Page 120 of Mirror of Malice
Her hands curled into fists.
“Was this what you dreamt of when you became queen?” My own anger flared. She’d never once visited me in the prison cells. I hadn’t laid eyes on her since that fateful night she killed my father and ruined my wedding, and it turned out I had a lot to say.
“Quiet,” she said with a deadly calm.
Everything about her was sleek, regal, her black hair slicked back into a bun, her pale skin hugged by a tight black dress that flowed to the ground, the black crown atop her head glinting in the dim light. But for all that, there was a sadness in her eyes, a sadness I knew too well.
“You don’t know what to do now, do you?” I asked, taking a step forward. “Now that you’ve gotten your revenge, there’s nothing left for you.”
“What are you talking about?” she snapped.
“Yes, Liliath, what are you talking about?” Driscoll asked between gritted teeth, both he and Jillian frozen, watching the exchange between me and my stepmother.
“You loved him,” I said softly. “My father. When he chose you to be his queen, you thought you were getting some fairy tale, a happily ever after.”
“Shut up,” my stepmother said, a warning in her voice.
I stepped closer. “But instead, you got a husband who just wanted someone to worship him, and eventually, someone he could use. Someone who was expendable.”
“Yes, and how did that work out for him?” She gave me a wicked smile. “He brought that mirror home with him, the idiot, thinking I was that naive, that stupid, that I wouldn’t know what he planned to do. I’d had spies tailing him for years. After he killed my best friend.” She took a stuttering breath. “After you ratted us out and had her killed.”
I swallowed. “I’m so sorry, Elayna.”
Her eyes flashed at my use of her name.
“I know it will never be enough. I don’t expect your forgiveness. I don’t deserve it. It was an awful thing of me to do, and I have no excuses. All I can do is learn from my actions and grow, to do better, to be better.”
“She was all I had. We got separated during the Great War, but we found our way back to each other. We’d meet at the border, would talk for hours. She was the first person I told when your father picked me to be his queen. She trusted me, and she died thinking I had betrayed her, that I’d given her up to my husband to win his favor. I’ll never forgive you for that. But you both paid, in the end. Instead of your father trapping me in that mirror, I trapped him.”
“And our magic?” I asked. “The magic you’ve stolen from the people of Elwen? The magic that you’ve corrupted?”
“Ah, yes.” She held up what looked like a vial hanging on the end of her necklace. It swirled with green, blue, and yellow smoke. She pinched it between her fingers, her long manicured nails clacking against the glass. “After your father’s visit to Sorrengard, I knew I had to do something. Trapping him in that mirror wouldn’t be enough, not when the guards could simply detain me and free him. I had to take away everyone’s power, to ensure no one could fight against me.” She tapped the vial. “This did the trick. It sucks away anyone’s magic who’s in its vicinity. I paid the pirate lord a hefty price for it.”
“And you used the mirror to seek out any new baby born, so you could take their magic.”
“Yes, among other things. The mirror was very helpful in finding information, shutting down attempted coups, ferreting out those who wanted to rise up against me.”
I shook my head, looking around at the gray, lifeless plants that surrounded us. “All of that effort, for this?” I laughed.
Anger flashed across my stepmother’s face.
“All magic comes with a price, so yes, you took something from us, but you turned it ugly. You rule over a dying court. What do you think is going to happen if Sorrengard attacks? Who do you think they’ll wipe off the map first? You’re doing their work for them, killing us so they don’t have to.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” my stepmother said. “I won. I made your father pay for the way he used me. I made you pay for the way you treated me, always so high and mighty, always leaving me out, looking down on me, never accepting me no matter how hard I tried.”
A lump grew in my throat at her words. “I know. I was a brat. I’ll admit it. I missed my mother, and I wasn’t ready for my father to find someone new. I treated you horribly, but you can’t blame your actions on me. You did this all on your own, and now you have nothing left to achieve. My father is dead. The mirror is broken. Our land is ruined.”
My stepmother’s jaw locked. “Enough of this. You’re not going to be able to distract me, if that’s what you’re trying to do. To weaken my resolve.” She snapped her fingers and the trees dipped down and lifted Jillian and Driscoll into the air.
“No,” I yelled, running at her with my sword. I slashed it in the air, and the tip of it caught onto her necklace, the vial crashing to the ground. I held my breath, but the glass didn’t shatter. The drop didn’t impact it at all.
My stepmother smiled. “Dark magic. Really hard to break,” she said.
Then she swiped her hand over and a flurry of black leaves flew toward us and whipped the sword out of my hand. “I’ll make you a deal,” she said as a vine wrapped around my waist and slithered up my body.
A tree bent down in front of me, and hanging from it was an apple, covered in dripping, black sludge. “One bite. One bite ofthis apple, and I’ll set your friends free and stop stealing magic from your people.”
“You’re lying,” I said.
