LUCAS the BETRAYED [[The Red Queen Fan Fiction]]

I stood in the fire but you got burned

The birds quickly became the joy of my life. I crafted a bird cage so elegant that even Evangeline, who saw it glimmering in my room, didn't dare to destroy it. For several months, Charlotte and I worked as a team caring for the birds. She fed them in the morning while I trained. I fed them in the afternoon while she worked. But at night we fed them together. In what seemed like only a few weeks, the babies grew into fluffy, hungry balls of talkative feathers. These new feathers would one day let them fly away.

This morning I watched as one of the birds flaps its wings and jumps from the nest, fluttering to the bottom of the cage.

"No..." I whisper and lean close. If you go, she'll go.

"Lucy," Charlotte's voice teases from the doorway. Carrying a pile of white sheets, she skips to my side. As only she can, she reads my thoughts from my expression. "We knew they'd have to leave someday." With a half-hearted smile she places the fabric on the bed and rests her cheek on the table. Watching the birds she shifts her gaze through the bars and watches me.

My eyes scan the features of her face. Not even my own parents or Silver friends look at me the way she does. It's like there's a real happiness inside her. A warmth radiates deep inside my center. I can't explain why, but her cheeks flush a rosy pink and she quickly turns her gaze back to the birds.

"Ahem." Evangeline clears her throat from the doorway. "May I come in?"

"No." I frown, but her boots click across my floor anyway.

Charlotte jumps back to stand like a statue by the window, dropping her head low she stares at the floor. A surge of anger and sadness rushes through me as I watch my friend transform into less than what I know she can be.

"What do you want," I state. It's not a question. I have no desire to give my cousin anything she wants. Evangeline shifts her gaze to the window, looking through Charlotte. Then her beady eyes turn back to me. Lazily, she leans towards the only spot by the window that's taken. Charlotte jumps out of the way and scurries from my room.

I bite my lip. Evangeline has been digging for an excuse to get me in trouble with her dad. To her displeasure, he actually let me keep the birds. But I shudder to think what he would do if he learned of my friendship with a Red servant.

"She's using you, you know." Evangeline sounds glad. Leaning against the window she actually looks beautiful. The sunlight makes a halo around her head and streams down her blonde hair. But to me, her high-pitched voice scratches like metal on metal, a reminder of her cruel heart. For months I've managed to avoid her, and I'd never felt better.

"What's it matter to you?" I ask coldly.

Concern shimmers in her eyes, as fake as the makeup on her face. "We're family, and I don't want you to get in trouble..." I roll my eyes as she continues, "But father has started to notice."

I grunt. My uncle doesn't notice anything besides his precious daughter. She told him.

"He wants to speak with you after dinner." She adds. "It's important or something." Her grin tells me she knows exactly what that something is, and if it makes her happy it must be bad for me.

"Fine." I grumble, and float a metal sheet from the wall. "Now leave, I'm getting dressed."

She doesn't move. I smirk and shape my armor with more flair than usual, twirling the pieces around me until they align inches from my skin. Call it premonition, but today I feel the need to form arm gauntlets as well. I close my eyes and exhale–try to not decapitate yourself with a shoulder piece. I inhale. The pieces suction to my body in perfect unison. I can't help but gloat at the intricate layers and perfect alignment.

"Finished?" She chides. "I'm shocked you ever make it to breakfast on time if it takes you that long to get dressed."

She twirls away, her chain-metal dress drafting behind her as she marches from my room.

"See you at dinner." I tease. A strange, rebellious fire flickers to life in my soul.

I already trained this morning, but with several hours to spare before dinner I make my way to the target lanes. A few Red servants linger, cleaning the aftermath from earlier. A young boy approaches my lane and starts to take down my shattered target.

"Wait." I shout, startling the boy. All the servants in the yard turn and stare. "Leave it, but take off its uniform." The boy looks towards the others for guidance. The servants glance at him for a moment then turn their attention back to their own problems. "Please," I add. But it only seems to confuse the boy further. His eyebrows furrow, but he rips the tattered uniform from the target and hurries back to his friends. I wait. Within a few moments, all the servants have filtered from the garden.

Alone, I scan my straw-filled sack. Its crooked, button eyes stare back at me. My mind transforms the green garden into a war-torn battlefield. I spring into the air, a cloud of metal shadows my lane. I attack without mercy.

My target is not Red, and not Silver. It is just an enemy, standing between me and what I desire most.