Elara's POV
The door flew open and armed guards ran into the study. They took one look at us, the Prince passed out and me standing over him and they drew their weapons. A familiar calm settled over my skin and my gaze sharpened on those deadly tips pointed at me. Six guards, it wasn't nearly enough if they wanted to take me on.
"Your Highness!" Two more rushed in and hurriedly carried him from the room.
"What happened to him?" A shrill, panicked voice asked from outside.
"It's the witch!" Someone said in reply.
"You should have thought carefully before drawing your weapons on me." I purred. Six more human deaths, not nearly enough to atone for my sister's.
They glanced at each other and the air turned sour with the stench of their fear.
"Apprehend her!" Their leader yelled and they charged in unison.
I smiled wickedly and sprang forward to meet them.
"Stop!" The voice lashed out sharply and the men froze. I paused, my nails just a hair's breadth from the first soldier's throat. He stumbled back hastily, realizing just how close to death he had come and I turned to the intruder.
"How dare you interfere?" I snarled.
"Leave us!" She commanded and I cocked my head and studied her as the room emptied. Despite her beguiling, innocent appearance, there was something unyielding behind her eyes, perhaps the reason the human guards obeyed her without question. "You can help him can't you?" She asked.
"I am no healer." I replied cooly.
"I know you saw his back." She said and I smiled. The runes on the prince's back are not common knowledge, if she knew then this presented me an unexpected leverage against the haughty prince. I studied her shrewdly and she at least had the good sense to fidget, perhaps realizing too late she had trapped herself in a room with a witch and unlike the prince, my oaths didn't limit me from ripping out her throat.
I trailed a circle around her, trailing a finger along her rigid shoulders and the scent of her fear became so thick it was choking. I dropped my finger. "Why should I help him? It will be to my advantage should he drop dead."
"You swore to serve him didn't you? Refusing to go to his aid when he needs your help is same as breaking that oath. Do you want to risk the prince dying as a result of your negligence?" She replied and my smile lost its humour, the little mouse had claws. "I heard witches are not afraid of death but don't you have a reason to remain alive? Afterall, who else will avenge your sister?"
"Utter one more word about my sister from your wretched tongue and you lose it." I purred, my face showing none of the familiar pain that lanced through me at the mention of Seris. I was thrown back to that evening too easily, her limp body in my arms, her body decorated with wounds that could not heal. I never found out how the humans got their hands on the blackthorne sap they used to negate her powers, not even when I pulled them apart did they give me a name. The King swore the dastardly poison did not leak from him and the Witch Queen simply believed him. My breathing grew shallow as the familiar rage choked me and the air in the room became electric, dangerous.
"Elara." The human said and I blinked, focusing on her again and whatever she saw in my eyes made her flinch. "The prince needs you. Please." She said and hurried out of the room. I took a deep steadying breath and after a beat, I followed.
In the prince's chambers, he remained unconscious, his brow furrowed with pain even in the depths of his subconscious.
"Turn him to his back." I ordered and two guards did.
The black runes pulsed as if alive and I fought the urge to recoil from him. The runes were undeniably ancient and very powerful, carrying the pungent stench of very dark magic.
"How did he even get this?" I murmured, studying the pattern. With my negligible knowledge of runes, I couldn't decipher the message that someone went to great lengths to carve into his back.
"Can you help him?" The little mouse asked again, distracting me and I sent a glare her way.
"Once you and your entourage exit the chamber." I replied.
"We cannot leave her alone with the Prince!" A soldier protested. "She is a witch!"
I watched the mouse, letting her make the call. My condition was already there.
"Everybody, out." She said in a clipped voice and I smirked. The soldiers muttered but obeyed. "You hurt him in any way and I will make you pay." There was a slight tremor in her voice but my lips curved humorlessly.
"Threaten me again and we'll find out how you look when I drop you from a thousand meters in the air." I smiled and she paled. The queen seized my broom as part of my punishment and it would take me another few weeks before I could make another one but a witch's memories never faltered, and I always pay my debts.
At the quiet closure of the door, I turned back to the strange Prince.
"Who carved these into your back?" I asked, not that he was capable of replying. My hand glowed as I hovered it over his back, closing my eyes to get a feel of this dark magic. The magic fought me as I grew closer, snagging and growing vines. I clenched my teeth and reached for it anyway- and my eyes snapped open as a strong hand grabbed my wrist.
"What do you think you are doing?!" The Prince snarled.
"You're back." I said, snatching my wrist from his grasp, noting his unexpected strength. "Do you do that often? Swoon and have to be carried away like some desert princess?"
"What did you do to me?!" He growled, sitting up, either not realizing he was shirtless or uncaring.
"Why? Afraid I took advantage of you in your comatose state? You're not my type."
"You used your fucking magic on me didn't you?" He asked and I quirked a brow. "You tainted me with it."
"What are the marks on your back?" I countered.
"Unbelievable." He said, straightening to his full height before fixing me with a glare, no hint of the pain he just endured. "I forbid you from using your magic in my castle."
I scoffed. "You are a mere human, you cannot forbid me from anything."
"But I can." He replied, getting in my face. "For as long as your Queen has decreed, you will serve me and obey my laws. You will perform no magic under my roof that is not sanctioned by me."
My eyes narrowed at him sharply, my annoyance hitting its peak. Well fuck it, I never ever did well with anyone telling me what to do and hell would break lose before I let a spoiled, overbearing human prince make rules for me. "You have a death wish, Prince, why don't I fulfill it for you?"
My magic rose to the fore and my hands glowed as I called on the fire that would eat away at his heart, ready to unleash it on him but suddenly my power sputtered then dissipated like water in a sieve. I coughed out blood and pain seared my chest. I stared at the Prince as my body destroyed itself. Pain consumed me from head to toe and I felt like I was burning from inside out. I touched a hand to my cheek and my fingers came away bloody, my ears bled. The pain was wild, eating away at my restraint and I opened my mouth in a soundless cry as I collapsed to my knees.
"Do you still not get it?" I heard him sneer. "You are completely at my mercy. It would be so easy to watch you die."
My nails snapped out and my chest heaved with anger as I realized the Witch Queen had screwed me over. This wasn't merely a punishment, she had condemned me. At his mercy? Never. I would rather die!
He snapped his fingers and immediately the pain stopped, I wasted no time. With a scream of rage, I launched from the floor and tackled him to the ground, wrapping a hand around his throat and throttling him. He tried to break my grip but his human strength was no match for mine. It didn't matter that the Queen would take my soul for breaking my oath, I would kill him first. Suddenly, his runes flashed with light and my surprise was cut short when a powerful force threw me into the wall. Pain exploded at the back of my head and I landed on my feet with an enraged snarl but he was panting heavily, the runes on his back now glowing a deep red. He turned bloodshot eyes to me.
"What are you doing to me?" He growled and I stomped forward.
"I'm not doing anything." I snapped, annoyed that he was in pain that I did not cause. Did he have no control over them? I wanted to tear into him but the stupid runes were already doing that.
"Then what the fuck is happening?" He bit out, his entire body quaking and sweating with pain.
I plunged frustrated fingers through my hair, contemplating letting the runes finish him off but there was no satisfaction in that. "I'm going to try to heal you." I said but he flinched when I took a step closer.
"Don't fucking touch me." He growled and I scoffed.
"Stop being such a pussy and shut the fuck up." I snapped and called my magic. My hand glowed as I placed them on his back, surprised at the burning temperature. His muscles bunched beneath my fingers, the runes burning hotter and crawling from my touch. He screamed with pain and I clenched my jaw against the burning as I forced my healing magic into him. I didn't have much of it, I was a more battle-inclined witch so it took every drop of my healing magic before the runes on his back settled. I staggered as I straightened, a little light-headed from straining myself.
"It's quiet." He whispered and I focused on him.
"Do you hear things normally?" I asked him sharply and he glanced at me as if just realizing I was still there.
"You know what these runes are." He said. "Tell me."
"Kiss my ass." I told him and turned away. "Just because I took your pain away does not mean we are cool. Know your place."
"Ten years." He said and I paused at the door. "I'll make your sentence last ten years instead of twenty."
My breath hitched. Did he know the first thing I would do once my sentence was over was to hunt his father like a dog and butcher him? I wouldn't fail next time, for Seris.
"One year." I said, turning back to him.
"Five years, and you must follow the rules I set."
"Deal." I said with a smile. "And you're wrong, I don't know much about your runes. I do know someone who might."
"Well shall we send them a message?" He asked impatiently.
"Even better," I prowled back to him. "I can call them with my magic." I said, watching with amusement as his jaw clenched. He feared and hated my magic, that was the only smart thing he had done all day.
"Go ahead." He said curtly, folding his arms. I ignored the authoritative stance, the command in his voice and started to hum. My magic set out towards my target and I waited for my aunt to either pick or ignore my call. She was a busy one, hard to get hold of on a normal day, impossible to get hold of for a while now. To my surprise, her image started to form and then she appeared in front of us, pale and ethereal, made of mist. She peered at me with a familiar frown and she might as well have punched me right in the gut. She looked so much like Seris that I had to hide my shaking hand, wrestling the urge to terminate the call early.
"Hey." I said, clearing my throat when it came out in a whisper.
"I heard you got yourself in trouble, not too much trouble if you still have your head on your neck aye?" Her light voice belied her shrewd gaze that probably took in everything.
"Is that any way to greet your favorite niece?" I played along. "Especially one whose calls you have avoided for the past six months." I replied sarcastically, expertly masking the hurt in my voice since she would frown at it. Six months ago since Seris died.
"I was busy." She said curtly but her eyes softened.
"The human prince is with me." I widened her field of vision to include him before she could say anything else and she scowled.
"Ah. I see." She said. She knew that as far as punishments went, this was the harshest the Witch Queen could give me.
"The Queen saddled me with babysitting him for twenty years." I drawled and he coughed meaningfully behind me.
"You're getting along too." She said, staring at the red imprint of my hand around his neck. "You know you have to try harder right? If he dies, you die too."
"What?!" I barked, stiffening.
"She didn't tell you that?" Verity asked with a little laugh. As usual, she found humor in the most unhumorous things ever.
"No." I bit out. That sly, wicked witch! She didn't just hand over my reigns to the prince, she bound our fucking souls together. I marched to the wall and with a shout, punched my fist straight through.