Unlikely Queen (Crystal Castle 1)

“Oh, so you are fast, witch,” the same voice from before taunts me.

I say nothing in return and stay where I am, now on high alert. Just as I am about to turn around and hit whatever it is that comes up behind me, I see Melvon standing there wiping his bloody hands on his jeans as he looks me over.

“You are still alive. That’s a bonus.”

“Is it, though?” He seems to hold back a smile before he moves lightning fast in front of me and grips the other vampire, who was running at me. I would have missed that one if he wasn’t there. And I hate to think what would have happened.

Melvon holds the vampire by the neck. He’s young, maybe my age or younger, but his voice tells that he’s much older than he looks.

“The queen wants her dead. All witches dead.”

“The queen is a witch, you idiot,” I tell him with an eyeroll.

He sneers at my voice. “You dare speak to me, you lowlife witch?”

“You keep saying witch like it’s a cuss word. It’s what I am.”

“Because it is. You are trash. The world would be better off without any of you here.”

“Even the queen?” I argue back at him.

He goes to make a move to come at me. But Melvon squeezes his neck a little tighter, stopping him, before he pulls out a knife and slams it straight into his heart, shattering him. I look to Melvon, shocked, as he wipes his hands again on his jeans.

“You could learn to be a little rougher around the edges as well.”

“You mean like my sister?”

“It couldn’t hurt. She does hold qualities you could use. She can be ruthless, where you tend to rationalize the scenario… sometimes a little too much.”

I cross my arms over my body. “You don’t know me well enough. I could totally be a badass.”

He chuckles at my words. “I’m sure you could, but from what I have seen and heard so far, you are the weak link, which from my point of view is a problem. You would rather ask questions and kill later, and when I say kill, I mean get someone else to do it.”

“No…”

“Would you have killed that vampire, knowing full well he would do anything to take your life?” He leans in close, his eyebrow raised, as he waits for my answer.

“I would have—”

“Spoken to him, yes, I know.”

“How would you?”

“Because you did it to me. You should have killed me.”

“I wanted to,” I say, smiling. “My sister saved your life.”

We start walking again as he speaks, “No, she saved me as a tool, a tool to save you.”

“I had one of those. He died.” I shiver at the thought and try to hold back all the emotions that Patrick evokes within me. But every time I think of him, all I see is the blood. I want to remember him as the hero he is and not the aftermath of a psychopath.

“So, now that you’re on a mission to kill the queen, do you think you can actually do it?”

“Yes.”

I believe I can.

I want to.

She deserves to die.

If anyone does, it is her.

“What about if your sister… not Tatiana, the other one… asked you not to do it? For her?”

I pause at his words.

“I’ve heard the talk of how close you all are. You started this whole thing to save your sister, and now you should be ending it by killing the queen.” I look Melvon up and down. He was obviously changed when he was in his mid to late thirties. He isn’t ugly, not by any means, but I can tell the years have done a number on him and he no longer sees the world as pictures like Tanya would.

“What was the world like before? Before the queen and before this.” I wave my hand around. As we near the edge of the vampire town where the ward once held, I can see the singe in the earth where it once stood.

“The king who ruled before her was a waste. He messed it all up, and despite the queen being an evil bitch, she made order where there was none. The king only wanted what he wanted, not what was best for anyone.” He pauses and looks at me. “I know what you are thinking… I get you knew her before she was queen. Tatiana has told me. Power went to her head, and instead of seeing what is right, she only sees what is her right.”

I take in his words.

“She wanted the wolves gone, the witches locked away, and the vampires as her allies.” I know this already. “She got what she wanted and more, because not only does she have that, she also has the angels. And no one has been powerful enough to be able to gain control of them. They were here to help create order when the king was here, but you never knew of them, and they never interfered unless necessary. Their work was private. Until she discovered them. The rest is all made up. We don’t know the actual facts, only what we have been told.”