Caged Heart

Chapter 26

The king's anger turned to rage, "You did this all because you wished to start a war?"

"Brilliant, don't you agree?" Caleb smiled, but it quickly disappeared, "And it was working so perfectly. You were ready to execute him—ready to start the war that would inevitably happen upon his head being put on a pike—and the story was perfect: King Emerson fell in love with the sister of his betrothed and got rid of the two obstacles in his way in order to be with her. A tragic love story, if you will. But then our dear Serenity had to go and ruin everything."

"I ruined nothing," Serenity glared at him through her tears, "you did, Caleb. You ruined this family, this kingdom, all for nothing!"

"Not for nothing." Emerson said.

He looked at Caleb as he struggled to his feet, his face scrunched up in pain. He clutched his stomach as he stood hunched over slightly, clearly still feeling the agonizing hurt from his broken and cracked ribs. Serenity rushed over to him, allowing him to lean on her for as much support as he needed. She was no longer looking at Caleb, but at Emerson with both concern and confusion in her eyes. Keeping her eyes on him seemed to be a challenge, though, as her brother clapped and chuckled.

"You are smarter than I've ever given you credit for, Emerson." Caleb commented, flashing his pearly whites.

Before Emerson could respond, the king spoke, "He did do it for nothing, your majesty. Now that I know the truth," the crown that was sitting atop Darius' head seemed to glitter and become a more prominent object as he stood firm, holding his head high as a king would, "the peace treaty will hold with your kingdom. No war will be started with your kingdom ever again."

The prince tutted at his father and shook his head. "You two are very similar, you know," he gestured to both Darius and Emerson as he began to slowly circle the two of them, "Always making promises that cannot be kept."

"Your taunts are becoming a bore, Caleb." The unconcerned tone of Emerson's voice betrayed his face, which was the epitome of worry; he had his guard up; his eyes followed Caleb's every movement.

"Ah, yes, I suppose that I should get to the point of all this." He stopped at the foot of the steps that led to his father's throne. He turned his back to the three and stood there, staring at the throne with hungry eyes. "We would've been so close to winning the war if you had just taken my advice, father."

"Your advice?"

"Two weeks prior to your receiving of Emerson's letter—a few days before the death of his father—you called us into a war meeting. I was elated; I had written up multiple strategies on how we could break the stalemate and finally, after so many years of fighting, bring the victory home. But you, you took one look at my plans and tossed them aside; you threw them into the fire, father." His head turned, his eyes now fixated on his father's, "Do you remember that day?"

Darius' eyes flashed with realization, and the surprise was evident, "I do, but I don't see how—"

"That was the day I realized how truly incompetent you and our ancestors have been." Caleb continued, "100 years, Darius. 100 years and neither side had won yet. I could've—I would've changed that for us. We would've had him and the scum he calls his subjects on their knees; we would've had Kingdom Hallow. And having Hallow means that we would've had enough strength to take over the rest of the kingdoms. We could've been the greatest kingdom to have ever been made, and you threw our chances into the fire."

"Caleb—" Serenity tried to say, but she was interrupted by Caleb as her father had been.

"I thought that one daughter would've been enough, that Genevieve's death would have been enough, but I was wrong. Even after all signs had been pointed to him, you and everyone else still trusted him enough to allow him to try and find her killer. I had to improvise, of course, and that meant that I, too, would have to put my "prejudice" against him aside in order to help with the interrogations. If I hadn't done that, it would've looked suspicious. And things were going fairly well. All of the red herrings were working in my favor—even some that I didn't orchestrate myself were working—and I thought that I would have enough time to plant even more clues and seeds of doubt that Emerson was guilty, but, again, I was wrong."