Chapter 94 Chapter 94
Chapter 94 Chapter 94
“If you want to leave, be my guest. I didn’t ask you to protect me.” I turned to Gianna.
“Oh well then, I should have let you perish, shouldn’t I, your highness?” She spat as she derailed another Grim attack.
“Are you fucking serious right now?” Holden fumed.
“We are literally in the middle of a battlefield, you raging psycho.” Kira threw her arms up in the air before bringing them down with a flood of water on a group of creatures that Rose was restraining.
“She’s the bigger threat,” Gianna yelled before turning to me with a look of pure hatred in her pale blue eyes. “Always have been weak and will always be weak. As long as you’re still breathing, we’re all doomed. Instead of saving the school and portaling back to the kingdoms to help our families and friends, we have to stop and save your sorry ass. I can’t be the only one with half a brain cell here to see that she is the real threat.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Ivan’s movements come to a sudden halt about the same second mine did. Ice rushed through my veins as the chaos of the night was overshadowed by the utter silence of my frozen thoughts.
Beyond the incessant ringing in my ears, I could vaguely make out Kieran’s voice, wondering why Ivan, Gianna, and I all stopped fighting in the middle of a life-threatening situation, but I couldn’t bring myself out of my muddled mind to answer him.
My body went numb as my mind started unlocking boxes I didn’t even know existed, and out of the darkness emerged a nightmare that engulfed my entire being.
—
The sound of high heels against the cobbled ground soon reached my ears, and the shadows made way for something, or rather someone, to come through.
The feeling of recognition that always took over me finally made sense as Gianna’s face materialized out of the darkness.
“Manette.”
“How could you?” I yelled, shock, betrayal, and fear were the only things I could feel as my hands and feet remained paralyzed.
She pushed her cloak back, reaching for something in the folds of her dress. It shimmered under the moonlight as she pulled it out, and my eyes widened in shock when I recognized the symbols that were hovering menacingly around the blade.
Gianna took a few steps forward, closing in the distance between us and cackling, that loud, familiar, obnoxious laugh that I despised, and twirled the knife between her fingers.
“I couldn’t possibly let you ascend to the throne and let the past repeat itself.” She giggled. “You’re a threat to the peace, far too powerful for one mystic; you can’t rule over the four kingdoms.”
The shadowy figures surrounded us in anticipation, their twisted features reflecting their dark souls, and sneered. A soft whimper escaped my lips as she held the knife firmly in her hands, and with one swift move, she plunged it into my chest.
—
“It was you,” I whispered, my words low enough to dissipate in the noise around us, but not low enough to go unnoticed by her.
“What?” The look of irritated confusion on her face did not fool me.
“How could you do this to me? My own flesh and blood? How could you betray me like that?” My voice rose from pathetic whimpers to loud, angry shrieks.
“We were family. I was your cousin, and you stabbed me right in the heart without even a blink. You left me there thinking I was dead and came back as if nothing had ever happened. Not only did you kill your own family, but the chosen queen. And then you dared to come here and ensnare my boyfriend in your traps.”
I was too engulfed in my own heated ramblings that I failed to notice the utter silence that overtook the academy. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the portal sizzle in and out of existence, the last of the attacking creatures meeting their doom at the hands of my friends and allies, who soon after turned to gape at me as I had just lost my mind.
I couldn’t blame them, to be honest. At that moment, I felt like I had gone crazy, and there was no coming back from the brink of insanity.
“What in the hell are you talking about, you crazy bitch?” Gianna was practically foaming at the mouth.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about. You conspired against the throne, attempted to kill the Queen, and dabbled in the forbidden dark arts. All accusations that could get you beheaded, dear cousin. Not to mention your role in the attacks against the academy and the four kingdoms.”
“Lilith,” Ivan called out, his voice conveying barely contained rage. “You think she is the traitor?”
“Who else could it be?” I glanced at him, my mind working twice as hard to put the pieces together. “The traitor used dark magic to weaken the wards, allowing portals to be opened across the island. The same dark magic that was used that night two years ago to kill me.”
“Are you out of your mind?” Gianna shrieked. “You’re accusing me of practising black magic?”
“That’s not all we’re accusing you of, Gianna.” Chase’s glare could have turned anyone to stone.
“I can’t believe you’re on her side. Not only is she delusional enough that she thinks she’s my dead cousin, but she also thinks I tried to kill her and half the Mystic population?”
Gianna marched towards me, the look of uncontrollable rage a heavy contrast to the confident smirk she had on two years ago.
“I always knew you were a pathetic, attention-seeking weakling, but this is a whole new low even for you.”
“Drop the act.” I matched her glare with one of my own. “I remember everything. The dagger, the symbols, the Grim ones you summoned to help you that night, and that god-forsaken banshee cry you call a laugh as you stabbed me in the chest.”