Dark Paradise

Chapter 11: What You Don't Know Can Hurt You~

Chapter 11: What You Don't Know Can Hurt You~

I woke up to total darkness. "I don't care!" Leah screamed. My body stiffened and I listened closely. "You can't just come barging into her room like this every night trying to fog her memories with your-" Leah cut herself off. "She's listening."

I sat up and stared at them. "Oh, no, please." I said sarcastically. "Continue. I don't have a problem with my memories being tampered with." What were they talking about? Within a second, Leah was on the floor clutching her face.

"What did you do to her?" I cried. "What did you do?' The queen looked at me and turned away without a word. She stalked towards the door, then stopped as she grasped the bronze handle. "I marked her." the queen said to me, then left without another word.

I flopped my body onto the floor next to Leah, focusing my attention on her. Her eye was already healing, leaving three claw marks over her eye. The claw marks were not scars. They were, however, three jagged black lines. "What was that?" I asked. "What did she do to you?"

"She cursed me." Leah sobbed. "She's marked me, and she's cursed me." I stared at the broken assassin, then stood up. I was still in my black dress from earlier. It was as if my mother threw me on the bed without even trying to get my incapacitated body comfortable.

"Leah, stop wallowing in your self-pity." I ordered. "We have some friends to rescue."

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We made our way out of the castle and into the excecutionor's land. The plan was to, hopefully, rescue Lydia and Celeste without an issue. Knowing what the quee was capable of... it only really complicated the task that much further. But at this point, it was either we get them out of there, or they die by sun-up.

We made it into the cell-blocks safely, and all of the cells we pretty much full, housing two people to a cell. I still wore Fitz's jacket, and I clutched the white leather in my hand. "We are looking for the Blood Bandit and her accomplice." Leah stated. All fingers pointed to the very end of the hallway.

I ran down, and stopped at the door. "Hey, are you guys in there?" I asked. "Hello?"

"The devil do you want now, your majesty?" Celeste spat at me. "Haven't you done enough to us?"

"We're getting you out." Leah growled at her. Celeste got up and ran her hand through the metal bars, trying to grab Leah. She backed up and stayed just out of reach.

"Look." I said, grabbing Celeste's wrist. "You can either be executed for a crime that you didn't commit, or you could let us get you out, and we could all leave. Take your pick."

Lydia strode up to the bars and stared me in the eyes. "Get us out, majesty." she smirked playfully. I laughed. "Call me princess and my whip will find your face." I joked. "Leah, grab the keys." She nodded and grabbed them from the other end of the hallway, then came back and unlocked the gate.

The four of us ran off the land, hiding out in the heart of the woods. "Where to?" Celeste asked.

"South." I said. "The spades kingdom. Then we'll head west, to the clubs kingdom. North to diamonds and east to hearts are strictly off limits."

"Why diamonds?" Lydia asked loudly and defensively. "That's my home!"

"Exactly." I said, completely level-headed. "If we were to rescue you, where would we take you first? Home? That's what search parties would think. If we head in the opposite directions, we would be safer than staying where everyone knows of us."

Lydia sighed and sat down, her ankle-long dress collecting snow. "I guess so." she huffed. "For now, we should sleep."

"I'll keep first watch." Celeste suggested. We all nodded and laid down in the snow. I was asleep before I knew it.