Sasha wasn’t fully awake. She knew that if she moved even a little closer to the surface of consciousness, the pain would strike her. And she didn’t want that. She didn’t want to examine what had happened to her head. She didn’t want to know where she was. Yet, she could tell the texture beneath her felt soft, like a bed, and the dim light in the room was far too weak for her to still be in the winter garden. Until just recently, the room had felt empty.

  “Sasha, you’d better wake up.”

  The voice was familiar. Despite her efforts to remain in the dark, its familiarity dragged her eyelids open.

  “Elias?” she croaked.

  “I don’t have much time, and you’ll probably hate me for this, but I can explain.”

  “Explain what?”

  “This.”

  Elias placed his hand over her chest, pulling with such force that Sasha felt her magic being torn from her, like a thunderstorm breaking the stillness of a dry summer night. His hands were like the desert, and her soul, the water. His white hair stood on end, like an electrified kitten, and his yellow eyes glowed brightly.

  “Elias, please. I’m thirsty, and I’m not feeling well.”

  She had to be losing consciousness again. Her dreams had been vivid, and this felt like just another one. She remembered the winter garden clearly—something was calling her. A large white dragon.

  “I’m sorry, Sasha. But we don’t have time.”

  Her body burned, like a current of electricity running through her, like the world turning against her. Instead of giving, it greedily took. It devoured her very soul.

  “No!” she shrieked. The sensation was unbearable—the very essence of her magic being ripped away. What she had done to him was nothing compared to this. That orb—this was everything. All of her.

  “Oh yes, Sasha,” Elias said. “And you’d better stop protesting. You’re making this take too long.”

  His hands caressed her, his warmth a stark contrast to the cold void within her. Sasha panicked, fighting with all her strength. The thought of losing the orb—losing everything—terrified her. But in front of him, she was as fragile as a feather in a hurricane.

  “You shouldn’t have fought me,” Elias whispered, before suddenly dropping her.

  Sasha tried to rouse herself. Time stretched endlessly, as if everything had stopped moving. It was just like in the nightmares. But this wasn’t a nightmare. Slowly, she tried to sense her surroundings. Her fingers tingled, but nothing responded. It was as if everything had gone gray. Isaak had trained her, prepared her for so much, but nothing had prepared her for the monster before her.

  She saw Elias’ gaze shift. His yellow eyes focused on something—or someone—by the doorway.

  “Good day, Father,” Elias said.

  “I wouldn’t have thought I’d find you up here,” came the reply.

  “Curiosity killed the cat,” Elias answered.

  Darkness swallowed Sasha once again. She wished she could stay conscious, could defend herself, but Elias had drained her. She was in pieces.

  “Please,” was all she managed to whisper before the darkness took her once more.

  For the next few days, nothing happened.

  Each time she woke, a maid was there to care for her. She never saw Elias again, and if not for the emptiness inside her—and the weak, almost nonexistent response when she called out to her magic—she might have believed it had all been a bad dream.

  But it wasn’t a dream. She knew better.

  She wished she had never played with the yellow-eyed kitten.

  She hadn’t felt this weak since she was five.

  “Where am I?”

  The maid stuttered. “I… I wish you weren’t here, madam. You are such a nice lady.”

  “And where is here?”

  The maid placed a plate of cookies in front of her.

  “You need to eat something. You look far too pale.”

  Sasha sat up in bed, looking at the plate on the table by the window. The room was cozy, but that didn’t stop it from being a prison cell.

  “How long will I have to stay here?”

  “You’d better eat those cookies. The madam wants you to join her for dinner.”

  “The madam?”

  The maid looked down at the floor.

  “Just… you know, eat and dress.”

  It wasn’t the same maid who came to fetch her for dinner.

  This one was older and said nothing. She simply opened the door and walked down the stairs, not waiting for Sasha but assuming she would follow.

  And where else would she go?

  There was only one way out of her cell.

  And since she was still far too much of a curious cat, she followed.

  The room outside was large, illuminated by grand chandeliers that sprinkled the space with rainbows. In the center stood a massive table, large enough to seat at least fifty people, covered in a black tablecloth. White lilies adorned it, but there was no porcelain.

  “She looks like a dead bird,” a woman said.

  Sasha turned.

  From behind her, a lady entered the room, flanked by three men who effectively blocked the door.

  Elias may have drained her of magic, but she could still fight. And she would fight.

  Because the woman before her was eerily familiar.

  The light hair, the summer-sky-colored eyes, the fine bone structure, the almost-white skin—it was as if Ivy had stepped into the room. But older. And with a gleam in her eyes that Sasha had never seen in Ivy’s.

  “Aiden betrayed me,” Sasha said.

  “I paid him a hefty sum for you. Might have gotten you cheaper.”

  Sasha scanned the room, listening to the smallest sounds.

  “Sure you could, my queen,” she said, bowing in the woman’s direction.

  The queen stepped forward, extending her hand for Sasha to kiss.

  That’s when Sasha moved.

  She ducked behind the queen’s skirts and sprinted toward the door.

  Her hand was on the knob when one of the men grasped her shoulder. She shoved backward, jamming her fingers into his eyes.

  One had to be fast. One had to be mean. Isaak had taught her that.

  The man roared, his pain echoing through the room.

  Sasha pushed at the door. It creaked open under her fingers.

  For a breath of a second, the cold draft of the outside corridor kissed her skin.

  She bolted.

  One step.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Two—

  A shadow lunged from the side.

  Pain exploded in her ribs as a body slammed into hers, crushing her against the wall.

  “I will not hesitate,” the man growled, his grip tight around her throat.

  “I believe you,” she rasped. “Feels good, doesn’t it? I suppose you know what happens to witches in the palace, don’t you?”

  The man’s gaze flickered, but his grip remained firm. He threw her back into the room, straight into the arms of the other guard.

  “She’s all yours,” he said.

  “Bitch,” the other muttered, striking her hard across the face.

  Sasha gritted her teeth, biting back the scream threatening to escape.

  She was not like her sister.

  She was not weak.

  She would not become the king’s toy.

  The man whose eyes she had clawed held her tight, and her odds had looked better.

  “Keep her still,” the queen said, placing her hands on Sasha’s arms.

  A chilling sensation shot down her spine.

  The queen had magic. More magic than anyone Sasha had ever met. It was wild and untamed. And it was not the good kind. It was magic that fought against itself.

  And she was using it to draw out Sasha’s very essence.

  “You’re a weak one. I would have assumed the daughter of Ella to be stronger. I really did pay too high a price,” the queen said.

  “I’m more than happy to spare you my presence, milady,” Sasha countered.

  She wanted to wipe that awful smile from the queen’s face.

  From her mother’s face.

  “You are such a tiny bit it’s not worth sharing.”

  The queen put one hand around her chin, squeezing hard, making marks with her nails. She instructed the man to keep Sasha still.

  “This will hurt a bit dear”, she said, “but after the pain the bliss would be total, and your memory just a shattered bunch of fragments. You will gladly be my maid, sweetheart. Actually, I do think I have use of you somewhere else, somewhere really fitting.”

  The queen started to drag magic out of her, the same way as Elias had just days before, but this one hurt more. It was also easier to resist.

  “I will break your mind”, Sasha tried to force out the words between sealed lips, but the woman’s hand in her face made the sound muffled. She gathered her force, refusing the queen to take the last part of her, the core of who she was. A witch, the raven witch, the hope of the people.

  Faint sounds from outside the door made her quiver. Someone was coming up the stairs, and she didn’t think it was a maid. The step was too purposefully, too loud. She could fight the queen, but she wouldn’t stand a chance against the king.

  “Mother. I didn’t think you would start without me?”

  “Elias dear. She is just a small mouse, not more than an appetiser. Not worth the trouble.”

  “I don′t mind watching. You did say it would be quite the show?”

  The queens face reddened and she loosened some of her grip on Sasha. Sasha didn’t lose the opportunity. She bent forward with full force and knocked the queen’s head. It took some of the hurt away from her head, and she heard the lovely scream from the mother from hell.

  Elias grabbed her before she had the time to move. The small window of escape was closed.

  “I can rearrange her other eye?” the big mean guy from before offered.

  “Oh, that would not be necessary, believe me”, Elias said “the queen will most certainly let her feel pain. Now, if you don′t mind, since I am here you are…” He paused and fixated them with an unwavering eye, “unnecessary.”

  The two guys looked at the queen, but she just nodded.

  “Wait outside the door”, Elias said to the men. “I′ve will not underestimate this lady.”

  “Lady? You are a spoiled brat”, the queen said and looked Sasha up and down “no lady would ever use brute force, especially not a witch. I would have thought Ella to raise you better than that.”

  “You have a way of dropping the bombs mother.”

  “As if you didn’t know” she sneered at Elias, not taking her eyes off from Sasha.

  “Maybe I did, maybe not. Still, I might have feelings, mother.” Elias stiffened behind Sasha’s back. His grip around her tightened and she leaned into him. Anything was better than the maniac in front of her.

  “She’s Ella’s daughter.” The queen said, stating the obvious.

  “Oh, so she is”, Elias said. “And what will you do about that?”

  Sasha already knew what she wanted to do, and she was not eager in participating. Her odds were pretty bad, and if she didn’t bargain with Elias she had nothing.

  “I thought of serving her to you. Some kind of fairness for what that woman took away from you, but with closer inspection she is really not much of a feast. Keep her still, would you?”

  “Of course mother”, Elias answered.

  Her last option closed, Elias would not bargain, he held her far too tight for that. This time there was nowhere to run. The queen put her hands around her face, and she squeezed, the nails making imprints in her already bruised skin.

  If it had been soothing when Elias took her power, the queens dealt her pure pain. The agony when the force unwillingly let go of her body, transferred down to her stomach and was torn out of her body was insane. Sasha screamed, raw and guttural. The magic ripped from her, leaving her shaking. The wall behind her offered no warmth—just the cold certainty of her loss.

  Gone was her gift of knowing which plants that held magic, gone was her ability to take the magic by force, and soon, she saw it crawling out of her like a big giant black snake, the orb that she had stolen, the magic that was pure Elias. Gone, everything would be wasted.

  “Stop mother!”

  “Stop? Nah, are you having second thoughts? Being weak are we?” But the queens stopped and her eyes narrowed as she looked with surprise over Sasha’s shoulder. “Are you having feelings for the girl or do you just want to finish her up?”

  “Always the lovely one, aren’t you? Do you think I am weak, mother?”

  “I′ve taught you to be strong son.”

  Sasha took the orb back inside her. She built her defence. This was beyond risky, but what did she have to lose? The queen might think she just have won, but Sasha had one surprise left, a magic so black it would destroy even the queen, if she took anything more, she would serve her it first-hand. Guess who would be laughing then?

  “You taught me well mother, it just, you know, since I have a soft spot for you, I thought you should know.”

  “Know what?” the queen snapped. She started to draw in Sasha′s magic again, obviously lacking patience and started to get irritated.

  Sasha eagerly waited.

  “Well, she is really not Ella’s daughter. She’s yours.”

  Sasha screamed. She kicked, not that it did any difference. She was just too weak.

  “You are lying!” The queen let go of her and took a step back. She looked at Sasha, shaking her head. “She can’t be.”

  The queen let out a sharp laugh. Some of the magic she had drawn leaked out of her hands, like water out of an leaking barrel. It was a nasty laugh, more like a hiss from a snake.

  “Lies.” But the queens voice wavered—just slightly.

  Elias tilted his head. “Are they?”

  The queen’s gaze snapped to Sasha’s eyes—those sharp, sky-blue eyes that mirrored her own. Sasha could see how her thoughts swirled in her mind. As if she was seeing a ghost from the past? It might have been regret, but Sasha didn’t think so. It was more disgust than pity.

  “It hurt? Didn’t it?” Elias said, and he chuckled. “Take Ivy up here, do ask her, if you don’t believe me, but really mother, I thought you should know. That you were cleverer than this.”

  The queen looked at Sasha′s black hair, her blue eyes and her tall figure. She marched to the door and opened it briskly.

  “I want you to bring Ivy here”, she ordered one of the men. “And you better ask her nicely.”

  Elias gently pulled Sasha towards a chair. He squeezed her shoulders and manoeuvred her to sit.

  “I will get the orb back, and I will help you. Just bear with me some more”, he whispered. “I will take you out of this.”

  The small woman coming up from the stairs had a complete different sound than the guard accompanying her. The sound was soft, almost silent, and her pace even, balanced. Sasha would recognise it anywhere. Her sister was like a blackbird, delicate. Still, within her was strength, of a different temper than Sasha’s, but in the end, she had always been the strongest of them.

  “You called me?”

  She could see her rounding the corner, the exact moment her eyes drifted away from the queens and found hers. And she saw when Ivy recognised the state she was in, the bruises and the weakness. She felt her hope drifting away. They were supposed to would leave together, not stay.

  Ivy didn’t say no more. She went forward and dropped by Sasha’s knees, taking her into her arms, hugging her tight.

  “What have they done?”

  “Nothing that Isaak hasn’t done before”, Sasha whispered for only Ivy to hear, trying to get her sister to laugh, but getting nothing but soft hot tears, wetting her neck.

  “Ivy dear, I hate to ask this of you, but whom are you hugging?”

  Ivy buried her face even closer into Sasha, and Sasha stroke her sisters back. The queen would get no answer until the tears have gone dry.

  “Oh come on, how could you not see it?” Elias interrupted. “Make her larger, taller and fill her up with muscles and big blue eyes. Am I the only one here who is not blind?”

  “It’s ok Ivy, they have already done too much”, Sasha said and stroke her hair.

  “This is not the time”, Ivy whispered and she hugged her hard, getting closer to her ear. “How is Isaak?”

  “He is fine. He’s coming for you.”

  “I was afraid of that.”

  Ivy let go of Sasha, taking her hands instead, looking into her eyes, seeing things, which no one else could see and new fresh tears entered her eyes.

  “Sweetheart, I will let no one hurt you, but I need to hear it. Who is the girl?” The queen cooed her. “How about I bring my best doctor, and we will help your friend, give her some well-earned rest? And send her back to her family?”

  “I am her family”, Ivy said, “And she are mine. My only family.”

  So the news about Ella had reached the castle. Sasha felt ashamed. She squeezed her sister’s hands hard, looking her straight into her eyes.

  “Not your only family sister, you still have our beloved mother”, she spitted out the last word, but she saw the light shine in her sisters eyes, and she knew that the message had hit home.

  “I am so, so very sorry Ivy. I didn’t know.” The queen walked slowly forward, as if approaching a prey. “I guess I have more than a little explanation to do to you Sasha.” She sighed. “Ivy, why don’t you go downstairs and asks the maids to prepare another bed in your room?”

  Ivy didn’t look at Sasha, she looked at the queen, and she didn’t move an inch.

  “I stay, she is my sister.”

  “We have had a little misunderstanding, and fixing it will involve some pain I rather you don’t see.”

  “She is my sister, her pain is mine.”

  The queen disagreed, but she nodded. This time she turned to Elias.

  “You didn’t stop me. You knew. How could you?”

  “I think you burned your bridges, mother”, Elias countered.

  “I guess we are even”, she said. “Keep her still. This will hurt I’m afraid.”

  Sasha tried to run, but she was too weak, and the queen took her face in her hands once more. This time the grip from her fingers was gentle, and there was softness to her eyes.

  A white light burned up inside of Sasha, and then the magic poured out from the queen’s hands and into her body. She screamed, she screamed as she never had before.

  The complete world became black as she passed out in Elias arms.