Another Cinderella Story

24. Safe ~Lily~

Please!" I said. "You can't serve a tyrant like her!" I cried.

"It's all perspective, Lily," the queen said. "You are a threat to my rule, and I must make sacrifices to keep people like you from stealing my throne," she said.

"Call them off! You can't just attack people on your own whims!"

"I am a queen. I can do whatever I wish to do."

She made a swift motion with her hand to the man closest to me, and he nodded at her before grabbing his spear and throwing it right at my heart.

I let out a scream of terror, but just a fraction of a second before the spear reached me, it all disappeared into blackness.

It was pitch black for a second before my vision returned. I was in Liam's room and he was standing beside me holding Ella's glass slipper in his hand.

"Liam!" I cried.

Liam looked over me. "Are you okay, Lily?" he asked.

"No," I said, my breaths still short and sharp. "What happened?"

"The slipper was dangerous, especially with its last wish, so I used the wish for a harmless thing, just for you to be by my side," he said

Recognition dawned on me, and I laughed aloud. "Liam, I think you just saved my life!"

"How?" he asked.

"I was ambushed in the dungeons," I said. "We need to act quickly! There are still some guards and soldiers serving the queen down there. If we go now, we can stop them!" I said.

"Let's go!" Liam said without a moment's hesitation.

I was walking through the palace.

"Liam! Jessie! Ella! Mother!" I called, hysteria building in me. "Angus!" I cried.

Suddenly the queen's voice echoed through the halls. "They're not here anymore." She laughed, the sound bouncing through the walls and finning me to the marble floor.

The scene changed.

I was in a graveyard. Five graves were in front of me in the yellowed, dying grass. I read the names and a scream built up in my throat.

Ella. Liam, Jessie. Angus. Mother.

I let out an anguished cry and fell to the ground sobbing. Everyone I loved. Around me the graves melted away and I fell into darkness.

Breathing hard, I sat up in bed with a start. My sheets had been tossed off the bed and I was sweating in panic and fear.

"It's just a dream," I whispered to myself. "Just a dream, just a dream."

Still, I fought the panic building inside of me, so I straightened my silk nightgown and walked from my palace room across the hall to Liam's.

I walked into his room and tapped his shoulder. Liam awoke.

"Lily?" he said.

"I. . . I had a dream," I said, as something snapped inside and I broke down into tears. I didn't want to be a crying, helpless girl, but there was nothing else to do.

"I've had some pretty terrible nightmares too," Liam said.

I nodded, my face still wet with tears. "I just want to be safe again," I said.

"Soon," he said. "We'll be safe soon."