Queens & Liars-Sequel to Three Broken Kingdoms (Completed)

Chapter Three: Medea's Court

Myra stood in front of him, and those bright blue eyes he'd come to love were filled with hatred.

"You're a coward," she spat at him. "You're a traitor. And you'll never change!"

"I did it for you," he begged her, but her face was cold and unmoved. "I love you."

"I never loved you," Myra spat on him. "Murderer."

"Please," he begged her. "Please." He was down on his knees, covered in dirt, and he was begging her to forgive him. Her eyes glinted with hatred, with malice.

"You are a coward," she said, her mouth twisted in a cruel smile. "You are a coward, and a traitor. You are a murderer."

"Please," he cried; his mouth hoarse from begging.

"I never loved you," she said, and suddenly it wasn't Myra standing there, but his aunt.

"I hate you," Nala hissed at him.

"You are no blood of mine," his uncle snarled.

"You are the shame of us," Gareth scowled at him.

"You are nothing," Natalie and Evelina hissed.

His fault. Everything was his fault—

"Wake up, Jasper." The voice cut across the dreams, and the world he had been trapped in faded to dust. He turned to find Talia looking up at him. The room around him felt like a cage-red and black, all of it. The colours of the Empress. From his window, the sun glinted in the morning light.

"I have nightmares, too," Talia said softly. In the five years Jasper had known the elf, Talia had barely spoken to him. It wasn't hard to figure out the source of her nightmares-it probably lived in the cell next to the one where his deepest fears emerged in the night.

"Why are you here?" He asked her, deciding she probably wanted a change in subject.

"Medea wants us in the court. And her daughter apparently has plans to discuss with us afterwards."

Her daughter, Lysandra, who was secretly working with the rebels, just like Jasper and Talia, and had helped them keep alive the past five years in the deadly Crimsith Court. Not to mention aided them in elevating to their current positions in the army, just below the generals.

Lysandra terrified Jasper, and he had a feeling the MindWeaver was secretly terrified of the princess as well.

Five years previous, Medea's daughter had approached them both and basically told them that she didn't believe for one moment that they were loyal to the Empress.

Afterwards she had smiled brightly and said she had zero loyalty to her mother either, introduced them to one another and then connected them to the rebellions gathering throughout the three enslaved kingdoms-Tarua Teris in Kallias, with Nala at the head, the Silver Guard and Court and the Second Army in Asriel, now with Talia\Vivienne in charge, and Rose and Kestra's valkyries in Miras.

"Well, hello, my little snakes," Lysandra chuckled as she passed them in the corridor. "Looking forward to the court session with darling mother?"

"Can't wait," Talia said flatly. Lysandra frowned. After five years, Talia remained very cold and very uninterested in camaraderie.

Aaron, the quiet younger prince, frowned at Lysandra.

"Why's the elf here?" He asked his sister, and Lysandra's face lit up at the sight of her brother.

"No one's quite sure yet," she whispered conspiringly in his ear. "I'm sure mother has some use for her, waiting to surprise us all."

"I thought you were privy to all her little schemes."