The Serpentine's Revenge

Chapter Thirteen

Allura’s eyes glowed a deep red. She chuckled. “Why are you so happy?” I said, as I gritted my teeth in pain.

“Foolish child! Do you think I agreed to this wretched marriage for no reason? I was his second. Not the first. Do you know how it feels to have your husband longing for his dead wife? I could never replace her. I was always just for show. Rejected by the one who was supposed to love me through sickness and loss.” She dropped her wedding ring on the ground. She approached Cobalt. She placed her hand on his frozen cheek. “Love is weakness. It’s a shame he didn’t have the strength to kill you. He had so much potential. But he had to fall in love.”

The room’s temperature dropped. I sucked in a breath, and my breath fogged as I exhaled. Those three words will haunt me for the rest of my life.

“You don’t know?” She pursed her lips innocently, mocking me. “He loves you. Cobalt, he just had to see the good in you, and fall in love. How pathetic.”

“Of course, I knew. I am not stupid. A blind man could see it. A deaf could hear his desperation from across the world. But I don’t love him.”

“Of course you don’t, darling. He knew, and his heart shattered. As I said, love is weakness.” She glided across the marble to Crimson’s corpse. She stepped over her wedding ring and towards him. “I knew Crimson was a good king, but I also knew he was the twenty-fourth king. People really are so gullible. Believing in a story that was complete bullshit.” Allura turned and faced me. “It’s like a curse, the curse to end all happiness.” Her smile sent shivers snaking down my spine.

“The Curse?”

“Not a curse, darling. A game. To play with the minds of those too weak.” She raised her arms in victory, her back to me.

I scoffed. “What did you pay for it?”

She twirled around, the gossamer of her dress flowing to the movement. “Excuse me?”

I placed my hands on my hips. “Everything comes at a price. Especially Magik. I’ve read the rules. What did you give up?”

“Does it matter? I won.” She began to circle me, eyeing me like a new meal. “But if you truly want to know,” Her voice tasted like mockery. “I gave up everything I had. I gave up my life, my family. But I will gain everything and even more in return.” She smiled, and her eyes didn’t have the yellow streak anymore. It was fire in her eyes. Living fire.

“Azuria. What a beautiful name. Do you know who named you? Your father. The awful little bastard.”

“My father was a warrior. He was a fighter! How did you know him?”

“Doesn’t matter how I know him. Your father was a liar. Lied about everything. You say your father didn’t kill himself? Who would kill him?”

I bared my teeth at her. “What the hell are you talking about? You killed him!”

“Hah. You think I would kill the only man who I ever loved? Why would I do that?” Allura loved my father? “It wasn’t my fault, he was dead. He did that to himself.”

My father did lie to me. “But you did kill my mother.”

“That I did. Because she took my life, and destroyed it! Everything I had, was gone. Does her family not deserve the same?”

Anger knotted itself over my lungs. “You killed her, and my father killed himself. You may have gotten your revenge on my mother, but you lost the one thing you loved. That’s my revenge to you. You’ve done enough damage to yourself.”

“I will gladly continue the hurt to myself, if it means I get to destroy Alice. No, I haven’t done enough damage to you. They may be dead, but there is still one living thing that will destroy them both even in the Afterlife. And I have it right here.” She flashed a deadly smile. “You.” Allura opened the palm of her hand, and a glowing red sphere appeared.

I took in a sharp breath. “What are you?”

“How rude! What am I? I am your Queen. Many know only four classes in Azuria, but I come from the fifth class. The Hidden Class. The people who are the stories and fairytales. The Magikal.” I heard Allura whisper the word Mandatum into the glowing ball of power, before she thrusted out her hand.

The language. It wasn’t Common Tongue. Only the Enani would know that language. Fear pulsed through my blood once again. Allura was a descendant of Enara. Legend has it she most powerful Magikal that ever walked the earth. Enara had her heart broken by a former lover, and the anger inside her created her deadly powers. But stories wouldn’t help me now. Allura launched the glowing ball, it floated across the room, and dissolved into me. Her voice came inside my head.

‘Give me control and we need not fight.’ Allura’s hand twisted, as if to grab my heart out of my chest. I stumbled towards her as my tattoo seared. As she tightened her hand, and a coil of strength compressed around my waist. Her eyes seem to burst into flames with determination.

“No matter how powerful you think you are, I am superior. You killed Crimson, an innocent. The mind really can be blurred by anger.” Allura’s hand closed into a fist, and my tattoo exploded with pain. My scream echoed through the halls of the palace. She saw into my mind, retrieving all the terrible memories of my past. Her hands moved with precision and smoothness. My breathing came out in quick pants. Spheres of light were pulled out of my head, and displayed out of my head. Allura can see my past. I saw myself, dancing around our little cottage with my father, my mother’s face full of joy and happiness.

“How beautiful. Your parents really were dedicated, too bad they didn’t last long.” The memory washed red. There, in front of me, my mother was in the Square, when Crimson walked up with Cobalt. The ax was brought down, and I looked away. My vision blurred. Hot tears flowed down my cheeks.

“Oh, how sentimental. Even nine years after her death, you still love her.” I stood up and wiped away my tears. “Isn’t just so funny, how memories are the worst forms of torture? How funny it is, that your memories are some of the worst. And I can make you relive them again, and again, and again.”

“Shut up! You b***h!” My mother’s voice filled the room. I love you, Azuria. “Stop it!” I screamed. My heart pounded in my chest. My wrist burning with agony. My blood heated. The knot grew tighter. The world’s sound became hazy. My tears burned as they streamed down my face.

Then it stopped. I drank in a deep breath of air.

It all stopped. The weight lifted off my chest, and pressure on my insides was released.

“No, no, no! Come back!” The pain in my tattoo suddenly dispersed, and Allura’s voice in my head became more and more distant. I could feel Allura losing control over me. In my hand, I was holding the red glowing sphere. I launched it, like one of my knives, and it hit Allura straight in the chest. She flew back and slid across the floor. She stood up, grabbed my hand and looked me in the eye. Her eyes poison itself, glowing a brighter red. But, her mind games didn’t work. I grabbed Jett’s poisoned sword, and drove it into her chest.

“Was that suppose to hurt?” She plucked the sword out of her chest, as if it was just a small nuisance.

“Not the blade, but the poison on it.” Her eyes widened.

Allura thrusted out her hand, and a shaft of red light exploded from her hand. It slammed into my chest with crushing strength. I was launched across the room, flinging me into a marble column.

Hot blazing pain shot up my spine. All the air in my lungs escaped. I groaned, lifting my hand to my spine. I felt every vertebrae. I wasn’t broken. I should be. I gritted my teeth through the dull pain, and knelt onto my knees.

Allura gasped, obviously surprised that I could move. “You should be dead.”

I breathed out a laugh. “I should be a lot of things. But I’m glad to disappoint.” She let out a sound like a growl, and she lunged towards me, nails razor sharp. Allura flew through the air as if she had wings. My heart slammed against my rib cage. Fear coursed through my brain, shutting it down.

I lifted my hands in front of me, hoping to block her attack. I waited for it.

The world’s time slowed. I saw Allura’s vicious smile, a smile of desire and vengeance. I could already feel the pain she would cause me. How much blood I would lose. How much of everything I would lose if I let her win. If I let her win, she not only continues to be the monster she already is, but a monster with power. I would lose everything. Millard. Arian. Oh, Arian. Everything, gone. I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t lose what little I have left.

A blast of white blinding light exploded from me.

She flew backwards, crashing onto the floor. Allura’s dress stained with blood. It dripped from her forehead, down her neck, staining the bodice of her dress. She reached up and touched the slice across her eyebrow. I stood up.

“Is that all you can do, Azuria? How weak.”

“I will not lose anything else, especially to you.” I threw out my hand, and another shaft of pure white shot out of my hand.

The power hit Allura, pushing her against the wall. Her once beautiful curls, now flew out of the clasp at the back of her head. I walked closer to her. She started to laugh.

“Oh, Azuria. When are you going to learn? You can’t lose what you don’t have.” I raised my hand to attack her again, but she put up her finger. I flew back against the column and chains wrapped around me. I pulled against them, only for them to shrink tighter around me. “Enough! You are nothing compared to me. How dare you try and take everything I’ve worked so hard to get! I could’ve finally proven them wrong! You will stay out of my way.”

I stopped fighting the chains. “You. You only wanted acceptance.” I paused and gathered my thoughts. “You tried so hard to prove that you are better than everyone that you lost your true values.” She wanted acceptance. Allura’s hand clamped over my throat.

“I will not stand here and listen to you tell me who I am. I know who I am. I am the Queen of Azuria. I am Your Queen. You are named after the kingdom, after all.”

“I may share the same name as the kingdom you rule, but you will never rule over me.”

“One day, you will regret everything you’ve said to me. Your parents began this entire feud. You want to stop? Let me win, and then you can regret” She let go of my throat. “Just as your father regretted. He told you to live with no regrets, but I will show you that everyone has regrets.”

“Don’t speak about my father like that. He was righteous, and good. He would never lie to me. Never. I am going to kill you.”

She merely laughed. “Well, if you are going to threaten me—You should enjoy these moments of peacefulness. Because you don’t have many left. I’m not dead, girl.” She clucked.

Allura lifted her hand, and circled her head with her hand. Red smoke enveloped her.

I threw out another blast of magic. But when the smoke cleared, her image slowly shimmered into nothingness. Her cackle still rang through.

I looked around, and everyone unfroze. My eyes met his. His blue eyes of endless ocean. But I only saw fear.

I approached him, with my nails digging into my hands, my teeth biting into my cheek, to stop myself from murdering him right there and then. He reached out to me, but before he could touch me, a column of light shot out of the floor. But it wasn’t the floor. It was Allura’s wedding ring. Allura’s voice seemed to be coming from the light.

“I wouldn’t do that, Cobalt.” Her voice singsongy, as if taunting him. Taunting us all. “Or you’ll lose more than you already have.” She was still alive. As much as I wanted to blast the s**t out her, my power barely made a dent. My power is nothing compared to hers. I am nothing compared to a powerful queen who has magik. Her evil cackle still echoed through the empty halls of the Palace. Allura was still alive, but she fled to continue her reign. Her reign as the immortal queen of the World.