Klara cursed the King for his complacency. He had placed his trust in the wrong Queen, and now the Forest would pay for it.
Malum had been his curse for my birth. No wonder he didn’t care about what happened to the Creatures that had been dumped on his lap. “You let Lilith be torn apart,” Klara spat not looking Eve in the eye, and she heard her sobs. “I tried but I couldn’t, I was scared,” she stammered.
“The Mother of all Creatures can’t call off the Hounds?” Klara laughed at her lies. “No wonder your daughter despises you,” Klara said, pulling at her restraints. “At least my daughter is alive and not shackled to a wall made of bones,” Eve glared, and Klara stopped struggling, honing her strength.
“Is my Father here? Did he come to see you? Is Abadan threatening him with something?”
“The King? He disappeared in Hell. Abadan sent her Crimson Guard, but they returned empty-handed,” Eve shook at the thought of Lucifer in the Castle.
“Lucifer was with Abadan and Mila on the border of Kalos,” Klara told her, and a ripple of confusion crossed Eve’s delicate features. “He couldn’t have been,” Eve struggled to her feet. Mud caked her feet and travelled up her calves. She looked nothing without the flowers in her hair and her flowing layered skirts. “There is one thing I can do before that bitch takes my head.”
Eve cupped her face, and Klara felt a rush of magic rip through her body, the force pulling her from the wall. The restraints ripped from the wall freeing some of the skulls. Klara fell onto Eve, and they clung to each other as Eve’s skin became sunken and wrinkled. Her eyes and cheeks hollowed out, while her hands became skeletal.
“Claim Malum and restore order as Lilith would have wanted,” Eve said. Red veins spread through her eyes before they clouded over.
The weight of Eve’s limp body pulled them both to the dungeon floor. Klara waited for the pain in her side and arm to kick in, but she felt nothing. Klara sat up, “Eve?” she said, looking at the Queen’s skeletal back, her skin ice cold to the touch. Klara tried to move her when the squealing of the cell door opening stopped her. Klara backed up to the skull wall as light poured in. Klara watched as Eve remained still.
Mila walked in with folded arms, her Guards remained in the shadows of the doorway. “I would be lying if I said I wasn’t delighted to see you like this, sister,” Mila beamed, and Klara feigned weakness. Klara would get her opportunity, but this wasn’t it. The dungeon was too deep in the belly of the Castle.
“Don’t get used to it,” Klara moaned holding her side. She didn’t have Lilith to guide her out this time around. “You’re rather quiet mother,” Mila looked at her mother’s frozen body and stepped further into the small cell. Mila said nothing and Klara felt the weight of her sister’s eyes on her. She rose her chin to look at her captor. The sting from Mila’s palm against her cheek radiated into Klara’s eye socket.
“Did I say you could look at me?” Mila snarled. Klara’s head snapped to the side from the force of the blow. Klara exaggerated her pain and threw herself to the ground. She coughed into the stone floor, causing a layer of dust to rise around her face. Mila knelt beside her mother and pulled Eve’s wasted frame onto her lap. “You killed her.”
Klara pushed herself up careful to keep her movements slow as she saw the rocking of Mila’s shoulders. Klara thought Mila was crying, but when Mila lifted her face, Klara saw no tears, only the upturned corners of Mila’s wicked smile and dead eyes.
“Another crime will be applied to your sentence,” Mila said, and Klara noticed how Mila’s fingers clutched Eve’s fragile hand. “You locked up your mother and feigned tears over her body. You can sentence me to death, but it’s you who’s dead inside.”
Mila only glared at her half-sister.
“Eve talked of Abadan cursing you before she took her own life, but I think we both know that’s not true.”
“I don’t need a curse to claim what is mine,” Mila said, dropping her mother’s body from her lap as if Eve was nothing but a sack of rotten potatoes.
“I understand why Eve ended her pain. Having such a sorry excuse for a daughter must have weighed on her soul.” Mila’s crooked smile threatened to break, “Eve was weak, certainly no mother.” Klara watched Mila try to justify her actions.
“A Daughter of Hell and yet all you do is follow Abadan like the puppy you are.”
“Waste your breath, say all you like. Malum will be mine, and you will be another skull hoisted on this very wall.”
Klara looked at the skulls of those she couldn’t name. The hundreds that the Queens had justified killing. Some deserved their punishment while others were merely in their way.
“Will my Father allow you to take my head? He could have stopped me in the Forest. Raised a hand, and the ground would have opened up and swallowed us all whole. Yet he didn’t and Eve told me that you never found my Father.”
Mila’s nostrils flared. “The King will do what the law calls for. You betrayed him, made an ally of the Fae Queen, and were protected by those traitorous Giants.”
“And yet the King did not stop me from going through the portal to Kalos.”
“He stopped Frendall. The Commander begged for his life in these dungeons. Found him lurking in the Forest trying to find you.”
Klara went to stand, but the Guards stepped out of the shadows, “let’s just pray that Abadan protects you when the time comes.”
A burst of laughter echoed from Mila’s chest.
“As much as I would love to rip the tongue from your mouth, Abadan insists on seeing you. Whole.” Mila wiped the dust that had transferred to her clothes from Eve and gestured for her Guards.
Only two came in, Klara tried to suppress a smile. She would have their necks twisted in seconds, but she was supposed to be injured. Thankfully the blood matting Klara’s clothes, shielded her healed skin from sight while the rotting smell of the cell blocked the scent of Eve’s sacrificial magic, keeping Mila in ignorant bliss.
Klara stumbled up the steps while the Crimson Guards held under her arms. They took her weight as they climbed up the winding steps. Once they were dead, Klara would find Lilith’s bones and bury her alongside Eve. The foul dungeon air began to clear the higher they ascended. Klara had never been so happy to see the tormented portrait of Augustus, the Deplorable judging her as she was helped down the corridor to the throne room.
~20~
Klara stared up at the candlelit chandelier. It took a moment for Klara’s eyes to adjust having come from the dark corridors and even darker dungeon. One throne sat alone, and there she was the High Queen. The scratched stone from where their thrones had been dragged out was all that remained of Eve and Lilith. The High Queen sat relaxed, her eyes trained on Klara as they approached. Abadan could have removed the thrones with a simple incantation, but that wasn’t her style. No, Klara was sure Abadan had made a great scene of having the Ogres drag out their thrones. A message to all those that would oppose her. Klara let herself drop to the floor in front of Abadan.
“So happy to have you back,” Abadan said.
Klara sat on her heels, “It’s a shame. I can’t say the same.”
“I missed your wit. The place doesn’t shine as brightly without you.” Abadan let out a heckle.
“Do you feel the loss of your fellow Queens at all or are you too busy stewing in your victory?”
“Victory would have been my Queens at my side and your head on a spike.” Abadan sat back in her throne. “Eve and Lilith failed to see your true colours.”
“And Frendall? Letting your son rot in a field is a new low even for you.”
Abadan fisted her blood-red skirts. “Bewitched him with your traitorous mind, didn’t you?” Abadan seethed.
“He went to those damn Lycaons. After everything I did for him, he betrayed me.”
A loud knock on the door disturbed them. The visitor doesn’t wait to be announced or granted permission to enter. Instead, the double doors flung open, and Lucifer marched thr
ough the hall.
Lucifer walked past Mila and Klara without a glance, his shirt white and creaseless under his signature black blazer. Abadan stood with her head slightly bowed.
“I ordered you to summon me once she came through the portal,” Lucifer’s words were laced with anger.
“I know how unpleasant this is for you darling, so I thought I would handle it myself.”
“I will handle my daughter’s trial.”
A trial? Where was Frendall’s trial? Klara looked at the sword at Lucifer’s side and saw the Fae Queen’s reflection in its sheath.
“Speak. If you want any chance of saving your neck?” Lucifer roared at Klara as Abadan offered him her throne. Klara opened her mouth to speak, but his aura was wrong. There was a shimmer to his skin that didn’t belong. Klara’s eyes drifted to Abadan even if the King had chosen to take her side. She would never be this easy in his company.
“Don’t you think I know a glamour when I see one?” Klara ignored Lucifer. She pressed her hand to the floor, focusing her energy on her Father’s eyes. The glamour blurred and stretched and what was once her Father slumped forward. The glamour lifted and there sat a shackled and bloodied Lokey.
“I see you aren’t too weak to reverse a glamour of my own creation,” Abadan said.
Judging from Lokey’s raw wrist, he had been strung up since the battle. “Lokey?” Klara called. Lokey’s eyes rolled back in his head as Abadan clicked her fingers and Guards appeared at either side of the throne.
“Let him go!” Klara ordered as the Guards in Crimson pulled Lokey’s limp body from the throne.
“Why on Malum would I release a traitor and a powerful one at that.”
Abadan reclaimed her seat, wiping away Lokey’s blood with her sleeve.
“I forced him to help me. My death will send a strong enough message to those supporting me.”
“If only that were true, plus my Torturers haven’t dealt with one so powerful and ancient. It will be decades before Lokey is broken.” Abadan was practically salivating at the thought of revealing Lokey secrets.
“Stop dragging it out and just take her head,” Mila said, leaning against a pillar.
“Patience,” Abadan snapped at Klara’s half-sister.
“Where is my Father?”
Abadan fixed her crown. “Away.”
“Did you cage him?” Klara dreaded the answer. If Lucifer was caged, Klara wouldn’t be able to keep her promise to the Fae Queen.
“Sadly no, the King fled from his council. He did as he desired and left. He never once stopped to consider us. Lucifer wanted to hand my land to you as if a child can handle Malum. When I tried to make him see reason, he told his council that you would be inheriting Hell in a mere decade. I couldn’t stand by and watch you ruin everything. Now he can play with the Humans for as long as it pleases him.”
“All of your problems would have been solved if you had let me leave for Kalos.” Klara almost laughed at the irony, but Abadan clenched her fists.
“The King would have blamed me, us. There is no winning with the King. We had to be rid of you.”
“We? Look around Abadan. It’s only you and your puppets. When Lucifer returns, not even God will be able to save you.”
Klara jumped to her feet and pulled a dagger from Mila’s belt. Abadan flung Klara against one of the six pillars that held up the ceiling. Klara didn’t know if it was the pillar that cracked or her ribs. Klara hit the ground with a sharp intake of breath. Ribs, definitely ribs.
“Is a little conversation too much to ask for?” Abadan snapped, flinging her hair behind her shoulder. “Since you insist on fighting, I will allow a trial by combat. Defeat your sister, and I will free you. You can go to your Father or Kalos,” Abadan said.
Klara looked to Mila, and it was apparent that this was a turn of events for her. Mila hadn’t expected Abadan to make her fight to the death.
“This was not part of our deal,” Mila frowned, and Abadan shrugged.
“Prove you deserve to be by my side.”
The Fae Queen wants Father dead, and the Demon Queen wants my half-sister dead seems everyone wants a piece of the Lucifer family.
Klara rolled out of the way of Mila’s stomping boot and sprung to her feet. “Stop following her orders. How could you betray the King? At least he raised you,” Klara said and jumped back as Mila came at her with her bow. Without the string, Mila used her bow as a blade.
“Klara has taken out another patrol, tracked her first coven, her abilities surpass even those of ancient Higher Demons. Her sense of duty blah blah blah.”
Mila circled her and Klara gripped the dagger, wishing she had her axe.
“I was raised in the belly of Hell, left the scraps that you hadn’t already eaten up. No matter how I pushed or bled you did it first, faster and bloodier. You were what cursed me,” Mila’s bow cut through the air and Klara ducked behind a pillar.
“Poor Mila, you think I didn’t bleed and break as much as you. Stop with the pity party and own your shit. You wanted power so bad that you took it instead of earning it.” Klara dropped her dagger and let her fist connect with Mila’s jaw, the blow splitting her lip.
Mila dropped her bow, and she didn’t pick it back up.
“A talented fighter, but you have no abilities, do you? No power? I’m guessing you are more suited to potions like your mother, maybe even mastered a few spells but how can you take my place without power,” Klara went for Mila’s ego as Abadan watched from the end of the room.
Mila’s eyes went to her bow and Klara’s blade.
“Go on. Take the cowards way out, better yet let me make it easy for you.” Klara stood a few feet away, clasping her hands behind her back. “Drive that blade through my heart, and I will still be able to rise.”
“Ignis,” Mila hurtled a ball of flames in Klara’s direction, but Klara remained still.
“Glacies,” Klara said calmly, and the flame turned to ice and shattered on the stones. “Simple tricks don’t prove you can stand in my place,” Klara dove for Mila before she reached her bow. Klara gripped her sister’s bare arms and dove into her half-sister’s mind.
Klara watched Eve give Mila a bloomed flower from Hell’s garden only for Mila’s slight touch to turn it to ash. Mentors in black cloaks beat Mila bloody for missing her target. An empty plate in front of her because she failed to pick up her spells. Mila had suffered just as Klara had, the only difference, Klara was stronger.
Lucifer’s blood gave her strength, but the Fae Queen had given her the power of revelation.
Mila dropped to her knees as Klara blinded her with her worst memories. Klara felt the raw power Mila had felt when she killed Frendall.
Klara’s hands went to Mila’s neck.
“Finish her, take your revenge for my son,” Abadan’s words distracted Klara from her blinding anger. Klara stopped, letting Mila breathe before her fist knocked Mila out cold.
“Another disappointing end. Are you going to try to kill me now?” Abadan smiled.
“She won’t, but I will.”
A voice echoed through the portrait of Forneus, the Great Marquis of Hell. The Fae Queen and a number of her armoured Fae came through the ancient portraits. The Fae are breaking the treaty. “I like what you’ve done with the place,” Queen Aemella said, winking at a stunned Klara. Her white suit had been covered with violet armour.
“The treaty forbids you from entering my lands,” Abadan said as she rose from her throne. The Castle shook violently as Abadan summoned her Crimson guard, but the doors to the throne room remained closed. The Fae Queen looked at the door in mockery, “I don’t think anyone is coming.”
Klara waited for an army to arrive, but not even the Ogres came blustering through with batons at the ready. Abadan was alone. “Aemella, you have grown brazen in your old age. Maybe you need to read over the treaty once a century.”
“Let’s not discuss the age game, Abadan,” Aemella winked not looking a day over thirty
before she continued.
“The treaty forbids me from entering Lucifer’s land but since Lucifer no longer controls this land either through his presence or by proxy then are treaty is null and void.” The Fae Queen stood a head taller than Abadan, her endless limbs made her more Creature than Queen.
“Malum is mine,” Abadan said, and the Fae Queen moaned. “You share no blood with Lucifer, you were merely a Guardian until the natural Heir assumed the throne.” Queen Aemella extended an arm towards Klara, “and since you seem determined to take my daughter’s head. I see no reason why I can’t reclaim my lands.”
Abadan looked between Aemella and Klara. It was news to her that Klara wasn’t just a daughter of Hell.
“She can’t be…”
Queen Aemella held a hand in the air, silencing Abadan, “Let me tell you how easy it was to cross your lands, the Ogres have been surrounded by my Giants and have submitted. The Lycaons that weren’t burnt to ash were waiting eagerly for me when I entered. The Leprechauns, Centaurs and Vampires practically begged me to stay. Your Malum more than willingly rolled out the welcome wagon.”
Abadan spoke words to summon her council of Higher Demons, but no one came. Abadan reached out her hand, and Klara coughed as her airways closed.
“Enough,” Aemella said as vines ripped through the ground and ensnared Abadan. The harder the High Queen struggled, the tighter the vines bound her. Klara took a deep breath, remembering those loyal to her on the field. With her Father not on this plane, the crown would fall to her without her Father claiming an Heir. The King on the battlefield was only a glamour just as Abadan had glamoured Lokey. Higher Demons wouldn’t appreciate being tricked.
Mila groaned, and before she opened her black eyes, the Fae Queen snapped her fingers, and Mila vanished from the room. Klara didn’t have time to wonder where Aemella had sent her.
“Resurgemus liberals meos,” Klara said softly standing before a bound Abadan. Rise, my children. With her words, Higher Demons in all shapes and shades lined the walls of the throne room. They glared at the Fae Queen and her men. The Fae rose their weapons, and the Demons readied themselves.
Crowned A Traitor: A Hellish Fairytale Page 25