The Crown Locket {Original}

The Locket {Chapter One}

Autumn, 1897
The Royal Palace, Britain

The royal guards stood around the castle, holding their weapons ready for battle. Bombs blasted in the distance, shaking the ground with every boom.

Alexandra watched the trees shake from her window, her frown growing deeper with every tree that fell. Her eyes caught on a cloaked figure sliding through the gate, unnoticed by the focused guards. It was as if someone had stabbed her; all the color drained from her face and her heart dropped out of her chest.

"Queen! Queen!" The door to her room burst open as one of the chefs ran in. Alexandra twirled around hurriedly, but instead of answering the chef she pushed past him and ran down the hallway to the stairs. Stopping for a minute to catch her breath, Alexandra looked around, freezing up as her gaze landed upon the hooded figure staring at her through a large window.

The queen gasped, inching backwards as she stared at the figure; the figure that was looking straight back at her. As fast as humanly possible, Alexandra raced down the stairs and outside the castle walls, stopping once again when the figure stood before her. She couldn't see much about the figure or its shape; in fact, all that she could see was a locket in the shape of a crown around their neck.

"What do you want!" Alexandra screamed, hoping that someone would hear her and help her. Her face fell; losing its angry expression as she realized no one could hear her and even if they did they wouldn't help her. The figure stepped forward once, then took another step closer to the queen.

"I'm not here to hurt you, Alexandra." Their voice was low and raspy, as if they had smoked every day for 40 years. From hearing the person's voice, Alexandra could make out that it was definitely a man under the cloak; and that scared her more.

"Then why are you here?" She whispered back, no longer brave and fierce, but back to her nervous and tense state that she was in when she first saw him.

"For the war of course." He paused for a minute, as if deep in thought, before continuing. "I can help you win, queen, but only if you can put your full trust in me."

Alexandra scoffed, still looking around to see if anyone could help her. "Trust someone I just met? Are you joking?"

The man raised his hand to one of the castle towers, looking up at it with his narrow brown eyes that Alexandra could see in the sun. She crossed her arms and waited for what seemed like hours before he dropped his arm hurriedly and the whole top of the tower came crashing down. Immediately hundreds of guards noticed and they raced to the fallen tower, trying to find the cannonball that had crashed into it.

Ever-so-slowly, Alexandra turned her head and looked directly into the strange man's eyes. He stared back at her, fingering the locket around his neck.

"I can make everything well again, miss White. Everything can go back to the way it was, everything you wish would happen could happen. Don't you want that? I know everything about you, Alexandra, I know about your parents, I know about your past, and I know how you got that crown." He nodded to the jeweled crown on her head. "So trust me, trust me and all your dreams will come true."

Alexandra thought about everything he said for several minutes before narrowing her eyes. "What will you give me then, to have all my dreams come true?"

Again, the man fingered the crown locket he was wearing. A sly smile came to his mouth, making the queen feel uncomfortable once again. Before she could open her mouth and tell him to get lost, the guards in the distance yelled at them, but Alexandra couldn't tell what they were saying at all. But as they ran closer and closer to the two of them, she could tell what they were screaming at the top of their lungs.

"GET AWAY FROM HER! GET AWAY FROM HER!" They yelled at the man, raising their guns in the air. Even from a mile away, Alexandra could hear their guns click, loading again and again. She suspected that they were doing that to get ready to shoot the man, but she didn't know for sure.

"You better beg them not to shoot me, queen, you don't know what will happen if they do." The man muttered under his breath and glared at Alexandra. As soon as she saw the glare he gave her, all thoughts about her protecting him left her mind. She tensed up, lowering her gaze from his eyes to the locket, new thoughts running through her mind.

"Help me! Help me! He's hurting me! Help me!" The 20-year-old queen shouted, cupping her hands around her mouth. From the corner of her eye, she could see him raising his arms once again. Her heart started racing, beating faster and faster until she could hear her heartbeat in her ears. But her worries suddenly ceased when a gunshot rang out, triggering a ringing sound in her ears.

Gunshot after gunshot sounded; she counted twenty seven of them before the hooded man fell to the ground, unmoving. Alexandra's eyes widened as she felt arms wrap around her from behind, a guard whispering comforting words in her ear, as if the female guard thought she was in destress.

Little did the guard or anyone else know, the queen wasn't in any distress at all; in fact, she was perfectly calm. Her hand reached up and felt the locket shaped like a crown that was around her neck, calming her even more. Once again, she could hear and feel her own heartbeat in her ears, but this time it wasn't because of nerves. Her gaze landed upon the man on the ground, a sly smile rising to her lips as she saw the locket he had been wearing was gone.

"Alexandra? Are you okay your majesty?" The guard holding her whispered into her ear, laying the queen gently down onto the ground.

Alexandra blinked once, then blinked again, bringing her back to the present. "Caroline! I know how to win the war. It's not the weapons like we thought it was, it's magic! Magic can help us win, and I know how to channel it." She sat up and looked once again at the man on the ground. "He helped me."