Snow White Queen [NaNoWriMo 2018]

Chapter Twenty-One

"Wouldn't you agree that I'm just as human as you, heartbeat or no?"

Alexei still didn't meet Neva's eyes. Her words made sense. After all, who could call a two-year-old a killer? The person he used to be would have seen her as a potential threat and killed her, child or no.

But, looking at the Neva in front of him, the Neva who was so wonderfully compassionate despite all she'd been through, who could have killed him the moment she'd found the note and didn't...

Maybe vampires weren't all that bad. Maybe Neva wasn't the only vampire that didn't have a say in her transformation.

At last, he looked up at her. "I'm on your side." For once, he wasn't lying.

Neva smiled and offered her hand to him. "Thank you. I need you to do something for me."

Alexei took her hand. "Of course."

Neva smiled sweetly then bent down to bite his neck.

Alexei gasped in surprise but didn't fight back.

Neva let go and stepped back after a moment. "By tomorrow morning you should be transformed. Come with me."

She led him to a room off of the kitchen. There, she handed him a box. He looked inside; it seemed to be a heart.

"Give this to my stepmother. Hopefully, this convinces her that I'm dead."

"And what will you do?"

"I'm going underground. She has to believe I'm dead. It'll be better if no one sees me."

~~~

"Princess Neva's heart, my lady."

"Thank you. You will be paid soon. Would you like to stay for dinner?"

Alexei had fully transformed into a vampire. He knew that Lilia would know what to look for to spot a vampire, but he hoped that her optimism would blind her.

Dinner was the hardest thing to pull off. He avoided putting too much food on his plate and tried to be engaged in conversation the entire time in an attempt to hide the fact that he ate nothing.

A strange look crossed Lilia's face at one point. Alexei hoped she didn't suspect him.

~~~

Lilia still slept in the bedroom she had shared with the king. Alexei snuck in when he was sure she'd be asleep, only to find that she was gone.

Where-

Before he could wonder where she had gone, the door behind him opened. He quickly darted into the shadows as Lilia walked into the room. She walked over to the safe and placed something inside, clearly preoccupied.

It took a moment for Alexei to realize that the item was probably the heart and that Lilia had probably figured out that it wasn't Neva's.

He had been planning on killing her when she was asleep, but what difference did it make? He darted across the room to her. She turned around to see him standing poised to kill.

~~~

To Lilia's credit, she didn't scream. The knife slashed through the air, but Lilia got out of the way just in time. She ran for her bedstand and the silver dagger she kept there. The dagger found itself impaled in Alexei's chest before he could attack her.

Lilia slumped over on her bed, heart pounding.

Neva's alive.

She looked at the body on the ground. She decided that she'd have the guards take care of it in the morning and just in case, she tied him up tightly.

Neva's alive.

Her mind swirled as laid down on the bed. Yes, she had been saddened at the thought of Neva's death, but she had also been relieved. Neva wasn't the same girl she had been before. Clearly, she wanted Lilia dead.

Lilia, on the other had, couldn't decide what to do about Neva. She still had some lingering affections, but she also knew that she'd live looking over her shoulder until either she or Neva died.

Maybe she did want Neva dead.

Lilia was taken aback by the mere thought. Am I becoming an Evil Queen?

The more she thought about it, though, the more she started to become okay with the idea. It was only self-defence, after all.

If Neva was going to make her out to be an Evil Queen, than Evil Queen it was.

I'm currently out of state and the wifi in this hotel is iffy. I was going to post this and the next chapter, but I was having issues with this, so prepare for a bunch of updates at the end of the week.
In other words, I developed something new in my writing process that makes writing entire chapters in one sitting a lot easier. Hopefully that makes things go faster.
Hope you've enjoyed. If you did leave a vote, and a comment with your thoughts if you so please. I'll see you next time.
~Patchesmimi