A visit from the Queen mother
385 Words
The castle trembled with an unspoken tension the following day. Servants rushed down corridors with lowered eyes, dusting already polished banisters and lighting every chandelier. The kitchens prepared delicacies Aria couldn’t pronounce, and the guards wore ceremonial armor they hadn’t donned in years.
Aria stood near the balcony of the grand dining hall, her eyes scanning the growing bustle below. Damien hadn’t said much that morning. He was distant — colder than usual. She could feel it in his silence, in the flick of his gaze that didn’t quite meet hers.
“She’s coming,” he finally said.
“Who?” Aria asked, her voice uncertain.
“My mother,” he answered, jaw tight. “Queen Malverra of the House of Shadows.”
The name alone sent a chill through her.
Before Aria could ask more, the palace bells rang. The great front doors creaked open, and a wave of icy air swept through the corridor.
And then she entered.
Queen Malverra was tall, hauntingly beautiful, with high cheekbones, skin as pale as bone, and silver-blonde hair woven into a crown of midnight thorns. Her eyes — the same shape as Damien’s, but colder, crueler — landed on Aria the moment she stepped into the hall.
“So,” the queen said with a voice like silk over steel, “this is the human child you’ve bonded to.”
Aria tried to bow, but her knees felt unsteady. “Your Majesty,” she said softly.
Malverra’s gaze narrowed. “She’s weak.”
Damien stepped forward. “She’s mine.”
“Your obsession clouds your judgment, son,” the queen snapped. “You would bind the fate of our bloodline to a flameborn girl who doesn’t even know what she is?”
Aria’s eyes widened. So the queen knew. She knew everything.
Malverra turned her cold gaze back to Aria. “You are a spark. Unstable. Dangerous. And you will burn everything he’s built if left unchecked.”
Aria swallowed hard. “I didn’t choose any of this.”
“No,” the queen said. “But fate rarely asks for permission.”
With that, she swept past them, her cloak trailing like a shadow across the marble floor.
Aria stood frozen. She wasn’t just hated.
She was feared.
And she was starting to understand why.
- Writer
