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Chapter twelve, revelation: two children
As soon as the plane landed on Greenland, I knew I was being stupid.
The queen was this big bad, supposedly undefeatable villain and I was meant to be the underdog that overcomes her and wins. But I already had won, right? I’d escaped her plans to kill me. Well, I thought that meant I won.
But that wasn’t winning. That was just not losing. Not winning. Not losing.
And this big, stupid game isn’t over yet. So when does it end?
When I die?
Well, judging by the way I was going it looked like it would all end pretty soon.
“Welcome home,” She said, swaying into my room like she had just been to heaven and back. Hah, the queen in heaven? Good one.
For a moment I was frozen. I didn’t want to do this anymore. I wanted to fight for what was right. And I knew what was right now. I was right.
But I didn’t want to die. I didn’t want Lucas to die. And if I were to blurt out my defiance right now, she could click her fingers and take so many lives.
I gulped. I was going to have to pretend. And I was going to have to suck it up until I managed to find a way to destroy the information linking Eustatia to Necker.
I took a deep breath and smiled.
She handed me a fur coat, probably werewolf fur- most likely one of her friends that double crossed her. I put it on cautiously and followed her down the corridor. Some soldiers surrounded us and walked with us. I didn’t see any of my guys there.
“Cathy!” It was a piercing scream, and I half expected it to be Lupa. But it was Lucas, running like a wild animal towards us.
Unfortunately, guards got to him before he got to me- but he still struggled against them as if he could still do it. He looked a little crazed.
“Where’s you’re fight?!” He shouted, and I cowered behind the queen. Part of me hid because I wanted to show the queen I was lawfully on her side, and the other part hid because he looked pretty scary. “Where’s Cathy?! You’re not Cathy!”
The queen turned to me slightly, and raised her eyebrows. I think she was asking me indirectly what we should do with him.
“Don’t hurt him just yet.” I managed to say without sounding too emotional. I looked at him then, and wanted so badly to just tell him. The feelings that passed through as mates were clear. He knew I felt trapped, and he knew I had no choice. But he didn’t know that I wasn’t just blindly following the queen.
“You have a choice!” He shouted, as I expected. “You can still fight!”
And I shook my head slightly, looking to the ground.
“Alright, take him away now.” The queen waved her hand like she was almost tired of seeing me like this. I was a little honoured she would even think of me, and I was maybe even warming to her.
No.
I was lead off the plane into what seemed a deserted mountain topped with endless snow. My eyes watered at first at the blinding whiteness but after a few seconds they got used to it. And from the shining snow, appeared a door on the side of the mountain.
I looked down, and at first I saw snow, but then it hit me. The ground was tarmac, but it was painted white. I laughed to myself, did I think that a plane this big had landed on the side of a mountain? The white painted tarmac led all the way to the door, where it stopped and then actual snow carried on the path.
I smirked a little, “So you got the real thing.” I said, taking in the secret base. The queen turned to tilt her head, “The whole under a mountain base.” Two islands felt insignificant to this giant valley of mountains. The islands were so exposed, vulnerable. But this… you could’ve never seen.
“It was from the human war a while ago, and I just,” She waved her hands, trying so hard not to be proud, “Re-decorated.”
A few hundred wolves emerged from the mountains, howling and running from top to bottom. Snow came thundering after them as they came. I watched in awe as the wolves paddled around in the snow like it the sea. Slowly but surely, they all lined up horizontal to the doors and bowed their heads. The queen subtly nodded and walked on.
She led me to the glass doors that were hidden from above, and they opened automatically. I didn’t question it, but it seemed a little too confident for the queen. Say, if I had managed to find out the location of her base then I could’ve walked right in.
But I didn’t doubt that she had cameras all over the place.
The she suddenly stopped, and I only just missed walking into the back of her. Her dress had snow soaking the hem but she didn’t seem to care.
“I should show you around.” She stated, and then walked on. “Boys, prepare her room and we shall meet for a meeting after dinner.”
I was going to ask when dinner was, but I assumed it was whenever the queen said so. We walked for a while down this single corridor and I was starting to wonder if the whole base was going to be as ordered and boring as this, when we got to the end of the hallway.
And there it was, the explosion of riches and planning and violence. It was a big room, big enough for four average houses to be plotted on. And in it there were soldiers milling about coming from hallway to hallway. I looked around and there seemed to be a hallway coming from every available wall space possible.
The queen stepped sideways and pulled me with her.
As the soldiers from the plane milled from behind us I took in the whole scene. Everyone was looking at me, and I could see on their faces they suspected me. The probability was that the queen told everyone about her plan. Get Cathy.
And here I was, shuffling uncomfortably on my feet.
The room was so damn big. In the middle there was a single table where a few girls sat, talking to soldiers over the desk. For a moment I worried about where Phoenix was going to sleep, would they notice a new comer? Then I realised The queen’s soldiers were still on Necker Island so there would be empty beds for him, Lupa and the rest.
I wondered where they were going to put Lucas.
Then as if the soldiers heard my thoughts, they dragged him out of the hallway. He looked shocked and wasn’t really struggling, until he saw me.
“Come on Cathy!” He shouted, frantically clawing to get to me.
I wanted so badly to just go to him and comfort him and take him to wherever he was going, but I stood still, frozen with panic that the queen would realise I wasn’t with her.
“While we’re here, would you mind telling me where my son is?” The queen stepped towards me, more interested in whatever I was going to say than ever.
“Which one?” I said too quickly, not even thinking about my bitter comment. My eyes widened as soon as I said it and I looked to the queen to see if she was going to slit my throat right then and there.
But, weirdly, she laughed. “Ronan,” She replied too calmly.
“Oh, he left three years ago.” I told her the truth, because it wasn’t like I had anything to hide with him. She raised her slick eyebrows once again. “To travel the world with his mate and the other one,” I couldn’t be bothered to remember her name. The queen nodded, seeing my interest in the conversation had faded.
“Well, that’s nice.” She commented as the seemingly last of the soldiers merged from the hallway. I watched as they dragged Lucas through a hallway directly opposite the one we had come from.
The queen then moved, heading towards the same corridor. “These hallways just lead to dorms for the soldiers. Training rooms. Nothing important.” She explained. Leading me behind the still screaming Lucas. I hadn’t seen Phoenix or Lupa yet.
The corridor wasn’t quite as long as the first and had more pictures on the wall. Most of them were war paintings, I guess to inspire the soldiers. But then there was a big one, a lavish sketch of the queen, and next to it a painted picture of me and Ronan.
I stopped to look at it, wondering what the hell it was doing. I was the enemy.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” The queen said.
“What’s it doing on the wall?” I replied with my own question.
The queen chuckled, touching the golden frame like a new born baby.
“My two children.”
“You have more than two children,” I pointed out. Two of which are pretending to be soldiers in this base right now.
The queen shrugged, “But none of them started a war, and none of them are going to be by my side forever.
“So you wanted me to start the war?” I asked, intrigued.
She laughed and shook her head, almost like my mom used to. No, wait, my dad’s wife.
“I see more of me in you than any of them. Even Ronan. You are brave and stubborn, the rest of my children were frightened little souls, more of an omega than a queen.” She started walking again, swaying again, “But you, Cathy, make me proud.”
I tilted my head but hurried after her.
“I mean, look what we’ve done,” She opened out her arms. The only thing we did was kill millions of innocent people. “You with your island and me with this, we’re both great!”
I rolled my eyes subconsciously.
We walked out into a second big room, slightly smaller than the first but nonetheless big.
I just saw the soldiers walk Lucas down a hallway. The queen saw my line of vision. “They’re taking him to a cell. Don’t worry, it’s very homely. You can visit him all you want.”
I looked to the queen with a frown and asked, “Did someone put extra kindness in your drink today?”
She laughed and her sharp teeth twinkled in the light, “He’s your mate. I know how much it would hurt you if I hurt him. Trust me.”
I tried to remember what Ronan had told me about the queen’s story the first day we met. Something about her outliving her mate. It must’ve been hell, watching your mate slowly die out. I could only imagine.
The queen was more sympathetic than she let on.
She lead me to the nearest corridor. It was the shortest, only a few steps and we had come to the room on the end. “The surveillance room.” She waved her arms around, her golden sleeves twinkling.
The soldiers sat at the desks, staring at screens showing other soldiers milling around waved at me with cheesy grins.
“They’re my favourite,” The queen whispered to me, loudly so they would hear. They laughed.
“You’re our favourite!” They replied, but then their eyes set on me. “But this queen doesn’t look bad,” They waved and returned the wave. One of the younger boys winked. The queen hit him jokingly and then led me out.
I was a little overwhelmed at how normal she acted.
“They just sit there all day,” She explained as we exited the corridor and went back to the second homeroom. “It’s not even like anyone is going to break in, but they still sit there.”
“It’s not the worst job, I mean they could be dead.” I pointed out and she nodded smirking and leading me to the next room.
The hallway to this one was a little longer. It was basically a room with a world map projected in the middle. A few soldiers scrambled around it. “Communications.” The queen said.
“Welcome,” Said a boy in glasses, too busy to even look our way. I saw Necker Island as a small red dot on the map, compared to Greenland’s big green highlighted land. I sighed, I had been outdone.
The queen then led me out and into the next corridor. As we were in the second homeroom I noticed not as many corridors were planted around the room as the first homeroom.
This place had a more laid back atmosphere.
“I’m not even going to pretend something productive goes on here.” The queen said as we entered a sort of lounge. Some soldiers were sitting on a sofa and drinking from mugs and others were laughing loudly around a table. Others were scattered on the floor playing cards and other games. They all waved at and she rolled her eyes.
I figured it was alike a break room. When I imagined the queen’s base I saw ordered rooms and no one taking one second of a break. I guess I had over-estimated the queen’s cold heart.
I heard Lucas telling me off in my head. That’s what he would say; stop believing everything.
She led me out and past a corridor, then she explained, “That’s just better dorms for the generals and people I deem to be above average.” I curiously peeked round the corner but had to leave because the queen had moved on.
“And this is you room,” I followed her into a room that looked more like an apartment. I gasped in shock, it looked like it cost millions, but I wasn’t complaining. “Just wait here a second.” She said before fleeing the room.
I stood looking at the hallway, wondering why there wasn’t a door and if there were cameras watching me.
Whatever happened, I knew I couldn’t show any weakness. I was surrounded by people that would take off my head in a millisecond.
{ an: thanks for reading! don't forget to vote/comment/add to your libraries and tell your friends! sorry for the sluggish updates, it will be more regular after my exams { sorry! } but yes, i have great plans for where this story is heading and how it will end! }