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The odd taste spread on my tongue, and I felt them going away, slowly like a fog fading in the distance. The process quickened as I gulped down the rest of the potion and swallowed.
Abruptly, all the minds that had been wide open to me went away. The feeling of being alone washed over me, and oddly, it didn’t feel freeing at all.
“Is it done?” the queen asked, her lips thinned as her wild gaze darted off me and fell onto Lady Queill.
“It is, my queen,” Lady Queill replied. “She’s closed off.”
“She shouldn’t be able to heal, either,” Lady Dahlia chimed in.
It was clear to me that Lady Queill and Lady Dahlia were in a competition of sorts, for the queen’s favor. When the queen smiled at Lady Queill and ignored Lady Dahlia’s comment, the latter’s lips quivered. Then, she looked toward me, and realizing my expression, she stopped herself.
“Good,” the queen said. “We shouldn’t have waited until we reached the palace to take her powers away.”
“We had a deal,” I replied. “You didn’t have to take away my powers at all.”
“Oh,” The queen turned to me, anger taking over her expression. “And let you die while in contact with all your monsters so that they grieve you more strongly?”
I didn’t think that would matter much. I had witnessed the deaths of former monsters as an observer within their minds. But I grieved as equally for the loved ones who had died without me in them.
The queen waited for me to respond, when I didn’t, she seemed almost offended.
“Are we sure about the public execution my queen?” Lady Dahlia asked, hesitantly. “It might turn her into a martyr.”
“We need to suffocate the hope of the rising resistance,” Lady Queill replied before the queen could. “Kill off the myth around her with swift action.”
The queen nodded. “Everyone needs to see it.”
Once again, I didn’t share my thoughts with them. Knowing that I was about to be executed was an odd sensation.
Still, I did not fear that outcome.
The monster folk would live. That was more important than their feelings about my demise.
“Perhaps we shouldn’t wait until noon, then,” Lady Dahlia said, once again trying to be helpful. “If they get a chance to regroup, her monsters might decide to attack the city. Lady Queill abandoned Lord Lugh and now the prince and the princess have their armies back. If they attack...”
“They wouldn’t dare,” Lady Queill said.
Lady Queill seemed to understand what the queen wanted to hear much better than Lady Dahlia.
“Of course, they wouldn’t,” the queen replied. “Once she is gone, this whole thing will get buried in the depths of history. They will forget about their supposed savior and go on with their lives. She dies at noon.”
“Yes, my queen,” Lady Queill said.
