Page 81 of Crowned A Traitor
“Did I say you could look at me?” Mila snarled. Klara’s head snapped to the side from the force of the blow. Klara exaggerated her pain and threw herself to the ground. She coughed into the stone floor, causing a layer of dust to rise around her face. Mila knelt beside her mother and pulled Eve’s wasted frame onto her lap. “You killed her.”
Klara pushed herself up careful to keep her movements slow as she saw the rocking of Mila’s shoulders. Klara thought Mila was crying, but when Mila lifted her face, Klara saw no tears, only the upturned corners of Mila’s wicked smile and dead eyes.
“Another crime will be applied to your sentence,” Mila said, and Klara noticed how Mila’s fingers clutched Eve’s fragile hand. “You locked up your mother and feigned tears over her body. You can sentence me to death, but it’s you who’s dead inside.”
Mila only glared at her half-sister.
“Eve talked of Abadan cursing you before she took her own life, but I think we both know that’s not true.”
“I don’t need a curse to claim what is mine,” Mila said, dropping her mother’s body from her lap as if Eve was nothing but a sack of rotten potatoes.
“I understand why Eve ended her pain. Having such a sorry excuse for a daughter must have weighed on her soul.” Mila’s crooked smile threatened to break, “Eve was weak, certainly no mother.” Klara watched Mila try to justify her actions.
“A Daughter of Hell and yet all you do is follow Abadan like the puppy you are.”
“Waste your breath, say all you like. Malum will be mine, and you will be another skull hoisted on this very wall.”
Klara looked at the skulls of those she couldn’t name. The hundreds that the Queens had justified killing. Some deserved their punishment while others were merely in their way.
“Will my Father allow you to take my head? He could have stopped me in the Forest. Raised a hand, and the ground would have opened up and swallowed us all whole. Yet he didn’t and Eve told me that you never found my Father.”
Mila’s nostrils flared. “The King will do what the law calls for. You betrayed him, made an ally of the Fae Queen, and were protected by those traitorous Giants.”
“And yet the King did not stop me from going through the portal to Kalos.”
“He stopped Frendall. The Commander begged for his life in these dungeons. Found him lurking in the Forest trying to find you.”
Klara went to stand, but the Guards stepped out of the shadows, “let’s just pray that Abadan protects you when the time comes.”
A burst of laughter echoed from Mila’s chest.
“As much as I would love to rip the tongue from your mouth, Abadan insists on seeing you. Whole.” Mila wiped the dust that had transferred to her clothes from Eve and gestured for her Guards.
Only two came in, Klara tried to suppress a smile. She would have their necks twisted in seconds, but she was supposed to be injured. Thankfully the blood matting Klara’s clothes, shielded her healed skin from sight while the rotting smell of the cell blocked the scent of Eve’s sacrificial magic, keeping Mila in ignorant bliss.
Klara stumbled up the steps while the Crimson Guards held under her arms. They took her weight as they climbed up the winding steps. Once they were dead, Klara would find Lilith’s bones and bury her alongside Eve. The foul dungeon air began to clear the higher they ascended. Klara had never been so happy to see the tormented portrait of Augustus, the Deplorable judging her as she was helped down the corridor to the throne room.
~20~
Klara stared up at the candlelit chandelier. It took a moment for Klara’s eyes to adjust having come from the dark corridors and even darker dungeon. One throne sat alone, and there she was the High Queen. The scratched stone from where their thrones had been dragged out was all that remained of Eve and Lilith. The High Queen sat relaxed, her eyes trained on Klara as they approached. Abadan could have removed the thrones with a simple incantation, but that wasn’t her style. No, Klara was sure Abadan had made a great scene of having the Ogres drag out their thrones. A message to all those that would oppose her. Klara let herself drop to the floor in front of Abadan.
“So happy to have you back,” Abadan said.
Klara sat on her heels, “It’s a shame. I can’t say the same.”
“I missed your wit. The place doesn’t shine as brightly without you.” Abadan let out a heckle.
“Do you feel the loss of your fellow Queens at all or are you too busy stewing in your victory?”
“Victory would have been my Queens at my side and your head on a spike.” Abadan sat back in her throne. “Eve and Lilith failed to see your true colours.”
“And Frendall? Letting your son rot in a field is a new low even for you.”
Abadan fisted her blood-red skirts. “Bewitched him with your traitorous mind, didn’t you?” Abadan seethed.
“He went to those damn Lycaons. After everything I did for him, he betrayed me.”
A loud knock on the door disturbed them. The visitor doesn’t wait to be announced or granted permission to enter. Instead, the double doors flung open, and Lucifer marched through the hall.
