Vengeance (Burning Beliefs #2)

Chapter Thirty *edited*

SERENA'S POV

Once upon a time, there was a stupid princess who ruined her entire family's life. But the thing is, she wasn't even full princess. Well, neither was her sister, but that wasn't supposed to matter. Their father was kind of a King (he tried to be Supreme King once, and that ended terribly), but their mother was a plain, simply put, peasant. The "queen" was murdered after her two half-royal children were born. The King banished his children to grow up without ever knowing they were royalty. Until one day, two Knights in Shining Monkey Suits on their Galliant Chevy came upon the small village where the two "princesses" lived. The stupid one went home with them, became the Queen of Drama, and the other one waited patiently until she was taken to her royal family. This princess became Queen of Sluts. While the Queen of Drama was out throwing hissy fits, the Queen of Sluts was getting drunk and getting paid to sleep with men. The stupid princess found herself a prince who actually turned out to be Prince of Hell, and he was literally the worst. The other princess fell in love with Prince Charming, and he was literally the best. Well, he was supposed to be. All was good and well until the Queen of Drama almost died. Next, the Queen of Sluts brought her Prince Charming home and he ended up almost killing one of the Knights. The completely idiotic Queen of Drama left to the Kingdom of Sins and, because she was also idiotic, the Queen of Sluts tried to follow her there and save her sister. Well. This ended in the Queen of Sluts getting killed by an insane Queen. Seven years went by, while the entire royal family was off drinking themselves to sleep, having sex with people they shouldn't be having sex with, and attempting to rebuild lives that they never even had in the first place. And finally, the Queen of Sluts was revived. She killed people for a while because the King of Hell told her too. The Queen of Drama got herself knocked up. By whom, you ask? Hell if I know. Some say the Prince of Hell, others say Prince Charming, but either way, it seems the Queen of Drama has become a slut as well.

And now the Royal Family's back together. Eating dinner.

The Knights have earned their Damsels in Distress; however, it's not quite as nice as it sounds. One is considering death while the other is willing to be unfaithful in order to win the War.

The King has lost his Queen forever. And now, he's thinking about dying, too.

Prince Charming and the Queen of Sluts are in that "it's complicated" stage of their relationship. Or, friendship. Or, I don't acutally know what it is. Complicated, I guess.

The Prince of Hell has now officially earned his title and is completely delusional. The Queen of Drama is six months pregnant, with a new boyfriend apparently. He's not exactly a prince, I mean, he works in a drug store for a living. We'll call him the Jester. After all, he's great at entertaining, and fooling the King.

Not to mention the War. It's been kept quiet; the entire Kingdom is unaware of the tension that's been stirring underneath them since the Princesses were born. However, the extended Royal Family has created an army of nutjobs, demons, and people who murder for a living. All of them are attempting to rid the Kingdom of the halfings, like the kind-of Princesses. The only way to stop it is to kill a Damsel and to kill the King.

We are completely immersed in a fairytale, just not the kind you'd think.

"So you like Journey?" Dean asks Demitri, taking a bite out of the bruschetta. His table manners are very knightly.

"That would be an understatement," Gracie fills in for him.

"It's pretty much all the music I own," Demitri explains.

The two of them share a hopelessly Hallmark best friends smile.

Watching them, an unexpected pang of envy curls like poison in the pit of my stomach. I remember when Gracie and I used to be close like that. Too many inside jokes to count, sleepovers across endless weekends, every conversation blurred with secrets, trust, and an unspoken promise of forever and always. That promise was broken, as you should expect with Gracie, when she walked away from me in my last dying moments.