AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She paused. Head cocked, she pinned me with her black-eyed stare. Her sclera had gone dark, and now her eyes glowed with a fierce light. Yet, I could see nothing more than the frightened expression of a cornered animal in those eyes.
“It’s over,” I told her.
This was my domain. All of it. This dream. Her court. It all belonged to me, now. Without a domain of her own, Beryl was weak and cornered.
I knew that meant she would lash out soon, but I was prepared.
At least, I thought I was.
Even in the dark, I saw the glint of metal as she brandished a dagger and rushed towards me. I felt her try to wrap my dream in a nightmare at the same time. My body refused to react while I shoved away her nightmare. The distraction left me rooted to the spot.
Hot pain blossomed on my chest. It was nothing compared to the curse she’d laid on me earlier, but getting stabbed still freaking hurt—and I was really tired of it.
Sighing, I looked down at the hilt of Athena’s familiar dagger sticking out of my chest. “This won’t work here.”
Beryl’s lips parted in question before she realized that she hadn’t been able to take over the dream. I was still in control, which meant the dagger did nothing. I didn’t become an overgrown spider. When I pulled the blade out, my chest healed over almost immediately. I let the bloodstain stay, if only because it kind of looked cool.
Fingers wrapped around the hilt of Athena’s dagger, I stared Beryl down. “You could have so much if only you would accept love.”
That…was not what I meant to say.
This time, my sigh turned into a growl of frustration. “You will have another lifetime to learn.”
What is coming out of my mouth?
I meant to tell her that I never wanted to see her again. Instead, I kept talking as if she wasn’t going anywhere. My words promised more chances than I wanted to give. When I looked to Beryl, even she seemed perplexed.
“Was this curse only to make me say nice things?” I gaped at Beryl. “Because I…I…I want you to know kindness, but not through force.”
Beryl’s lips twisted. “I do not want your kindness!”
She roared and rushed me again. She wrapped her clawed hands around my throat and tightened her grip. My lungs burned, but I knew I didn’t need to breathe here in a dream. They only ached because that’s what they thought they should do.
A hundred years ago, Beryl might have deserved another chance. She might have deserved kindness and affection to make up for everything that was given to my mother and not her. But the Beryl that I knew right here and now did not deserve any such thing.
I thrust up with Athena’s dagger. At first, Beryl laughed. But I angled the blade so that it reached through her ribcage and into her heart. Her grip on my neck loosened. She staggered back with blood on her lips.
Confusion flickered in her black eyes when she wiped her mouth and saw the red stain on the back of her hand. This was a dream, but it wasmy dream. The untamed magic running beneath my garden like a secret well made sure that this wound was real.
“Don’t take this from me,” Beryl whispered.
She dropped to her knees. Her skin paled. The blade wouldn’t turn her into a spider. I’d delivered a killing blow. Blood spilled down the front of her dress.
This seemed too easy. Watching Beryl fall apart was the hardest part. She wept into her hands, black tears spilling over her hands.
“I’ve never had anything. Don’t take this from me. I just wanted to know what it was like to be her. She had everything, and I was nothing but her shadow.”
Even though I knew Beryl was talking about my fae mother, the sister that she’d killed, there was a part of me that grimaced. My heart went out to this pathetic, crumbling woman and everything that she’d never been able to achieve.
“You should rest now,” I said, low and quiet. “Rest and enjoy your peace.”
Beryl lurched up to her feet. She swayed like a drunkard, though I knew it was from the blood loss. Hand out, she pleaded with me. The image before me was not that of the monstrous queen. Instead, I saw a child.
I saw a little girl with black hair and wide, doe eyes. Her hands were small and soft, trembling with moonlight-colored tears gathered in the palms. Time had corrupted her so much, but there’d been a moment when she was nothing more than a little fae girl with dreams of being a queen.
She ran to me with tears streaming down her pale cheeks and threw her arms around me. I braced myself, expecting a manipulative glamour. But nothing happened. Beryl buried her face in my sweater and wept while she grew smaller and smaller.
“I want to live,” the little girl cried.
