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“My queen, I don’t understand.” Rebecca chased after me as I stalked through the house. “I thought you were going to talk to Adam about our engagement.”

“That doesn’t matter anymore,” I threw over my shoulder. I walked into the bedroom Rebecca had assigned to me and threw open the wardrobe. I flipped through the garments trying to find something that made me feel more like myself.

It was strange. I felt like myself, Eva, but I was also the queen. We were one and the same now, and to think of us as separate entities was almost laughable.

There was no separation. There was no difference. I just was. And what I was, was pissed.

I’d done everything right. I’d wormed my way through the ranks of the mages, showing them that a little human was just as good as them.

I’d even married that horrid Midas and his greedy grabby hands. He’d gotten the wealth and prestige he wanted over the other kingdoms with me by his side and what did I get? Locked in a tower by his vindictive bitch of a daughter.

Where did she have the right to punish me? Me! I’d done everything for that kingdom, and that was the thanks I got?

Snow was the one who wronged me. Ferdinand was mine, and she stole him away from me. It wasn’t like her father didn’t have his mistresses. Ferdinand was the only thing I’d ever had that was mine, just for me, and not part of my revenge for my mother.

So, of course, I was a little upset when I found out he was also sleeping with Snow. She had everything, and she had to also take him.

“My queen,” Rebecca’s voice was quiet over my raging thoughts as I tore through the wardrobe. “Eva. Please. You’re going to start a fire.”

I blinked at her, then turned my gaze back to the wardrobe. The clothing I was grabbing had scorch marks all over them. My rage had eked out into my hands. I dropped the dress in my hands and stepped back, huffing.

Like a child, I was letting my anger rule over my powers. There was nothing I could do about Snow or Ferdinand now. They were long gone, nothing but dust. I had to focus on the present.

I turned abruptly to Rebecca. “What do you know about the Mage Council members?”

“The council?” Tilting her head a bit at my question, Rebecca went about collecting the dresses I’d thrown on the floor, moving them into a pile by the door. “Only what is public knowledge. You can view their profiles on the net.”

“Profiles?”

“Yes, their background, like where they are from, what they studied, their family life, that sort of thing.”

“And this is all public knowledge? Anyone can look at it?”

Rebecca stopped her arms full of clothes. “Yes, I can pull it up for you if you like.” I nodded. “Can I ask what you are looking for?”

I crossed my arms over my chest and tried my best to reign in my anger. “Adam said he had to woo them to give the humans the rights they deserved. He made some case about not being able to just change everything overnight.”

Rebecca hummed her understanding. “He’s right. In his position, it would be hard to just say do this because I said so. Arch Mage isn’t like a King or Queen. He can’t make demands and expects everyone to just go with them. The council has to be convinced, as well. It keeps him from becoming a tyrant.”

I clucked my tongue and cursed under my breath. Stupid modern world. This was going to be more complicated than I expected. If I had been queen here, like back in my time, I could have snapped my fingers, and they would have to do what I asked. Back then, the mages worked in the shadows, so it wasn’t so easy for them to voice out against royalty.

Maybe that was it.

If I couldn’t make them do what I wanted by just putting it in front of them, perhaps I would have to be like the mages of old. Use my abilities in secret to sway things in the way that I wanted. To do that though, I needed information and more than just what was publicly available.

“And, if one wanted to find out all the council’s dirty little secrets, who would one go about that?”

Rebecca's mouth curled up into a wicked grin. “Well, then, that would require a different sort of net.”

“Can you do it?” I rubbed my hands together, partly to ease my anxiety and partly for the excitement that was bubbling up inside of me.

“Oh, yes. I can do that, but it will take a bit of time. It would help to have someone close to the mages council to do so, too.”

“You mean, like Adam? The Arch Mage?” I didn’t want to go back to him and ask for things. The urge to set him on fire was too close to the surface and, while I was mad at him, I didn’t want to hurt him.

However, there was someone else that might be willing to do the dirty work for me. That was if I could convince the little devil to play along.

“What if there was someone else, close to him, that could get the information you needed? Not Adam himself, but someone else?”

Rebecca’s sly side look told me she had an inkling on what I wanted to do.

“Someone else would work as well.” She plopped the rest of the dresses on the ground and then snapped her fingers. The pile disappeared. “I will do what I can on my side and look forward to hearing from your... source.”

Hope swelled in me. I turned back to the wardrobe and searched for something among the unscorched dresses that were left.

I found one of a pale purple and pink with slits up both sides. It shimmered with each shift of the light on it. The neckline scooped down held up only by the tight bodice and would leave my shoulders bare.

Treacherous water I was about to swim into. I had to be careful. The last time I’d faced Zane’s demon hadn’t ended well for either of us. Though, this time, I had control of my magic, and I was confident in my ability to sway him to my side.

The demon hated being trapped in Zane. He’d made a point to let me know that he wanted to do everything he could to hurt his host. I had a feeling he would like the chance to pull one over Zane.

It didn’t make me feel good to use Zane in this way. He’d been nothing but kind and understanding to me since the beginning. He cared for me, that was certain. And I was about to use the feelings he had for me to my advantage.

Did that make me a bad person? Evil?

Snow would certainly think so. She’d painted me the villain in all her journals.

Her journals.

I’d forgotten about that little thing with everything that had happened. I plucked it out of the magical pocket I’d put it in and flipped through it until I found the last entry.

January 5th

The evil queen sits in her tower and no one can save her. I have the mages preparing the spell now to conceal her whereabouts. She will be erased from the histories as if she never existed. If only that would be enough to remove her from my mind.

She tortures me daily, still. The death of my father and Ferdinand remain in mind, as clear as the day that they happened. The tower is the least of what she deserves, and I know I’ve done everything I can to destroy what she has built.

Her name will mean nothing. She will be nothing.

And yet, something nags on my heart. A deep embedded fear that this wasn’t over.

I look down on my child, the only thing I have left of Ferdinand, and wonder each day, will this be the day that she breaks free? Will she come for me and my child? Will we suffer the way my father and my love suffered?

I wish I’d killed her. Then I would be free of her, and nothing would stand between me and my happily ever after. Except killing her is too quick of a price to pay for what she has done.

I wanted her to suffer. Suffer long and unending, the way I will suffer for the rest of my life. Except I knew there was an end to mine. I had to make peace it would be enough.

There would be no end for her. Not now. Not ever.

I snorted and snapped the book shut.

“It looks like you didn’t get what you wanted after all, Snow.” I peered down at the journal with all the disdain and hatred I had for my stepdaughter.

So she had a child? I wondered if the line continued. Could I find them here and now? If I did, then I’d make them pay for what their ancestors had done to me.

But first, I had a demon to seduce.