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When Freya raised her hand to slap some manners into her, she let out a scream and a stab pierced her palm. Freya looked to her hand, expecting to see blood, but it was only the throb of a nonexistent cut that hammered on her palm.

“Next time”, Neera walked up to her, and Freya backed away a few steps. “You’d say goodbye to the entire arm”, Neera smiled, and tilted her head to the side. “You don’t happen to see the Queen, have you?”

“In…in the garden,” Freya lied.

“You are a sweetheart”, Neera gave her a bone chilling smile and walked off, the gown floating around her like sin.

Freya ran all the way to her brother’s quarters, yelling off the guards who were too slow to open doors for her. She met Zavian in his study, nose buried deep in a book.

“Why didn’t you tell me she is back?” Freya asked.

Zavian looked up. “Who?”

“You know very well who I am talking about,” Freya seethed. She pointed in the direction of the door. “She was there, and I had no idea. Didn’t you deem it fit for me to know?”

.....

Zavian put down the book on the old parchments of the map cluttered on his desk. He looked slightly annoyed, if not disturbed.

“You never liked her, Freya, so why should I let you know she was alive?”

“Because I care about you! And somehow, she directly affects you! What did you do to her?”

“Made her a demon.”

Freya’s brows shot up as high as her highline. “You are making a big mistake, Brother.”

“If it is negative words you want to fill my ears with today, leave this instance,” Zavian said. “I have guards outside these doors that will lock you up in the dungeon at the slightest wrong word. The threat of death doesn’t affect you, so perhaps a humiliating week in the dungeon will set you straight.”

Freya lowered her face to eye level with her brother. “I was there when you fell apart, so I would at least be given the courtesy to know when things are back to whatever normal this is.”

“You wanted her dead, Freya,” Zavian said coolly. “I don’t owe you anything. So now, did you find out anything since Lydia came to visit? Or is there any particular reason why you came to see me?”

Freya thought of the pain Neera had inflicted on her without touching her, the new powers that she now possessed, courtesy to her brother. But Zavian would have already known, and she was no damsel in distress.

She was going to handle this entity he had brought in, and make her regret ever hurting her that way. If Neera thought she was powerful, she was yet to meet Freya’s battle powers.

Since her brother didn’t deem her fit to know that Neera was alive, Freya left his study without telling him anything. She too, would keep things to herself.

Tit for tat.

….

Jasmine couldn’t keep avoiding Neera forever.

Freya had been helpful the other day, but she had been a mess in front of the King’s sister, fidgeting with her cup of tea, the hot liquid spilling on her dress while Freya had draped a long leg over the arm of the chair opposite hers, watching her with relaxed curiosity in an uncomfortable silence.

Truth was, Freya’s chambers were the safest place to be away from Neera, and every ticking second was a burden in the castle.

Rue and Zoe were smart though, and could tell their fate even before it happened. The day Jasmine had assigned to them new roles was the last she saw of them. The next morning, just as dawn broke and the castle’s staff was set about their duties, reports of them missing reached her ear.

They could have escaped during the midnight, made a pact with one of the guards to set them free, but Jasmine had them hunted down. To be brought back dead or alive were her instructions. She couldn’t afford any more slip-ups.

So when Jasmine awoke that morning, she decided enough was enough from running away from Neera. It would only add more suspicion, and Neera had asked of her twice already. She couldn’t have known anything, but again, she came back to life. How could Jasmine be so sure?

Jasmine practiced her smile in the mirror, stretching her lips in that perfunctory smile practiced over the years of being born royal. She steadied her breathing and sent out the maids cleaning her chambers.

She would go straight to find her herself.

Jasmine went to Neera’s chambers first and reached for the doorknob. Hopefully she wouldn’t be in there, and hopefully she could go back to hers and use a nap. It was no excuse. She needed some afternoon sleep to replenish the sleeps she lost from the last couple of nights.

When she couldn’t bring herself to open the door, the door opened from the other end.

Jasmine shook, Neera smiled.

“I have been waiting for you”, Neera said, and left the door ajar as she stepped back into the chambers.

Jasmine inspected her environment. She was safe. At least the King’s guards were nearby. So, armed with that knowledge, she stepped in.

Neera was twirling around the room like a wooden doll, her body stiff, her arms mechanical as she tossed clothes here and there. Jasmine inspected the chamber before her; the strewn clothes, the ripped pieces of papers, and the over by the vanity mirror, shards of glass littered the floor, giving Jasmine the idea of where the intense perfumed smell in the room was coming from.

Maids were supposed to have cleaning instincts, or that was what Jasmine expected of Neera, as a former maid surrounded by all the mess.

“Those perfumes are terrible”, Neera said as an explanation to Jasmine’s gaze direction. Jasmine watched as she stripped in her presence, and she couldn’t help but stare at the body the King had always sought over hers. There was nothing particularly enticing about her that Jasmine didn’t already possess herself, and if she may think so, she was even prettier.