The Dragon's Kiss

Kel gave one final look back toward her room. The emperor wasn't coming. Whether he was actually intimidated by Soren's threat or had some other plan in mind, Kel was on her own for now.

And she wasn't about to wait around for some rescue.

"I'm done following obediently," she spat. "From now on, I'm going to do what I want."

"Ha." Soren snorted. "Does someone like you even know what you want?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kel snapped, trying to squirm free of the man's suffocating hold.

"You're so cute.. You know that?" Soren responded, refusing to budge. "You change your mind so often, I can barely keep track. What was it before this? A revenge plan?"

Kel flinched. She certainly hadn't forgotten the abandoned plan, created entirely out of her fury at Barclay's wrongful death. She gave up on that revenge, not because she'd been mistaken about her feelings, but because her anger seemed to be directed to the wrong place.

"Did you forget already?" Soren continued. "How you were so adorably convinced you'd have both Serin's and Mevani's kings at your feet?"

She muffled a grunt as the knife rubbed against the spot where it had already broken her skin earlier. A single drop of fresh blood traveled slowly down her neck, staining the top of her dress.

"How long did it take for that man to change your mind? Hmm? Maybe ten minutes?" Soren's voice was full of spite. "So, Princess, I'm sure you have no idea what you truly want."

No. That was wrong.

It wasn't that Kel didn't know what she wanted, it was that this was the first time in her life she'd had to figure that out entirely on her own.

When she was a child, the memories hardly more than a haze somewhere in the back of her mind, everything was simple. She only needed to survive. There wasn't a spare moment to even think about what she wanted because she was too busy doing what she needed to.

After Uncle Itzae took her and Dash in, her wants and desires were all decided for her. She was perfectly happy in her place like that, following orders without question, and she probably would still be there if the king of Mevani hadn't abandoned her.

But now that she was alone--truly and entirely on her own--she was still learning how to decide for herself what she wanted. It had taken a lot of practice and mistakes to learn her own mind and heart, but she'd made progress.

She did have an idea of what she truly wanted.

"You're right. I change my mind a lot," she responded quietly to Soren's accusation. "I'm having a hard time figuring out who to trust and who not to."

She heard Soren snort behind her and felt his warm breath suddenly blast against her head.

Unfazed by his reaction, she added, "But you're wrong about one thing."

"I'm never wrong," Soren smirked.

"I do know what I want," Kel declared. "I finally do. And it's not this!"

Taking advantage of the man's guard being down momentarily, one of her hands shot up and grabbed his wrist, pulling the knife away from her throat as she ducked under his arm.

Once she was free of his grasp, she aimed a kick at his lowered head and shoved the knife back toward his torso.

Before either the knife or her foot could make contact, Soren jumped back, wrenching his wrist out of Kel's hold and taking the blade with him.

Kel inhaled sharply as the man immediately lunged back toward her. She leapt to the side, landing crouched down with her back only a finger's width from the wall.

There wasn't much space, but she was good at fighting in enclosed spaces thanks to the fact her movements were more nimble than most men.

As they bounced around the hall, taking turns swinging fists at each other, Kel was surprised with Soren's ability to keep up with her. For a man his size, he was extraordinarily agile with admirable spatial awareness.

It wasn't enough, though, and Kel slowly advanced toward the end of the hall.

"I'm actually quite impressed," Soren retorted, ducking out of the way of Kel's elbow. "I didn't expect you to be this good."

"Hand over that knife," Kel sneered, veering to the side as the blade sliced the air next to her ear, "and I'll show you how good I really am."

"As entertaining as that sounds," Soren grinned, using his forearm to ward off another one of Kel's attacks, "I think I'll have to pass this time, Darling."

"Chicken," Kel spat, ramming her heel into his shin.

"Argh!" Soren stumbled back with a grunt and gave Kel a devilish smile. "That was a cheap shot, young lady."

Before she could respond to his banter, the man dove for her, and, once again, they were locked in a lethal dance.

As sweat dripped down Kel's neck, she could hear the echoes of shouting from every royal teacher she'd ever trained under.

'Stop now!'

'You'll give yourself away!'

'Everybody knows a true princess would never act in such a vulgar manner.'

'You must strive to be the perfect imitation of Adriell.'

My name is Keliyah, not Adriell, Kel huffed back to the voices screaming in her mind. No matter how hard you all tried to make me into one, I'm not a princess. I was born an urchin and raised as a soldier.

She'd already wasted so much time and energy pretending to be Adriell with the excuse of preserving her life, convinced that living as somebody else was better than dying as herself.

But, little by little, something inside her had changed. It started the night Dash betrayed her in the forests of Mevani, and with every heartache, it grew stronger.

Even if death is all that awaits me at the end of this road, Kel thought, wiping blood from her lips as she whirled around to face Soren, I refuse to hold back any longer.