“Where are the others?” Her voice was full of a familiar fury. She demanded answers, and released the invisible hold around my throat. I coughed and heaved, placing my hands on my knees as I gasped for air.

“They mean nothing to you,” I spat, her eyes widening at my refusal to obey.

“Oh no, my dear,” she threatened, hovering over the pool to close the space between us. I staggered back, finding relief in the shade under the deck, “but they mean everything to you, don’t they? Your pathetic attempt at a human life would have been so lonely without them.” She grabbed a handful of my hair in her hand, pulling back my head. I bit back my cry.

“Let her go!” Steve cried, storming over with some type of umbrella in his hand. Out of the corner of my eye, the guards moved in unison, reaching for their weapon.

“No!” I shouted, hoping to halt them, but my mother pulled back on my hair harder. I squinted as my eyes were forced to stare into the sun. She angled herself over me, “You do not tell my guards what to do.”

“Ok,” I bit out, “old habit…sorry. Steve,” I called out in my strange position, unable to see him, “please drop the umbrella and walk away. I’m fine. I can handle her.” All I heard was him sigh and the clangor of the object hitting the ground. My mother loosened my grip on my hair, and I slowly rose back up. She stayed at my side, and I stiffened as she raised her hands. Smirking, my mother merely pushed back in her hood in the safety of the shade, revealing her wild curly hair and pale skin. Her golden eyes glowed, but her face fell as she took me in.

“Birgitta…your eyes are very distorted here,” she noticed.

“Contacts, Mother. Golden eyes are not common here,” I explained. She clicked her tongue and brought a finger under my chin, moving my head around for further inspection, “Your skin is frying on this planet.” Dropping her finger, she added, “This is why you need to come home immediately. But not before we fix the little problem you created,” she jerked her chin to my friends and I saw them stiffen.

“No,” I sighed, choosing my next words wisely, knowing everything I was giving up, feeling my heart crack in two as I uttered my compromise, “Let her live. Leave the others alone. And I will come home.”

She pursed her lips and shut her eyes momentarily, “Birgitta, you will be welcomed with open arms.” I grimaced, her lie so apparent to me.

“Can I say goodbye to my friends?”

“Of course,” she motioned and stepped aside, staying safely in the shade. I walked away from her, gulping in deep breaths, resisting the tears welling at the corners of my eyes. This is the only way, I told myself. No matter how much it hurts, it has to be done.

My friends approached me with so many questions written on their faces, questions I could never answer. “I have to go home. I have to go with her,” I half heartedly explained, “it’s the only way.”

Annie and Lawrence embraced me first, murmuring their thanks and placing kisses on my cheeks. Chris followed, enveloping me in a bear hug. Steve and Marisol grabbed each of my hands and squeezed. I expected them to release quickly, making it a short goodbye, but Steve asked, “What about Penelope?”

My blood froze in my veins, and I lost my breath as my heart stuttered to a halt. He noticed the panic written on my face and lowered his head slightly in apology. Too late. My mother spoke up from behind us, “Who is Penelope?”

“My best friend,” I answered quickly as the tears spilled onto my face, “she is the one I’ll miss the most.” Marisol squeezed my hand and dropped it, but my mother refused to stop. She wrapped her power around Steve’s throat and asked again, “Who. Is. Penelope.”

I started lifting my hands to fight against her until they were no longer free. A guard came up behind me and restrained them. “Steve. No!” I begged, “Mother, please, she’s my best friend. Please let him go.”

His face turned pale, and I kicked backwards, hoping to free myself from the guard’s grasp. He dodged it and swung me around to face him. I shoved into him with his own hands, and he stumbled for a moment until regaining his balance and pulling my hands into him.

“She’s her daughter!” Marisol screamed and the guard dropped my hands as I turned to see my mother release Steve and face me. I shuddered a sigh, falling to my knees. They cracked on the impact, and I whimpered, but not from the physical pain.

“My granddaughter?” She approached me, her powers raising me onto my feet. I avoided her gaze and looked to Steve who was recovering with Marisol at his side. She shot me the briefest of apologetic looks, but I ignored it. “Birgitta,” the queen commanded my attention and I begrudgingly obeyed, “I refuse your request to leave the others behind. At the very least, your daughter comes with us.”

“No,” I bit out.

She cocked her head, “You would leave your own blood behind to suffer on this planet?”

I bit my lip so hard, I grimaced from the pain, “I would leave her behind because it’s her home. And I’m willing to sacrifice myself to ensure her safety.”

My mother feigned shock, “My dear, I would never hurt you or my granddaughter, even if she is half-human.” She picked a piece of fuzz from her gloves, and it floated to the ground. “Now,” she clapped her gloved hands together, “bring me to your daughter.”

“No.”

She heaved a dramatic sigh, “Fine. I’ll kill everyone in this home. One by one. Hmmm,” she brought a gloved finger up to her lips, “who shall I start with?”

I turned back to the guard, his face hidden in swaths of cloth, and grabbed a sword from his side, flicking my other hand to propel him backwards. The other guards caught him before he fell into the pool. Raising the sword to my neck, I said to my mother, “Hurt any of them, and I will slit open my throat. And then your reign is truly over. You will never find my daughter. Leave, or I end my life.”

A glimmer of panic shone in her eyes, but it was quickly replaced by an eerie calm. “Oh Birgitta, please. Stop this nonsense.”

I pressed the sword into my throat, and a bead of blue blood dripped onto the blade. “Mother, do not tempt me,” I said as the blade dug in deeper. She froze it with a tendril of her power before I finished the job and it flew out of my hand, clattering to the ground.

Approaching me with her stalking grace, she purred, “Have you forgotten my strength?” Closing the distance between us, she held my gaze with her damned power, “Have you forgotten how easily I could destroy this pathetic excuse for a planet?” No, I hadn’t forgotten. Most nights the threat of her finding me here tore me from my sleep. She continued, “My sweet girl, come home. Bring your daughter. Your place is beside me…ruling.” She ran a hand over the cut on my neck. I shivered as the tendrils of her might closed the wound, stopping the blood.

Clenching my teeth, I disagreed, “I can never be what you want me to be.”

“Oh Birgitta,” she placed a gloved hand on my arm, and I flinched under her touch, “it is necessary, you know that. And you will adapt and learn, I promise.”

Her complete disregard for anyone beside herself reared its ugly head, rankling me, and I lashed out, “No! No, Your Highness, killing innocents, innocent people under your rule, is not necessary. Bending people to your will if they so much as disagree with one thing is not necessary. Thinking you are superior because you inherit powers from your line and then wielding your superiority to berate and punish others is not necessary!” My knees cracked as they fell to the ground, forced by her hand. I refused to give her the satisfaction of my cry and blinked my tears away.

“Fine,” she sighed, and my stomach clenched as I waited for her next directive, very aware of this woman who consistently dismissed me, ignoring all of my ideas for a better life. “Guards!” she called to her retinue. “We’re departing. Leave her behind. Leave them all.” She raised me to my feet once again, taking her gloved hand to grip my chin, “I shall miss you, my dear.” I said nothing as she pulled me into a hug and whispered in my ear, “But I think I shall enjoy watching this world burn.”

My heart plummeted in my chest and the roaring in my ears drowned out everything around me. “Mother,” I choked out, returning her embrace to buy myself time. I flicked out one hand to freeze my friends who stood by watching, terrified to interfere. “Please,” I begged, tasting the insincerity of my words, squeezing her tighter, “please don’t do this. I love you,” I lied easily, as the knife from the table materialized in my hand.

“Oh Birgitta,” she replied, “what a pathetic profession. It’s over.” She pulled away, and I sheathed the knife by my side.

I swallowed hard as I admitted, “Yes, it is.”

Her eyes widened in real shock as I plunged the knife straight into her heart. “I’m sorry, my Queen,” I whispered as the tears streamed down my cheeks. She crumpled to the floor, and I threw out another hand, freezing her guards in place as they clambered to reach her, save her. But as her body disintegrated into ash and her power left, slamming into me, I knew it was done. She was dead.