LIRO || completed

• 21.1 •

The blade in her hands did not find its mark. It did not even graze it. 

In an instant, Liro was opposite her sisters, their skirts reminiscent of their movement as they twirled away. Her breaths came short and heavy, and she fought the urge to cry out in frustration. She knew that facing either of them would not be easy - but together? Liro would have to count her lucky stars.

She had been lucky to make it this far - perhaps it was time that her good fortune run out. It had to end at some point. Liro had thought it had run out the moment the Queen had thrown her in the dungeons.

Yet then Kier had appeared, and she had figured that it was possible that she had a few flips left on her coin. The metal was worn and thin from rubbing it between her fingers, yet perhaps its magic would still work when she called.

"Oh join her, won't you?" Emina crooned, turning her gaze towards Kier. "Make it a fair fight."

Kier shook his head absently, backing away from her sisters. Backing away from her. Liro shouldn't have been as stung as she was. She shook her head, desperate to clear it.

"You've killed her," he said breathlessly, his eyes not leaving the fallen Queen. "Why did you kill her?" His eyes were pleading as he considered Yasri and Emina.

Yasri sneered. "She is not dead. Use your eyes, lapdog."

He took a step back, her yielding in his eyes. "Why?"

"She isn't yet," Emina chimed in, "but she will be soon. You'll have our dear sister to thank for that." She sidestepped Yasri and moved towards Liro, her eyes knowing.

Liro raised Kier's sword, willing her hands to stay steady as she warned off Emina. "Stay back."

Emina did not listen. "She wanted to be like us. She wanted to take your place. Does she deserve to live now? It was you in her dungeons. You she betrayed. If the roles were reversed?" She snapped her fingers, echoing in the silence hauntingly. "She. Would. Not. Hesitate."

Liro expelled a breath that she hadn't realized she had been holding. A weight settled against her chest, as if it would collapse if she revealed even the slightest shudder. All of her suddenly felt too frail, too mortal, too weak. 

Before her time in the dungeons, she had stood a fighting change. Now? Liro might as well hand them the sword and bend down before them, submissive.

Her body vibrated at the thought. She was not going to make this easier for them.

She would have to be cunning. She would have to trick them, she would have to trick Kier. She would have to convince herself, if it were to work.

"I knew she would have killed me," Liro said, keeping her defensive position. Her biceps and forearms burns from holding her sword aloft, but it had to stay there. It had to. "Kier almost did it."

Yasri's eyes brightened. "Did he, now?"

Liro gritted her teeth. "Yes."

Emina offered Liro a close-lipped smile. "And I suppose he was unsuccessful?"

Yasri rolled her eyes, and Liro only kept ahold of her silence. 

Her sisters turned away from her, and Liro kept her sword held high for a few moments before letting it drop silently. They circled Kier, and Liro wondered if he was afraid of witches now. They looked like vultures, dark birds eyeing their prey.

Liro had never noticed when they had looked at her that way, but Kier was proving to be more observant. And he had not entered the throne room under the guise of safety. He had come in prepared for her - but not for them.