The Dragon's Kiss

The ornate wooden door gave way to an even more elegant room.

Thick drapery hung from several large windows in perfect folds. Intricately carved wooden molding dressed the top of the walls. Lush flowers, famous paintings, expensive pottery and golden sculptures graced the walls and tables.

In the middle of it all, a woman sat, surrounded by layers of organza from her gown with her lips and cheeks painted the color of a rose.

Her blonde hair fell in shimmering curls over her shoulders with the pieces around her face pinned back so as to not obscure her beauty.

If Kel didn't know better, she would think it wasn't a human at all but a life-sized porcelain doll seated there.

"Kel?"

The doll's eyes widened ever so slightly as her rosy lips parted.

As a pale fragile hand emerged from the folds of organza toward her, Kel stumbled backward with a grunt.

She shouldn't have come, after all.

Even as the woman sat gracefully, decorated in sparkling accessories, Kel could only see a girl hunched over sobbing.

The tearful face of the girl, choking out an emotional farewell, had become distorted in her memories into something horrific and disgusting.

And now, she was face to face with the same girl.

A beautiful doll with the face of a monster.

"Adriell," Kel whispered.

The name felt strange on her tongue.

Seeing her like this, locked in the Queen's room, made Kel suddenly understand the meaning behind Leif's comment earlier that he had 'someone else in mind' to marry.

To think he'd go as far as bringing Adriell back from Pandreia and breaking off her engagement just to keep her as his own. The edges of deep purple bruises peeking out from the edges of Adriell's gown proved that Leif had already lost his temper with her more than once.

What Kel had once thought of as a young boy's adorable crush now made her sick to her stomach.

"Do you want to sit down?" Adriell asked hesitantly.

No.

Kel didn't want to sit down.

She wanted nothing more than to run as far away as she could from this place--from someone who'd once been a friend turned completely crazy, from two people who betrayed her locked away in a horrid dungeon, and from this meeting that she shouldn't have agreed to but somehow couldn't refuse.

Most of all, she wanted to stop feeling so conflicted about it all. She wanted to think that Dash and the king got what they deserved. She wanted to not care what happened to Adriell.

But she couldn't.

"Sure," Kel hardly met Adriell's eyes as she nodded and moved to a nearby seat.

"Have you seen my father?" Adriell blurted immediately as Kel sank into the chair.

".. I have." Once again, Kel kept her gaze focused on anything besides the woman speaking.

"Is he ok?" Adriell pleaded. "W-will he be fine?"

"No." Kel didn't hesitate to answer truthfully.

In the past, she would have been careful with the Princess's delicate feelings. But what was the use in lying about the former king's condition when Adriell was already well aware?

"Oh-" Adriell gaped, shocked from Kel's blunt reply.

"A-and Dash?" she added, quickly regaining some composure.

This time, Kel only shook her head in response.

"Ah. I-I see." The poor Princess sounded like she would burst into tears at any moment. "To think we'd all be together again like this."

The last bit was meant to lighten the mood, but Kel's heart sank at her old friend's words.

"Together again? After tossing me away so carelessly like you did and knowing now that your father is rotting away in prison, you still have the mood to pretend this is just like 'old times'?" Kel growled, clenching her fists at her sides.

"I know it's not the same, Kel," Adriell whimpered. "But that doesn't mean we can't fix this! I know how Leif managed to secure the throne. He got control of a secret rebellion thanks to help from a mysterious magicia-"

"Fix this?" Kel scoffed. "You mean put your father back on the throne, Dash back by your side and me back in Serin as a hostage in your place?"

"N-no Kel! You don't have to be a hostage anymore!" Adriell cried, clutching at her chest. "That was.. that was just a misunderstanding. Dash promised he could save you!"

Suddenly she leapt to her feet, her watery eyes gazing earnestly at Kel.

"You and your father are just the same," Kel said quietly, unnerved by her old friend's emotional display. "You use and throw away people, no matter who they are."

Adriell fell to her knees.

"Kel..."

"I'm sure that's why there was a 'secret rebellion' for Leif to get control of in the first place," Kel added bitterly.

"No, it's a misunderstanding!" Adriell's voice grew shrill. "We- I never meant to throw you away!"

"Is that so?" Kel snapped, glowering at the pathetic girl on the floor in front of her. "Is that why you sent me away ignorantly with nothing but a bead of poison?"

Adriell paused.

".. You mean this?"

Reaching into her dress, she produced a glimmering purple pearl with a tiny flower carved into the bottom of it.

Kel's stomach churned as soon as she saw it.

How could she hold such a thing so carelessly, as if it really was just a piece of pretty jewelry?

She had been wearing it around her neck, but she would never know how unbearably heavy it was two carry two of them.

Or the empty spot in Kel's chest that filled with pain every time she remembered crushing one of them in a small, dark room.

No matter how long Adriell wore that necklace, she'd never know what it was like to be in so much pain and such utter despair that the bead's venom made it shine even more brightly.

And most of all, she'd never know what the meaning of such a thing had held for the one she betrayed so carelessly.

Kel swallowed.

"Why do you have that?"