Mirrors ✔️

Chapter 17: Assassination

HA! Guess what? I MANAGED TO DO ANOTHER CHAPTER SINCE I'M FEELING INSPIRED YAY!

Renee or Val? Val or Renee? Renee or-

Val is showing her face again.

The floor is slowing me. A slippery, wet surface. An obstacle.

I clutch my knife tighter, but even I realize that stabbing the shiny wood probably won't work.

Oh well. I shouldn't waste my energy, anyway.

Just my luck that the floors have recently been cleaned.

If I find out who did it, they will meet the same fate as the guard.

I smile as I picture it, holding the image in my mind. It helps me go faster.

Another guard pokes his head out of another corridor, and his image is blurry and distorted. Somehow, he looks exactly like the guard that stopped me before. I wonder if he is imagined.

Does it matter? Hardly slowing, I stoop to yank a shoe from my foot and hurl it at his helmet. It clangs softly and bounces off, but I don't pause to see if it does anything. I keep running. The hallway seemed endless, but at least it is not wet anymore.

When I reach the door, I stop. Pause. It gleams a soft purple with some sort of metal handle, and I realize that I have only been here once before. When I was five, Mother took me up here for some sort of test. I don't remember the room-or the test, for that matter-anymore. It was probably something boring, to make sure I was ready to be Queen.

 I do not hear any sound from inside, and I hiss as I remember the King's endless meetings. What if he is gone? How shall I kill him then?

But then, why wouldn't he be here?

Still.....

I yank on the handle and throw myself at the door, making a loud thumping noise I don't care if he hears. It falls open immediately, and I stumble into the room, barely keeping my balance and using the door to keep myself from falling to the floor completely.

Not the best assassination attempt, then. Not that I've ever tried assassinating anyone before.

I don't see anyone. There is no noise. The room is too clean.

I hear more footsteps I hadn't noticed before, and with dread coiling in my gut, I turn to face them.

I didn't prepare for this. I didn't prepare for Eva, either.

There are twelve of them. The man on the stairs was real. I am blind.

The King stands behind them, a sad yet somehow triumphant smile dominating his features.

I shall kill them all, then.

"You!" I scream, the sound echoing. I don't wait for his response; I snarl and step forward, the motion deliberate and unafraid.

He doesn't so much as blink.

"Valarie. What are you doing here, little bird? I don't think you are supposed to be here." He smiles sympathetically. "Yes, I think there has been a misunderstanding, birdie."

"No misunderstanding." I spit. "Murderer."

"I saved you, darling."

"Saved me?" I laugh coldly. "No. Never."

Then I pause. A smile creeps across my face that I fight to stifle.

"Daddy." A tear slides down my cheek. "I-I don't know what's right anymore. Daddy!"

My voice cracks, and I run for him with open arms. His eyes widen in shock, but he doesn't move, and my arms wrap around his wrist, my tear-streaked face gazing into his, my hair falling over my eyes as my knees threaten to collapse. I stumble, one arm loosening-

That same arm plunges the knife into his back.