The Red Queen

by Meg Xuemei X

“Brilliant strategy,” she nodded, “but I caught you. Now who’s really brilliant?”

  “Lucienne,” Jekaterina said, “you’re not well. I’ve come to your aid. I bring you only protection. It’s time for you to know the truth.”

  “You’ve spun lies into truth since you came,” Lucienne said. “You deceived my men. They’re brave warriors. They fight well on the battlefield, but not against vile snares laid out by a master manipulator like you. Your former sweetheart failed to annihilate me. You’ll fail too, and miserably.” And she forced herself into Jekaterina’s mind.

  Almost instantly, Jekaterina’s face distorted in pain.

  Lucienne blinked. Her biological mother could feel her mind invasion, and it had caused the woman a tremendous pain. How? Others couldn’t even feel her mental touch. She withdrew and staggered back in shock. She shouldn’t be so inhumane as to inflict pain on her mother.

  Another blink. No, the woman had given up her rights as her mother the moment she’d deserted Lucienne, and even more so when she’d returned to malign her daughter. The agony in Jekaterina’s mind was a ruse to stop Lucienne from seeing the truth.

  But Lucienne had seen the truth—Jekaterina was lethal. Lucienne’s mistake with Schmidt caused the death of Captain Marloes. She wouldn’t make the same mistake again. She wouldn’t allow this woman who wore her mother’s face to take everything from her. She wouldn’t lose another warrior on her watch.

  “Lucia,” Chief McQuillen called, putting his hand on her elbow to try to usher her off the stage quietly. “I’ll explain everything to you tomorrow. You look exhausted. Go rest.”

  Lucienne pulled her arm free. “How dare you manhandle me, McQuillen!” she shouted. Forbidden Glory stirred in her, resonating with her rage. “You’re working with this woman who has the very intention of replacing me!” She swept her stare at the rest of the men with contempt. “I trusted all of you. I put my life in your hands. What have I done wrong to deserve such treachery?”

  “Calm down, Siren,” Pyon said. “There isn’t a single cell in us that will betray you. You have our absolute loyalty, no matter what state you are—”

  “There you go again. My state of insanity, you say?” Lucienne asked. “Not a national treasure anymore, but a national risk? I’ll deal with you later, Director.” She turned to Kian. “They’re our people, yet you want to make them yours alone. I’d give you everything if you just asked, yet you led them astray. You conspired with my enemies.” She heard a sob in her throat as she summoned her power.

  The five fundamental forces were fire, water, earth, aether, and metal. Lucienne extracted fire and aether and let liquid fire twirl around her fingers. She removed her gaze from her fire to the men, who looked amazed and disquiet. “Has anyone ever seen a marvel like this?” she asked softly.

  Forbidden Glory urged her to act, and she raised a hand toward Kian. “Time for justice.”

  “Lucia,” Kian said. He was calm, but his complexion had never been paler. “Don’t blame yourself after this. Sphinxes and your people will always need you. Stay strong.”

  How could the warmth and sadness in his sapphire eyes be deeper than the night sky when he knew she was going to burn him alive?

  Lucienne’s elite guards, Kian’s aides, and Pyon all moved, not to stop her but to form a wall of flesh to guard Kian. They collectively wore expressions of dismay and despair. They’d seen the demonstration of her power. They knew no one could stop her.

  “How loyal!” she exclaimed. “You were good men once, but all of you have removed your loyalty from me. So if you want to become a pile of ashes with your chief, that’s fine with me.”

  “Leave!” Kian shoved the men away. “I’m her target. Let her deal with me alone.”

  The men refused to move.

  “I’ll court martial you!” Kian yelled.

  “No one’s going anywhere.” Lucienne gave a harsh laugh. “I’m the Siren. I give orders here.” She let the liquid fire leap high from her fingers. “One moment you were all traitors; now you act like heroes.” She fixed her gaze on her chief. “Truth is, I don’t really want to end you, Kian McQuillen, though I should crack you like a bad egg. I decide to give you a chance to repent. I’ll give you all a chance to turn away from your evil ways.” She turned to Jekaterina. “As for you, Jekaterina, you don’t get the chance they’re getting.”

  Her mother widened her eyes but stood still, awaiting her fate.

  “No, Lucienne!” Kian roared. “It’ll destroy you.” He darted toward the Russian woman to shield her.

  Too late! Lucienne’s mouth curled up in a sardonic smile. She called forth the elements of water and air. Their combined force formed a cloud of gale force wind, throwing Kian and the men back several feet, away from Jekaterina.

  “I can love you, my daughter,” Jekaterina said. “You’re much more than I expected.”

  “And that will be your last lie,” said Lucienne.

  Stop this madness, Lucienne Lam! Stop! A small voice that resembled hers pounded in her head. The word madness enraged Lucienne more than anything. She rejected the pleading and let her fire roam free.

  “No! Lucia!” a cry arose. Then, in a blur, Ashburn lunged in front of Jekaterina, shielding her. His hair was still dripping with water. He must have rushed out from taking a shower. And she’d been wondering where he was.

  A stream of fire hit his chest, knocking him down.

  Writhing on the ground, Ashburn became a human torch.

  Then the rings of redness receded from Lucienne’s eyes.

  Lucienne threw herself at Ashburn in an attempt to shield him from her own fire, and screamed.

  CHAPTER 20

  THE THIRD SCROLL

  Lucienne had locked herself in her bedroom for three days now, watching the red maple trees wither. She could barely face herself, let alone others.

  The image of her fire engulfing Ash was still imprinted on her mind. Anyone else who had caught that fire would have been incinerated. Ash had put up a shield—his black lightning—to diffuse the flame, and she’d sent the water element to aid him just in time.

  Even with his regenerating ability, he still had light burns over much of his body. Her Forbidden Glory had proved to be too powerful, even for Ashburn.

  Just then, as if called, he landed Spike on the balcony and entered her room.

  “Hello,” he said and lounged beside her on a couch.

  “Hello.” She forced a smile. “Does it still hurt?” she asked, her eyes examining his face.

  His usual marble-white face was pink, the aftereffect of the burn.

  “It looks worse than it feels,” he said, touching her face as she suppressed a shiver of pleasure. She shouldn’t be feeling good. She deserved to be miserable. No words or punishments could rectify her horrific act.

  She’d antagonized Kian and accused the man who loved her above everything of being a traitor. How could she be so monstrous? Her insanity had aggregated, making her see the world with a distorted perspective. A psychotic disorder and paranoia were now her constant companions. Some outside malevolence force was no longer the most dangerous thing to her people—she was.

  Ashburn’s hand left her face reluctantly. She didn’t want it to go. It would be really nice if he could hold her, but she wouldn’t ask, not while she had a firm grasp on reality.

  “How are you holding up?” he asked.

  She sighed. The color of his eyes turned gray. She knew he knew it too—she wasn’t getting better. “How’s Jekaterina?” she asked, changing the subject. If Ashburn hadn’t stepped in front of Jekaterina, she’d have reduced her own mother to ashes. But Jekaterina hadn’t walked away without a scratch. Sparks from Lucienne’s liquid fire had singed her hair.

  “She’s at the lab, studying the scroll,” he said.

  Her mother had been put under tight surveillance. No way could that woman disappear into thin air again. Kian had made sure of that. From what Lucienne heard, Jekaterina didn’t seem to mi
nd the treatment. “You can chain me in a dungeon,” the woman had said, “as long as I can do my work and visit my daughters when I want.”

  Did Jekaterina truly want to save her, or did she have another agenda?

  “The last scroll?” Lucienne asked.

  “Jekaterina insisted that she’d show it only to you,” Ashburn said. “Somehow, she always gets her way.” He gave her a look. “You don’t trust her.”

  “I don’t know her.”

  “She wants a chance to get to know you, and to let you know her.”

  Lucienne gave a non-committed shrug. She’d longed for a mother when she was a little girl in the Red Mansion surrounded by enemies. But now that her mother had come, she was terrified of knowing her. “How did you find her?” she asked. “You said her memories weren’t in your collections.”

  “She removed the veil. She called me.”

  “Remove the veil?”

  “An electronic veil. I believe she has some kind of superpower, like you and me, but I can’t find out anything about hers. She’s more than a mystery.”

  “If your game theory is true, you think she might be one of the players?”

  “Yes.”

  “All the more reason to keep an eye on her.”

  “You can’t imagine how many eyes are on her. She’s no better than a prisoner here.”

  “You sounded sympathetic.”

  “I felt kinship with her. I can’t explain it.” He placed Lucienne’s hands into his. “At least she came forward to help you when I couldn’t save you. Lucia, I’m sorry.”

  Lucienne stayed very still, afraid that if she moved, Ash would withdraw his hands. “You cannot and should not take on that responsibility.”

  “I chose not to save you,” he said, shame and agony twirling in his eyes.

  Lucienne felt her heart skip a beat. Ashburn knew of a cure, but couldn’t give it to her. The torment in his eyes had told her this much. Deep inside, she always knew he was her only bet. If he didn’t see any hope, then there was no hope for her. It was only a matter of time before she completely gave in to the ancient poison. She was the last Siren. Her line terminated with her.

  “Then there must be a good reason,” she said softly, withdrawing her hands from his. The heat between them was getting too strong, and she had to make a countermove before the temptation became too great. The Lure responded by shoving a sharp pain into her stomach, displeased at the broken connection.

  “You must hate me,” he said, misunderstanding the removal of her hands from him. “I chose me and the world over you.” A storm of sorrow and self-loathing darkened his ice-blue eyes to gunmetal gray.

  He’d once chosen her above himself and the world when Seraphen had tried to ram his fist into her heart in Nirvana. “I can never hate you, Ash.” She comforted him. “You fight for me as hard as anyone. You’ve done enough for me. Thank you.”

  “Never enough,” he said. “Seraphen told me it’d be the end of me if I cure you.”

  “But I killed Seraphen.”

  “I resurrected him.”

  Lucienne’s throat tightened. Seraphen had terrorized her more than anyone. She wasn’t afraid of the creature coming to finish her, but rather her people. She regretted that she’d let Ashburn keep Seraphen’s body. Every one of her missteps had a dire consequence. Must she put her people in harm’s way even after she was gone?

  “Why would you do such a thing?” she grated. “You don’t need to bring him back to finish me. You know I won’t last long.”

  He looked like she stabbed a knife in his guts and twisted it. “Lucia,” he said, eyes filling with pain. “He won’t pose a threat to you. I resurrected only his head. He’s the only one with the knowledge to the cure.”

  “The knowledge is unnecessary,” she said. She didn’t want to sound bitter, but she heard the bile in her voice. She shouldn’t be so selfish. She should allow him to choose himself over her. If their situations were reversed, wouldn’t she do the same? “I’m sorry, Ash. You’re doing the right thing. Just don’t let anyone else know.” If Kian and her men knew that Ashburn had a possible antidote, they’d do everything in their power to make Ash deliver it, even if it cost him his life.

  “You and I will go to the bitter end together,” he said.

  A realization hit her. He returned to spend her last moments with her. But she didn’t understand what he’d meant by ‘together.’ Was he going to—? She didn’t want anyone to go to the bitter end with her. She wanted them to keep going and live well. “Don’t say such a silly thing,” she chided him. “We’ll enjoy what we have. Let’s not talk about the cure.”

  “Lucia,” he said, wringing his hands together to keep himself from touching her. His knuckles turned white.

  She needed him as much as he needed her, but she didn’t encourage him. She couldn’t win a fight against herself and the Lure at the same time. Her willpower was but thin paper, and she needed her dignity more than ever while still possessing her sanity.

  Ashburn let out his angst in a deep breath and dropped his head in his hands. Then he stirred and raised his head. “Kian’s coming.”

  “He comes every day,” Lucienne said drily. She was too ashamed to face her protector.

  “He won’t leave this time if you don’t open the door. He thinks he’s given you enough space and now’s the time to get over your childish behavior.”

  Lucienne narrowed her eyes. “Childish? That’s what he thinks of me?”

  Ashburn sighed. “I should not read other people’s thoughts to you. I’d better get going. I’ll check on you later.” He rose to his feet and jogged toward the balcony.

  She watched him get on Spike like a knight. The machine beamed in light. In a second, Ash was gone.

  Lucienne opened the door before Kian’s knuckles touched it.

  Two guards stood on each side of the door, saluting Kian and her.

  “Lucia?” Kian looked both surprised and relieved that she was to receive him.

  “Since you won’t go away if I don’t answer the door,” she said, “I’d better save us both some trouble.”

  Kian nodded. “That’s the smart thing to do.”

  “Not so childish?”

  Kian blinked, then realized, “I hate it when that boy gets into my head. The least he can do is zip his mouth! Doesn’t he know how to respect people’s privacy?”

  “Like he has a choice?”

  Kian followed her into her suite and shut the door behind them. “How are you feeling, kid?” he asked as he settled himself on a chair beside her in the sitting room.

  She wanted to dig a hole for herself, but she looked straight at him. “Kian, I—”

  “Don’t apologize,” he said. “We’re long past that—ever since you bit me as an infant. That was a hard bite. You didn’t apologize then.”

  Lucienne grinned. “I bit Jed too, twice, on the nose.”

  “No one had ever bitten him,” he said. “The great Siren was greatly humiliated and was forever wary of you.”

  “I miss Grandpa. He wasn’t a monster like others said he was.”

  “Neither are you.”

  Tears came. “I almost killed you, Kian.”

  “Almost, but not quite,” he said. “You couldn’t do it, no matter how convinced you were that I betrayed you, and you value loyalty more than anything. Didn’t you give me a chance to repent in spite of your terrible rage?”

  She’d demanded that he and the men repent. She’d told him that she could crack him like a bad egg. Lucienne buried her face in her hands as she recalled her outrageous words.

  “You couldn’t truly hurt me or the men, so you found an excuse not to punish me. You took it out on Jekaterina instead. The Lucienne Lam I know wouldn’t hesitate to execute justice, but even when you were convinced I was your mortal enemy, you couldn’t kick my butt.”

  She raised her head, deciding not to be a whining baby. In her last moments, she should be the Siren she was born to be. “
No one wants to kick your rock butt. It’d hurt my nice boots. Not worth it.”

  “True.” He smiled. “Jekaterina is working with the decoding team. She believes the prophecies will point us toward a cure.”

  Even if Jekaterina could decipher the inscriptions, runes, and symbols in time, she’d realize her effort was futile. “We’re wasting time seeking a cure,” Lucienne said. “We should focus on Sphinxes and its future. It’s time for us to be realistic. I want you and the men to be prepared. When I’m gone—”

  “No more of that kind of talk!” Kian cut in, dark fire leaping in his sapphire eyes. “I’m not giving up hope, and neither should you!”

  “Fine,” she said. “Whatever—you say.”

  “I hate it when you say whatever!” he yelled at her. “You won’t go down. You won’t lie down! You’ll fight as a true warrior, and I won’t let the end take you. Not while I’m here.”

  She sighed. “How can we fight our mortality? We aren’t gods. I need you to embrace—”

  “I’ll embrace the day you get well.”

  “Fine, I’ll fight as hard as I can.” She rested her head against his shoulder. She was so tired, but his strength held her up.

  They sat there quietly for a while, watching the wind ruffle the crimson leaves outside the window. Lucienne traced back to the days in the Red Mansion. He’d trained her. He’d surrounded her with an ocean of warmth and strong protective walls amid the coldness and her relentless enemies. He was her true family, but she’d never told him that she loved him. She needed to say it now, or she might never get the chance.

  “I love you, Kian,” she said.

  “That’s all right, kid,” he said, his big, firm hand squeezing her shoulder gently. “Your mother needs to see you. You can’t hide here forever.”

  “I wish I could.”

  “And Bayrose—now your half-sister—keeps asking about you. She’s keen to see you too.”

  She lifted her head from Kian’s shoulder. “But I’m not sure—”

  “Give them a shot, will you?”

  After Kian left, Lucienne stepped out of her room. The guards looked happy at her appearance. After breakfast, Adam drove her to the castle. There was no need for her to hide anymore. The whole of Sphinxes now knew she was inflicted by madness.