Elzira

Two Days Later…

 

The fairy tale is over.

It’s easy to remain in a world of pretend when you’re locked away in a tower being ravished by a devilishly handsome, ruthless king.

Now it’s back to reality.

I must face the hard parts of my life. The ones I wish I could avoid. Saying goodbye to a chapter in my story.

Pain burns inside me, angry and devastated, but my beast freezes it out and gnashes its teeth. No time for weakness. I’ve spent my entire reign being weak. I am no longer the woman I was. I’m changed.

My crown is heavy on my head, reminding me of my place in this kingdom. When I enter the dining room, Ryke sits at the head of the table, an emotionless expression on his face. The only tell that he feels anything for me is a small tick in his jaw.

“Truth Seeker,” I greet icily.

“Punisher.”

I swallow down my anger and turn my eyes away from him as I wait. “Where is my sister?” I demand.

“On her way,” he assures me, rising to his feet.

The temperature drops a few degrees as I attempt to keep my feelings under control. When I hear Yanna’s voice as she yells at Danser, my heart rate picks up. Her footsteps quicken and I turn in time to catch her in an embrace.

“My sister,” she cries out, squeezing me tight.

“Little sister,” I choke out. “Here you are.”

She pulls away, her hands on my shoulders, and inspects me. “How are you? Has he hurt you?”

So beautiful.

An exact replica of her mother, even down to the way her full breasts nearly spill out of the top of her dress, enticing any male with a working cock. Her lips are stained red and her eyes are lined in black. Her beauty was always something I was envious over.

“That’s enough,” Ryke barks, gripping my arm and yanking me back.

Yanna glowers at him. “Get your hands off my sister, you monster!”

Ryke summons his fires and his palm blazes red-hot, sending Yanna stepping back several paces. He snuffs out his heat and then pulls a cloth from his pocket.

When he reaches up and pulls my crown from my head, Yanna cries out in horror.

“Elzira,” she whimpers, fear in her voice. “Run.”

“If she runs, I’ll catch her,” Ryke promises in a wicked tone, sending a chill straight down my spine. He sets the crown at my feet and then he ties the cloth around my head, silencing me from speaking.

I don’t fight him.

I knew this was coming.

He uses his whip to bind my hands behind me, reminding me of our first encounter.

“Queens look pretty on their knees,” he rumbles, nudging the backs of my legs with his knees, forcing me to fall forward. He catches me by my hair before I land painfully and eases me the rest of the way down. “Lovely.”

“Elzira,” Yanna says tearfully. “I’m so sorry.”

Ryke snorts as he walks over to her. He toys with a dark strand of her hair, his heat making the air around him ripple.

“Why are you sorry?” he asks, his voice sounding slightly amused. “Because you can’t save her?”

She nods, fat tears streaking down her pretty face.

“All you’ve done your entire life is try to save hers,” he says as though he feels sorry for her. “You’ve dedicated your entire life to this dying, Cold Queen. Is that true, Princess?”

Yanna’s brows furl together and she cuts her eyes to his. “She’s my sister.”

“She is the present.” Ryke glances over at me, his fiery eyes cold. “What about the future, hmmm? When the frigid queen has drawn her last breath and is a queen no more, where does that leave the selfless sister?”

“I don’t know,” she murmurs, peeking up at him beneath her lashes. Her plump lips part and her jiggly breasts quiver with each breath she takes.

His fingertip strokes through the wetness of her cheek. “Perhaps a princess is ready to be promoted to a queen.”

She looks up at him, her lips twitching with a smile. “A queen?”

“Beautiful and feared,” he says. “A fiery queen of the Volcs.” His head nods my way and he walks over to me to run his fingers through my hair. “Are you weak, Yanna, like your dear sister here on her knees and missing her crown?”

It’s then my eyes lock with Yanna’s.

The love has hardened into something much harder than ice or stone or diamondblade.

Hate.

Her laugh is cruel as it echoes in the dining room. “Weak? I will never be weak…like her.”

I stiffen, affected more than I imagined by hearing the words tumble from her mouth.

“It’s her fault, you know,” Yanna says bitterly.

“Her fault?” Ryke goads. “Your mother’s death?”

Yanna trembles with anger. “No, our father’s favor. She was the cloth covering his eyes. Elzira, you blinded him.”

Ryke asks the question I wish I could.

“How so, Princess?”

“He was blind by his love toward her. His sureness of the fact she’d become a great queen one day. He favored her and treated me as an insignificant daughter. An ignorant child not worthy of love or a future.” Her features tighten with anger. “When they died, I vowed to dethrone the witch.” She sneers at me. “My mother made sure of that.”

My beast inside me rattles, desperate to ravage the world around me. Instead, I keep it on a tight leash.

“Your mother?” Ryke asks. “She betrayed the king?”

She shakes her head. “No, she loved him. So much so that she took him from Elzira’s mother.”

What?

“Go on,” he urges.

“She slowly poisoned her. So often, before bed, she’d whisper just how she’d done it, too. I listened in awe,” Yanna says dreamily, making my stomach clench in horror. “I learned.”

My poor mother. She wasn’t sick from some incurable disease. My mother was attacked by a friend who wanted her husband.

“You were a child, yes?” Ryke probes.

“The kingdom was to be mine,” Yanna hisses. “Mother promised me so many times. I was to be queen of the Norta Icelands.”

Her betrayal is a worse cut than that of Cavon’s. This one cuts to the soul.

Ryke walks over to her and leans in to inhale her. She relaxes at his proximity. “And now, Princess?”

“I could be your queen too,” she breathes, clearly taken by his handsomeness and decadent scent.

Ryke smiles at her, lighting up the entire room with the warmth of it. “I’d like that,” he croons. “But first, Princess, you must prove yourself to me. Loyalty is huge where I’m concerned. Trust is even bigger.”

She nods rapidly, her breasts bouncing in tandem with her nodding. “Anything, my king.”

A swell of fury sends a wave of snowflakes billowing around the room. Ryke cuts me with a hard glare. I take a deep breath and calm my emotions. He stares at me for a beat longer before turning to her.

“Kill Elzira. Here. Now. And then I will marry you. We’ll rule over both kingdoms side by side.” He smiles at her again. “You almost succeeded, didn’t you? Without my intervening?”

Yanna glances over at me, hatred gleaming in her eyes. “I tried,” she breathes, her neck burning red with anger. “Oh, how I tried.”

“The tonics?” he probes.

She frowns at him. “How did you now?”

“They don’t call me Truth Seeker for nothing, Princess.” He tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “Go on.”

“The billibone tonic takes away the pains in her stomach. The voxin leaf tonic gives her energy. The yellowberry tonic is known for attacking hidden diseases. When taken daily, she could keep death at bay.” Yanna laughs cruelly. “Poison, poison, and more poison.”

“Yellowberry?” he asks. “Honnin drops?”

She smirks. “Your father had them eradicated, but my mother grew them on the castle grounds. We continue to grow and harvest them.”

My stomach lurches, but for once, not from pain or sickness. It’s because I was so stupid all those years. Not until Ryke came along did I begin to see the facts he silently presented me with. He knew of my stubbornness and allowed me to come to my own conclusions. I may have come to them slowly, but I arrived there nonetheless.

“The chilly baths,” she continues, fueled on by her hate for me. “The lack of fire. All ways meant to send her to death sooner. I even tried to starve her.” She glowers at me. “But you just wouldn’t die, sister.”

Another wave of cold rage consumes me.

Ryke stalks over to me and kneels behind me, snarling in my ear. “You will remain on your knees, Punisher. You will obey me.” His fires sear me between my wrists and the smell of burnt hair fills my nostrils. He rises again and walks over to Yanna, taking her hand in his. “Let’s dine together, shall we?”

Icy tears roll down my cheeks. It’s painful to hold back. To not destroy her for her betrayal. Instead, I stay kneeling beside my crown, a queen disgraced.

He pulls out a chair and helps her sit before barking out to the servants to bring the meal. Familiar faces who’ve worked for me my entire life enter the room carrying covered dishes, their sneers fixated on me. When they see Yanna, they smile and nod, proud of her dirty work. Ryke sits on the edge of the table near Yanna.

“These are your loyal servants who betrayed your queen to aid you?” he asks, looking at each one.

“They are,” she says proudly.

The air around us chills as my fury goes unchecked. Steel scraping stone is the sound that can be heard as I produce my diamondblades. I sling them out, aiming for the servants who tried to kill me. Sickening sounds resonate as the blades make deadly purchase, sending them all falling to their feet. Ryke shoots me a malevolent look when he yanks a blade from his shoulder blade. Had he not been sitting where he’s at, the blade would have taken out the rotten, betraying princess. Pity.

“Don’t worry,” Ryke purrs as he lifts a lid from a plate. “I won’t let her hurt you. We haven’t had breakfast yet.” He slides off the table and chuckles. “What? You don’t like pastries?”

She blinks in confusion at the plate. The same plate she offered me all these years when she was trying to get me to eat so I wouldn’t waste away and die. Little by little, she poisoned me with pastries and tea. She sucked out my life with cold baths and no fire. And I let her. I let her because she was my sister and I couldn’t see the truth.

The Truth Seeker saw what I couldn’t see, though.

He separated us and healed me. Kept me away from my killer. Loved me when I needed it most.

“What?” Ryke asks. “Not to your tastes?” He walks over to me and strokes my hair. “Perhaps we can come up with a more creative way for you to die.”

Her eyes widen when I grab my crown and rise to my feet. He takes it from me, places it on top of my head, and then brushes his lips over mine. “Get your vengeance, wife.”

“Wife?” she sputters. “What are you talking about?”

I grin wickedly at her. “While Ryke and I were negotiating, he opened my eyes. Then, he made love to me. He slowly rid your poison from my veins.” I turn to accept a deeper kiss from him. “And after he nearly died from poison that Cavon clearly got from you, we married in a quiet ceremony yesterday because I couldn’t bear to spend another second without him.”

“You witch,” she hisses.

“Did you really think someone like him could love someone like you?” I taunt, loving to see the traitor squirm. “Tell me, sister, can you make the sky rain ice?”

I motion downward and let out a scream of rage. Ice slams from the air and into the stone around her—tall spikes caging her in.

“Tell me, sister, can you make the temperature drop at the snap of your fingers?” I cackle when I snap and the air becomes deadly cold.

Her teeth chatter together as the air clouds white at her heavy breathing. “Y-You should have d-died! C-Cavon was weak! Your k-king is weak! Our f-father was weak! I’m t-the only strong one h-here! I d-deserve to b-be queen!”

I rush forward, summoning my cold through my fist and forming a sword forged of diamondblade. Her eyes widen as I near, but she has nowhere to run to. Between the bars of her icicle prison, I slide in my diamondblade sword right into her stomach. She gasps and gapes at me as though she can’t believe I’ve stabbed her.

“I wouldn’t die because I was meant to become this,” I snarl, pulling out my blade only to send it back through her chest. “A queen, a wife, a monster.”

Yanking my arm back, I punch out again, this time right below her heart. I purposefully miss it so I can prolong her death. Blood spurts from her mouth and then runs down her chin.

I stare at her unblinking until her lids droop and I can feel the life draining away from her. The thudding of her heart that could be felt vibrating through the diamondblade slows to a stop. She takes no more breaths. The last thing she saw was the fury of a queen she thought she could destroy. The betrayer was betrayed by her own flesh and blood.

Heat wraps around me from behind. Ryke’s hand grips my fist as he summons his fires. He melts the diamondblade sword enough to disconnect me from it and then he pulls me away from the carnage I created.

“How do you feel?” he asks, his face nuzzling the side of my head as he inhales my scent.

“Like the future is here and we’re ready to embark upon it together.”

He nips at my ear. “To the Hidden Lands we go, my wife. We’ve won the Battle of The Damned, but the Moral War awaits.”