The Oppressed Queen

Chapter 2

I return to my bed chamber, lock the door, and cast a sealant charm on the door before moving to the windows, drawing the heavy curtains, and casting a protection charm on them. From there, I unlock my wardrobe to create an elixir to bottle and add to my growing collection. Satisfied with my finished product, I cleaned up, slid the vial into the chest I have the others in, then pulled my grandmother's spellbook out of its hiding spot, and opened it to the seer spell.

I gather my copper bowl and a pitcher of water that is needed. I find a seat on the floor and begin casting the spell. I quietly chant the spell as I pour the water into the bowl until it is full. I prick my finger and begin swirling it in the water, “Show me what my future will be if I marry Kyro Cloudspire of Stork,” I call out before removing my finger and leaning forward to see what the spell reveals:

I’m swimming through murky water until everything becomes clear. I left my father’s study, with him announcing the wedding will take place in two days. During dinner on the same day, my father announces the wedding plans to the table, and I see Phoebe’s face twist into anger for a brief moment, and is replaced by a forced smile.

On the wedding day, I’m going to get dressed in my wedding gown when I bump into Phoebe outside her room. She drops to her knees with her eyes full of tears. “Mira, I’m so sorry. We didn’t mean for it to happen. We both drank too much wine last night,” Phoebe sobbed. Before I can ask what she’s going on about, Kyro exits her room, his neck and torso are covered in scratch marks.

“Mira, I will still marry you, but Phoebe is my mate now. We have mated, and it cannot be undone,” Kyro announces. “Don’t make a scene. I will speak to your father.”

Before I can even form a reply, they take each other’s hands and walk down the corridor towards my father’s study. When Kyro tells my father the situation, he just nods in thought. “Very well, we will go through with the wedding to save face. Mira, you will have to deal with the fact that Phoebe and Kyro are mated, and you will only be his wife in title alone,” My father states. I can only nod as tears silently fall down my face.

The scene shifts, and the murky water begins to swirl, then clears again. Now Phoebe, Kyro, and I are having a heated discussion in a bed chamber. “Phoebe is pregnant, and we will not have our child be called a bastard, so you are to give her your blessing as my wife. You will step aside and allow her to be recognized as my mate,” Kyro is demanding.

“I’m so tired of not having a say in anything. She has been stealing everything in my life ever since she entered it,” I snap back in defiance.

Kyro’s hand slaps my face before I can say anything else. It’s not until I feel a sharp pain in my stomach that I look at Phoebe, who is now holding a bloodied dagger that she stabbed into me and removed. “You’ve always been jealous of me,” Phoebe smirked. “It’s time I take my rightful place as Kyro’s mate and wife. All we have to do is get rid of you, and no one will be the wiser.”

Before I can speak, Kyro shoves me hard, causing me to fall through the window towards the ground. The longer I fall, the more I realize they had me in the bed chamber of the highest floor of the palace to ensure I die on impact with the ground. My body will be too broken for the dagger wound to be noticeable. Phoebe has succeeded in taking my place and life completely…

With a rush of air, I sit back up in my bed chambers staring at a bowl of murky water as I was when I began. That is why my grandmother advised me to use the seer spell before I make a choice for a husband. If I were to go with my gut and marry the man who swore to always protect me when we were children, I would end up dead at the hands of the woman who bewitched everyone around me. I will give Phoebe Kyro, but they will not be told until I leave for my wedding. Any of the other suitors will be better than dying at the hands of my husband and false sister.

With the seer spell done for the night, I clean up everything and put them away where they belong. Hiding the spellbook is more important than putting anything else in place where they belong. Once I am changed into my nightgown, I slip into bed under the covers, cast a protection spell over my bed, and close my eyes.

Ever since that morning when I woke up to see Phoebe standing over me with a pair of scissors in her hand and a smug smile on her face, I’ve cast a protection spell over myself at night. She had chopped off all my hair as I slept, and when I woke, she told me I needed to learn to stay out of her way. I was nine and just beginning to get my powers when my grandmother heard what happened, she began training me to hide my powers and protect myself while I sleep. My parents, of course, believed every lie out of Phoebe’s mouth and did nothing to punish her for cutting my hair as she did. ‘Mira, Phoebe is young, she does not know what she did.’ Phoebe knew exactly what she was doing.