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There was the issue of the real Princess Adriell to resolve before that, however. To make Keliyah the empress of his nation, he\'d need to make her identity known.

Her identity.

Come to think of it, Calix had never seen her true form. What did she look like when she was using the dragon\'s power? Beautiful? Terrifying? Most likely both of those, though neither word could be adequate to describe such a spectacle.

Calix\'s heart pounded when he thought of seeing it for himself.

"Can you show it to me?" he murmured, burying his nose into Keliyah\'s warm neck.

Of course, he didn\'t mean right then and there.

Still, the desire to see all of her and possess all of her, down to her deepest secrets was getting more difficult to ignore.

How could he get her to open up to him?

For starters, he wanted to show her the entire Serin empire. He was certain that, if she saw the beautiful cities and quaint villages dotting the fertile eastern lands of the continent, she would never want to leave.

Since taking the throne, he\'d been working long hours with his allies to end the famines, epidemics and other issues plaguing the people of the empire. Just as Itzae had instructed him as a child, he was doing his best to save them. All of them.

Surely, Keliyah would be impressed with his work.

"What\'s the matter with you?" Ira questioned, interrupting the emperor\'s daydreaming. "Are you going to stare at that paper all night?"

"I\'m just.. happy," Calix smiled, sending chills down his advisor\'s spine. "Oh. This mess with Subterra won\'t delay inspections too much, will it?"

"It should be fine to leave for inspections as planned so long as you leave some capable people here to deal with any unanticipated repercussions," Ira replied. "Like Miss Lucille.. and Roland, maybe."

"Lucy?" Calix frowned. "That\'s no good. She\'d definitely want her to come along."

"She? You mean the princess?" Ira shook his head. "Is this your way of courting her?"

The emperor snorted. "Courting? Why would an emperor waste time with such things?"

"Ah, are you just getting her away from that Dashien fellow, then?" Ira poked. "I mean, he is stiff competition, if I do say so myself."

A death glare from Calix put an end to Ira\'s taunting, and the two men both went back to work.

Whatever the connection between Dashien and Keliyah, Calix wasn\'t terribly worried about it. He knew that no matter how many times she flew away from him into that man\'s hands, she\'d always find her way back.

That is, until..

"She\'s gone, Sire!"

Calix turned a fiery glower toward the soldier bowing before his throne. "What did you say?"

"I said she\'s gone. We\'ve dispatched all of our available soldiers and posted rewards in every nearby province, but she\'s completely disappeared!"

This couldn\'t be happening.

"The man named Dashien that you ordered us to track is also nowhere to be found," the soldier continued reporting. "We suspect they have both made it back to Mevani by now."

A few days ago, news that the real Princess Adriell of Mevani was engaged to Prince Tahir of Pandreia took the empire by storm. The council members were in a flurry of anger that someone from Mevani dared disgrace the empire with an imposter. Their rage only increased when they found that both the fraudster and the imposter had disappeared.

None, however, was more furious than the Dragon Emperor.

He couldn\'t care less about Princess Adriell and her recent engagement, as he\'d already known the bird in his possession wasn\'t her. What angered him was that, after everything, Keliyah had gone with Dashien.

They were probably holding hands and smiling at that very moment, Keliyah happily displaying her magnificent powers for the man\'s undeserving eyes.

"Bring her back," Calix growled, having angered himself even further with his imagination. "I don\'t care what it takes. Bring her back to me!"

"Um, Sire?" the courier vigorously taking notes off to the side piped up. "Do you want her whole body brought here, or is just her head enough?"

His scarlet eyes seething, Calix stood up and stomped over to the trembling courier. Baring his teeth, he yanked the man\'s chair out from under him and threw it across the room.

With a loud crash, the wooden chair smashed into a large pillar, sending shards raining down on panicked council members.

"Let me make this clear," Calix boomed, grabbing the unfortunate courier by the neck of his shirt. "If that woman is not brought before me with her life intact, everyone in this palace shall lose theirs!"

Whether she had indeed gone back to Mevani or traveled as far as the desolate northern lands, Calix would find her. If needed, he would burn every inch of the continent he was supposed to save to the ground.

Until the disobedient girl was back in his arms or he was in his grave, he would never stop searching.

Throwing the courier to the ground, Calix stormed out of the throne room, muttering under his breath about an obtuse girl with the emotional intelligence of a nose-picking gate guard.

"Wow.. he\'s really angry this time," Thane whispered after the throne room doors slammed shut.

"Angry?" A woman chuckled behind him. "Are we watching the same man?"

"Now, Miss Lucille," Ira chimed in. "Don\'t confuse the poor boy. He can hardly recognize his own feelings."

"Eh?" Thane turned a confused stare to Lucy, whose cheeks flushed ever so slightly under his gaze.

"Oh, I\'m well aware of that, Sir," she conceded, looking away from Thane\'s adorably bewildered expression.

With a sigh, her eyes landed on the large red doors the emperor had just stomped through.

"I hope the princess... or whoever she actually is comes back soon."