4 Princes

XXIII

Elaina
BEING SCARED OF MY stepmother was perhaps the stupidest thing I had ever done. She was hideous looking, old, frail. She wasn't smart nor rich, she was a coward who prayed on younger souls.

And I was a coward for not standing up to her sooner.

I stepped into the familiar kitchen, my lungs clenching and my muscle memory preparing me to breathe in soot and sour air. I was so disgustingly used to this place. It was a slow torture, facing this place again. But it was also bittersweet. I wasn't returning as Cinderella, I was returning as Elaina.

"How?"

I turned, my back straight and my chin held high. "My mother," I said boldly. She didn't have to elaborate for me to know what she was asking.

My stepmother scoffed, rolling her green, snake like, eyes. "Your mother is dead," she laughed. It was almost a cold laugh, as though all humor had been drained from her. Her grey hair was falling down her shoulders softly, almost delicately. But nothing about this woman was delicate.

"Her ghost isn't."

Had I not said it so seriously, had my actions at the ball not been so impossible, she wouldn't of believed it. But she did, I saw it in her dead eyes.

Her jaw locked and her eyes narrowed. "Where are you going to go when he dies?" Such an ominous question. She was an ominous woman.

"He won't," I argued. "I came to say goodbye, Tremaine. And if you ever," I took a step to her and she took a step back. "threaten any of the Fairisles... you'll wish you had killed me instead of the Queen."

She took a step forward and pushed me, my little charade meaning nothing to her. My back hit the wall and suddenly her arm was covering my throat. She was not a woman easily stepped on. I was on my tippy-toes, my head held up from the pressure. 

"Listen here imbecile, you may be a Princess but that means nothing. I killed the Queen because she knew something she didn't need to know, what do you think I'll do to you?" She spat.

I tried to gulp, but I had to force it down past the pressure of her arm. "Nothing. If you hurt Rook, there's nothing stopping me from telling everyone." It was a weak threat, but it was a threat enough. 

She let go, nearly impressed with me. "Then goodbye, Cinderella."

"Goodbye stepmother." And on that note, I turned around and out of the kitchen, my hair flowing behind me. It was so freeing, having it down and golden instead of up in a black bun. I was leaving, not dreaming.

"Good luck, Ella!" Anastasia whispered, waving her hand excitedly from her spot on the ground next to the fire. Soot had already started caking under her nails.

I could've said something. I wanted to. Maybe soon I would, but right now was not the time to do something.

Red
I WAS IN THE training room with Elaina, trying to learn how to shoot a bow. She was the only one who I didn't feel embarrassed asking for help from. She was apparently almost better than Jack was. I didn't know how well I believed those rumors, but surely there was some merit to it. And, to my surprise, she was exceptionally good.

"See, you're doing okay, but you need to-"

She was interrupted by the door slamming open. We both looked to the bang where a guard had rushed into the training room, red in the face.

"Miss Red!" He yelled

For a moment I thought I was in trouble, I was always in trouble, and then the fear on the man's face settled onto me.