Caged Heart

Chapter 22

It seemed as if her servants were stuck to her like glue that night. She had let them help her get her ready for bed, but time had been moving too slow for her liking. Of course, she couldn't tell them to hurry up as they would find that suspicious, so she kept her mouth shut only inwardly expressing her frustrations.

Once they did leave, however, Serenity sat up in her bed and braided her hair back so that it would be out of the way. She quietly got out of her bed in case any people were close to her room and could hear her moving around, and walked to her vanity, opening one of the drawers to retrieve a few bobby pins. She was not going to be able to get any keys from the guards as that would also be suspicious, so she was going to have to jailbreak Emerson out the old-fashioned way.

She had learned how to pick locks, coincidentally, from her brother. It was something that they had turned into a competition—who could pick the most locks in the palace, who could do it the fastest, who could gather the most secrets from unlocking doors; they had loved it. It wasn't something they did much anymore, but she was glad they had made it competitive; she had become a pro at it if she did say so herself, which she usually did.

Waiting for a few moments, making sure that she could hear no noises from the outside of her room, she opened the door and quietly walked out of her room. She made sure that she hadn't worn any shoes—even though the thought of being in the dungeons without them made her cringe—so that it would be easier to get to where she needed to go; it was even a challenge running throughout the halls without shoes on as the echoes of her bare feet made sounds too—it was the lesser evil of the two, however.

She took the stairs down to the dungeons, grimacing at the cold, wet stone underneath her feet. She wrapped her arms around herself as she stealthily made her way through the halls to Emerson's cage. Coming upon the door, she removed two bobby pins from her hair and knelt down to pick the lock. She looked around as she did this to make sure that none of the guards would find her—even though they were supposed to be on their break, there was still a chance they could be roaming around. Once she got it unlocked, she opened the door as quietly as she could and stepped in, Emerson's head immediately turning to it.

"I was beginning to think you wouldn't show up," he said playfully as he stood up, moving to the door of the cage.

Rolling her eyes, she started to work on unlocking the cage, "Getting away from my servants proved to be an extra hard task tonight. Time seemed to be going slower than usual."

"All that matters is you came." He smiled.

She looked up at him, "You seem to forget that this entire mission is only being done to prove whether you or my brother are guilty of the crimes that you have been accused of."

"I haven't forgotten that fact, princess," he paused, hearing the lock to the cage come undone, "believe me, I haven't forgotten."

"Good." Opening the door, she stood up and waited for Emerson to exit before closing it back.

The king stood outside of the cage for a moment, seeming to revel in the fact that he was free—even if only for some time—looking at Serenity afterwards. The look he gave her made his words hours prior come flooding back to her: the promise of a kiss. Stepping forward, the princess captured the king's lips before he could say or do anything else.

Almost instantly, both of them felt a spark of passion ignite within them. Emerson placed his hand on her waist, his other finding its way to the nape of her neck to pull her closer than she was. Serenity threaded her fingers through his hair, thoughts of what they were meant to be doing fading away as her lips were entangled with the king's, her cheeks set aflame by his touch. Even his scent—peppermint, which was still noticeable amongst the smell of the dungeons—made her stomach fill with butterflies; so much so, in fact, that when he pulled back, she moved her head forward to try and capture his lips again.

"I didn't think it was possible for me to fall for you even more," Emerson said, his hand that was on her neck now moving to her cheek, "but that proved me wrong."

Blushing, the princess reached up to hold the hand that was on her cheek, "It proved us both wrong." She said, a hint of a smile playing at her lips. But that smile left as quickly as it came when she gently pulled his hand away from her face and cleared her throat, "We should hurry along if we want to be done before the guards come back from their break."

A flicker of reluctance gleamed in Emerson's eyes as he stepped back from the princess. He knew that they had to get a move on, but he already missed the warmth of her body and the feel of her lips on his. Looking from her to the door, he took a breath and then walked to it, grabbing his sword and sword belt before beginning the walk to the prisoners.

Serenity struggled to keep up with his determined steps as he made his way to the side of the dungeons that held the two most important prisoners besides himself. She said nothing as they walked, not having the slightest idea of what she could say; it seemed, however, that Emerson was already preoccupied with thoughts of how he was going to extract the truth out of the ones who had condemned him to his fate of death.

As they entered the hall that contained the prisoners, which was lit only by a few chandeliers of candles hanging from the ceiling, they heard chains rattle. "We've told you everything that we know," a voice from a cell on the left said, "there's nothing left to tell you."

Emerson snickered, "I beg to differ," he walked to stand in front of the cell bars, his eyes meeting Julius', "as, for me, there is a lot that needs to be known. Starting with why you would lie on my name—your king's name."

"We know not what lie you speak of," came George's voice from the cell directly across Julius' on the right, "there is only the truth. And the truth is that you are a selfish, heartless human being who paid two men to do your dirty work because you were too much of a coward to do it yourself."

Serenity could see Emerson's eye twitch in the dim light. She moved to stand next to him, but he held his hand up and turned to face George. "Unlock his cell for me, Serenity."

"Emerson—"

"Serenity," his eyes slid over to her, his glare deadly. He said nothing more than her name, both knowing that the only way he was going to get the truth—something Serenity couldn't be sure of, even when hearing George's words with her own ears—was if she opened the cell.

Looking between him and the prisoners, she complied with his one-worded request. After swinging the cell door open, she turned to find Emerson with a small device in his hand. She hadn't even heard him move, she thought as he made his way over to George, who seemed to know what was coming—his chains were rattling as he made feeble attempts to move away from Emerson's advancing form.

"Don't let him do this!" George cried out to Serenity, "Your highness, he will kill me; he wants to kill me. Please, he has manipulated you into thinking he is innocent! I swear to you, he is guilty. I swear on my life!"

These pleas stopped Emerson in his tracks. He glared at George then his facial expression changed upon feeling the heat of Serenity's hand on his wrist. He looked down at her to say something, but she shook her head.

"I know you are innocent, Emerson." She gestured to George, "Get the truth; tell me who was truly responsible for my sister's death and for my fiancé's."

"As you wish, princess."

George shook his head as Emerson started towards him again. He knew it was no use, but he wouldn't give up the truth—he couldn't.