"It would have been better if we never found you."
Those words haunted Kel for the remainder of the short journey back to Mevani's palace.
Though her captors were her old colleagues, they had no intentions of giving her even the slightest opening for her to escape.
She could have tried to fight them, to burn them all to ashes. She'd contemplated it over and over, but it never felt right.
It didn't take long after reaching the palace for her to regret that choice, however.
As she was forcibly pushed to her knees in front of the king, her body too shocked to move on its own, she realized what exactly had happened in Mevani.
"Hello, Kel."
The man sitting on the throne grinned devilishly at her, an expression she'd never seen on his face before.
"H-how?" she blurted, forgoing formalities. "Why?"
"Tsk tsk," the man clicked his tongue disapprovingly. "I'm the king now, Kel. Why don't you greet me appropriately?"
