Down to Earth~ Sequel to Peter Pan's Dragon Girl

Chapter 30

Reine's p.o.v

I stood with a stolen blade held firmly in my hands and my eyes burning into the slate grey orbs of my victim below me. Her ruby lips were lifted in an amused smirk as she stared up at me with a blank mask of bemused nothingness. A look I always hated her for.

"So this is where it ends, dearest Red? You cut out my heart like you did to everyone else and then leave me to rot?" I steel my resolve against her mocking words and take a tighter hold on the hilt, the metal biting into my palms I gripped it so harshly.

"You brought this on yourself, don't you try and blame this on me. Not this time." I lift the blade high and prepare to take my victory, but a voice that echoed through the limestone castle she had been hiding herself away in. I knew this voice all too well, I would go so far as to say I had fallen in love with this voice.

"Love, what have you done?"

-Previously-

Reine watched the ground whiz by as the massive bird whisked her away from the Great Lakes Cannibals towards the Great Rift where nobody came back alive. Now she knew the bird was why. Dipping below the surface of the earth, she felt her ears pop seconds before she was tossed to the rough stone ridge. She hit the ground and rolled to her feet, instantly on the defense against any and all attackers.

A sharp sting in her shoulder made her hiss in light pains as she reached back to investigate the cause. She tugged a rose thorn from her skin and gently sniffed the tip, catching the faint and flowery scent of Monkshood as her eyelids drooped and she unwillingly fainted to the dust. She opened them to see the inside of a limestone cavern carved and fashioned into a beautifully lavish throne room. The sound of boots on the stone caught her ears as they were followed by the clanking and tinking of millions of bits of armor. The air grew heavy with the feeling of regal disdain and the smell of irony blood coated armor. Reine knew the scent, it was woven throughout her entire childhood. She learned to hate the stench of her.

"I know you're awake, dearest Iracebeth. No need to keep pretending." Her haughty voice caused the prone female to instantly raise hackles, her irritation growing with the woman's gentle chuckles. Reine pushed up from the limestone and turned to face the woman she hated with a burning passion.

"That's not my name anymore, Ravenna." The woman looked like an older version of Reine. Her golden hair was pulled up into a perfect bun underneath her black crown she wore, her dress was black armor in small triangles and painstakingly sewn with perfect precision, in her left hand she had a clawed gauntlet and in her right a dagger curved like an animal talon.

"Oh, that's right you call yourself the Red Queen of Hearts now. What a silly name, don't you think?" Reine scoffed and rolled her eyes at the woman who was inspecting her gauntlet with boredom clouding her grey eyes.

"That's an old name, and I chose that one because Bitch Queen was already filled by you." Ravenna tensed at her snarky remark but played it off as she stepped towards Reine.

"How's the family, dearest Red?" Reine stepped back as she moved forward to keep the distance even.

"I should be asking you that, you're the one who stayed with them instead of being banished like you should have been." Ravenna clicked her tongue against her teeth at both her comment and how she was retreating from her.

"You're not still mad about that incident are you, Iracebeth?" Reine glared at Ravenna before taking a leaping step towards her, swiping for her dagger. Ravenna side stepped and let Reine go flying by, the younger blonde running into a spiked guard made of the same metals as Ravenna's crown and armor.

"I take that as a yes. It was so long ago, dearest Iracebeth, why must you carry such a grudge?" Reine lowly growled and ripped the sword free from the stony guard before whirling and attacking her foe.

"You got me banished! You were the one who let the Jabbers in and you lied about it! You made me this way, Ravenna!" The older woman lightly smirked at the girl before her.

"I know and for that I am very proud. I wanted you to be like this, Iracebeth." Her words made Reine freeze and shake with rage.

"What did you say? You wanted me to be like this? You wanted me to become a murderer? I did horrible things to people because of what you did to them, to her. Explain yourself, right now." Ravenna smirked and moved to sit in her granite throne crafted to look like the souls of innocent humans as they were devoured by monsters and even each other.

"You remember life before the incident, correct? How you and her were so perfect, you could do no wrong and cause no harm. Two peas in a pod. I hated you two for that. I was the oldest, the crown should have belonged to me! But father chose you two, the twin little angels. I wasn't going to have my destiny ruined by you little brats, the crown was mine and mine alone. I decided that if one of you were gone then the other would become such an embarrassing wreck that father would give it back to it's rightful owner. I didn't expect for the Jabbers to kill her right there, but it just made my revenge that much sweeter. You got over it quicker than I wanted, so I let slip that it was you who let them in, and if you tell a lie long enough everyone soon starts to believe it as truth."

Reine couldn't find her words in that moment, her mind was still reeling from the truth behind her banishment. She was sent away, treated like a monster by her loved ones and closest family, and it was all her fault.

"You fed our sister to those monstrosities because you were jealous that father chose us over you? He chose us because he knew you weren't fit to bear the crown!" Ravenna abruptly stood, her usually unfeeling eyes blazing with hate and anger.

"I am the eldest! The crown is mine! I am giving this wretched world the queen it deserves!" Reine let loose a wild and furious battle cry before attacking Ravenna with her stolen sword. The duo warred around the room, destroying anything and everything in their wake until Reine tackled Ravenna and yanked her dagger from her hands. She then quickly pinned the eldest sister to the limestone and held her weapon to her throat.

"You murdered Mirana, my twin and your sister. She looked up to you and you slaughtered her like she was nothing. If there is an afterlife, Ravenna the Black Queen, then maybe you can beg her for forgiveness and mercy. I am the Red Queen of Hearts and I will avenge my White Queen."

-Return to Reine p.o.v-

I risked glancing up and seeing if he was truly here or if I was imagining him. He stood in the brilliant light of the burning sun, hair wild and eyes wide. Beside him stood the Black Pirate just as shocked as his companion.

"Answer me, what have you done?" Ravenna took advantage of my distraction and threw me off before launching to her feet and brushing herself off.

"There's a lot she's done, trust me. And who are you?" Elias' gaze turned towards my hated sister, and I could tell he was already guarded around her.

"My name is Peter, who are you?" I hid my amused laugh in a faked fit of coughing as I pushed to my feet.

"I am Ravenna, the Black Queen." I moved to stand beside Elias, his dark gaze flicking between me and Ravenna as he worked to put the pieces together in his head as to why we looked so similar. She spotted his confusion and laughed, the noise bouncing around the limestone castle.

"You haven't told them, have you? I'm hurt, dearest Red."

"Told me what, love?" Ravenna's grey eyes locked on Elias almost hungrily.

"Dearest Iracebeth's biggest secret of course! You see, her and I are sisters." This surprised the males, and the Black Pirate that Elias saved spoke up.

"The Red Queen of Hearts has a sister?!" Ravenna laughed yet again, a sound that was quickly getting on my nerves.

"Actually there were three of us. Me, Ravenna the Black Queen, and the twins Iracebeth the Red Queen and Mirana the White Queen." The Black Pirate was blown away by the development that I had siblings while Elias seemed more on the apprehensive side.

"You said there were three of you. What happened to Mirana?" I involuntarily flinched at the mention of her name, the pain still stinging white hot through my chest every moment I have her in my mind.

"What happened is Ravenna the Black Queen murdered her."