Selene stood there, frozen with shock.
"You are always sharp-witted," Khael said. "Which makes me wonder why you were," he continued, walking towards Selene in slow, purposeful strides, "I came back in here and found you missing," he added.
He was right; Selene wasn't usually this tongue-tied.
And she wasn't afraid either, but she was just shocked at finding Khael in the chamber. Had she been gone long enough?
This was the time to tell him everything that she knew, and if he was going to believe her was entirely up to him.
"I took a short walk," Selene started.
If she was going to get Khael to listen to her, it would be best not to provoke him to anger by revealing that she was actively trying to escape, even though he already suspected that from the look in his eyes.
Khael scoffed. "You try to take me for a fool the second time?" Khael asked, his voice thick.
That look of intense lust, desire, and possessiveness were still in his eyes, and Selene could feel it. She could see it in his eyes.
It touched the core of her very being and elicited something forbidden deep inside of her.
She meant to look away, but on the other hand, if she looked away, Khael might realize that she was lying to him. Selene was human, so she knew and understood that avoidance of eye contact meant that a person was lying.
That was usually how her parents acted around them when Selene and her siblings were much younger, and it worked for her parents for the most part of their growing years before Selene, Elias, and Lyra got a hang of their trick and started to beat them in their game.
Standing before her wasn't a human, so she couldn't guarantee if he would work for him or not, but she didn't want to risk it.
So Selene maintained eye contact as best as she could and allowed the emotions running through Khael's eyes to feast on her body.
However, she couldn't also deny that alongside the look of lust, desire, and possessiveness were distrust, anger, and suspicion.
Selene knew just exactly what King Khael was suspecting her of.
"If I meant to escape, I wouldn't walk back in here on my own accord, would I?" Selene asked Khael, placing her hands firmly on her hips and standing defiantly.
Khael's eyes followed her hands and rested on her hips as well and he swallowed.
He didn't let his eyes linger there anyway.
"Don't leave my chamber without my knowledge or permission," Khael ordered.
His order seemed weak. Looking at him, Selene realized that he seemed weighed down. There was something troubling him.
It had to be the impending war.
If she didn't know, she would have thought that he mellowed because he got lost in staring at her figure. Since she had been deprived of putting on her disguise, the outfits she wore pretty much showed the curves that she possessed as a woman.
"Well, you always have me locked in, so there is no need for that order," Selene retorted.
If he was going to keep her locked in and trapped because he had claimed her as his possession, there was no need ordering her around. Finding the chamber door open was merely luck on her path.
One that she didn't use well.
"I mean it, Selene," Khael stated. "Now is not the time to be defiant and unyielding. A lot is going on that you do not know about, and it will only be in your best interest to be where you have been asked to be," Khael stated.
His words sounded much like a deep warning and it vibrated through Selene's body.
Now was the time to tell him what her false short walk discovered, but the only challenge that Selene was having was how to go about it.
"What is going on?" Selene asked with a low voice.
Maybe if he told her about the war, she could be able to open up easily about the plot that might be going on behind him, but she was wrong.
"It is not your concern to have," Khael responded tightly.
Of course, he would never tell a mere human that war was looming over the Xyioms.
Never would Selene have thought that the ones who tormented the human race and caused them to live in constant fear and trembling also had their fair share of war.
Selene wondered what it was like for them.
Would a higher power, just as they were higher and more powerful than the humans, also invade their kingdom and destroy everything they had? Would they also take their Xyiom women to their kingdom and possess them forcefully?
These were thoughts that ran through Selene's mind.
"I overhead something," Selene blurted out.
There was no other way that she could have done it.
However, she didn't quite expect Khael's reaction. As he looked at her, his eyes gleamed with anger and disapproval.
He was an inch away from Selene in a flash…too close to her.
"Did you go placing your nose where you shouldn't?" He asked gruffly, much to Selene's surprise.
She had expected that he would be interested in wanting to know what, instead, he seemed offended by the fact that she heard something.
Selene swallowed. Her body shivered.
It wasn't in reaction of how he took her words, but from the nearness of him.
She hadn't expected to react this way to him, ever. Selene could feel his body, his breath, his presence all over her, and to make matters worse, he could also feel it too.
The air between Selene and Khael became charged with sensual tension.
It had never been like this before.
Khael drew in closer, his breathing higher, caressing Selene's cheeks as he leaned in. She could have sworn that he was going to kiss her.
And strangely, Selene yearned for it.
But the moment was harshly interrupted by the loud knock on the door.
"Open!" Khael barked the order harshly.
He was angry and disappointed at the ruined moment, and so was Selene, slightly.
The door opened and the same warrior that Selene thought she saw at Lord Dain's domain walked in.
"What is it, Akerman?" Khael asked gruffly.
"Queen Mother Ilyra awaits you at the court," he responded.
Khael wasted not a single moment in walking out of the chamber as though he wasn't about to kiss Selene a few seconds ago, but that wasn't what perplexed Selene.
If the warrior was Akerman, then he certainly was
n't the one with Lord Dain in his domain.
So who was he?