The Cursed

Chapter Thirty Seven

Lilura

As I walk through the dining hall, I begin to hear the struggles of the Queen and the sins. There's crashes of rock, and the hissing of snakes, mixed with the subtle hint of smoke in the air.

I move to the kitchen, picking up an apple from a basket full of them sitting in the middle of the kitchen island. And finally, I enter the throne room.

The Queen is bound to her throne, but not powerless. Her magic whips through the room, striking the sins. Lust lays at her feet, pitch black blood pooling by their head. Wrath fires fireball after fire ball at the Queen, but with each one they fire, it is extinguished with a spray of water from the Queen or diverted around the room. Vines twist and wrap around the Queen, morphing between serpents and foliage as the Queen battles Greed for control over the vines.

Sloth is bent over in the corner. Occasionally, they lift their head, and sleepily gaze around the room in a daze before their head lolls to the side.

Gluttony has abandoned the plan and is running around frantically trying to avoid the stray fireballs.

Pride is attempting to talk the Queen into surrender, but every time they open their mouth, a vine the Queen has captured from Greed, whips around them and knocks them to the ground.

The Queen has greater power than I thought. I fully enter the throne room, catching the attention of the fighting sins, and the Queen. The sins stop fighting and turn to me, expecting instruction. In their distraction, the Queen strikes.

She raises her hand, breaking the vine binding her, with it a vine raises and flattens into a blade. With a swipe of her hand, she slices across the sins. The ones still standing fall to the ground, their bodies falling apart into two halves. My help is gone. My advantage lays dead on the marble floor, their blood pooling around, covering the throne room floor in a slippery, crimson mess.

Without Greed to contain the Queen, she easily snaps the vines that bound her to her throne and rises.

"An admiral fight," she sneers, "but I have bested your little friends. Demons? Really my dear? Was that your best option?"

"They may have been no match for you, but I am," I say, yet we both know it to be a lie. The Queen depends the three steps leading to her throne, and approaches me. Her gown still untouched by smoke or vine. I, on the other hand, have the remnants of her son's blood splattered on my boots.

"Is that blood I smell?" The Queen raises her nose, sniffing around me, as a wolf smells out it's prey. She lowers her head to see my blood stained boots. "Whose blood is that?"

"A boy I met long ago in your dungeons."

"You couldn't have." The words come in a whisper, a breath of horror.

"You, you fool!" Her whisper rises to a scream of uncared fury. She thrusts her hand at me, firing a ball of right electricity at me. I try to duck, but it hits me in my chest. The electricity springs to life, unraveling into ropes that crawl over my skin, leaving burning and blistering trails in their wake.

"You murdered my sons, you will pay for your friend against the crown. As Queen of the Kingdom of Iris, I condemn you to death for acts of treason!" The Queen screeches as the red hot trails of electricity bind my legs together and my arms to my sides. The fiery pain shoots through me, making me want to scream to the heavens and beg for it to stop, but I will not give the satisfaction to the Queen.

Her eyes stare into mine, her face contorted  into rage. She stares at me as a cold hearted killer, a creature that should never see the sun, she sees me as the dirt under she golden shoe.

I will not stand to be treated as so low to be looked down upon. I summon, from deep within me, the magic I know I hold. It springs from me in a white hot mess of spiderweb strands of fire. It breaks through the Queen's ties, setting me free.

The apple I had clutched in my hand, falls with my escape. It rolls across the floor to stop at the Queen's feet. She lifts her skirts, unbothered that I have freed myself from her magic. Her rage has simmered to not be apparent on her face, but rather it lurks under the surface, ready to pounce at me any second. The Queen kicks the apple aside with her shoe made from braided gold. The apple rolls to the side, bumping and stopping against Wrath's body. As we both focus on the apple, the Queen's magic fades from around me. My magic crackles and forms a barrier between the Queen and I.

"So the little girl does have some power," coos the Queen. I grit my teeth in my attempt to not anger the Queen anymore than I have by killing her two sons, and only heirs to the throne. The Queen

"I'm not a little girl," I say, my magic humming in the circle around me.

"Of course you are. Only little girls go after to find revenge against a Queen," she says.

"You, you killed my chance of happiness. You're selfish hope for Everette to take your crown led you to take his love, to ruin me," I scream. She will not hurt me anymore. And with Everette's unfortunate demise, he is also safe from her cruel touch.

"Then why did I let him drag you along to witch and witch to gain your memories?"

"You found your other son! You traded my love like a common merchant!" I yell, outraged at her treatment of what was the love of my life.

"Hmm, so you've done some research," she says.

"I had to. I wouldn't let Everette die without reason."

"But yet you killed him." Her head nods to the side, studying me.

"He betrayed me. He knew my pain was caused my you, and yet he let me live without knowledge of what happened to me. He didn't let me know why I had earned the pain of not knowing about myself," I yell.

"And for that he deserved death?" She sneers, lip curling in disgust.

"And so do you," I hiss.

"Are we deserving of death for letting the crown prosper. I I to do what's best for my kingdom."

"Lies!" I shout. The Queen growls, her fury surfacing once again. "You have to die."

"And leave my kingdom without a ruler and no heir?"

"The Iris Kingdom without a Queen is better than one with a Queen."

When the Queen looks at me, she doesn't see a little girl seeking revenge or a mouse to be hunted, but rather she looks at me as a worthy opponent. She sees me as a enemy to the precious crown she's built.