The Reaper's Curse

Ripples on the Water that Resound With Sorrow

She knows that look on the girl's face all too well. And it takes everything in Lilith to stop herself from crawling to her knees and begging for her life.

"Reina," she chokes on the word. "Please, tell me what I did wrong. Tell me so that I can amend it."

A dagger has slipped into the girl's hand, its edge glinting in the dim light. 

"Your sin lies in your name, princess. You sin by being born with the name Ashden," Cleo snaps. She pushes to her feet and positions herself beside Reina, her hand coming to rest on her small shoulder. "Do it, darling. Kill her. We've waited for this day for far too long. Do not let your hesitation cost us."

As if hypnotised, Reina tightens her grip on the dagger and moves towards Lilith. The whites of her eyes are all but gone now, replaced by the red hot scarlet that is her rage. 

"Do not resent me, Lilith," she says in that new, low voice of hers. "This is retribution for all the evils your family did to me. To our nation. With this dagger, I will end your cursed bloodline." 

She brings the dagger down with a piercing shout, aiming straight for Lilith's heart. 

With a scream, Lilith rolls to the side to dodge the killing blow, and the blade clangs harmlessly against the marble floor. "Reina!" she pleads as the girl straightens. "I don't know what you're talking about! Believe me⎯⎯⎯⎯" The knife slices through the air again and Lilith cries out in shock, an inch away from being gutted. Her hands scramble to push herself onto her feet. 

Hard, rough fingers dig into her skin and then she's being restrained, her arms pinned behind her back. Cleo's scent worms its way up Lilith's nostrils. She struggles against the woman's hold, grunts and cries pouring from her mouth.

"Hurry up. Sairah will be here any fucking moment."

Reina sinks to her knees and grabs Lilith by the cheeks. She angles the dagger against Lilith's throat so that with every intake of breath, her skin flutters against the blade. She stops moving. She might have even stopped breathing.

"Reina, we do not have time⎯⎯⎯⎯"

"Be quiet, Cleo." 

Reina's eyes narrow as they search Lilith's face. 

"If you had looked even a little bit less like him, I might have felt sorry for having to kill you." Her voice is edged with steel. "But I'm afraid all I can see in your face is him. All I can see in you is his eyes, his nose, his mouth." She spits out the words as though they are poison. 

"Who are you talking about⎯⎯⎯⎯"

"Who else?" Reina thunders, fury washing over her face like the tides of the ocean. "The king of Erimere! King William Ashden! Your father!" 

Lilith flinches away. "What are you talking about? My father⎯⎯⎯⎯"

"Seventeen years ago your father ravished me to the bone and then slit my throat right there on his bed-chamber floors." A sharp intake of breath. "I was fourteen! I was just a child!" Reina's voice cracks on the last word and her eyes squeeze shut. "I was just a child. Murdered by the king everyone worshipped."

Lilith's mind reels. Something begins to boil in her stomach, and she waits for it fearfully. She feels it reaching for her, through the coldness and the scent of the dagger. Her chest is rising and falling, but she barely feels her own body. 

Before she can stop her voice, she's speaking again. "You can hurl as many baseless accusations at me and my father as you want, but in the end, that's all they are and all they ever will be. Lies and slander. My father is like the son of God. He is pure, he is all that is pure in this world. Nothing you say or do will change that." Her voice is unrecognisable even to herself.