Snowred

❄ Chapter 23 ❄

Snow's dark side had driven me to breaking point. However, the thought of killing Myrage is satisfying up until the point I've entered the black forest surrounding the black gothic castle nestled behind the dense thick foliage.

I've been guided by a raven, along the quickest path, as soon as my intentions became clear.

Snow had thankfully not followed me. Perhaps, he had scoffed at my attempt to run and didn't realise I had actually run away, rather than running back to the Castle retreat within the safety haven of the spell.

My arms are already bleeding from my sprinting just in case I had been followed, and when I stand at the steps to the Queen's castle I feel a strange calm enter my chest.

In this very moment upon arrival, I have no rage for her.

And no desire to kill her.

My thoughts, rather, turn to Snow's animalistic fire – insults, rough sex, rough handling, no kindness or limited care.

While it was tolerable for a short while, I had decided this life of being a door matt to a cursed man was not going to suffice. I had seen slithers of the real man, the real knight, the king... a handsome sir.

I was the breaker of this curse that stole his gentlemanliness.

His loss of love.

Snowred was a killer. To kill in order to save a killer would not balance out the magic that played out here.

A sacrifice might.

I was not going to kill the Queen to make a better man out of Snowred... no, it wouldn't work.

It was time for me to fulfil my real destiny.

I walk up with my hands raised, as I yell out for all to hear, "I have come to surrender!" I drop to my knees.

In that moment, as I kneel in the dirt, the front doors creak apart – and Myrage appears. She stands bathed in shadow and moonlight, with a black robe covering most of her skin, with the wolf fur on her shoulder. Her raven eyes narrow, and her feline claws extend.

Myrage lifts one hand, the claws slicing together under the moon in an ushering gesture to come closer, "Welcome back, Ellie," she speaks rather cheerfully, "I just finished making some cookies – come, come, they're all for you."

****

I'm escorted back to her dining table, which is always empty in a morbidly dank, wet room. While she takes her seat at one end, I take my seat at the other. Only one crappy candle near death provides light between us.

Indeed, however, fresh chocolate cookies are still smoking from the middle. They look delicious, but I refrain from eating them less they're poisoned.

"Speak to me," Myrage drinks from a goblet full of rabbit's blood, while a crow perches on her shoulder, "Why are you surrendering now, Ellie?"

"To bargain – as you grant wishes," I murmur, "I think you'll like what I have to say."

"Then speak your mind, girl, I am listening," Myrage lowers her goblet, rather polite, until she tilts her head and freezes in that posture. I try not to feel strange from her intense stare.

"You may have my face and kill me if you so please. I only wish you to give Snow his mortality back. His kingdom. His knights. And he will lust for you with my face," I gulp, as this was it, this was how I could save him.

"Oh, well, you come so generous, that you'd sacrifice your life... for his? You don't want to live at all?"

"What is the point if I am soon to be abused by the monster that resides within a good man. It's not good enough for me. I don't want Snowred," I murmur my truth, "I want Snow."