The King's Queen

Chapter 39

"Hello, Elizabeth. I've waited for so long to see you again."

*°*

My vision blurred before focusing on the woman who had just stepped into the room and it almost felt as if I was suspended in a hazy dream-well, nightmare might be more like it.

"You look like you've seen a ghost," she murmured. "Didn't you miss me as much as I missed you?"

Why was she here?

"Nothing to say?" she purred, coming over to me. "If you're this speechless, I can't wait to see Ash's reaction."

"Princess Hailey," I hissed. "Why are you here?"

She crinkled her nose as her eyes wandered around the drab, all white room. She returned her attention to me after a few seconds and a smile crossed her face. "You don't look too well."

"Why are you here?!" I questioned again.

"You're so impatient, Liz." She sighed. "I come all this way to see you, and you can't even pretend to be happy to see me again. If any one of us should be upset, it should be me. The last time I saw you was on the night of my engagement party... the same night that Ashton left me to get back with you."

Her smile was as stiff as board now. "The last time I saw you, you were human. But now, look at you-poisoned by Nightshade Thistle and barely hanging on to your life. Life is such a fragile thing, isn't it? One day you're here and the next, poof, you're gone. Tell me, do you think you'll still be here tomorrow?"

Princess Hailey came over to stand directly in front of me. She ran her fingers down my hair and I tried to pull away as my nose began to burn.

"Oh, do you like my perfume?" Her lips parted in another smile. "It's custom made-Eau de Nightshade. I wore it just to see you. It was a gift from the prinarch. He's been so gracious to me, you know."

"So you've been busy scheming with the prinarch." I narrowed my eyes at her. "That's a new low, even for you."

"Of course you would see it that way," she scoffed. "You're the all perfect Elizabeth who can do no wrong, the one who gets to marry the man she loves. Everyone adores you. Your life is so perfect." She swallowed hard as she circled around me. "You don't know what it's like to struggle to be accepted. Someone like you could never understand how hard the rest us try just to be good enough for someone." Her voice took a hard edge now. "Sit."

Seeing Princess Hailey again, especially like this, was extremely upsetting, and her trying to order me around wasn't improving my mood one bit. Tonight could easily go down as one of the worst nights of my life.

Although every fibre of my being refused to be bossed around by her, she was unwittingly offering me something precious-time. While she spoke about whatever was on her mind, I could use the opportunity to allow my mind to retrace my steps to get out of the building. Escaping would be near impossible, but I had to find a way out.

"After Ashton broke off our engagement, I was humiliated," she began. "My family had traveled all the way from Meryllia to witness my big moment, only for it to end in a matter of seconds. Can you imagine how angry they were?"

"I know they were enraged, but the royal family has been working hard to rebuild the relationship between both of the kingdo-"

"Not angry with Crysauralia." She rolled her eyes. "Well, they were angry with the royal family, yes, but more than that, they were angry with me. I had been selected to marry the prince and I failed to even have him propose to me. I am a princess and an Alpha Origen, and yet despite all of that, I was rejected for a regular human... although you aren't so human anymore, huh?"