The King's Queen |2|

|7.|

Chapter Seven ▪︎ The King's Queen |2|

Dedicated to @AllTheSpilledTea lol jk it's ArianaMorton12. Thank you for commenting!

{Just a thank you note: I wrote this book as a way to get rid of the story that I somehow developed in my head in math class or when coming home from school, but I never thought that this would ever be an actual finished book that people seemed to like. I developed Dahlia as a strong woman who works for everything she has, and she is seemingly just a human who was born into a poor family and a bad situation. On the other hand, Alexander was at first glance the very opposite- the king of everything, almighty, immortal; a god basically. But then you got to know them throughout the plot and the (too many) capters, and you realise that it is the very opposite. It's her who was happy because she had so little, and him who had so much. But I didn't want to make it too clichè, so I added in a few twists and turns which still weren't enough. I must admit, the first ten chapter were written for the sake of being written only, not to be read. This is getting long. I want to thank you for 100 thousand reads on The King's Queen 1! I am beyond shocked and forever grateful to all of you, and I wish to be able to do a chapter dedication to every single one of you, but honestly I have no idea how to find loyal readers at this point. So please, comment on the chapters if you want a dedication. ♡}

She had no idea how she managed to do magic in her state, but she conjured a portal to a town built around an oasis- instead of a remote location in Antarctica. It was a familiar town, like something she had seen before but had never been to before. It was probably because of her stay at The Palma and the photos of palm trees hung around the lobby and halls.

It was rather beautiful, especially in the evening. She felt at peace and rested for once.

She searched the town and found a single rentable room in the entire city, which seemed odd until she realised that the city was it's own country of sorts. The place was a creature town, literally. It's name was Creatura de Çita, meaning city of creatures in a local tongue which Dahlia didn't understand. Thankfully, none of the residents were on her hit list.

She thought there would be some trouble for her, but she remembered how she was no longer human and technically was one of them. For the first time, she understood how Alexander felt. Being human made you feel like you belonged to a group, like you had a home as long there was someone else with you, no matter what the home was like. But being a creature completely changed that. You instantly feel like an outcast wherever you go because of the various species roaming the Earth; witches, warlocks, werewolves, strigas, vampires, mermaids, sirens etc. Werewolves had it easy as long as they belonged to a pack, witches had their covens, warlocks had their witches, strigas didn't really have that problem since all they know is hunger and anger, vampires could still have families and have a whole planet to lead, sirens and mermaids have each other- but the King and Queen are unique. There is nobody like them, nobody who belongs to their species, they have nobody to relate to.

She tried not to think too hard about that.

The air in her room was growing stale as the morning Sun peaked it's way through her small window, illuminating dust particles in the polluted air. There were wooden trapdoors instead of windows in her small room. She would have been doomed if a sandstorm hit them, but she assumed that there was a spell protecting the town.

She got dressed and exited the room, the bright sun blinding her for a moment. She walked through the narrow streets to the  city market which was crowded with children playing with rag balls and merchants selling various food, herbs and talismans.

Dahlia bought a single red apple and a pound of almonds which she paid for with silver coins. She heard of a merchant selling weapons coming in yesterday and she was desparately in need of his services. She assumed he would set up his shop in the darker parts of the city, where the necromancers and dark magicians lived, but she still went to the market to see if she could find out his exact location or some information about what kind of weapons he sold.

"... talismans and arrows... yes, bows too... rings... certainly... no...." She heard over the noise. She located the speakers, it was two witches- how typical. She moved closer, pretending to be inspecting the tomatoes a vampire was selling.

"I heard he comes from the East. There must be some fun stuff he sells. Amanda told me he used to sell forbidden potions like love potions and hallucinogenics." The red-haired woman spoke as she sipped her tea.

"Maybe we should buy something, in case the King's armies come here. Unless they caught the runaway." They giggled.

"What a fool! She could have had the whole world and she ran?! I heard she is human, so you shouldn't worry about him coming here. If a human ever entered, it wouldn't have lived long anyway." The redhead snickered with envy.

Dahlia's blood boiled- it could have been from the hot sun or from their shallow  comments.

The redhead started choking and coughing. Dahlia glared at her, not even realising what she was doing.

"Lilia, what's wrong? Dispertio" she whispered spells, but none of them seemed to be working. By then, other witches and healers gathered around the woman, Lilia. Dahlia came closer, moving like a gentle breeze. She looked the woman in the eyes as she was choking and she felt a shift in her behaviour.

Dahlia felt her eyes almost flicker, it was so bizzare. She pushed it aside, she wasn't in control of her feelings, but she was completely in control of her body.

The woman was choking for a strangely long amount of time, almost like she didn't want her to die.

The woman was looking at the crowd for help, but nobody could help her. Her gahe returned to the immortal Queen in front of her and her eyes widened.

The Queen looked a lot more like a creature than a human. The two bottomless orbs in her head were hypnotic. They were the embodiment of danger, but nobody could see them- except for her victim.

Lilia started to shrink in volume. Her cells were dehydrated as if she never tasted water in her long life, even though she was drinking tea moments ago. Her cheekbones shrunk unnaturally and the small crowd gathered around seemed to be dazed as they stopped reacting; only gazing in shock. Her hair fell out of her greying scalp. The fingers cluthing her own neck released their grip and fell to the floor in a pile of dried skin and brittle bones. The woman faded to a pile of dust and a harsh wind blew her upwards and through an invisible barrier protecting the city.

Only then did Dahlia realise what happened and what a mess she created.

Taking the small pocket knife out of her pocket and cutting a sigil into her palm, the town fell asleep and she started wiping her existance from the city. Any memory of her was wiped the instant everyone fell asleep.

The spells drained her so she couldn't travel by portals. She could either drain someone of their own magic, but one person wouldn't be enough for such powerful magic. Any more casualties would be unaccteptable, so she decided to go to the tables covered in magic-soaked talismans and use them as vessals.

Putting them in a circle, she imagined a very familiar place and channelled her remaining power to create a one-way portal.

The new destination brought back one of her worst memories.