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How could such an impeccable plan go so wrong so fast? Kel mourned, hanging her head.

She scoffed at the version of herself who, only a few hours ago, was prematurely celebrating how easy it would be to accomplish her revenge.

I should have accounted for the fact that the Dragon Emperor is always two steps ahead, not just one, she whined internally.

Plus, it seemed Soren, who she hadn\'t accounted for at all, was also at least a step ahead of her.

Why was everyone else so much better at this than she was?!

As they clattered back toward the palace, she tried her best to think of a possible way to explain her way out of this situation.

Should she pretend Dash was her old lover and she went to seek comfort in his ar-blargh.

No, that was no good. Kel couldn\'t even finish that thought without gagging.

Instead, she could say she was just seeking solace in a fellow countryman.

Did someone who supposedly betrayed his entire country still count as a \'fellow countryman\', though?

That\'s it!

She could just out both of their identities. That way, even if she died, at least she\'d take Dash down with her. Mevani would also likely come under the emperor\'s radar.

But how could she punish the emperor then?

"It\'s hopeless," she accidentally mumbled aloud.

"... Why do you keep running away?" The emperor suddenly asked, refusing to look at Kel.

Oh no.

Lover or fellow countryman? Lover or fellow countryman?

"He\'s my lover!" She blurted.

Stupid!! She scolded herself. Lover wasn\'t supposed to be an option!

The emperor sighed, putting up a hand. "Just how many times today do you plan on using that ludicrous defense?"

Kel was doomed.

"Haha.. ha.. I have no idea what you mean," she chuckled mechanically.

Kel was very much doomed.

Rolling his eyes, the emperor threw a stack of papers on the floor. "If you\'re done pretending, how about we talk about this?"

Doomed was no longer an accurate term to describe Kel\'s future. She was positively, irredeemably done for.

During her four-day quarantine, she\'d worked vigorously and stealthily to pry a floorboard loose in the very back corner of her closet. Before she left, she\'d hidden her precious revenge blueprints underneath the board and replaced it.

Without already knowing that such a cache existed, nobody would ever notice it. Kel had ensured the floorboard perfectly matched the rest, and besides, the light never seemed to illuminate that corner anyway.

It was an incredible hiding spot by all accounts.

So why was every single one of her blueprints now laying on the carriage floor at her feet?

As she agonized over her next words, an old lesson from Uncle Itzae suddenly popped into her mind.

\'When you\'re backed into an inescapable corner, you have two options: lie down and die, or play dumb.\'

"What are these, Your Majesty?" Kel asked innocently, tilting her head to the side. "Was I, perhaps, supposed to read them or something?"

"Yolu really.. !" The emperor fumed, flashing Kel a murderous glare.

"I-I apologize, Sire, for not realizing sooner that I was supposed to read them!" Kel pleaded, clasping her hands at her chin. "I\'ve been so consumed with grief for my fallen comrade that I just couldn\'t-"

"Enough!!" The emperor barked.

One by one, he gathered up the papers and began shuffling through them, scanning the contents. Kel gulped nervously as he paused on the page detailing his own excruciating demise.

"So, you were planning to stab me in the heart with the same poison that man was inflicted with?" To Kel\'s surprise, the emperor smirked as he spoke.

"Well it didn\'t necessarily have to be the hea-Ah! I mean.. What horrible things to speak of, Your Majesty," Kel exclaimed girlishly as she furiously blinked her widened eyes.

"The best part, however," he continued, shuffling to another page, "is that you wanted to blame the entire thing on the king of Mevani."

"Haha.. what?" Kel continued blinking, clenching her clasped hands even more tightly.

"Does that man know he raised such a rebellious little brat?" the emperor shook his head, unsuccessfully hiding his amusement.

"How is that funny?!" Kel shot back. "I mean, if it were true, how would that be funny?!"

"Did you really think I\'d fall for the flimsy list of \'evidence\' you have here?" He went on, his voice trembling on the verge of laughter.

We\'ll see who\'s laughing when you\'re dying from poison! Kel wanted to shout.

"To think I would spend my final agonizing moments ordering my armies to crush a tiny useless kingdom," the emperor broke out in giggles, "because of a half-burnt forged letter and this necklace."

He pulled Kel\'s red pearl necklace out of his pocket and dangled it near her face. The chain shook with his waves of laughter, causing the pearl to shimmer as it swung back and forth.

"Are you really laughing at this?" Kel snapped, snatching the necklace from his hand. "I-someone probably worked really hard on that!"

The emperor quickly calmed his chuckles and cleared his throat.

"It\'s actually a surprisingly detailed and well thought out plan," he remarked, setting the stack of parchments on the seat next to him. "Every move has been accounted for--from tracking down the whereabouts of the poison, to escaping unseen from the crime scene."

Kel\'s wounded pride recovered a small amount from the praise. He was right, after all. It was a top-notch plan.

"It\'s just comical to think that a naive little princess created this without realizing her own position," he smirked.

"I\'m sure she realized her position perfectly, Your Majesty," Kel huffed, crossing her arms.

At that moment, the carriage rattled to a halt. They were back at the palace, stopped directly in front of the main doors.

Kel swallowed hard. Playing dumb obviously hadn\'t worked. She could only imagine the horrible things awaiting her outside the carriage door.

As she grimaced, uncontrollably imagining the worst possible fate, the emperor reached out and grabbed a piece of her hair.

"When I first saw you, I thought of a beautiful bird," he murmured. "And like any other precious creature, I put you in a cage. One in which I could watch you whenever I wanted to."

Kel couldn\'t tell if her heart was beating from embarrassment or fear. The emperor sounded like he meant his words literally. If that was the case, the cage he was talking about would be the west building.

But what did he mean by being able to watch her whenever he wanted to?

"T-that\'s rather disturbing," Kel stammered, pushing the emperor\'s hand away.

Catching her hand in his, the emperor yanked her toward him. She crashed onto the ground on her knees, her nose inches away from his abdomen.

"Tell me, Princess. What should I do if the bird keeps escaping from her cage?"