsettled death.Â

She wouldn't be stranded in this strange underground world now.Â

The emperor's armies wouldn't be driving the people of Subterra into a corner.

None of this would have happened in the first place if it hadn't been for Soren's people causing Barclay's death!

"You're making some impudent accusations," Thane suddenly spoke up, his voice low and gravelly. "You'd better watch that nasty tongue before I-"

WIth another solid elbowing from Lucy, the knight fell silent.

Kel studied each of her comrades again. Were they staying quiet on purpose? So she would be forced to confront Soren and decide for herself?

Even without their assurance, however, Soren's usually bedeviling words had no effect on her.

"Didn't you just claim to be honest?" she huffed confidently. "I already know that it was you who caused my comrade's death."

Kel snuck a peek at Lila as she spoke and noticed a tiny smile playing across the woman's lips. Had she predicted this moment already? Did she confess to ensure Kel wouldn't be swayed by Soren's lies in the future?

Following Kel's eyes to the woman behind him, Soren's eyes turned dark. He slowly turned his body toward Lila and raised his hand threateningly.

"You. Did you say something unnecessary?" he hissed.

Lila shrugged nonchalantly.Â

"You're mistaken, Sir.. I never once used your name in connection with the conspiracy against Sir Barclay.