NINETY NINE: My Name is Keliyah

Kel gave one final look back toward her room. The emperor wasn't coming. Whether he was actually intimidated by Soren's threat or had some other plan in mind, Kel was on her own for now.

And she wasn't about to wait around for some rescue.

"I'm done following obediently," she spat. "From now on, I'm going to do what I want."

"Ha." Soren snorted. "Does someone like you even know what you want?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kel snapped, trying to squirm free of the man's suffocating hold. 

"You're so cute. You know that?" Soren responded, refusing to budge. "You change your mind so often, I can barely keep track. What was it before this? A revenge plan?"

Kel flinched. She certainly hadn't forgotten the abandoned plan, created entirely out of her fury at Barclay's wrongful death. She gave up on that revenge, not because she'd been mistaken about her feelings, but because her anger seemed to be directed to the wrong place.