Chapter 2 #4
“I wish she had kept you hidden.” Lana said it so low I almost missed it over my sniffling.
“What?”
“It doesn’t matter; we can protect one another, you and me. Have each other to help when things get bad.”
“Things are going to get bad?” I asked nervously, fear stirring again in my chest.
“My mother—”
The door slammed open, and Lana startled, scrambling across the bed in a panic. She stumbled off and put her back to the wall, her eyes wide with fear as the queen entered the room.
Her face was set in a sneer, and I wondered if that was just how she always looked. Her icy yellow gaze landed on me and then back onto Lana.
“I should have known you would scuttle in here.”
A dark figure entered behind her, his hair a greasy mop that hung to his ears. He wore a long black cloak, similar to the queen's dark purple one. He had a nose that made him look a bit like a rat: long and pointed.
Lana tried to edge her way down the wall, but the queen's sharp gaze stopped her.
“You wanted to be here, Lana. Now you will stay.”
Lana’s gaze shot to mine, concern coating her expression, and I pressed harder against the frame, wincing at the pain as the wood dug into my spine.
“Spencer,” the queen ordered, holding out her hand toward the greasy male. With a flourish, the man handed her something small and made of glass.
“Drink this, girl,” she spat, throwing the vial onto the bed. It bounced softly in front of me, and my stomach flipped as I stared down at the dark, shimmering black contents.
I didn’t dare reach out for it.
I glanced at Lana, and the look on her face made me certain I shouldn’t.
“Drink,” she barked. “I have waited a long time for someone like you to be born into this realm, and I will not take any chances.”
I swallowed, not understanding. “I just wanted to go to school.” I flinched as she took a step closer. “I just want to be with my friend, my mother.”
“Your mother is dead. She served her purpose, as will you.”
I started to shake, my eyes widening with fear, as more tears formed. I didn’t belong here. I didn’t want to be here. This wasn’t what I wanted, or where I wanted to be.
“Drink,” she shouted, demanding again and I looked at the vial on the bed and back to the cruel woman glaring down at me.
“No,” I said firmly, unsure where I found the courage.
“No?”
A cruel smile lifted her lips and in the blink of an eye, she was upon me, her nails clawing at my mouth as she tried to wrench it open.
I clawed back, pushing and hitting but it was useless as her fingers hooked into my mouth and thick liquid fell to the back of my throat.
I gagged on the substance, coughing as I tried to expel it, but she wouldn’t let me.
The queen held my mouth firmly closed until the last of the putrid liquid fell down my throat.
She released me from her hold and I coughed violently, trying to scramble away from her. Her palm struck across my cheek, and I flew to the edge of the bed, my hands gripping the sides as I tried to breathe through the pain that was now splintering up the side of my face.
I had to get out of here. I had to get away from this monster.
Her hands were on me again, and she pulled me up by my hair with both of her hands, until I was in a kneeling position on the bed. Sharp nails bit into my scalp, and I tried to get away, tried to fight her off, but she was too strong.
I began to feel weak, tired and I nearly slumped in her grasp.
The male at the door was chuckling and I couldn’t see Lana from my position on the bed.
Pain lanced through my skull, sharp and hot, and something cold and snake-like slid into my thoughts.
It coiled deeper, tearing through me, and memories of my life flared and flashed behind my eyes.
My mother's laugh, her smile, our rundown cabin on the edge of the village—my childhood.
I watched as they flickered and faded like embers in a fire, smoldering to ash and vanishing on an invisible wind.
New memories forced their way in, intrusive and unwanted. Memories of a different childhood, a different life. One where I had been orphaned as a baby. I had been brought to the castle, and they had taken me in, raised me—No.
My mother’s blue eyes and pale face flashed in my mind, and I fought to keep her there, but she was ripped away again.
You don’t have a mother.
A red-haired girl throwing rocks in an alleyway formed, but what was her name?
The memory fractured, vanishing. Pain exploded throughout my entire body, and more and more foreign memories formed, while others unraveled in my mind. My life was being taken, replaced, and I could only watch as it burned and drifted away.
My mother’s golden hair flashed one last time, and I clung to it with everything in me, but too quickly she was ripped away again, replaced with another face, one with glowing yellow eyes.
Morgana had saved me, cared for me. Had taken me in. I looked up to her, trusted her. Owed her everything—would do anything for her.
The pain vanished, and nothing remained other than a crushing, inescapable urge to obey.