"Hello, dear."

The words chilled me to the bone. How many times had Robyn called me that same nickname? Hearing Damien say it made it even worse. It took me back to that lonely mansion - the memories flooded back.

I suppressed a shudder in front of Leah. My own anger of her appearance steeling me.

Her eyes scanned me up and down as I stood next to the throne that would have been hers. How different we were now.

The last I saw her she had been furious, staring at Robyn with complete disdain as he crashed the party the night before her would-be wedding. She had been dressed beautifully with jewels adorning her ears, arms and neck.

While she still dressed the same - she was in complete disarray. Her hair was picked up but a few strands were loose around her face. She had struggled against the guards that brought her forth before us.

I only imagined her anger when she finally saw me. How she felt when she took in my casual appearance in a T-shirt in jeans standing in the one place she'd almost killed me to get - right beside Damien.

And then I suddenly realized she was surprised. She was surprised to see me. It was as if she never expected to see me again. Had my return been kept a secret?

"Emylin -"

Damien interrupted Leah. "Lady Emylin, you will be wise not to forget your lady's title."

Leah froze and visibly paled.

It was hard to hide the smile that was about to spread but somehow I managed it.

Oren suddenly appeared with a bundle of clothes in his arms draped to the floor.

I blinked. It wasn't a bundle of clothes. It was the Magister.

Oren let him go and he fell into a shaking heap on the floor. I watched as he coughed then finally looked up at each of us in turn.

Still on his knees, he bowed deeply, going much lower than I'd seen anyone before. He stopped when his nose touched the floor. "My King. My Queen."

I almost jumped out of my skin when he spoke. That word - that stupid title that everyone seemed more than happy to call me.

Queen.

I hated it.

Leah watched the Magister as he cowered before Damien then looked at me.

No one corrected what he called me.

And if only to watch Leah continue to squirm, I'd own it.

Damien didn't move from the throne. "Rise."

While he did get up off the floor, his shoulders remained slumped, his eyes barely looked up at us but his gaze did go over me. I watched as his eyes drifted over my eyes, my face, my appearance. "Truly the last of the Light."

I didn't stop the words as they spilled from my lips. The sarcasm practically dripped from my words. "I suppose I have you two to thank for that?"

He nodded as Leah shook her head vehemently. He didn't look at anyone as he spoke - just the stone floor. "I tried once alone to do it. The first time it nearly worked. I almost unbound you. You had to stand under the moonlight for it to work but the magic was too strong to unbind you completely."

He had me stand under the moonlight in the Observatory. He made me drink a potion. "You made me believe it was to erase the Mark. You lied to me."

He shook his head. "Forgive me, my Queen, I had to deceive you otherwise you wouldn't have taken it. The Mark will never go away not so long as the Giver is alive. All I did was take the handprint away. King Robyn was careless-"

Something suddenly snapped in the room - like a rubber band was finally let go from a great distance. I tried to find the noise but noticed that the Magister looked away. When he turned back, there was blood pouring out of his mouth.

I froze.

"Forgive me," he mumbled through the blood that continued to pour from his mouth. "Robyn the Usurper - you are the one true king, Alteazor." He looked at Damien who had not moved from his position on the throne.

I looked at Damien too. Somehow, I knew it was Damien that had managed to do that to him even though he did not move from his seat.

The Magister looked at me again, his gaze empty. He was not the same man I'd seen before. He looked as broken as I had felt days before.

My stomach twisted.

He spit some blood to his side before continuing. "Y-You must have noticed a surge of power at that point, my Queen. Small not so much to release your true self."

I thought back to the night's events. That was the night that Azazeal broke into my room - I'd gone to the gardens with Oren. There was nothing then but-

"Mia." I cried and thought about Mia once I was alone taking a bath. "I thought about the life Mia would have had if she hadn't been killed."

He nodded.

"I didn't imagine that, did I?"

He shook his head.

"She was going to meet a boy at a coffee shop - get married, have twin boys. That was the life she would have had."

He nodded again. "Power of Life."

I stepped forward in a panic. "Could I have saved her? Had I known what I am, could I have saved her?"

He shook his head. "Not then, no."

Damien's hand reached out to me, gently placing it on my wrist and pulling me back. I understood the concern in his eyes, the worry.

I slowly nodded. I was all right. I'd be all right.

Damien turned back to the Magister. "How does Leah fit into all of this?"

The Magister nodded. "For the magic to work, it had to be given to the Queen by someone with lethal intention."

I raised my eyebrows just as Leah lashed out.

"He's lying!"

I watched Damien's knuckles whiten as he gripped the armrest of the throne he sat on. "Enlighten me."

No sooner did Damien speak, a chair appeared under the Magister. His hands were quickly pulled to the wooden armrests of the chair. Large, thick iron clasps appeared over the wrists.

The Magister didn't look alarmed. He was relieved as he looked towards the ceiling of the room with a small smile.

Damien didn't look away. "Drewyn, you know what this is."

The Magister nodded.

Damien's next words were like venom. "Then speak."

The Magister's eyes met his as he spoke. "Whoever bound her had pure intentions - whoever it was loved her, to unravel that level of magic it had to be done with pure malicious intent. She had to have wanted to kill her of her own free will. It couldn't have been a planted idea."

Leah shouted again. "No! He's lying!"

Damien's violet eyes turned to Leah. "Leah Porter, did you or did you not, in fact, try to kill Emylin, the Lady of Elendil?"

Leah's face dropped. It seemed as if the wind were leaving her sails. The fight left her. "No. I would never-"

I could see Damien's patience leaving him. "You didn't try to poison her? You didn't conspire with my uncle, Robyn?"

She was shaking like a leaf. "N-no, I didn't do anything like that."

He turned to me, his eyes swirling in anger, then back to her. "So both Emylin and Drewyn are lying to me?"

"Yes!" She screamed. "That lying bitch, she's trying to take you from me!"

Damien waved his hand making a chair appear beneath Leah. Her hands set firmly on the armrests as if they were metal attracted to a magnet. The guards stepped back once she was secure.

The same iron cuffs suddenly appeared over her wrists. They were large - they looked like the leather bracelet Jen at work would wear to cover the large tattoo on the inside of her wrist during work hours.

Damien's voice was low as he addressed Leah. "Did you knowingly try to kill Emylin?"

She swallowed and spoke with confidence. "I would never -"

The iron clamped down on her wrists. Her skin seared and burned under them as it touched her making her scream in agony.

I moved to go to her but was held back by Damien who quickly grabbed my arm as I passed him. I looked at him as Leah thrashed beneath the cuffs on her wrists unable to take them off. Finally, they lifted. Her screaming stopped.

Damien spoke. "We don't have many weaknesses, Leah, but iron? Iron is one of them. Iron cuffs like these will burn our skin and eventually bind our magic permanently if left on for too long. This chair will cuff your hands tighter with every lie you tell. Knowing what you know now, will you now tell me the truth?"

She nodded fiercely.

I looked at the Magister - he knew what the Chair was for. He didn't thrash, he didn't try to fight. He was somewhat relaxed as if he knew that everything he had just said would be proved right.

Leah was crying in pain. Her skin was bubbling where the cuffs had been. Her head hung low and while she sniffled. "He came to me one night, in my dreams," she whispered.

Damien interrupted. "When did he first appear to you?"

"T-The night of the bachelorette party, the night Mia was killed." After a moment Leah continued. "He knew that I had used magic to make Mia turn on Emmy - to push her out of our lives - push her out the club."

I wasn't surprised. Mia was different when she wasn't around Leah. She'd flipped a switch as soon as she was back - the kind, quiet Mia was gone as soon as Leah returned. She had a hand in Mia pushing me away.

"B-but then the Executioner killed he -" She looked skyward pools of tears filling her eyes. "Gods forgive me, I didn't want her to get killed she was my best friend - I would never do anything to hurt her. If I had known -" She started to cry in front of us her head hanging low as she whispered, pained. "Gods, twins run in her family - her grandfather is a twin..."

My heart tightened again. There it was - that grief that I thought was non-existent for her friend. I was so wrong. She felt Mia's death as much as I felt Damien's.

And Mia wasn't coming back.

Leah sniffled. "That night, he came to me. He apologized for killing Mia. He took ownership of it- that his dog couldn't be controlled once he is sent on an errand. He kills anything or anyone that could stop his mission. He said he wanted to make it up to me, the future queen. He wanted to stay in my good graces." She sniffled. "I knew that after what happened that the only way to keep her out of our lives permanently was to kill her. You would always protect her - no matter what. You'd stay in her life one way or another." She let out a shaky breath and looked at Damien. "I knew I was only a pawn in you keeping your throne. I knew you weren't in love with me when you proposed. I knew you loved her."

I held my breath. She knew? She knew and she accepted anyway?

"But I was happy because I had you - I knew that love could come later. I was already in love with you. I just had to get rid of her." She looked at me with pure venom in her eyes. "I hate you. I've always hated you, you stupid b-"

She screamed and threw her head back in pain as the iron pressed against her skin again. It was on for so long I thought it would burn through to the bone. I looked away unable to bear it just as the iron released her skin.

The Magister was nodding. "She sensed the Light however small in you - since she didn't know about her power, her nature would be to hate you, my Queen. It would affect others as well."

No wonder I was picked on as a teenager - she was the ring leader. She had everyone at her disposal with her dark magic - purposely or no.

Oren spoke for the first time. I'd forgotten anyone else was there. "I don't think she was lying, Alteazor. There may be something wrong with the chair."

Damien leaned back a bit on his throne. "There is nothing wrong with the chair. I did that."

"Christ, Damien," I mumbled through my tight throat.

He crossed his arms, ignoring me. "Apparently you don't know how to address someone above your station. You are no one, Leah, you hold no title, you and your family are not nobility. You will at all times, show respect, including to the Lady of Elendil who is second only to me your King."

I shifted uncomfortably as she sniffled and hung her head again. "Yes, I'm sorry, Alteazor."

"Continue," he hissed.

"He said he would make it up to me - an early wedding present." She let out a long breath. "He insisted he only wanted to help, to make it all up to me. I just had to keep him a secret."

I looked at Damien but his venemous gaze didn't waver from Leah.

I watched her swallow. "So I did and he mentioned the party - that he would have an opportunity for me. I just had to take you home right after - that I would know when."

She licked her lips. "And then at the party, the Magister gave me a glass. When I asked him what it was he told me it was faerie wine - special faerie wine from a private reserve." She heaved a heavy sigh. "And I knew, I knew that this was it, the opportunity I needed. I knew faerie wine was poisonous to humans."

Her eyes turned to me. "So I gave it to you. I wanted to watch you writhe and die in front of me -" She screamed again as the iron touched her skin. I watched the steam rise from beneath the cuffs as the smell of searing flesh stung my nose.

Eventually, it stopped but her screams still echoed in the room even after.

She cried. "It was perfect," she finally whispered after a couple of moments. "I don't know why you two were so mad at each other that morning but you were so willing to drop her off at home - it would have taken long after the honeymoon for you to find out she died."

"Things didn't go according to plan?" I could hear the malice in Damien's voice.

She didn't say anything but shut her eyes.

"You didn't know that the Magister tricked you?" I whispered. "That it wasn't faerie wine - that it was the potion that unbound me?"

Leah scoffed, she completely changed when I spoke to her instead of Damien. "If I would have known that this would happen instead I would have given you rat poison instead."

"Did you know about the Mark?" I asked. "When we were all here and I couldn't remember how or when I got it - did you see it before?"

She didn't answer.

The iron came down even harder and stayed on longer. Finally, she screamed, "Yes! Yes! I knew!"

The iron came loose and she stopped crying.

Damien looked at her, bored. "Not answering also causes the iron to close around your wrists."

She let out a long shaky breath. "Yes, I'd seen it before. He'd asked me to give you the purple fruit to make you forget your dreams. So I snuck it onto your breakfast without the kitchen staff knowing. I assumed you ate it when you couldn't remember how you got it." She let out a long breath. "I didn't know what it meant just that he gave it to you and he was damn smug about it."

It was like a slap in the face. "You could have said something - done something to prevent all of this."

Damien stood. "What do you have to say for yourself, Leah?"

She shook her head. "I didn't know. I had no idea who he was, what he was capable of."

After a couple of moments of only hearing Leah's whimpering, she fell forward on her knees, the chair disappearing under her.

Her wrists were red, raw, blistered like she had kept them over an open flame. She looked at her wrists again and cried as she huddled them close to her chest, not quite touching.

They looked so painful.

Damien spoke. "Leah Porter for the crimes against the Lady of Elendil and the crown you are hereby sentenced to death."

My stomach dropped just as Leah started to scream. The world was spinning.

Leah deserved it, I told myself. She made her bed, she must lie in it. She tried to murder me.

And yet...more death.

How many had died because of me? Mia, the guards the night of the party, the men that fought when I was rescued, Damien ...

I shook my head. "Please don't. No more death."

Damien looked at me.

"Please," I whispered. "Send her away, anything else but please don't kill her."

Damien's eyes swam with fury. He clenched his teeth as he turned to Leah. "I never want to see you again. Ever. You are banished from the Underworld and all of its courts."

Leah's head snapped up. "What? No! You can't do that!"

Damien raised an eyebrow. "Yes, I can. I am your King . You deserve to die but Lady Emylin is giving you a second chance. You will also move away, as far away as possible. I never want to hear your name uttered ever again - including from those we both mutually know in the human world." He looked at Oren and nodded. "Take her."

"No!" She started to scream and kick as a guard picked her up. "If you think I'll just go away quietly, I won't!" She continued to try and squirm out of the guard's hands even as they all disappeared from the room.

Damien nodded at the Magister. "He's dismissed as well. Take him back to the dungeon."

Another set of guards put their hands on the Magister as he was released from the chair. I watched as the Magister threw a small smile at Damien. They all disappeared until it was only Damien and me in the Throne Room alone again.

I frowned. "What was that smile about?"

Damien rolled his eyes and shrugged his shoulders. "Who knows? Oren tells me he's gone mad."

I let out a long breath unable to look away from where the Magister was just sitting. "Is it always like that?"

He shook his head. "Sometimes it's worse." He walked over to me until he was towering over me. "But it has to be done. If I don't pass judgment and make examples out of those who wish us harm, then this place will turn into total anarchy."

I couldn't look at him. "I'm sorry about Leah - I- I couldn't -"

Damien's fingers gently lifted my chin until my eyes met his. "I wouldn't expect anything less from you."

Before I could say anything else, he leaned forward and pressed his lips against mine.

I inhaled deeply.

I was so surprised by the gesture, I couldn't close my eyes.

Slowly, he pulled away and as he did, his gaze met mine.

I was expecting the comforting violet of his eyes looking back at me, not blue.

It was a familiar blue I'd seen on only one person before.

The same blue hue of the sky just before the sun would rise.