The Garden Witch

Part 14

We make our way to the center of the castle gardens, There, in the middle, is an illuminated veranda covered with eternal roses. They glowed in the twilight.

This place is called "The Lover's Circle." Legend has it that, if you make love in this circle, your lover is bound to you lifetime after lifetime. Apollo never stops holding my hand as we enter, and my heart thunders with anticipation. 

His limbs are my limbs. His breath is my breath. We are one and the same. There is nowhere to hide, our souls have merged with each other. We can read each others minds, hear each others thoughts, there'll never be a place in this universe that I will go that Apollo will not follow.

Then I see the Faerie Queen looming over us, teeming with displeasure and disgust at our naked bodies.

Apollo moves to shield me, for he is terrified of the Orids, but the Queen tosses him aside, through to another dimension.

"Where have you taken him? Why are you doing this to us?" I cry.

"I give you Alexander. Why wasn't he enough for you? He would have pleasured you, took care of you when you're sick... now you have to grand take Michael away from me. Out of all the affairs that you, a harlot, could have had - you chose him. It's a shame."

My eyes sting from tears, and I want to knock the Queen off her feet. I stand up, trying to feel through where I last saw Apollo - hoping for a door that would be just the slightest bit open for me to crawl through.

"Yes Claire,  you were the one to save your family from your own curse, but you still didn't. Sure, they may be able to leave, but I'll find a way to use magic to trap the descendants to the house all over again. You stole my son from me! You think that he'll come back, and he will forever and ever... never remember you. That is the curse of The Lover's Circle - to be locked in a game of love that never ends, lifetime upon lifetime."

She leaves through the trees, as if she's upset and can't even look at me.

I cry big, fat, pathetic tears, until my hair and body glistens with salt.

Finally, I stand up. Blood is pouring down my legs.

I walk from the gardens to the great hall, where onlookers gasp at my nudity. Somehow, they feel as if the Green Goddess of Gaia herself had reincarnated within my body.

One offers mea  shroud, and I shrink away. I want them to see my nipples - hard and pointy. I want them to see their princess.

I enter Luna's room and find that she's not there. I break into a run.

"Luna!? LUNA!" I yell.

"Nyla?" asks Alexander cautiously from his room, eyes gasping when he finds me naked.

I run across the hall to see the Faerie Queen holding Luna. When she sees me, she vanishes Luna into a thick of smoke.

"Where is she?"

"She's fine. She's been sent to a harem far away where she will eventually be married to a god, if her witch powers don't show up first. If they do, she will go to a way worse place. Poor girl."

The Queen does not notice as I take a deep breath, and let out a mighty scream that sends her off the balcony and onto the grounds below. She hits the ground with a thud, blood pooling out of her head, her eyes giving me one last glossy stare before her soul gives up her body.

"You killed her" says Alexander.

"Alexander" I sigh, "Let me explain.

"Why couldn't you just be grateful? After everything that she did for you, you had to go and take a shit on her generosity." he asks.

"Oh, what? Now you are taking her side? After all you've had to deal with her?"

"Boy mother may have had her ways about her, but she wanted what is best for everyone. She cared about you too you know."

"You never asked about me and her. How could I be expected to believe you now? You didn't even love me."

"I love you" he says "In my own way. Even Apollo must have seen that. If you had been more open minded and had seen all that I would give you, you would have never wanted Apollo. You and I would  have a happy marriage. It's your lust that got in the way."

I turn away from him, frustrated at her, and myself. I can't be sure what is right or wrong. I know that anything that I try to convince him off will go through one ear and out of the other.

"Luna..."

"She only wanted what was best for your daughter."

"She's not your daughter, so you have no room to talk. If she was your daughter, you would do everything in your power to protect her."

"I'm sure she'll be fine. My mother wouldn't have sent her into a situation that she couldn't handle" he says.

"Fine? FINE?" All I can imagine is that she's lost, afraid, and crying. The queen probably forgot to erase her memories. That's how little I trust your mother. A little girl cannot understand why her own parents would leave her!" Why would she care about anything but her own?

"You could have been a good mother like her, but if you're going to complain more, just leave."

I stare at him, dumbfounded. It's as if, even presented with evidence, he doesn't care to acknowledge the truth.