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“You may be asking yourselves—why am I here?”
Victoria articulated the last few words slowly, enunciating each syllable. Her voice echoed in the grand hall, with its high ceilings and granite pillars.
Arms clasped behind her back, she paced in front of a handful of mages lined up in a row. They flinched as she spoke, many of their heads bowed in submission—one of them, a woman, sobbed openly. A large crowd surrounded the spectacle, entranced by her performance.
“Why, indeed.” She stopped to face the hysterical middle-aged woman. “You. I grew up with you.”
The woman nodded nervously, her lips trembling.
Victoria raised her brows. “You once told me I would never be powerful.”
The woman shook her head vigorously, falling to the ground as tears streaked her face.
Victoria laughed, her tone oozing malevolence. “Am I powerful now, Charlotte?”
“I’m sorry. So, so sorry.” Charlotte shifted forward on her knees, arms clasped and pleading. More tears spilled from her eyes, her entire body quivering with palpable fear.
Victoria smiled. “It’s a little late for that now, Charlotte.”
“P-please.” Charlotte dropped her face to the floor.
Rolling her eyes, Victoria turned to the man beside Charlotte. He met her gaze then fell, trembling, to his knees. He held his clasped hands to his face in supplication.
“Ah, but Marshall, I haven’t even told you what you’ve done wrong.”
“I have a family. I’ll do anything,” he whispered.
Victoria paused, looking between the pair on the floor.
“The two of you.” She pointed between them. “Hold your breath.”
A chill swirled the air as the icy touch of Victoria’s magic engulfed the mages, compelling them to her will.
Victoria bent forward, peering into their bulging eyes. “Fun little experiment.” Straightening, she folded her arms then brought a finger to her chin. “I honestly don’t know what will happen after you fall unconscious.” She turned to the room. “If either survives, they are to be exiled to the no-mag zone.”
Gasps and quiet mutterings rippled through the crowd.
Victoria moved on to her next victims.
“You three were loyal to my parents.” She clucked her tongue three times, shaking her head. “What’s worse, you’ve been wagging your tongues, telling people I shouldn’t be here—ruling all of this.” She gestured around the elegant room, a grand hall on the main level of her seventy-five story, New York highrise, her home.
The three elderly gentlemen straightened in a pathetic show of defiance; the one on the far end folded his arms.
“Ah, there it is.” Victoria turned to the crowd. “Do you know what that was?” No one spoke. “That was the justification for what I’m about to do.”
The man on the end visibly paled.
She nodded to the man. “You’ll be last.”
Turning to the other two, she commanded, “Run. Run until your hearts give out.”
Ice cold magic circled the mages, securing her grip on their minds. Without hesitation, the two sprinted from the room, leaving an eerie silence behind.
Victoria circled the final man, then paused, holding a hand out to her side. A guard rushed forward, placing a knife in her open palm—bowing before moving away. She flipped it in the air, catching it by the blade, then held it forward.
“Take it.”
The man complied. He had to.
“Let’s start with your eyes...”
The vision faded as ash and black smoke curled around me, clouding my sight. It cleared again as another premonition took shape, then another. Fresh tears streamed down my frostbitten cheeks as I witnessed flashes of a devastating future unfolding before my eyes. I watched in horror as my daughter, my Victoria, forced mage after mage to do despicable things—both to themselves and one another.
Years of abuse and torture, of pain and fear.
I tried to prevent this—all of it.
The blackness consumed me, pitching my world into utter darkness and silence once more.