Page 80 of Crowned A Traitor
There is no way Father would have kept it from me. What of the rebellion? Had it all been a lie?Klara tried to think of the day she left Hell, remembering the Commanders’ and Creatures’ heads hoisted on the Manor gate as a warning.
Klara reasoned that the heads could have been a glamour. Although if Lucifer wanted a cover-up, he would have made it as authentic as possible. Klara needed to look into his eyes and see the truth, but as she thought of Abadan’s claws in him, Klara knew it would probably cost her life.
Klara considered how the Queen Aemella had promised her a life in Kalos, and Malum.A position on the council. I could help those trying to flee from the inside. Improve the conditions for those who have already fled and are in hiding. More importantly, it means sanctuary for Wolfgang and Lottie. All it would cost is Father’s life.
Klara gazed down at Frendall’s body, knowing she couldn’t have taken his life, so how could she take her Fathers? Klara placed the coin in Frendall’s hand and wrapped his stiff fingers around it. “For your passage,” she said, hoping it wasn’t too late. And then, she cried as if her body wanted to rid itself of all water.
As her tears fell on Frendall, his body became hazy, and Klara could see the glamour.
“Son of a bitch,” she spat as the battleground disappeared.
???
Suspended in pitch black, Klara tried to look around.Am I dead?Klara thought, but as she struggled to move, she felt the stone wall at her back. Iron shackles bit into her wrists as she hung from the dungeon wall. The familiar metal cot came into view, and the condensation from the damp wall dripped down the back of her t-shirt.
The Queens’ Castle. She pulled against the restraints until the pain in her side blinded her.Frendall’s body,they attached a portal glamour to him as they did with the portraits. Abadan knew she would go back, unable to leave him to rot. As soon as Klara’s revealing powers sensed the glamour, it activated Abadan’s trap. The restraints wouldn’t budge an inch. The candle on the opposite wall offered little light. She looked around the dark cell seeing something shuffle in the corner.
“Klara?” Eve whined shuffling out from the dark corner. Klara pressed her back into the wall, but then she saw the bruises that marked Eve’s arms and neck.
So, this is where Eve has been.Klara had thought Abadan had left Eve to guard the Castle. Instead, she was here. Locked up.
“I don’t have much strength left, but you have to stop Abadan,” Eve rasped. “She corrupted Mila. Cursed her heart and now there is nothing left but darkness,” Eve cried, and Klara didn’t say anything.A curse?Mila has always been a little twisted, but Klara wouldn’t put it past Abadan taking any conscience Mila might have had.
“Let me touch you, and you’ll see my desires, let me show you I don’t mean any harm.”
“Let me help you,” Eve coughed. “Don’t touch me,” Klara said, pulling her wounded side away sharply. She hated herself for twisting so carelessly. Eve’s hand gripped her ankle and Klara couldn’t kick her off.
Klara saw Eve walking with Lokey moments before she had arrived at the toadstool den, the same patron with the newspaper sat at the counter. The scene flipped to show Eve trying to subdue Abadan as the High Queen ordered the burn out of the Lycaon caves.
“Why go after the Lycaons?” Klara panted as the images came hard and fast. “Lilith ordered them to find you, take you as far away as they could,” Klara could barely hear her through the visions.
Abadan threw Eve against the back wall of the throne room, and Klara heard Eve’s bones break as she landed on the stone floor. Mila looked at her mother in disgust as Eve tried to stop the Hounds from ripping Lilith apart. Klara kicked Eve away as she watched the skin being torn from Lilith’s bones and Lilith’s screams ran through her.
“Why didn’t you leave? Go to the King?”
“I thought by staying by her side, I would be able to cull her impulses, but Lucifer never intervened. Not once did he come. For centuries we lived in fear of the eyes he claimed to have in the Castle and the Forest but nothing. No Demons appeared, not even a warning.
Klara cursed the King for his complacency. He had placed his trust in the wrong Queen, and now the Forest would pay for it.
Malum had been his curse for my birth. No wonder he didn’t care about what happened to the Creatures that had been dumped on his lap.“You let Lilith be torn apart,” Klara spat not looking Eve in the eye, and she heard her sobs. “I tried but I couldn’t, I was scared,” she stammered.
“The Mother of all Creatures can’t call off the Hounds?” Klara laughed at her lies. “No wonder your daughter despises you,” Klara said, pulling at her restraints. “At least my daughter is alive and not shackled to a wall made of bones,” Eve glared, and Klara stopped struggling, honing her strength.
“Is my Father here? Did he come to see you? Is Abadan threatening him with something?”
“The King? He disappeared in Hell. Abadan sent her Crimson Guard, but they returned empty-handed,” Eve shook at the thought of Lucifer in the Castle.
“Lucifer was with Abadan and Mila on the border of Kalos,” Klara told her, and a ripple of confusion crossed Eve’s delicate features. “He couldn’t have been,” Eve struggled to her feet. Mud caked her feet and travelled up her calves. She looked nothing without the flowers in her hair and her flowing layered skirts. “There is one thing I can do before that bitch takes my head.”
Eve cupped her face, and Klara felt a rush of magic rip through her body, the force pulling her from the wall. The restraints ripped from the wall freeing some of the skulls. Klara fell onto Eve, and they clung to each other as Eve’s skin became sunken and wrinkled. Her eyes and cheeks hollowed out, while her hands became skeletal.
“Claim Malum and restore order as Lilith would have wanted,” Eve said. Red veins spread through her eyes before they clouded over.
The weight of Eve’s limp body pulled them both to the dungeon floor. Klara waited for the pain in her side and arm to kick in, but she felt nothing. Klara sat up, “Eve?” she said, looking at the Queen’s skeletal back, her skin ice cold to the touch. Klara tried to move her when the squealing of the cell door opening stopped her. Klara backed up to the skull wall as light poured in. Klara watched as Eve remained still.
Mila walked in with folded arms, her Guards remained in the shadows of the doorway. “I would be lying if I said I wasn’t delighted to see you like this, sister,” Mila beamed, and Klara feigned weakness. Klara would get her opportunity, but this wasn’t it. The dungeon was too deep in the belly of the Castle.
“Don’t get used to it,” Klara moaned holding her side. She didn’t have Lilith to guide her out this time around. “You’re rather quiet mother,” Mila looked at her mother’s frozen body and stepped further into the small cell. Mila said nothing and Klara felt the weight of her sister’s eyes on her. She rose her chin to look at her captor. The sting from Mila’s palm against her cheek radiated into Klara’s eye socket.
