The Cursed

Chapter Thirty Eight

Lilura

The Queen and I circle each other, and rather than a predator and prey, we are two equals facing off for the crown, for revenge.

The Queen strikes first. A flash of purple fills the throne room as electricity fires around us, bouncing off the walls and burning the sins' bodies into ash. The electricity bubbles into footing spheres hovering in the corners, lighting the room with an eerie purple glow, outshining the still rising sun.

As she focuses her efforts on threatening me with the purple orbs, I seal the exits with burning white flames that lick up the doorframes.

I sweep my hand across the room, forcing the sins' bodies back to the afterlife, so they can be summoned by another soul in need of help.

"Your flames will not stop me. Your magic is weak," the Queen says, spitting our the last word.

"Weak! I am not, you, you-"

"I'm what Lilura? A royal? A Queen? A leader to a kingdom you will never have?" She coos.

I spit at her feet. Her face hardens, and before I can react, a spire of gold whizzes by me. I fire it back with a twist of my hand. It clatters to the floor.

The Queen roars, sending a hundred needles soaring at me. I deflect them with a shield made from silver. The bounce off, firing through the air and hitting the throne. The throne crack, the needles shatter around the throne. The large crack overshadowing the detailing of the throne.

I send a glass sphere filled with blue smoke at the Queen. She conures a sword that, when it alive slices through the air, sends a cascade of rainbows across the marble. She hits the sphere, sending shattered glass flying at me. The smoke trapped in the sphere bubbles and wraps around the Queen, obscuring her vision. I send the vines to wrap around her legs. She trips and falls to the floor. Her crown tumbled off to land at my feet.

"A coward. You're a coward," I say, picking up the crown and placing it on my head. The smoke fades to the corners of the room, beginning the climb to the purple orbs.

The Queen glowers up at me.

Then she strikes. She twists the vines so they begin to snake up my legs. I too fall to the floor, where the Queen is still struggling to rise.

I whisper a curse under my breath. A fire springs to life around the Queen, where if she tried to stand it would burn her. She mutters a curse of her own, trying to douse the flames. The marble around us cracks from the heat and pressure. It blackens around us. The flames spread to around my form as well.

We're both trapped on the floor, but with the fire, the vines tying me down, burn away.

The shreds of our fight lay around us. Her throne is crumbles. Her crown on my head. As I stand, we both know I've won.

The fire still surrounds us, and spreads to the curtains. They catch on fire, and from the heat of the flames the glass shatters. The Queen flinches as the glass rains over us.

She looks up at me, and does the last thing I thought.

She smiles.

"Welcome to the Kingdom of Iris, my Queen," she cackles. I see a way to torture her beyond death and through life. Killing her is too easy, too merciless.

I summon a cloud above her, it hovers over her body as she smiles.  I drop my hand and with it, the cloud falls over her. It begins to glow a deep purple. The orbs in the corner are pulled out of the vines' grip into cloud. The cloud is a dark purple now. It pulls up and flutters out the window, filled with the Queens' magic. The vines retreat to the floor.

"You fool! What did you do?" She screeches.

I don't answer her question, but rather sentence her to a life of an outcast.

"For crimes against the crown, you are sentenced to a life of banishment from the Kingdom of Iris," I say. The Queen glowers at me.

"You couldn't, my home," she whispers. I glare at her.

"Leave my kingdom."

In a cloud of smoke, the Queen disappears.

I stand alone in the middle of the room, flames spreading around me. My throne room burning around me.

I pivot around the room, once I face the broken throne. I walk to it, using magic to slide the glass out of my way, making a path to my throne. I step to the throne, and sit on the it, the crack above me.

As soon as I sit, there's a feeling of a wave splashing over me, freezing me to the throne. The crown burns hot on my head. The heat spreads down my body, leaving a burning path in its wake.

A booming voice sounds over the room, echoing around the marble, and making dust fall from the ceiling.

"Queen Lilura, the curse of the Kingdom of Iris falls onto your crown. Placed by the people to protect our ruler. The crown taken in a bloodbath will be cursed."

I grab the crown and throw it across the throne room. It clatters to the floor against the opposite wall, filled with scorch marks.

"I...I never wanted this. I can't be cursed," I cry. I let the tears fall. How could I have killed my love, my mentor, for revenge? What a trivial thing, to kill because of a curse, only to be cursed again. I can't live under a constant weight of spells and magic. Magic I don't have full control over. I led to the sins' death, I stop magic from the Queen.

And in return I get, what? Yet another punishment from the heavens delivered in the hands of my kingdom. Am I doomed to live under curse after curse?

"Make it stop! I can't do it!" I screech. The tears still fall hot and fast. I gulp down air into my throat thick with tears. My breathing finally slows, as I take in deep breaths.

"Not again," I whisper.