The Black Queen - Book One

Seven great cities stand strong within their mainland, caged in by the looming wall they built themselves hundreds of years ago. The once pure government has long since been corrupted, an inevitable fate that all great bodies of powers succumb to. The board has been set, and the first white piece has been moved, but the stakes of this metaphorical chess game have been raised to even greater heights, and not all players are as black and white as they first seem.

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"As ruthless and deadly as the infamous Black Queen, but without the ability to completely detach from feeling any empathy for life. That was this criminal's downfall," the Professor concluded.

I looked over to the other side of the room, only to see Raider staring blankly at the Professor as all the other students were packing up and leaving as soon as possible.

She usually would have dozed off or been the first one out of the room after a lecture, so I take my time putting my notebook and pencils away to wait for everybody else to leave. By the time it was only her, the Professor, and me in the room, she finally unfreezes and stands up, her heels barely clinking on the stairs as she walked down to his desk.

Something was wrong.

Before I could run down and intervene with what I felt like could end in a disaster, she turned around and gave me such an intense glare that I could imagine it even though her blindfold hid her eyes, her message was clear: Leave.

I grit my teeth and glare back at her, but know it wasn't my place to fight back against her wishes. I storm as gracefully as I can out of the lecture hall, the Professor's "Can I help you?" being the last thing I hear before the doors shut.

She better not fucking ruin this mission for all of us.