Chapter 11: Chapter 11

REYNA

We were standing close to the armory, watching the rest of the girls train.

My mother was truly gorgeous. She was the picture of elegance and poise, tall and slender with perfect skin. She didn’t look a day older than forty.

Her body was toned and in perfect shape. She was a former champion.

She knew how to fight, and even now you could see it from the way she stood erect, back straight, eyes alert—she was still a Rose in every way.

“Lisa is such a strong girl, and she’s a good Rose with great potential. She would make a great leader, don’t you think, Reyna?” Her voice pulled me away from my inner monologue.

“A shame really. She could never be our queen.”

I almost asked her why not. I definitely didn’t want to be queen; if Lisa had potential, then it was only right she should be the future queen, not me.

But I bit down on my tongue. No need to poke the bear when she was already this angry.

“How is your maid? Maria, right?” As if she didn’t know—she probably didn’t.

I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case. Cassandra was self-absorbed, and she didn’t think anyone as insignificant as a nanny deserved to be in her presence.

Except if they had something she wanted or needed, or there was a way she could use them.

She continued before I could answer. Honestly, I didn’t think she wanted me to.

“She’s the affectionate type, like all those old fools who still think with their heart instead of their brains. People like her don’t know what’s at stake when you let your guards down, they don’t know the threats awaiting you outside our walls, and you, Reyna.

I have made it clear to you that feelings in this life get you killed. I should have never let her raise you, she made you weak. Too soft.”

She spat the word ~soft~ in disgust, as though it were contagious or rather the blue mist itself.

I knew what she was getting at. This wasn’t the first time, after all.

Whenever Cassandra wanted something from me, she always threatened me with my nana.

She wanted to take Nana away and send her to the village, or the kitchen in the servant quarters.

Cassandra knew how much Nana meant to me, which was why she was always using her against me.

Even if it would hurt me—especially if it would hurt me—because she believed loving someone was a weakness. Which was why she never let me get close to her, even as a child.

I was under no illusion. I knew where she was coming from with these thoughts.

I, more than anyone, knew that wearing your emotions on your sleeve was considered a weakness in this queendom.

It would only make you a target of bullies. Just like it had made me a target in my class when we were children, even with my status as a princess.

I’d suffered from girls much bigger and older than me. Cassandra had known and did nothing about it.

Lisa had been my only friend and the one who had taught me how to stand up for myself.

I was taught to hide what I felt deep inside. It was literally beaten into me, until it stuck. Cassandra had seen to that.

Until I had perfected it. Keeping my emotions to myself, my face blank and my heartbeat normal.

We were still at the training grounds, walking around the field. I was bruised, dirty, and sweating in my training pants and vest—all brown, the same color as everyone else.

Her Majesty the queen was dressed as only a queen should, with long gray dress pants, a silky milk shirt, and an equally gray coat. She wore high heels.

She always wore high heels. Her shoulder-length blonde hair framed her long face.

She looked beautiful, elegant, and graceful—everything I was not.

With my light brown hair and darker tone, except for the blue-gray eyes I had inherited from her, we looked nothing alike, and our personalities were the total opposite.

Cassandra stared at me hard, with her piercing gaze so sharp I felt like it could cut through my heart and see what I was hiding.

It took every bit of strength and self-control I had not to fidget like she wanted me to. But I held on to her intimidating stare.

I had seen formidable women crumble and blabber with just one stare from my mother. Even my trainer Mary was no exception.

Finally, Cassandra started walking. As expected, I followed. Cassandra’s guards were a couple steps behind us, fully armed and ready to end the next person who so much as sneezed in her direction.

“I’m really disappointed in you. I expected so much from you. I fear for Marlenia. Our queendom needed someone strong and ruthless, and right now, Reyna, you are nowhere near ready to be our princess, much less our queen. I think you need more time.”

She paused, then added,

“Maybe you should repeat the year or something. You are my daughter and Marl princess, although you don’t always act like it. The people need to believe in you; they need to trust that you are strong and ruthless enough to protect them.”

“We survived all these years not because we were lucky or kind. We survived because we worked for it, we became stronger in order to better protect ourselves, our queendom.”

Cassandra didn’t add that we survived all these years with the help of the witches. But we all knew the truth.

“I’m trying my best, Mother. And I’m not going to repeat the year after everything I’ve gone through. I’ve worked hard to reach where I am today, harder than any of the other girls.”

“Try harder. You can keep the maid until after the competition. If you lose the fight against Lisa, she goes, and you will never see her again. If you win, she stays. That’s not negotiable. Every woman in our line has won the championship; I won’t accept failure from you.”

My heart was suddenly filled with so much dread I felt nauseated. Cassandra wanted to take the only person who loved me.

I couldn’t lose Nana. I wouldn’t.

My mind was made up. I had no other choice but to mercilessly beat a girl I was once friends with to within an inch of her life in order to keep Nana with me.

And also not disappoint Cassandra.

We would have our real match, Lisa and I. The winner would be given a reward of ten tokens from the queen, which was a huge reward.

The token was the currency in Marlenia; people would do anything to get a token from the queen.

The final test would conclude the end of five long years of brutal training and choose the next best fighter of Marlenia.

It would take place at the training grounds, where thousands of women and girls would be watching.

I felt sick at the thought of people coming to watch two women fight bloody. It was barbaric.

But this was the way it had always been. The best fighter of the year against the reigning champion.

Maybe I really was flawed, like my mother said, to think that way about the fight that had been our tradition.