Blood Curse - Red Queen Fan Fiction

Chapter 3

Mare POV

I smile at myself in the mirror. A part of me resents to go back to pretending, but moping and sulking aren't an option. Not when I'm having to face Cal this morning. My smile doesn't do much to hide the exhaustion, even though a skinhealer has taken care of of my injuries and tiredness after the battle. I'm not a radiant beauty and I never will be, but I have other ways to be striking.

I spin Cal's earing between my fingers as I move to the door. Its presence is stinging. I don't want to have it with me, and I don't want to throw it away - because Cal wouldn't even notice. I thought about giving it away as a present, but to whom? And what would they think about it?

I put it back into a pocket and enter the corridor. I haven't reached the stairs when reflected sunlight makes me squint my eyes and a familiar clink rings in my ears. It's Evangeline Samos, stopping me in my tracks. Her metal dress gleams in the morning light as voltage prickles in my fists. I meet her eyes, unwilling to back off. Her clothing is noticably intricate today, with many layers and chains falling over her midriffs and shoulders. Must have taken a long time to create.

"Are you back at threatening me, your highness?" I ask, dripping sarcasm at her new title.

It takes her long to answer, so I almost cease expecting a vocal one. Our interaction consists of glares and a sudden wave of power emanting from Evangeline. Her dress ripples, changing shapes, until the power reaches me. I walk back half a step when I feel how the metals on my clothing, zippers, rivets, studs as well as my earrings, start to vibrate. For once I'm glad I don't carry weapons with me, as Farley does. They would work against me, among the magnetrons.

Yet I don't cower before the newly exalted princess in front of me. I close in again and before I throw so much as a single spark, it's over. Evangeline breaks eye contact and mumbles, "no need for this anymore, we've already lost."

Then she passes me, not without taking a look over her shoulder, her face lacking her usual self-confidence completely. A strange expression for a woman who's finally gotten what she wanted. Unless she prefers love over a crown after all.

I wonder if she noticed Cal's earring in my pocket.

Her metal clothing drags on the floor and I ask myself how heavy it must be to carry the element of her power on her all the time, unable to draw it from within herself, as I can. What is a magnetron without their metal? It's tempting thought to imagine one of the mightiest Silver Houses at loss, powerless and driven into a corner.

Too bad they won't ever let that happen.

It's not an auspicious start in the day. But I'm long past these anyway. I join Farley in the hallway in front of the conference room. "Are we again in for a dramatic late entry?" I ask.

She shrugs. "Give the Silvers a chance to discuss among themselves." She raises her eybrows and I suspect Davidson has his own agents eavesdropping on the Silvers. He arrives a few minutes later with his generals, knocks on the door and enters without preamble. Farley hesitates for a moment before follwing him with the Scarlet Guard commanders beside her, the man and the woman who governed Corvium in the meantime. She looks at me, mouthing something, then turns around.

You're coming with us?

I follow her yet I realize what she asks. Do I really want to do this, to meet Cal, the king to be? And do I want to take part in ruling and leadership? I said no to Cal about exactly that, because I can't be his queen, yet here I am again, with Silver kings and Red Generals, without a pause. Once, Cal said to me I run away from leadership, and I did - I still do. It's not what I aspire, what I wish for, but I can't let go or stop fighting. Not when my hopes are at stakes and my presence might be a tip in the balance of keeping Cal - Tiberias - on favor of the Reds.