effort to stay as far away from the door as possible, just in case whoever was about to enter should decide to reach through the bars and strangle me.
I heard a bar lifted off of the door’s far side. My heart leapt into my throat and stayed there, pounding uncomfortably as I waited.
A severe-looking dragon-kin walked inside. His hair was clipped short and his complexion was pale. He barely glanced at me before returning his gaze to the door.
“Here you are, Your Majesty,” he said. The words hit me as if they had been a bomb. There was only one person that should be called 'Your Majesty' in this castle, and I felt my legs turn to jelly at the thought.
However, the person who walked into the room was not the one I expected to see. Long, expensive robes and a delicate silver crown now adorned his head, but I never knew him to endure such finery.
“You’re 'Your Majesty'?” I blurted.
The blood that fled my face was now flooding it in embarrassment and anger. I was now leaning on the bars, feeling much like I would be the one to do some strangling.
“'Your Majesty'?!” I repeated like it would become a lie the more I said the phrase.
“Oh, good. You're awake,” Levent muttered as his escort pulled in a plush chair for him. He did not take it.
I felt like I was going to throw up.
“What is this? Some kind of joke?”
“You will watch your tongue, faun,” the pale dragon-kin said. “You will not speak to Prince Itzallion in such a way.”
“Prince,” I muttered lamely, my jaw not quite letting my mouth close. An angry heat started building up in my chest.
“It's alright. You can go,” Levent growled at his guard.
The pale kin nodded but backed out of the room slowly, as if I would rip through the bars when his back was turned. The heavy door swung shut with a thud.
“WHAT IS GOING ON?” I shouted, unable to suppress myself any longer.
“Naitlya,” he barked, “I need you to calm down.”
“Calm down?” I shrieked. “I don't know if you've noticed, Your Majesty, but I'm being imprisoned in Schoale-bloody-Castle, symbol of Estelhein and home of the