His Red Queen

Chapter Twenty - Evangeline

"She's really gone," I breathe. My eyes have been practically glued to the broadcast since yesterday afternoon when we first got any word on what happened. At first, we were told she was kidnapped by some radical. The little lightning girl, captured like the little fool she is. She may be annoying but I never thought she was stupid enough to get kidnapped. Now it's official. Mare is missing.

Originally, I thought Elara got our plan in motion. It's been brewing since the day Mare was not executed. Elara wants me on the throne beside her son. Maven. The spoiled brat who plays king.

If I had only agreed to Elara's terms in the beginning... I would have been on the throne, watching as she pulls his strings. We would have been the most powerful rule, Maven and me.

It doesn't matter who we love. Power is all that matters to me. To him. To all of us Silvers.

I take a big gulp of coffee black as jet. Mother and Father are sleeping now. After hours of them telling me that I need to go and claim the crown, that I rightfully won Queenstrial and that it's my prerogative to bud in and use her disappearance to my advantage, they finally left me alone. With my thoughts like a tornado spinning in my brain.

Elane is probably still awake. I tip-toe to her room as quietly as possible. Her and Ptolemus agreed on separate rooms but Mother is never to shy to show her disdain for the situation. Both of them have resorted to a series of locks on each door just to keep Mother from trying to change what she has no business intervening in.

"Elane," I whisper as I knock lightly on the door.

Footsteps from inside let me know she's awake. The locks click one by one and she opens the door and yawns. "Hi, Eve." She takes my face in her hands. "Haven't you gotten any sleep?"

Unlike her, I cannot use the lighting to my advantage to hide the dark circles under my eyes. I hold my coffee cup up for her to see.

"That doesn't count as sleep." She closes the door behind us and sits on her bed. "I know you're upset but try to sleep." I wrinkle my nose at her, offering a hollow laugh. She throws a pillow at me, hitting me right in the face.

"How am I supposed to sleep when both of them are breathing down my neck, telling me to go claim what was taken from me by a Red?" I sit next to her and look down at my hands. "I was made to be queen and I lost my chance but no one seems to see that except me and Mare and the king. Even Elara was trying to plot something with me to get rid of Mare but that didn't need to happen because she's gone."

"I would have helped if you'd asked." Elane looks offended. "I'm always on your side. You know that." She does not mention everything she has already done for me.

I lay down next to her, getting under the warm blankets. She rests her head on my shoulder, red hair spilling across my neck and chest.

"I know you would have but this is something I have to do on my own. If I'm ever going to be queen—ever get what I was raised to get—I have to work with Elara and take what should have been mine." My confident tone never betrays the fact that I am crumbling inside.

It used to seem so much easier. Train. Win Queenstrial. Become Tiberias VII's queen. Make my father and mother proud. See Elane when I can.

There was a time I saw it all. The life I wanted.

Next to me, Elane snores softly, already asleep. I close my eyes and drift off to the sound of the thoughts swirling in my head.

When I wake up, Elane is gone. Begrudgingly, I throw the blankets off. A servant can make the bed. I have better things to do.