The Cursed Alpha’s Unwanted And Powerless Luna

Clara’s Reign

Chapter 16: Clara’s Reign

After Annabelle’s cold banishment, Clara’s control over the king and the kingdom became more strong with the help of her black magic.

But no one knew the reason for his sudden inability to rule except Clara and the witch queen leaving Clara in the position of Queen.

She made sure that no one else saw him , kept him isolated and dependent on her. She controlled who saw him,what he ate what he was allowed to know.

She made him believe that Annabelle left him because she couldn’t get the money she came looking for from him and that she only used him and never loved him.

Clara ruled the kingdom effectively while hiding behind the throne and forged the king’s signature on documents for her benefit.

She dismissed the king’s advisors who tried to oppose her decisions and filled the court with loyalists who owed their positions to her.

The king drained of his sense of reasoning by the dark magic in his blood, signed whatever she gave him to. Though she held no official position yet, the court called her the king’s hand.

A name crafted by her to suit herself, she wore Annabelle’s jewelry, clothes, slept in her bed and even sat at the head of the elder’s council.

Everyone in the palace feared Clara’s wickedness and avoided getting her angry. The staff lived in constant dread always demanding absolute obedience.

Any maid who curtsied slowly was beaten mercilessly and and guard who looked at her wrongly was flogged. A cook who burns her soup was locked in the dungeon.

She left everyone constantly on the lookout to barely breathe loudly and made them whisper in fear and terror “she’s not a human but a demon”.

Clara used the dungeons not for justice but for punishment. Those who displeased her were locked away without trial. Cassandra and Seraphina her two most vocal enemies rotted in different cells with their voices echoing through the walls.

To cement her tyranny, she publicly punished those she labeled as traitors with most of them being innocent.

Watching from the balcony, dressed in royal purple and with a smile on her face. The people became so scared of her tyranny to even protest.

She raised the task of common peoples fund her lavish lifestyle new gowns,new jewelry,feasts and renovations to the palace.

The poor starved to death while she ate on gold plates and taxed the rich till they bled.

She bribed the elders of the temple with gold and lands and those who turned down her offer, were threatened to death.

Ensuring that they turned a blind eye to all her crimes. The voice of the temple which was once of moral authority became her puppet.

The elders preached about obedience to the crown which meant to Clara. When the word of her cruelty spread to the neighboring kingdoms,

And the rise of a rebellion she sent soldiers to suppress them. Villages were burnt down and their leaders publicly punished.

She made this as an example to anyone who dared to oppose her reign. She made everyone live in fear.

She made sure that the rumor of her carrying the heir to the throne spread across the kingdom and this made her to gain more attention to herself.

Despite everything, she was still uneasy and unsettled because she knew that Annabelle was still alive and would definitely come for her.

She sent letters to mother superior to ensure Annabelle’s suffering and also planted in spies in the convent a cook, a guard and visiting priest.

They sent her monthly reviews about Annabelle’s suffering and she read them with a wide grin on her face “ Annabelle is suffering. Annabelle is ill . Annabelle is starving. Annabelle has been beaten again.”

She sent assassins each disguised as a pilgrim or traveling merchant. All three failed, thwarted by Ember, sister Agnes and Annabelle’s growing power.

But she didn’t know about. She thought Annabelle was either dead or close to it.

Clara kept a small portrait of Annabelle in her sleeping chamber not out of love but rather, hatred.

She looked at it every night “you thought you were better than me. Now look at you. Nothing but a nun in a frozen wasteland”.

Despite her power deep inside she was so afraid,she saw enemies in the shadows,in whispers, in the eyes of the servants.

She slept with a dagger under pillow, her food was tasted twice before consuming it, she trusted no one, absolutely no one.

Even those who helped her rise, the servant who planted the letter, Mary were all removed from the palace. She couldn’t afford to allow loose ends. One by one they all disappeared either paid off or buried.

Her cruelty grew erratic, she laughed at funerals, weeped at celebrations and screamed at servants for imagined slights.

“She has lost her mind” the court whispered but dared not to say it out loud. She spent hours in front of the mirror.

Practicing her smile, her tears, her expressions of grief. She was used to always performing so it became a habit even she was alone.

She forgot who she was beneath the mask. Even her parents could no longer recognize her.

She learnt that Annabelle had a protective dog, very fierce that thwarted every assassination attempt. “Kill the beast and send me it’s pelt” she said.

The mother superior tried poison, drowning, beating but he survived every time because he was very clever, too fast and too loyal.

She later received word of the failed attempts and flies into rage, shatters the mirror “Then destroy the girl! I don’t care how! Make sure she never draws breath again!”.

Clara offered a bounty of gold for Annabelle’s head, this news spread across the kingdom and desperate peasants all made their way to the north to kill Annabelle.

The king, barely alive sat on the throne eyes void of life drained by Clara’s dark magic with the curse of the witch like a corpse propped up for display.

Clara stood beside him,with a slightly visible bump whispering commands, guiding his hands to sign decrees. The court bowed down to her and not to him.

An old woman in a distant village whispered a prophecy “A girl from the north will come. She will bring fire and truth. And the false queen will fall”.

The people who heard this clung to it and it spread like wild fire but Clara had no knowledge of it.

Clara stood at the palace balcony,looking over the kingdom. She wore a crown that didn’t belong to her and a smile but it doesn’t reach her eyes.

She was empty, hollow and consumed by her own greed.

A servant, trembling approached “ my lady, the girl she lives”. Her hand tightened on the railing “send more men, send everyone I want her destroyed”.

Clara’s fear became more intense, what she thought she had buried would soon be at her throat. Not knowing when it will come but she just knew it will come very soon.

She returned to her chambers and stared at the portrait by her bedside” you should have stayed at the convent, now I’ll have to get rid of you myself”.