The White Sheep's Disguise ✓

Chapter 10

I don't know what to do with my hands. The chains weigh down my arms, my shoulders ache, but I wring my fingers to distract myself from the physical pain, as well as what I can't avoid surveying. The Raven Queen, the leader of Rivian, sitting on a throne in the same room as myself.

The citizens of the land don't receive the privilege to be this close to someone they either fear or adore. Either way, we bend the knee. That doesn't mean we trust she'll make the right decision during every confrontation. I know she picks what best suits her and her family, not the land and its people. We are a physical barricade that enemies must fight through before reaching the capital city. Precisely why the Void Queen constructed the land this way with her unlimited powers. To protect the royals, the face of the land rather than those that make it thrive.

I can't stand tall against a presence such as her. The name 'Raven Queen' didn't originate from her lips, the people of the land fashioned it once they saw her dawn the robes of raven barbs; dresses composed of silk skirts and a feathered bodice. Millicent Terravale, in all her beauty, is a raven.

She attires a gown similar to what I've heard villagers describe in the past. An olive-toned thigh spills out from the slit in the skirt of raven feathers speckled in the sickening shade of blood. Did she kill someone before I got here, or did the gown designers decide sanity before death isn't something to worry about?

Long, thin arms adorned with golden bracelets on her wrists and biceps drape along the throne's armrests that, as I look closer, is a seat constructed of metal—made to look like a rose bush made into a chair. She hasn't uttered a word yet, and I fear what might leave her plump mouth.

The room grows silent around her presence, and no one seems to breathe as she takes me in. Her violet eyes are as sickening as that of a wolf's—or any predator—sizing me up to devour later. A shiver wraps around my spine and rattles my body, but I clench down the need to shake like a sodden dog and keep my spine perfectly straight. If I'm to die...I might as well make myself look somewhat decent. To the amusement of Gustus and his husband.

"Another magic user finds her way into my clutches and yet...I don't know why she is here," the Raven Queen begins. "My laws are simple. Magic users are to die to protect the land's feeble."

I swallow the lump in my throat. Though she speaks in a soft tone, her voice sinks into everyone in the room. My chest tightens, a hand wrapping around my heart, and I close my eyes for a too-brief moment. The flashback of the Void Queen penetrating my heart comes through my dreams on most occasions, but this time, I see her face in the dark. A wicked, satisfied glare growing to reveal a smile.

They look alike. The two queens. One that used to rule, and the other that wiggled her way onto the throne and shoved her sister out. They have the same narrow faces and sharp cheekbones, a similar hourglass figure that spans well beyond their curves and into how long they allow their people to live a normal, happy life. Even their deep-set eyes are shaped the same way but oddly colored on two different spectrums.

"Your Majesty, it is by the order of—"

The Raven Queen holds up a hand to my foolish guard. Her long fingers curl back into a fist on the armrest and she raises a dark brow, an elevated darkness as her raven black hair. "I don't believe I asked you to speak," she reveals quietly. "I desire to hear what the girl has to say for herself, not an unidentified guard I've never seen before in my life."

I glance over at the pitch elf. He works here, lives here, and she doesn't know who he is. That disappointment reflects in his drawn-in brows and he nods, stepping back and bowing his head in apology and loyalty. I can't imagine the racing beat of his heart; how foolish he must feel under the eyes of so many valuable persons.