"Your majesty, that is not the way you should be speaking to your aunt, and your mother would be extremely disappointed in you if you did. Alternatively, it's possible that she would be genuinely pleased with you because you are a carbon copy of her, both inside and out." She knew how to play on my fears and anxieties, and she knew what it would do to me if she brought up my mother. I gave the order to the guards behind her to remove her from the building. I stood there watching my guards drag her out of the welcoming room, despite the fact that she was still screaming and shouting. "Your Majesty, you have made me extremely proud. You've become one of us, and now you've turned evil." Her words hurt me a lot more than I expected them to hurt me. There it was, the confirmation that I had become my own worst nightmare. If only I had realized where I was going when I first met The Sorceress and could have avoided the disaster that was about to happen. There was nothing I wanted

I clear my throat, everyone turns their attention to me.                   “We should all just share with our partners,” I say in a professional tone “We’re still opponents.” “That’s a reasonable argument,” Tyler nods at me “So it’s settled,” Luke says. Did I imagine the hint of triumph in his voice? “Where’s our room?” “There are two rooms on the second floor.” Ethan says “One of them has our luggage, you can take the other.” Luke nods and grabs our bags from the floor, Joseph turns to me with a smirk on his face. “If you’re scared, Elise dear,” he says like a true gentleass “My room is just in front of the stairs.” “And if you see his face and get scared,” Adrian says “My room is just besides it.” “I doubt she’s afraid of the night,” Luke says “She’s been sleeping under the open sky for almost two weeks.” “All the more

I tried my best to not pay attention to my surroundings because I knew I would be afraid of even the smallest sound of the leave falling down off of the tree but I couldn't help myself but to hyper-focus because of how scared I was. Just as I was about to turn left to the hall that my room decided then, I heard a dog’s roar. I wasn't sure where it was coming from, as we did not have any dogs on the premises as far as I knew so I assumed I must have heard wrong because I was very sleep-deprived. I kept on walking upon till I was startled by 2 wolves jumping in front of me, growling, with spit drooling all over them. “Hi doggies,” I said softly as I backed up a little, “I didn’t know we had you.” The dogs responded with a louder growl. I could swear that I saw one of them licking through its teeth as if I was a really big bone or a ginormous stake. Just think of it, I was technically both of those things, just combined. Intimidated by their attitude towards me I talked mor

I wanted, needed to be alone. “Please, do not do anything drastic, your majesty,” Lady Josephine said. Both women had identical worried lines on their faces. “It will get easier, I promise.” I wandered with no direction in mind. What to do? I asked myself. Her brother could go to college. Her father could get a state-of-the-art hearing aid. Money made the life so much easier. But at what personal cost? I wished I did not stop and help an old lady to cross the road. As someone said, every good deed was punished. In her world, there were many surrogate mothers. That was different. Those women were inseminated artificially. There were no beasts. No trick marriages. No golden cages. I was standing in the middle of an orchard, surrounded with trees bent by the weight of the fruit. There were so many beautiful birds, fluttering and singing. At that moment, it did not feel like a prison. I picked a fallen apple and sniffed. It smelled like heaven on

"Can you tell me what happened to you, Queen Nia?" Lady Alana inquired after noticing me with my head bowed. "I'm not sure why, but I'm suffering from a severe headache," I said, a slight moan in my voice. "Please take a seat, my queen." "All right, I'm open to anything." "This is such a nagging discomfort." It made me feel uneasy whenever the ladies attended to me. No matter how many times I protested, they always won. Lady Josephine presented me with a liquid that had an amber hue to it. Lady Alana untangled my hair from a tight bun and began massaging my scalp with a fragrant oil she had rubbed in. Was I in some kind of special spa? "Can you tell me what it is?" I took a tentative sip of my drink. It helped to relieve the discomfort in my stomach. "It derives from a particular root." All digestive problems can be resolved with this remedy." "However, it is my head that is hurting. That is not what I require at this time."