A Bastard's Allure-Chapter 67: Save Your Tears

Queen Jessica hurried through the hallways holding a lamp high. She had covered the better part of her face with a shawl, now determined to cover the tiniest of trails that would point Thoron’s death to her. In her left hand, she clutched tightly a blue portion.

When she arrived, the door was slightly open. Strange, she thought. The knight stationed there was dead asleep, slouched on the floor like one lost in his own dreams. She crouched low to awaken him but he didn’t move an inch.

Curious, she pushed the door open and stepped into the room apprehensively. Her eyes narrowed when she saw a woman dressed in a maid’s attire standing beside Thoron’s body. The candles were still burning, casting a significant amount of light in the room.

"What are you doing here?" Jessica asked, now descending the flight of stairs to meet with the parallel ground. But she halted in her tracks, her heart skipping a beat! That aura! This was not an ordinary maid... not even a vampire to say the least!

"Who are you?" She asked, still rooted at the same spot.

The maid shot her eyes open, the darkness in them settling on Thoron’s face. The dark circles under her eyes were not something to miss. Her hand caressed Thoron’s cold one before she turned to face Jessica.

"Does it matter now?" She asked, lifting her eyes to meet with Jessica’s. A frown settled on the Queen’s face as she tried to process her. She looked so familiar yet strange at the same time. The shape of her nose, those eyes had a subtle hint of gold, and the jaw. Gab.... Oh no! It couldn’t be what she was thinking!

"You are...," she dropped the lamp in realization, the material shuttering on the floor. "I thought you were dead, witch!"

"You mistake death for absence," Allicent said.

"You want to kill me?" Jessica asked.

"Why shouldn’t I?" She whipped her head towards Thoron. "I thought he never loved him. But when he decided to do the right thing for the first time, what did you do? You took it away from him, his destiny!"

"It is your son that stole mine’s," Jessica fired back.

Allicent shook her head. "Let us not be guided by our love for our children. Every mother wants what is best for her children. But a father sees in one son what’s absent in another."

Jessica scoffed. "What could Gabriel have that my son doesn’t have. You’re comparing a bastard to a purebreed?"

"You just called me a witch a few minutes ago," she moved. "Let me correct you. I’m not a witch, I’m something... darker."

Jessica felt the atmosphere change in the room. The wind blew against the locked windows, shattering the glasses. The simple display of power made her blood run. Slowly, she tilted her head to meet with Allicent’s dark eyes. Her heart was raging against her ribcage.

"I can kill you if I wanted to. Just a snap of my finger." She snapped, an invisible force suddenly strangling Jessica by her throat. She held her neck fighting for air. Allicent walked to where she was, Jessica’s feet dangling a few inches above the ground.

"Those who get power are afraid to lose it, and so does those who take lives," she pointed. Her eyes settled on Jessica’s. She wanted to live. Hell, she yearned for it! She was desperately fighting for life.

"But I don’t want to kill you, yet," she snapped her fingers again, Jessica dropping on the floor. She took in deep breaths, feeling her neck again.

"Tell your son that I’m coming to take back what is rightfully my son’s." She started walking towards the door.

"You think the people will accept him?" Jessica asked, forcing Allicent to halt in her tracks. "They’d rather rally behind a purebred than a bastard."

Jessica scoffed. "As a queen, I believe you know that fear is what keeps the subjects in check. With power comes fear, and Gabriel just knows how to instill it."

Jessica stood, dusting herself. "Does he even know you exist?" She asked, and it worked wonders. The smirk disappeared from Allicent’s face, gradually shifting to Jessica’s. "To him, you’re dead!"

Allicent stared at the floor, the weight of Jessica’s words taking court in her mind.

"What will you tell him when he asks who you are? Where you’ve been all these years? He’ll think you’re fooling him, won’t he?"

"Imagine the hatred when he discovers you’ve always been there, but seeing from a distance as he suffers. You think he’ll be all smiles?"

She lifted her eyes to stare at the mocking eyes of the queen. She was right, as much as it hurt. And that was her greatest fear! What if Gabriel will never acknowledge her as his mother? Everything she had done was to make him happy. But it ended up keeping her apart from him. And now she wanted to go back, she thought it would be all roses and sunshine?

"My son loves me," she tried to be positive, fighting the tears that threatened to fall anytime soon.

"Does he?" Jessica asked. She had switched moods so fast. From a scared rat to this cocky queen. "I made sure every trace of your memory was wiped out, not even your name."

Allicent caught her lower lip between her teeth, a single tear drop falling from her eye.

"Save your tears for your son," Jessica said, walking past Allicent in confidence. And as if she had remembered something. "Oh! And before I leave, I forgot to tell you that I placed a bounty on him. If he’s fast enough, they’ll have caught up with him by now. But if you’re fast enough, you can save him. A mother’s word to a mother," she tapped Allicent’s shoulder and walked out, leaving her in a state of daze.

"Gabriel!" Allicent said, snapping out of her thoughts. She had to find him before it was too late. But where? She closed her eyes before vanishing into thin air.