“Remind me again why I have to go down there with you?”

I looked up at Kylin with disgust. The last thing I wanted to do was spend any time down in his dungeons, trying to talk sense into Katie. The mere thought made my skin crawl.

He took a sip of his tea and placed the cup gently on the counter before glancing at me.

“I feel like you will be softer and will bring more of an approachable factor.”

“Factor for what?” I laughed. I had no idea what he was talking about. I just didn’t want to have to confront Katie.

Kylin walked around the counter and leaned in close to me. I could smell the scent of his cologne as it wafted in my nostrils. He was so handsome and utterly appealing that I got lost in the moment. He made me forget everything.

Sure, I would do anything he asked me to. I was as good as hooked on him and his intense sexual attraction. I wanted to please him. I was under his seductive spell.

“We need to take her with us,” Kylin said firmly, as if the subject was not up for debate.

I let out a snorting sound that had the undertones of hysteria laced within them. “Are you kidding? You mean you want to take her to the Dolarian moon?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. He must have been having a momentary lapse of sanity.

“That’s right.” Kylin nodded gravely. I knew there was no arguing my way out of this one.

“Why? What good will she be to us there?” I continued to jeer at his idea. I knew my voice was a decibel below a shriek at this point, but I hardly cared.

“I can tell you are still very bitter about the joke and her involvement,” Kylin began. I could tell he was trying to exercise patience with me.

“Um, yeah, absolutely.” I couldn’t believe my reaction came as such a shock to him. He knew she was just as guilty as Chad was. She’d held the damn camera and recorded the entire thing.

“I think she’s coming around,” Kylin contended. He seemed confident about the situation.

“How can you be so sure?” I remained unconvinced as I pressed him for a theory on why this was a good idea to him.

“Well, first of all,” Kylin suggested, “I know for a fact that she is desperate to get out of that dungeon. She will help us.”

I groaned. “I suppose I have no other option but to go along with this.” I didn’t trust Katie. For all I knew, she might lead us into another trap to seek revenge.

“You will understand my reasoning as soon as we get there and try to use her as a pawn to release Chad.”

“I hope you are right.” I gave him a lecturing glance. It would all fall on his shoulders if this plan backfired.

“I’m the Crown Prince,” he said with an infliction of confidence. “I know what I’m doing.” He gave me a cocky smile.

“What is the goal though?” I continued to press him. I wasn’t going to lie down quietly.

“I want her to try to talk to Chad and get him to cooperate with us.”

“Okay.” I sighed. “Let’s get this over with.” I shook my head. I had my reservations, but we would just have to wait and see what happened.

A few minutes later, I followed Kylin into the dark, damp dungeon. “Ugh.” I held my nose. “The smell down here is horrid, to say the least.” I could imagine Katie was probably going crazy down there.

“It’s a dungeon,” he quipped in a teasing tone as he poked fun at me. “It’s wet, dark, and smelly.”

I followed him down a long corridor lit by eerie lantern light that illuminated flickering shadows against the concrete walls. It looked medieval down there.

I couldn’t help but shiver with an uneasy approach. Now I began to feel sorry for Katie because she had been suffering down here quite a number of days. She was probably cold, dirty, and in desperate need of sunlight.

“I think you are right,” I mentioned to Kylin as I dodged stepping into puddles left and right with nimble grace.

“About what?” Kylin turned to face me with curiosity. He stopped walking for a second.

“Katie has probably learned her lesson,” I joked nervously. My empathy was seeping through.

Kylin’s eyes softened. “We only meant to scare her, not harm her deliberately.”

I took his warm, strong hand. “I know,” I whispered. I was glad he wasn’t a menacing guy at heart.

When we halted in front of Katie’s cell, she white-knuckle gripped the iron bars. She looked terrible. I had to restrain an audible gasp as I inspected her body that was caked with dirt. Her eyes were hollow and sunken in. She looked like she hadn’t eaten the entire time she’d been down there.

“Please, let me out.” She cried for mercy as her eyes darted between me and Kylin. Her voice was shaky and ragged. “I’ll do anything you want me to. I promise. Please. I’m dying down here.”

I pouted at him and my anger faltered as I watched Katie’s defenses crumble in front of me. She had suffered enough, in my opinion. This torture was enough to bring anyone to their senses and show remorse.

“We will release you because we need your help,” Kylin instructed her with a steady attitude. He was treading the waters lightly and easing his way in.

“Yes, anything!” Katie shrieked and clutched the bars, moving her body back and forth in jerky movements. She was weak but must have been getting a jolt of adrenaline at the prospect of being freed.

I stepped back so Kylin could open the cage. To my surprise, Katie fell weakly into his arms as he held her in place, gawking at me with a confused expression.  He wasn’t expecting that to happen, and neither was I. I could tell that he was stuck in a situation where he didn’t want to hold onto her, but if he let her go, she’d probably crumble to dust on the floor.

“Thank you.” Her chest heaved with fresh sobs. “It’s so cold and dark down here.” Her voice sounded relieved and grateful.

We walked upstairs and got into the car to make our way to the ship that would take us to the Dolarian moon where Kylin’s furry water friends resided.

On the way over to the vessel, Kylin had gotten Katie up to speed while I sat there quietly, absorbing all the information myself.

Katie nodded assertively from time to time, and I knew that she was going to be an asset to our plan. Kylin handed her a wet rag that he’d gotten from one of his guards.

He instructed her to try and wipe herself down as best as she could for now until she could get clean in a shower. It was undeniable that there was a musty, reeking stench radiating off her body.

“I’m just so grateful to be outside where the sun shines warmly and not in that dreadful sewer cage,” Katie continued to state so many times in a row that she was growing rather annoying to me.

“Do you think you can talk sense into Chad?” I blurted out, even though up until this point, I wasn’t really part of the conversation. I just wanted justice. I felt sorry for Katie, but that didn’t mean I was ready to be her best friend or anything.

I couldn’t help myself. I wanted to make sure Katie was on our side this time. I needed proof that she wasn’t up to something.

Kylin stared at me as if I needed to tread the waters with Katie carefully and allow her time to process everything. I knew he didn’t want everything to be shredded to pieces if she was a flight risk and a ball of nerves.

In his mind, Katie would help us of her own accord because she was beginning to rethink her relationship with Chad. He was more patient than I was. Maybe he was just well-conditioned to be a leader.

“I hope so,” Katie answered honestly, much to my surprise.

“He’s a jerk,” I mumbled under my breath, stating the obvious.

“I feel like our entire relationship was a lie.” Katie sighed with defeat as she crossed her arms and stared out the window. Her sad expression seemed genuine.

“He manipulated you,” I told her. I was relieved she was finally beginning to see the light. Chad was a prankster, and no one was resistant to becoming infatuated with his witticisms. “He took advantage of you.”

“I know.” Katie nodded and spoke in a soft, humiliated voice. She refused to make eye contact with me, but at least she was agreeing to be helpful. She seemed sheepish and embarrassed.

We drove up to the area where we needed to board the ship. “Are we riding this?” Katie’s eyes were big with fear.

I had to secretly agree with her. The vessel appeared unsteady. I glanced up at Kylin for answers. Hopefully, there was some alternative option for us.

“This ship is used to travel back and forth to our moon on a regular basis.” Kylin spoke with a reassuring tone. “I promise you, it is perfectly safe to travel in.”

I stared at it, skeptical. It was small and appeared thin, with very little windows. I was probably going to become claustrophobic as soon as we boarded, much less shooting into the sky at several hundred miles an hour. I was also prone to motion sickness.

“Trust me.” His eyes flashed with a fire that ignited my soul. He was so handsome and rugged. He made me feel safe just by looking at him.

Once again, I conformed to his wishes and swooned under the trance of his presence. Unlike Katie, I had a choice. If I wanted to go back to the palace, I could have. I was planning to be brave from here on out.

We climbed onto the ship a few minutes later. I clutched my arms around myself. “It’s freezing on here,” I admitted. I was trembling from both the temperature and the anxiety of the trip.

“Here.” Kylin handed me a heavy space suit and an oxygen mask. “You will need to wear these for protection. They serve a double use as they will also keep you warm.”

I took the items from him and stared at the brown material on the suit. It was stiff and starchy, but I knew I had to put it on for atmospheric pressure reasons while we traveled in space, however brief the trip might be. I would do whatever it took to keep myself alive and sane during the journey.

He helped Katie and me as we struggled to maneuver into the gear, and then he slipped the oxygen masks over our faces.

The suits were heavy and durable, but they were a bear to climb into. The masks were complicated, but after a few minutes, we were finally able to get them strapped onto our faces.

“Why do you not have to wear one?” I tried to breathe through the intense plastic smell of the mask. My voice was muffled under its cloak. I was confused about Kylin’s immunity.

“I will be putting my gear on in a second,” Kylin stated assertively as he sat in the captain’s chair, pushing buttons on screens that looked extremely high-tech and expensive.

There were hundreds of complicated screens, monitors, and buttons. I didn’t understand how anyone could possibly be able to understand and learn all of their functions.

“You know how to pilot this thing?” Katie quivered as she stared at Kylin with dread.

“Indeed, I do,” He grinned at both of us, trying to appease and convince us that everything was going to be okay. As long as he claimed to know what he was doing, we had no choice but to believe him.

He pressed a green button that apparently started the engines because there was a huge roaring sound as smoke billowed and plumed around us.

There was a vibrational pull that hindered me from moving around in the seat, but Kylin strapped me in nonetheless. I took a deep breath into the mask and squeezed my eyes shut. We were seconds away from departure.

“Here we go,” he said as he placed his own protective suit over his body and face.

The engines hummed as we jolted into space, skyrocketing. I tried to catch my breath, but it clung to the back of my throat.

This ride was not as smooth as the luxury space travel I enjoyed on my ride over to the planet Mixis from Earth.

I tried to allow the vibrations and sounds of the ship moving through space to lull me into a trance-like state, but it was impossible to overcome my critical anxiety.  

I squeezed my eyes shut and vowed a refusal to open them until we had safely landed. I tried to draw in calm, measured breaths so that I wouldn’t find myself spinning into a panic attack.

After a few minutes, however, I heard beeping sounds that alarmed me and forced me to surge my eyes open again with a frantic yearning to assess my surroundings.

“What’s happening?’’ I shrieked in panic as I noticed Kylin agitatedly pressing buttons from the captain’s chair.

Shit, I didn’t want to die this way. What was going on? Why was he frantically hitting buttons as if he didn’t know what they did?

“Everything is okay,” he yelled over his shoulder, but a sense of trepidation filled me as I noticed more buttons flashing with warnings on the control boards.

Before long, a second alarm wailed through the ship, crying out in unison with the first bells and making me dizzy with fear. I glanced over at Katie. She was as white as a ghost with an expression flooded with fear.

“Keep your masks on,” Kylin called out. “We may be in for a bit of a rough landing.”

“Rough landing?” I was able to expel the words from my mouth, but they sounded foggy, faint and distant in my ears. I wasn’t prepared for this. Kylin had assured us we would be safe in this space shuttle.

I mentally floated out of my body as an instant coping mechanism. I was scared out of my mind. All the muscles in my body instinctively tensed up as I braced for whatever impact we were certain to face.

Katie gripped her chair and wailed with horror as Kylin continued to attempt to save our aircraft. She wasn’t alone in her fright. I was right there with her.

“The atmospheric pressure is going to be rocky,” Kylin warned. “Brace yourself for impact.”

Impact? Impact into what, exactly? I was afraid of discovering the answer to that plaguing question. Kylin’s voice had a trace of panic in it, which cast me into my own abyss of anxiety.

I was screaming with panic and fear inside my head, but I had to do as he instructed if I wanted to stay alive. I had to trust him. We would survive this. Fate would help us.

He had admitted to making this same trip over and over again, but at the same time, it only took one incident to make the adventure turn to instant danger and peril. Anything manmade was prone to error.

I squeezed my eyes shut and held my breath as the ship shook around me. Supplies began to fly out from their overhead compartments and I could hear Katie shrieking beside me. She had a set of pipes on her. She hadn’t stopped screaming since the alarms began to ring.

Still, I refused to open my eyes and watch my death unfold before my eyes. I didn’t want the last thing I saw or heard to be Katie and her wails of fright.

“We might have a water landing!” Kylin yelled, and now his voice was also laced with fright that filled me with complete terror. I hoped he knew what he was doing.

We weren’t prepared for this. I would just have to wing a water landing because I hadn’t had formal or extensive training. Maybe the protective suits would keep us alive or at least cushion the blow of our fall.

Before I had time to devise a plan in my head on how to survive, the ship touched ground with a boom. My neck and body snapped back, but after a few seconds of breathing hard, I realized I was still alive.

More importantly, the space craft was no longer in motion. I may have whiplash, but my brain still worked and so did my arms and legs.

“Kylin?” I croaked and dared to peel my eyes open. “Kylin, are you alive? Are you okay? Say something if you are okay.”

“I’m here,” he called out, but his voice sounded far away like it was coming through a tunnel or something.

Somewhere beside me, I heard Katie softly crying. At least she was no longer screaming. There was a dull humming sound vibrating through my ears now.

“I’m so sorry for that rough landing,” Kylin stated apologetically. “I didn’t anticipate the air to be that resistant.”

“Are we in water?” Katie wailed. Her eyes were sealed shut.

“No.” Kylin shook his head and I heaved a sigh of relief. “We landed on a small island on an archipelago near the capital city of Dolaria.”

“Are we marooned?” I asked him. I didn’t know if we were out of the woods yet.

“We can get a rescue team from the Crown Prince Jerren,” Kylin responded, although he was aloof and skirting my questions with elusive answers. He sounded unconvinced too, which rattled me.

“What do we do now?” I continued to press him. I wanted to know there was a way out of this.

“Let’s climb out of the ship,” Kylin instructed. “We need to assess the damage.”

He helped lift me to my feet by grabbing me around my waist. I could walk, and that was the most important thing. We may be crashed and stranded, but all three of us had made it through alive.