The Red Queen | Lucien Castle & Tristan de Martel

Chapter 1

The girl let out a mirthless laugh. "Fat chance of that." She tucked her dagger into her waistband. "I've no desire to continue this pitiful family reunion."

"Vivalda," said Esther sharply when she began to leave. "Do not turn your back on me."

"Why not, Mother?" she said without facing her. "You turned your back on all of us ages ago. I'm only following your example."

Some people claimed that being the baby of the family was the best thing in the world. The youngest child was the favorite, the apple of their parent's eye, the one their siblings collectively loved.

In Vivalda's case, it felt a whole lot more like everyone loathed her.

Ten months separated her from Rebekah. It was as if Esther had birthed Rebekah and immediately, she and Mikael decided that child number seven was ready to be made. Maybe it was the thrill of finally having another daughter following the birth of four sons. At least they'd taken a few years off between Vivalda and Henrik.

She had many reasons to hate being the second youngest. Currently, the youngest after Henrik's passing.

Too many siblings came before her. There were too many expectations to be met, too many people who could rightfully scold her and ruin her fun.

Finn was eleven years older than her, and was made to deal with her whenever their parents were too busy with one of the other children. He could punish her any way he saw fit if she was misbehaving. He tried not to hit her, but she often felt his lectures about behavior were far worse than a smack in the face.

Elijah was the only one brave enough to climb up into the trees to yank her back to the hut when she was taking a moment to relax and look over the forest. She'd cry and cry and he'd continue dragging her behind him. She was too small to fight him off. He tried not to tattle on her too often but sometimes he ratted her out 'for her own good.'

Klaus and Kol saw her as too little to be included in their games, and often snuck away to play elsewhere, ensuring she couldn't bother them. She'd gotten into trouble many times for getting hurt following after them, thus further proving their point that she was not fit to be part of their fun.

Rebekah enjoyed helping her mother with Henrik while Vivalda covered her ears any time Henrik so much as opened his mouth. At least, in the early days before he became tolerable and sweet. But even after that, she preferred carrying Henrik around and then teaching him how to take steps so he could see the world. She didn't care about watching her mother tend to spells while Henrik fussed and rolled around like a worm on the floor.

She didn't have special qualities like Finn, Kol, and Rebekah, who had some degree of magical ability that kept them cooped up with Esther all day, learning about herbs and spells. As much as she tried, she couldn't do magic. It made her burn with jealousy.

Because of her lack of magical powers, she spent the majority of her time with Mikael, who was already thoroughly disappointed with Niklaus, and didn't have high hopes that Vivalda would result in being anything more than a weakling. Elijah was usually present, but focused more on helping his brother to avoid any altercations between them. It meant Vivalda had far too much one-on-one time with a father who didn't believe her capable of doing anything.

She'd surprised him. But it didn't make him proud of her. Or, at least, if he was, he'd never told her or demonstrated it in any way. Vivalda wanted to have something special in her that would make her siblings see her as worthy of being around them. She hated that she and Henrik were treated like fragile objects. Maybe in Henrik's case they had been right to be careful where they included him. But Vivalda never saw herself as weak. She just wanted to be included.