Caged Heart

Chapter 18

Upon entering the throne room, all eyes turned towards Emerson, whose eyes had immediately found the royals of the Dahlian kingdom save for Serenity. He looked at each one, seeing if he could read their expressions and he could read only one: King Darius'. He was absolutely fuming, his face red and his eyes burning with rage. The queen and the prince seemed to have more control over how much emotion they showed to the public. As he walked closer to the throne, he made sure to make his confusion go away to be replaced by a blank expression. He knew what he was there for, and he had his suspicions on how the king's suspicions came to be.

"King Emerson," Darius spoke through his teeth, "you have been the one named as the employer of the two people that killed Prince Godric of Vithe and Princess Genevieve of Dahlia."

"What?" Serenity's eyes widened, "No, that can't—father, that cannot be correct."

"I'm afraid it is, my dear," the king's eyes never left Emerson's, "I've heard the confessions with my own two ears."

It was Emerson who answered this time, "Caleb got them to confess already?"

"Prince Caleb to you, and yes," Caleb said, stepping forward, "I got them to tell me what I already knew was true from the very beginning: you are guilty King Emerson."

"Brother, this is madness!"

"What is madness, sister, is the fact that he had two people killed—one of those people being our sister. The man preaches about peace, but he does not know the meaning of the word. Nobleman Julius Harper of Kingdom Hallow confessed to us that his majesty paid him to shoot Genevieve at the wedding as he did not want a princess of second best as his wife. And George Kylins of Kingdom Dahlia confessed that he paid him to kill the only obstacle in his way of getting to you, Serenity." As he spoke, he got closer to the king, glaring at him, "King Emerson of Kingdom Hallow is no good man. The only thing that he wants is to rule our kingdom, and he almost got away with it."

"I did not almost get away with anything; I did not do anything worthy of getting away with."

"You've no proof of anything otherwise, your majesty. If you do, we would love to see it." Caleb said.

Emerson's blank stare never changed, although the twitch in his cheek gave away his nervousness as he stood before everyone, no proof in his favor that he was innocent. In a feeble attempt to save him, Serenity spoke again.

"And how do you know that it was Emerson who paid them? They could be lying—" she was interrupted by her mother throwing two bags of glittering blue sapphires at her feet.

"The most valued gem of currency in his kingdom," she snarled, "that is how we know they are telling the truth."

The princess knelt down and grabbed a handful of the gems, looking up at Emerson. His mask had broken, and he was looking at the gems with fear in his eyes. He looked from the gems to Serenity, pleading with her with his gaze to believe the earlier words he had said to her, but in her eyes he could see that she, too, had been won over.

"Serenity—" he started to say, but Darius spoke before he could.

"Emerson," he addressed him without using his title, "you are hereby found guilty of treason, and for that you shall be held in the dungeons until it is time." King Darius flicked his wrist, ordering two guards to take Emerson to the dungeon.

"Time for what?" He tried to ask, but got no answer before he was grabbed by the guards and dragged to the entrance of the throne room once again. "Darius—Your majesty, you are making a mistake. I did not do this!"

Before he was out of the room completely, he looked at all of the Dahlian royals once more. Serenity's face was one of shock and she couldn't hide the fact that she felt betrayed, Darius was beyond angry, Violette was no longer looking at him, her arms crossed in fury as her gaze was to the floor, and Caleb—Caleb was the only one who had no look of shock or anger or misery. He had a smug look on his face, the smirk he had been hiding coming out; his eyes darkened with malice as he kept them on Emerson, enjoying the scene of him being dragged away to the dungeons.

The king's eyes widened: he had been right; his suspicions were correct.

He struggled against the guards' grip on him and shackles that had been placed around his wrists, yelling and screaming through the gag that had been forced into his mouth. He tried in vain to get away, but he could not. He was thrown into a cold, dark, wet cell; he spared one last disgustingly desperate and pleading look at the guards to listen to him, but they looked at him with dead eyes and faces, slamming the cell door, leaving him there cold and alone.

He forced himself to sit up, looking out of the barred window outside of his cell. As of now he was only a king in his heart, but no longer was one in title; he was now a prisoner—a murderer.