Mated To An Enemy

Alice ducked out of the way of the thick root that swung at her. She raised the machete in the air and brought it down to stab the root into the earth. Then she used her sickle to sever it from the rest.

The Dark Queen screamed, unearthing several large, thick roots toward Alice.

Alice was thrown back by the roots, landing with a heavy thud and sickening crack. She did not scream but instead let out a gasp and soft cry as a fire spread from her shoulder down through her arm. She dropped the sickle, which faded into a black mist as she grabbed her shoulder.

The Queen grinned with eyes full of hatred as she prepared to attack Alice once again.

Ashleigh moved with unprecedented speed, charging at the Dark Queen with her sword in front of her.

The sword pierced into the bark of the tree. The Queen cried out in horror and agony. The bark around the wound burned and curled away from the spectral weapon. Her eyes widened and bulged as the pain overwhelmed her.

"You insufferable brat!" the Queen spat as she turned her focus on Ashleigh.

Roots ripped themselves out of the dirt below her, wrapping at her ankles, wrists, and waist.

"I will kill you!" the Dark Queen screamed.

Ashleigh had a moment of panic, of fear that she wouldn't be able to escape the Queen's hold on her. But Lily was calm. In fact, Lily was smiling.

'We can do it, Ashleigh,' Lily whispered inside her mind. 'We can kill her!'

'What?' Ashleigh asked with surprise. 'What do you mean?'

'It's going to hurt,' Lily replied. 'But only for a few moments, I promise.'

Before Ashleigh could ask for further clarification, she felt a strange energy pulsing through her, a burning along her skin wherever the roots touched.

'Lily, it's too much!' Ashleigh shouted back.

The burning along her skin was getting stronger and spreading through her body. She could feel Lily's power surging and gather as the roots wrapped around her began to glow with that ethereal light.

'It will hurt for a moment,' Lily whispered. 'I have to use your energy, but if we gather my power and pour it into her wound, we can destroy her here and now!'

Ashleigh gritted her teeth as the burn spread through her.

"No!!" The Queen shouted angrily.

She could feel the power gathering. It wasn't just the girl or the fae spirit within. They were dragging it from her roots, pulling on all that power she had drawn into herself from her sacrifices!

"Thieves! Pests! How dare you!" she screamed.

But Ashleigh and Lily paid her no attention. They were focused entirely on the task at hand. They would kill her today.

The Dark Queen growled and pulled on the roots they had tangled around Ashleigh's body, but they wouldn't budge.

"It's mine! You cannot take it!" she shouted.

Ashleigh's eyes glowed with the brightness of the moon. She lifted her head and looked at the Dark Queen defiantly.

"You stole it!" Ashleigh's two-toned voice shouted Lily's words. "This power comes from the life force sacrificed into your roots. This power is of the dead. You swallowed them whole and thought they were gone forever… but I hear them… I hear the shadows of their tortured past. They scream in agony at your betrayal!"

The Dark Queen clenched her jaw and narrowed her eyes.

"You think you can win against me?" she asked in a dark tone. "I was conquering this world before you were ever born!"

"And you failed!" Lily shouted, "just like you will now!"

The Dark Queen snarled, and she pulled from the deeper wells of her power in her rage.

"You hear their screams, but I heard their prayers… the way they begged for death, the agony of life they suffered. I offered them purpose and a way to end that suffering."

Lily gasped as the light in the roots began to fade, as they tightened around Ashleigh once more.

"AAHH!" a scream was ripped from Ashleigh's lips as the roots tightened and pulled.

'No!' Lily shouted. 'I won't lose today!'

She took even more control of Ashleigh's body, gathering her will, power, and energy. She focused on the wound, on tearing it open and filling it with her light.

"You will kill her in the process of killing me…." The Dark Queen laughed. "I will make sure of it!"

Again, the Queen pushed her power down into the roots, fighting back against Lily's light.

Ashleigh screamed as the roots tore at her flesh and the gathering power inside her grew into an inferno.

'Lily…' she whispered.

'We are almost there… I promise... I won't let you die,' Lily whispered back.

Ashleigh nodded and held firm. She could handle it. She would survive.

Alice got to her feet. Her shoulder burned, and there was no use in her arm. But she still had another arm and a machete. She had no idea what Ashleigh and Lily were doing, but it was clear that it was working and that the Dark Queen was fighting hard to stop them.

She needed to buy them time.

Clenching her jaw tightly, Alice grabbed her damaged shoulder and took a deep breath. Then, with all of her strength, she shoved up and back, and with a scraping pop and a blinding jolt of pain, it was back in place.

After taking a few more deep breaths and regaining her vision, Alice grabbed her machete and drove it into the nearest roots.

The Dark Queen howled angrily. She looked away from Ashleigh at the remaining pest in the room. Alice smiled and waved the machete in the air before bringing it down on another root.

With her attention drawn away, Lily was able to overpower the roots once more and focus on the task.

'Alice…' Ashleigh whispered.

'She'll be fine,' Lily replied.

Alice ran between the roots that swung at her. She jumped and avoided almost every swipe. She was having a hard time; her shoulder was aching, and her body was weak. But Roman had taught her well. She used her pain to fuel her movements.

The burn of her shoulder made her swing her machete with even more strength. The weakness in her legs forced her to jump wider.

But no one can push through forever. She tripped, and that was all the Dark Queen needed. Before Alice even hit the ground, the root pierced through her thigh.

Alice screamed out. She was too tired to hold it in.

The Dark Queen smiled.

"Roman will be so disappointed to have missed that sound…" she said with a laugh. Then her expression fell, and her eyes remained cold. "You are far more trouble than you are worth!"

'We have to save her!' Ashleigh screamed at Lily.

'We are almost there!' Lily shouted back, still pushing the sword further into the tree, 'we can end this now!'

The Dark Queen felt how close they were. She saw the end coming for her. She was angry, filled with rage. But there was only one thing she could do now.

"I won't go alone…" she whispered.

She pushed the root into Alice's thigh all the way through, pinning her to the ground. Then, another sharp tendril lifted and shot forward toward Alice.

Alice gasped, her eyes wide with fear as she saw no escape.

The world slowed, and Ashleigh saw the wound in the tree. It was almost completely torn open. Any moment now, Lily would push her power inside of it, and the Dark Queen would die. The war would end.

But Ashleigh could also see Alice pinned to the ground. The root shot toward her with only one purpose.

Even if Lily managed to kill the Dark Queen, Alice would already be dead.

Ashleigh could feel determination and desperation from Lily. She knew how badly she wanted to kill the Dark Queen, and so did Ashleigh.

But this wasn't the way.

'I'm sorry, Lily…' she whispered.

Ashleigh forced Lily out.

'No!' Lily screamed as she fell away.

Ashleigh focused the power that Lily had gathered into the roots that had bound her. They burned away in an instant.

She turned and threw herself on top of Alice, feeling the deep sting and burn of the root as it pushed its way through the flesh and muscle of her back.

Alice stared up in shock as Ashleigh's face contorted in pain. She couldn't believe that she had been saved by her.

The Dark Queen screamed and yanked back at all her roots.

The ones that had held Ashleigh were shriveled and burned. The one that had pierced her back had also been burned by the last remnants of Valkyrie's armor.

Her power was almost drained. She barely had it in her to continue this fight. The wound in her tree was not a small thing. Even without the final blow, it had damaged her extensively.

The Queen hunched over. The green and black liquid slowly oozed from her wounds and mouth.

She was weakened and tired. But she still kept the roots that dug down into the ley lines. It was all she could do, all she could hope for.

Suddenly, Myka burst through the back of the tent. He saw Alice and Ashleigh on the ground, blood pooling around them.

"Get up!" he shouted. "Get up now! We need to go!"

Alice grabbed hold of Ashleigh; they helped each other up. Both struggled to stand.

Myka ran toward the Queen.

"Myka!" Alice shouted with concern.

"Go!" he shouted back. "Trust me!"

With a frustrated growl, Alice turned around and did as he said. She and Ashleigh hobbled their way out of the tent.

The Dark Queen lifted her head slightly to smile at Myka.

"Running away, dearest?" she whispered. "Is that how you plan to save them?"

"Not running away," Myka replied. "Just getting a head start."

Myka pulled the last charge from his bag and shoved it hard into the open wound of her tree.

The Queen screamed and tried to reach for him, but he quickly moved out of range. He dropped the bag, holding the detonator in his hand. He ran after his friends.

"Hurry, hurry!" he shouted as he came up behind them.

"We're moving as fast as we can!" Alice shouted back.

Myka gritted his teeth.

"Well, I'm sorry, but I have to do this now, or it will be too late."

Myka held up the detonator.

Alice and Ashleigh's eyes went wide, and they swallowed as his thumb pressed down on the trigger.