вlood & peтalѕ [ ĸoтlc - тιana ]

ch. xlii

i dare you to predict what happens in this chapter.

DARE you. don't disappoint me.

thank you.

Linh couldn't quite believe her eyes as she bolted up from her seat.

"W-What are you doing here?" She whisper-shouted hoarsely. "Who told you to come?"

Mai swallowed, weakly raising her hands so that the palms faced Linh. "I...we heard about it through that ruckleberry elf...."

"His name is Mr Forkle." Biana's voice was ice as she stood shoulder to shoulder with Linh, glaring at the couple with all the venom of a spitting cobra. "And why do you think you deserve to be here, when it's indirectly your fault he died?"

The onslaught of words had Mai wilting where she stood. "I.....it wasn't our fault."

"Oh, really?" Biana spat out. "Think about it. If you, his parents, the ones who were supposed to love him regardless of what or who he was hadn't made him feel ashamed, deep down of being a twin? If you hadn't left him and Linh all alone in the Neutral Territories, which chipped his self-worth away little by little? If you hadn't made him feel so bad about being himself, he wouldn't be dead." She took a deep breath. "If you'd treated him and Linh like they were truly your children, he would be alive now. It's because of how he thought of himself that he ended up dead. Do you get it now?"

Mai's bottom lip trembled as she glanced upwards at Quan's pale face. "That's not true...I-we- we had no choice...the banishment was the Council's decision. We could not have opposed it."

"Not. Fully. True." Biana snarled. "Sure, you might not have been able to change the Council's mind, but did you at least try? Did you? You didn't, did you? And if you didn't even care enough about your own children to attempt to lift the banishment, why do you think you deserve to mourn Tam's death? Notice specifically how I'm not calling him your son."

Linh noted how Quan hung his head, not even attempting to deny the fierce accusations hurled at them.

"Miss Vacker," Mr Forkle's voice cut through the hostile atmosphere. "Thank you for saying that, but I called them over to sign a few documents regarding Mr Tam's planting." A pudgy arm shot out, brandishing a few sheets of paper and a pen. "Sign on the dotted line and leave, please."

Without any backchat, they did as they were told. As Mr Forkle took the forms back and they turned to leave, Linh found her voice again. "Wait a bit."

Mai froze in place, turning around hopefully. "Yes, dear?"

Linh chose to ignore the term of endearment. "You both....you spent all our lives running from the burden of being the parents to twins. And now that I'm no longer a twin....what does it feel like? Is it a burden lifted off your shoulders?" She paused, savoring the feeling of power the words gave her. "Or does it just feel worse than ever?"

"Think about it," Dex added, from where he'd been watching. "Long and hard."

"And when you're done, come and tell me." Linh coolly glanced at the elves shed once called her parents. "Until then, goodbye."

The sounds of Mai's sobs as Quan led her out of the room brought her a sense of triumph.

It did nothing to cancel out her sadness, though.

hopefully i've done our queens justice? fierce linh especially is so satisfying to write.