“Your crown is made of the people’s bones and hunger.”

“Leave.”

“You can’t just ignore what you have fallen into, Michael.”

“Leave now or the consequences will match the crime, Sarah.”

He made eye contact with the guards near the door, indicating to take her out of the room to the dungeons below. Sarah saw this and began to yell even louder.

“You were supposed to be different from them! You were supposed to help the people and create a prosperous economy, not using them as your punching bags when meetings with other kingdoms don’t go well and steal their magic to make your own personal apparel. You were supposed to be better! We could have worked together and created something better for our people.

At that moment the guards grabbed her under the arms and pulled her back. As she resisted their pull, she let her body go and made them drag her out. If she was going to be removed, they would have to force her out. He turned toward his big flashy throne, like he couldn’t see what he was doing. She was losing her friend moment by moment. Losing her kingdom each step they took closer to leaving the hall. Everything she was afraid of happening was appearing before her. He was no better than his parents, and their parents before them.

The closer she was getting to the door the more she was losing him, he was going through with it.

“You know what will happen if I go through those doors”

The guards stopped, Everything stopped. Even the guards knew what it would mean if she went to the dungeon. She could almost hear his breathing heighten from across the room.

“If you throw me down there, a war will come.” Exasperated, she said, ”My kingdom will hear about this, and they won’t back down until I am safe.”

He turned around and began to stare at her, and her at him. Those seconds seemed like forever. He was contemplating, he had to have been doubting himself. He could change his mind right now and turn things around.

He started walking toward them. All you could hear was the tap of his shoes on the marbled bone ground. As he approached, he knelt down and grabbed her face by her chin. All she could see were those amber eyes whose red tint was no longer faint, but became the new color.

He spat into her ear, “And you could have had an actual chance to take on that war if you agreed to my deal. You have no army now, not compared to mine. Now, you’ll get nothing but loss and death. Your kingdom will become mine regardless of your useless presence”

He stood and directed the guards where to take Sarah, and began to drag her out of the throne room. He was gone.