A Queen's Redemption

Chapter 12- Uh...Come Again?

*Amir’s POV*

She needs to die Amir. Rhaan growled. He was itching to get out. Diamanda NEEDS to die!

I…couldn't…agree more. Everyone around the table was speechless, in complete disbelief at what we were hearing.

“I…” I tried to focus as Serene continued. “I…everything stopped…for me. Everyone and everything was moving…and I just froze. I couldn’t…”

I watched as fresh tears fell from her eyes as resisted the urge to wipe them away. Hazel got up and stood behind her while placing her hands on her shoulders. I could see she was grateful for the comfort as she gained some of her composer back.

“The raven…the raven flew overhead...at that moment. I watched where it flew to and where it landed. Right to her. She was smiling at me with…” my eyes widened as hers turned a violet. I could sense the magic right under her skin and I knew everyone could as well. “I felt rage…at the smile I saw on her face. It was like she was enjoying…watching the pain that was happening around us. I saw they were lowering Jameson’s body, his mother…” she clenched her hands. “God I can still…hear…the screams of his mother as she cried for him. I could feel her pain so strong…it hurt. So much.”

My heart clenched at the pain on her face.

“My mother tried pulling me away but something stopped me. On Jameson’s ankle…I saw a mark. A mark that I knew wasn’t there before. It was an X within a circle. I realised it wasn’t visible to anyone who didn’t have magic…and even still it was hard to notice. But for some reason I did.”

She then turned to her mother and lifted her left wrist and showed us the inside.

We gasped. Her mother Selena couldn’t see it, but we did. An X within a circle.

“I saw it. On another child whose parent was trying to draw away from the scene. Then another person. And another person.”

Everyone’s faces had looks of horror on them.

“The raven cried and I turned back to Diamanda and she mouthed to me, ‘Should have listened. Now look what you’ve done’ then disappeared into the trees. She was purposely…allowing me to see those marks. That’s when I realised. This. This was how she kept me in line.” She breathed in deeply then turned to Hazel. “I know that I hurt you when I bailed like I did…but I’m sorry. I couldn’t afford another child or another human being to be killed because of me. I just couldn’t.”

Everyone’s eyes around the table widened.

How could she think it was because of her?! Qasim yelled.

Yo Diamanda’s a dead bitch. Issa backed up.

I smelt blood and I saw she was clenching her hands so tightly her nails started to break the skin.

“Serene.” She turned to my mother.

“That child’s death was not your fault. You’ve carried that guilt with you. Guilt that isn’t yours to bare.”

I could tell she didn’t believe her but smiled nonetheless.

“Diamanda needs to lose her life.” Hazel hissed. The others around the table agreed with her.

I just kept staring at Serene as she was battling whatever thoughts she had. I knew she knew I was staring because I heard her breathing pick up slightly but she chose to ignore it.

Someone clapped which drew all our attention. My mother stood up.

“Alright. We know who the puppet is. But we can agree she’s not working on her own. We need to sniff out the puppet master before more people lose their lives. Whoever is doing this has some type of agenda that they want to carry out. We need to cut it off at the source.” a light bulb went off in my head.