Ember of the Underworld

2.

"The Prince of Darkness
is a gentlemen." [William Shakespeare]

"What are you doing here?" he asked her, his tone confident for someone just having been caught. He crossed his arms and looked at her.

Koralina was stunned into silence. She had not expected to run into another person, even less so to find someone in a place she knew they shouldn't be.

"The same could be asked of you," Koralina said, trying to keep her cool, "Isn't this Mr. Wheeler's office? What are you doing going through his files?"

She knew the audacious efforts of reporters oftentimes crossed boundaries to get information, but she couldn't imagine that this was the way to go about it.

"That," he said, his tone matter-of-fact, "is none of your business. Now, back to my original question, what are you doing here?"

Koralina blinked. "I was looking for the library."

"Well, you missed it by that much." He scowled.

"It's further down the hall. Double doors on the right. Can't miss it."

Koralina found his attitude towards her incredulous. He stood amid incriminating evidence and yet made it seem as if she had been the one trespassing.

She met his hard stare with one of her own.

"Bye." he gave a dismissive wave, wishing that she'd make his life easier and simply forget what she had seen and leave.

"I'm not going anywhere," Koralina said. "Not when you're trespassing in a place you shouldn't be."

"And how do you know I'm trespassing? For all you know I could be an estranged son."

"Well, are you?" she inquired.

"No."

She balled her fists. "Then I'm not going anywhere until I get some answers."

He sighed heavily, and glowered at her. "What a wonderful moral compass you have."

Koralina's mouth nearly dropped to the floor at his bold command. It wasn't as if she wanted to pull rank, but did he know who she was? Perhaps not.

Koralina took three assertive steps and slid into one of the two chairs set in front of the desk.

Leaning forward he rested his hands on the table. "Princess, you are beginning to irritate me and that is a very dangerous position to be in."

She raised her chin and looked up at his looming figure "I'll take my chances."

His expression hardened.

"And I'm not a princess," she added, reclining back in the plush chair and crossing her arms in front of her.

She had been called princess before, and even then she'd hated it. The Blackwood family was not true royalty, even though Danielle Blackwood painted over her daughters to appear and act as though they were, as the young regal heirs to the Blackwood throne, they were nothing more than young girls subject to the raging regality of their mother. The Blackwood family was devised of Kings and Queens in their own right, but Koralina Blackwood? She was no princess.

"Well, you certainly look like one." Pushing off of the desk, he pivoted on his heel and rounded it. "Here, why don't I escort the lovely princess to the library."

Koralina followed him with her eyes as he took towards the door and gestured with his hand for her to walk through.

Rising from her seat, cautious of his motive, she joined him at the front of the room.