To His Hell and Back-Chapter 32: Queen’s Whispers

Panic gripped Bella’s mind like a vice. Trouble had followed her all her life that even Ariel often joked she was cursed, attracting chaos without trying. But this? The Queen summoning her? It was a nightmare she couldn’t escape.

Bella’s struggles were futile, and Rueben’s expression, his face pale but twisted with sadistic satisfaction, only deepened her dread, his face seemed telling of her soon to be demise, as if telling her that she was about to be fed to the lion’s mouths. His eyes gleaming with malice as though he could already taste his revenge.

"Drag her," Rueben ordered, one eyebrow arched cruelly. He would have preferred to deal with Bella himself, to drain her of every last drop of blood for daring to wound him. A mere human pet like her, who had dared to defy him and even wounded his precious body that no one would dare to touch, deserved nothing less than complete obliteration.

He would have suck her blood dry, turning her into one of the corpses that would be carried out off the castle but the Queen demanded to see her. Though still couldn’t figure out what ideas the Queen might have toward this human, he knows better than anyone else that the Queen doesn’t have a single bone of mercy in her. She was someone who could get rid of the maids who had taken care of her since a child upon noticing the King’s interest that fell on the poor maid.

The human was no less than a pawn to the Queen and those who became the Queen’s pawn against Cassius, would usually die in a ditch like a mere mutt.

He enjoyed seeing Arabella’s struggles though he was still thinking of ways to ask the Queen of a way to kill Arabella for his satisfaction.

Bella, on the other hand, only felt her green eyes covered with miserable fear.

She wondered where Cassius was and if she should always stick beside him now? But perhaps she wouldn’t have anymore "future" to look forward to.

The thought of meeting the woman who had birthed someone as cruel and unyielding as Cassius made Bella’s stomach churn. If he was a reflection of his lineage, what kind of monster was the Queen?

Bella’s only solace was prayer. Silent and desperate pleas echoed in her heart that this wouldn’t be her end. She had struggled against the maids dragging her, kicking and biting in sheer panic, but it was useless. Most of them were vampires, their strength rendering her efforts laughable, as if she were nothing more than a scrap of paper caught in a storm.

Bella couldn’t spare a glance at the opulent decorations lining the hallways, her mind too consumed by dread. Only when the maids stopped abruptly did her vision focus. They stood before a massive door painted in a blinding shade of gold, the surface shimmering as though it had captured the sun itself.

The door was adorned with embedded gems and intricate carvings, pearls strategically placed to flaunt the wealth and power of its owner. It wasn’t just a door; it was a proclamation of dominance, a silent warning to anyone who dared to cross it. Bella swallowed hard, her anxiety mounting with every detail her eyes absorbed.

"Your Majesty, we have arrived," said Rueben with a smirk. He looked once at Arabella, licking his blood before he opened the door and let the maid to push Bella harshly on the ground.

In time, she managed to stop falling on her face and fell on her elbow instead. Her head then lifted upward, slightly taken aback as she knew the lady from their previous meeting, as she was the very first vampire that she had seen when she just entered the castle.

The same purple painted lips, her eyes that were dabbed with the light powdery lilac shade that matches to her luxurious and over the top decorated gown. She was holding to her folded fan tightly as if it was her weapon, while her eyes that were red was nowhere as bright as Cassius’s.

It was as if those red eyes were... fake.

She also wondered why there were different red colors of vampire’s eyes, she noticed that Rueben’s eyes were darker than Lady Morgana while Lady Morgana’s eyes were more brown than red though it still looked like blood.

Meanwhile Cassius’s eyes were simply crimson, a very vivid color that could even reach to her nightmare. Even his sister, Marissa had the same colored eyes, which she suspected to mean something in the rankings of Vampires.

Lady Morgana, the Queen, was also the woman who had wanted to feed her for the nutrition of her baby...

Bella subtly moved her eyes down to Lady Morgana’s stomach, realizing the roundness of it and understanding that this must be the future sibling to Cassius.

"I hear you’ve become my son’s little pet," Lady Morgana said, her voice dripping with an enchanting melody. Her tone, as smooth and sweet as spun silk, was crafted to disarm and captivate. Yet beneath the surface, it glimmered with pride and an unmistakable undercurrent of condescension that her servants had come to know all too well. "I did not expect an ill bred like you to catch his interest which is odd considering he had never eyed any human pet and had even gone against His Majesty regarding that idea. No, actually when have Cassius ever cared for someone else that he would even take them under his wings, odd, I presume never even."

Arabella pursed her lips and looked to the floor. She knew that the Queen wouldn’t take it lightly if she dared to look into her eye, unlike Cassius who seemed to be fond of her defiance, no one in this castle would take it kindly and would not hesitate before having her head roll to the ground if she does not comply to the polite manner she masked now.

Lady Morgana’s lips curved into a smile that didn’t quite reach her piercing eyes. "Oh, how modest, even though I heard from many that you are quite rude and defiant, you seem to be no different than a sparrow," she drawled, "But tell me, little one, how is it that you managed to capture the attention of my son? A man so singularly... discerning." She stepped closer, her gown sweeping the floor in an elegant rustle.

Arabella swallowed hard, keeping her gaze firmly fixed on the polished floor. She fought against the prickle of indignation rising in her chest. If there was one thing she had learned since being brought here, it was that Lady Morgana’s words, no matter how softly spoken, carried the weight of a coiled viper’s strike.

"I am not sure myself, Your Majesty," Arabella replied carefully, her voice steady but laced with practiced humility. "Perhaps it is merely a whim of His Highness, one that will surely pass."

So don’t put your attention to me. I’ll leave when the time has come.

Lady Morgana let out a lilting laugh, though the sound held no warmth. "A whim, indeed. Let us hope for your sake that it is fleeting. Cassius’s whims, when prolonged, tend to become dangerous— to everyone involved." Her gaze flicked to the faint bruise on Arabella’s wrist, her eyes narrowing in mock pity. "But then, I suppose you’ve already had a taste of that, haven’t you?"

Arabella bit the inside of her cheek to hold back a retort. She couldn’t afford to slip, not here, not with the Queen looming over her like a cat toying with a mouse.

"Do you know that Cassius once had a bird?" Lady Morgana started, "He loved it so much that he would do everything for that sparrow. He would even cut a servant’s hands that were too thirsty and had almost eaten the poor sparrow that was taking a small fly away from Cassius’s room. After that, he seemed to became fearful that his sparrow would leave him completely so do you know what he did?"

Bella gulped. No. She doesn’t know what Cassius would do.

But she had heard it directly from him what happened to all the pets he once had.

All of them. They were killed by him.

Sure enough she was correct when Queen Morgana said, "He killed that sparrow. Oddly after that, he keeps getting all kinds of sparrows from one kingdom to another. He’s obsessed with those sparrows for a while before realizing he was bored with it or that he dislike that pet running away from him. So he would always ended them in their demise. All because he couldn’t bear the thought of it flying away. Isn’t that fascinating?"

Then Queen Morgana’s eyes settled on her for a long while, "And you, you remind me so much of that sparrow. Fragile. Lovely. But ultimately, trapped." She stopped in front of Arabella, tilting her head with a mockery of tenderness. "Tell me, dear, do you ever think about what happens to pets that bore him? Or worse, ones that try to escape? Considering you and that sparrow are now at the same position. Aren’t you scared?"