WAR STORM (Red Queen 4// Alternate Version)

Chapter 29

I apologize for the short filler chapter, but I felt that seeing Evangeline's POV was important to experience after her mother's death. But hey, on the bright side, you guys get a two chapter release weekend! I'd like to thank everybody who continues to like and comment! You guys are so awesome! 

Enjoy! "Those who know what it's like in the dark will do anything to stay in the light." 

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Evangeline

As all kings do, my father has begun to grow mad with rage. 

Both Queen Rosalyn and Father have launched investigations, and his have ended in more injuries than I'd like to count. Strategic and random, sometimes targeting people based on where they were when I found her, and sometimes his forces pluck innocent and unknowing soldiers and courtiers from their training and teas. 

I cannot help but wish Ptolemus was here. He's been positioned out in Corvium for the last couple of days, and before that, he had spent most of his time at Ridge House. But simultaneously, I'm glad he's gone. Tolly won't have to look down on our mother, as I did. He'll only own memories of her, healthy and thriving.  

Elane touches my bare shoulder, for my shawl slunk off minutes ago, but I haven't had the mind to fix it. "Eve. They're going to watch the footage in a minute or two."

"Okay," I say, stroking a piece of silver that I've fashioned into a bracelet. It was Mother's wedding ring that Father made. Before I left her body on that cold, translucent floor, I took it off of her and stretched the silver into a band for my arm. The diamonds bolted into the ring fell to the floor as I morphed it, and it's plain now, just an ordinary bracelet. 

I don't deserve it, I know that much. Though Father doesn't know it yet, will never know it, I killed her. It wasn't the person who tied the snake around her neck, but it was me. I saw her sprawled across the floor, chest rising just the tiniest bit. I ran to her, put my hand over here heart and felt it beating rebelliously, revolting against her own snake, her own murderer. To be perfectly and ugily honest, I didn't want to save her. One less pawn in the game to control my fate. 

But I screamed anyway, giving the universe the dice. The security cameras would've seen it if I merely walked away, and then Father would have my neck-if he doesn't already. It didn't matter, probably. Her heart gave out before anybody got there, ran to their positions in that makeshift circle. I felt it as her heart relented, no longer pumping iron and blood through her veins. 

Father was right. A heart can be revived even if inactive for five minutes. But Mother will thrive in Hell. 

My dear Elane takes my hand and raises her spine against the glances received. Rosalyn and her guard, I'm told, have previously seen the footage, so the expansive room has cleared out for the most part. The fewer witnesses to watch me vomit. 

There are screens and desks on all four edges of the security office, panels and panels of monitors filling up the otherwise bland walls. It's nondescript, for the most part, the workers wearing navy blue uniforms and identical haircuts. 

A screen flashes static before revealing a perhaps ordinary scene. Nothing. Two golden-white staircases and a floor that reflects the painted ceiling. There isn't sound exiting the speakers, everybody too far away from this room. Why is that? Why is everybody away, not near this chamber or in the adjoining hallway systems?

Soon enough, too soon, Mother walks into the frame. Her legs appear almost unwilling to act, as she moves in stiff, irregular motions. Her darling snake rests on both of her shoulders, wrapping behind her neck. 

Mother and I have acquired a bitter relationship swarming of tension throughout the years, and I inwardly hit myself for being so foolish. Giving her that sliver of a chance at life was a mistake. A woman like her deserves to rot. Her body will rot. But my arms and legs contain her blood, and there's something about that stupid, stupid fact that makes me second guess everything. 

It surprises me when she smiles. A serene, motherly smile that she directs towards the snake, and then she pets it. One, two, three strokes. There aren't memories of her looking at me like that. 

She takes the snake's bottom half and puts him around her neck so that an entire circle is constructed. She drops her arms to her sides, and little by little, her serpent tightens around her neck. Meak sobs escape the woman's mouth and as soon as they become too loud for her liking, Mom's hands shoot upward to her mouth to stop herself. They remain there even as she falls to her knees, even as her eyelids bat groggily. 

She's tired, she must be. Being queen is not easy. Mom is just falling asleep. 

I'm about to turn away, but Father interjects, his eyes glazed over like Mother's are in the video. "Stop it. I've seen enough. It's ruled as a suicide."

The technician nods, tapping a button that causes the screen to go black. 

"It can't be," I snap back out of frustration. "What reason would she have? And she seemed so tentative to walk out, put that... that damned reptile around her neck. Somebody made her do it."

My father rebukes my words with double the ferocity. "You have seen much less of the world than I have, daughter. Naive," he spits out to my feet. "There are no Whispers that could've gotten into her head, and certainly nobody else would've had the courage to threaten her. Do you need to watch it again, to make sure there wasn't a phantom behind her?"

"No." I saw the footage, vividly, in fact. "Then why did she do it to herself?"

"Because war is depressing. War does things to your mind, Evangeline. And it got in her head, and she decided her own fate. There is no one to blame but her."

At that, he stalks out of the room, fists in a bunch and with servants in tow. Elane stands by as the rest of the Samoses and Reds filter out, as well as for some Lakelanders, and I am glad for the small group. Most decided to not watch it, just have it reported to them. Even Cal and Anabel opted for that choice. But I had to see it for myself, to know for sure what happened. The spazzed babbles of flustered servants shouldn't be trusted. 

"Father's explanation was lame, I tell Elane at my side. "She wouldn't have... would she have?"

"It must have been. I'm so sorry Eve, but there was only one person in that frame. Her own hands took that snake. I'm so sorry," she says again. 

I shake my head, trying to get her to stop doing that. "It's not your fault, Elane. Stop saying that. I suppose it was a suicide." As I say it aloud, it sounds all the more real. Mother killed herself for one reason or another. Maybe she finally realized that her life served no more of a purpose than to help Father's conquests. 

It doesn't matter. Mother is dead, and if she was murdered, there's no evidence. But if she somehow was, we just have to pray that the murderer doesn't strike again.