Page 92 of The Nightmare Queen

“She did have a tendency for keeping things. Even things that were not hers, like my mother. How is Marjorie by the way?”

“The Lady in Black” Murph had said. Of course. The runes…the way she spoke with such familiarity yet distrust towards Rorin. She knew, the whole time she knew.

Mareese sits primly down on the bench nestled in the hedges. “We all thought it odd, an Obsid wanting to learn healing. Maybe even try to harness the magic. I should’ve known that the woman I came to call sister, was nothing more than a rat.” She smooths down the fabric of her skirt, crossing her legs. “The realization of what they were doing, what they had done, didn’t come until it was too late. My mother off and running to her aid when she was in labor with you. Then never returning. My son’s magic coming intainted, disturbed, wrong.” Venom drips from her words, a fierce hatred in her eyes speaks to my own.

“Unbelievable.” I breathe out and her head snaps up to me. “You blame them for him.” It’s not a question, and the ferocity in which shestands up to be toe to toe with me tells me her answer. My gods, she actually feels anger towards Marjorie and my mother. Disbelief crawls up my throat, my hold on my magic is precarious. “Don’t pretend you care about him now, Mareese.” Confusion flickers in her eyes. “After what you allowed to happen.” I circle her a little more obviously this time. “After who you allowed to touch him, torment him. Break. Him.”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about.” She snarls.

“Sure, I do.” I say smiling. “I’ve seen everything. Here why don’t I show you.” My tendrils surge out of me, seizing her where she stands so my power can warp every sense of hers, forcing her to watch the nightmare that plagues the son she claims to love.

-

SMACK! “Stupid boy!” My lip is stinging from the cut his ring opened up again. “What a dishonor you are to this kingdom! Poisonous mist! An omen if there ever was one.” My vision goes black and I can feel my eye start to swell. The bones in my nose are broken. “P-please don’t lock me up here again. PLEASE.” His laugh rings out through the cell. “Please don’t lock me up here again.” He mocks before landing a kick in between my ribs. “P-please.” I sob out - no NO!

-

“Stop. It.” She chokes out.

“Oh yes, your Highness it looks like you really love your son. Allowing a prince to be beaten and broken down. To be debased like that. You. Did. Nothing.”

She sputters at the pressure my magic puts on her. “I am innocent of what you have shown me.”

“We would not be here if you wereinnocent.” I switch the images to the broken body of my mother. The images of me finding her. And while I watch her I see the bitch actually has tears slipping down her face. I pullmy magic back just a little bit and she collapses to the ground. I crouch down, forcefully grabbing her chin and roughly wipe the tear falling down her cheek away. “We’re going to play a little game, Mareese. You hide and I seek.” She struggles to rip her chin from my hold. Icouldend it right here. But where would the fun be in that? The moment my fingers let go, she scrambles to her feet running deeper into the maze. I give her a two minute head start before I let the magic consume me. It searches for her, seeking out her pulsating fear. The tendrils puncture holes in the hedges, cutting her off and halting her in her place. Her screams ring out loudly, hoping someone will hear her but with Millie’s deflection Wield up not a single sound will break through.

I can feel her panicking as she comes up on every dead end. Each time I stop her I give her a few seconds before another tendril crawls it’s way to her. My steps slow and intentional, her fears echoing around my mind. Each one is pompous and material. With the biggest one being the age old fear of not wanting to experience death.Too bad, I think.

While in her head, my mind’s eye is sucked into the day Rorin’s magic came in. She woke to him thrashing in bed, he couldn’t have been more than eight years old. His mist was a grayish pallor clouding around him. She couldn’t reach him without it burning her eyes and choking her. Her first thought was concern, that someone had come to kill her boy and she was finding the aftermath. It was only until she tried to use her own magic and failed that she summoned the courts appointed healers before she drained herself. The king and queen quickly came to the realization that it wasn’t a plot to kill their son. But that thiswastheir son and the tides for Rorin’s life changed that day.

My magic coats the stone path completely. Her teeth chattering loudly from where she hides. I let a tendril extend out towards her, then another. Each one wrapping her like a present up against the hedges. I pull backjust a little so she can look me in my eyes, the eyes I have been told matched my mothers. “You blame the wrong people.” I snarl.

She spits at me, squirming underneath my Wield. “She deserved it! Your mother knew I was coming for her. And when I did, it was my mother who had to clean up the mess. It was only fair for what they did to my boy.”

I throw the memory again at her, showing her how the disgust crept in and corrupted her against her own child. She spits at my face a second time, searching for a crumb of renewed courage and vitriol. “You are a parasite that your parents let fester and grow. If only the rumors they sowed of your death had been true.”

I cock my head at her, pacing slowly and closely in front of her pinned form. “And what would that have solved? Hmm? You still would have come for their throats, forced them to die at your hand. Hadar would still be wreaking havoc on kingdom upon kingdom at Baelor’s command.” She smiles weakly at his name, brow sweating from the mental back and forth she has sustained. “You are nothing more than a pretty queen sitting atop her pretty throne.”

“Are you any different?QueenEveera. Do you not hide in your shadows, on your throne, feeding into everyone’s fear? It’sdisgusting.”

My feet stop inches from her quivering body, “you forget though. Imadethose shadows. Lying in wait for the right moment, and right now, in this moment, you are at my mercy.” A tendril snakes around her throat wrapping across the skin there. Her magic is flaring, but it won’t be able to do anything against the hold I have her in, she won’t be able to heal herself. “Would you be willing to make a deal with the devil just to save your own skin?” I finally close the gap between us leaning in close, the volume of my words only a whisper. “You’ll come to find that thereare worse things than the monsters under your bed.” She flinches at the threat.

“If there is a devil; I am staring into it’s eyes.”

My vision bleeds black as the magic takes over. The sound of my voice distorting, “flattery will get you nowhere dear. Unfortunately for you, I am the fate holding your thread, and that thread's just been cut.”

The tendrils tighten around her. “Oh gods. Please. Please.” She whimpers.

“You yell for your gods. But where are they now? They won’t save you.” With the flick of my hand my tendrils spear into Mareese. Every one coiled around her body turns sharp as a blade. Her mouth gapes, blood dribbling from the corner as she begins to choke. “Hoc memento, Mareese. Pacem non eris scies, quam morieris in manu somnia maga. Tua sunt somnia, quae comedunt animam tuam in profundis Helys.”Remember this, Mareese. You will not know peace until you die at the hand of a dream witch. May your dreams eat your soul in the depths of Helys.

With a pull of my hand her scream is cut short as the tendrils slice down, flaying her open, all of her organs spilling out at her feet. The blood of the former queen coats the front of me and I take a step back to admire my work. I leave her there on the cold ground for someone else to clean up while Millicent unravels her Wield from around the gardens. When I exit the labyrinth the two of us stare at each other, a silent understanding passing between us until I see someone running up behind her - Mousy. He pales the second he sees all the blood. “What did you do?” He breathes.

I dust my hands us, wiping them fruitlessly on the sticky front of my dress. “Half of my end of the deal.” I snap.

He shakes his head, “no. Not here. Your men, they’re attacking the city. You tell me now. What did you do? Is that why Felix is here? So you can siege the city?”

“Felix?” I ask, confused, while elbowing him out of my way.

“Eveera!” Millie calls after me, “what about—”

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