The Red Queen's Daughter: Book One

Chapter 24

Could this be the Alice I've been told about? She seems like she would've been nicer. Change my life in many ways that I couldn't imagine? Yeah, I think I get it now. She's probably like some assassin or something. I wonder if she has followers. Probably.

"Plan. We need one, now." I say.

"Like what?" Charlotte asks.

"We find out where her little hideout is, then we sneak attack."

"She probably has a huge army."

"We don't know that. And anyways, don't we already have an army behind us? They can try to knock us down, but won't we always stand back up?"

"Yes!"

"She's outside my door right now. I want to go and get Nate, Nick, Danny, but not Charlie. He's still recovering."

"Yeah."

I stand and look through the slit at the bottom of my door. She isn't there.

"She isn't here," I whisper to Charlotte. She nods and walks over to me. I grab Ollie, afraid she'll come back and do something.

I tip-toe down the stairs to Nate's room, which is the closest to my room. I quietly knock on his door. Soon he opens the door. "What?" he asks.

"I'll answer that later, just come with us." I say, walking away, hoping he follows. I turn around. He is.

After we gather everyone, we sit out in the garden, planning.

I feel snow staining my hair after a while.

"So, we know what we're doing now?" I ask after we've finished planning.

They nod. I nod back. We all head back up to our rooms.

I stand on my balcony, gripping the rim of it. I wonder how our plan will turn out. I hope it works. The moon shines down on me. The stars shine white. I look down. I wonder if she's down there in the garden right now.

"I wonder if she was listening to my plan." I whisper to myself.

"I was," I hear someone say. I'm about to scream when a hand covers my mouth.

"I heard it all," she says again. I know it's her, I know it. She's not like how I imagined her. I thought she'd be like she was in my dream. Helpless. Sad. Clueless to her surroundings. She's the exact opposite.

Here I am, struggling to get out of her reach, but I'm the helpless one.

"Remember that mad man? Yes, he was associated with me. So, this is how I know your location." she says slowly. I knew I couldn't trust that guy. She ties up my hands behind my back. Well, now I can scream. So I do, at the very top of my lungs, I scream until I need to breathe. But I scream over and over again until I hear footsteps coming up to my room. My door slams open, hitting my wall. It's Nate. Of course.

"Nicole?" he asks, shocked.

"Aw, he likes you, doesn't he?" she asks, looking straight into my eyes. I stare right back, stalling her, until I kick her right in the shin. She holds her leg, letting go of me, I run over to Nate. I show him my wrists, he quickly unties them. I look where they were tied. There's an imprint in my wrists. It hurts, but not that bad, anyways, I have better things to worry about.

"Don't worry, just meet me at the Red Castle for battle tomorrow at moonrise, and remember the obvious rule, the loser dies," Alice says, walking out of my room.

I look at Nate, not knowing what else to do. I feel tears brimming my eyes. I sit down fit on the floor. I won't be able to face her, she even has knives in a belt strapped around her waist. I'm dead. So, pathetically dead.

***

I put my hands to my face, not knowing what else to do. Before I know what I'm doing, I'm grabbing my sheath of arrows and my bow. I'm walking out of my bedroom door, leaving Nate behind me. I hear his footsteps following me down the stairs. I walk out the front doors of the castle, walking somewhere I don't even know.

"Nicole! Where the heck are you going?" I hear Nate yell behind me.

"Somewhere far, far, away from here! I won't be able to face her!" I yell back at him. Look at me, brave ten minutes ago, scared sick now.

He runs up to me and puts his hands on my shoulders and shakes me.

"Where's the Nicole I know? The brave one? Wake up, Nicole! You're braver than this!" he yells.

"No, I'm not! Did you get a good look at her? She's pretty much an assassin. She has knives in a belt around her waist! She looks like she's trained for years!" I yell back.

"And you have, too, Nicole! Think about it!"

"I've trained for years, yes, but with knives, and swords, and stuff like that? No."

"You've trained with a bow and arrow, you probably have much better aim than her."

"She's older than me, a pro with knives, and, and, just-"

"Exactly, a pro with knives. You can shoot someone from yards and yards away."

"And she can probably throw knives like that, too."

He stares me down. "Is this the Nicole I met two months ago? The brave Nicole who told Charlie? The brave Nicole that got mad at me once and shot an apple out of a tree that was right above my head? The brave Nicole that snuck into the Red Castle to retrieve Charlie when he was captured? The brave Nicole that brought my sister back?" he asks, looking me straight in the eyes. "The brave Nicole that can take down Alice?"

"Yes, yes it is." I say.

"Then why are you running away?"

"Because I'm afraid."

"Afraid?"

"Yes, the brave Nicole is afraid."

"Don't be, okay? I'm gonna be right by your side in that battle. Don't be afraid."

"Okay."

"What?"

"Okay!"

"Okay. Now get back inside. You have to prepare."

"Thanks for reminding me."

"I thought you were brave."

"I am!"

"You sure?"

"Yes!" I yell, running back inside. I bet Nate's smiling behind me, feeling like he won.

I try to go to sleep, I eventually do, but the last thing I think of is what Alice told me,'Remember the obvious rule, the loser dies.'

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Author's Note:

Soooo.... I've thought about it, but I can't decide. So I want you guys to decide. Should I make a sequel to this book, or should be the one and only Red Queen's Daughter book? Sooo.... You guys decide: should I write a sequel to The Red Queen's Daughter, or should I write a different book that has nothing to do with this one? Comment :)

Maddie