Chapter 6

The horse drawn carriage takes me into the Queen's palace a day's ride away. Black gothic bricks. Sitting in the middle of a thick, dense forest, a road around a mountain from the nearest city. It's a wolves' haven, and also isolated. At night? Even from the windows, the foreboding castle is surrounded by a pitch black darkness.

"Ellie. Oh, honey, why won't you eat?"

I'm sitting at a dark oak royal dining table, polished near as dark as the castle walls.

I'm staring at a bunch of apples, with candied blood around the skin.

Snow's pack - butchered.

Snow? In a dungeon.

I had heard his snarls echo up, but poison soon soothed him quiet.

And fate was sitting opposite me.

The Queen certainly does have the face of a raven. And the claws of a cat.

She picks feathers from a pheasant, soon eating the organs and leaving the rest while I stare at the dessert.

I have eaten nothing, and the Queen has tailors in the corner, stitching together skinned fur... still dripping blood.

I just arrived an hour before. I barely know why I'm here or what to do to survive. I am certain the moment I hesitate or speak - I will be skinned and butchered too.

I reach out for an apple and I close my eyes. I crunch down on it, and blood stains my lips while the taste of sugar and iron coat my tongue.

I chew. I swallow. Then I open my eyes.

The Queen nods, smiling.

"Well done, Ellie, so strong. I knew we'd be fast friends. I saved your life, too, you know. When Snow nearly raped you. I'm sure he would have ripped your heart out at the end of it. I saved your life. Feel safe to speak freely."

I suppose a 'thank you', would be appropriate.

But I am still too afraid to speak.

I pretend that terror and confusion have caused my tongue to go numb.

"My Queen?" the tailors walk over with a shouldered fur robe. I can't look at it, but I hear it squidge with blood onto her skin.

At first I think it will stay like that, until the fur sinks into her skeleton and grows out again through her pores as real fur. It becomes a part of her.

Did she kill a raven and stitch the head to her face? Then cat paws to her finger tips?

It takes all my effort not to puke. I simply await more instruction.

"No need to be shy, Ellie."

I want to know how she knows my name; or anything about me.

Tell her the past! Tell her the story!

The one eyed crow sits on the back of my chair and caws so loud my eardrums ring.

"I suppose I shall," the Queen rolls her eyes, "Listen, Ellie. A long, long time ago lived a King who grew too arrogant. I will marry no Queen. He said. Well, well, he only wanted the most beautiful and the most fearsome. But a strong girl already loved him - a girl who'd give him everything. Yet being blind with his own ego, he rejected her and broke her full heart. As it bled, she ran into the woods and started to kill the little bunnies. Of course, if you haven't guessed yet, the girl is me. I assumed the King wanted a beautiful woman, and I was always beautiful, so why wasn't I good enough?" the Queen stabs her knife through the pheasant and the bones crack. The sound is awfully unpleasant, but she continues despite it, "...some time passed... the King married and had two children with an ugly bitch... then, how tragic, his family grew sick... the almighty King grew depressed... now he needed comfort - so who did he crawl to then, hmmm?"

I nod to her and she smiles brilliantly, showing off yellow-brown teeth.

"I was renown for giving people what they wanted by then, at any cost - magic via blood is quick, useful and very much to my taste," she closes her eyes, "I don't want to say the rest -"

Say it! Tell her!

The one eyed crow speaks again.

The Queen, a second time, rolls her eyes, sighs deeply and continues, "Then I made Snow into what he is today; a powerful monster at the price of his crown, his kingdom and that he may never see his family again. Unfortunately, his luck, his intelligence and his patience ran out. He tried to return to that ugly bitch when I wasn't looking. As punishment, I commanded him to kill them. Ellie, can you imagine my anguish? He was rejecting me again!" The Queen has to wipe away a tear and suck in a breath, "Anyway, I wanted to secure my reign so I gave the handsome head strong wolf a second chance. I wanted Snow to fall in love with someone new. So I made you, very, oh so beautiful you, Ellie... and guess what?"

"What?" I speak, waiting for the punch line.

The Queen picks up her knife, shaking off the pheasant, "I'm going to steal your face. Yes, I'm going to crave it off. No need to worry, I always give choices and leniency... so if you were to escape, and you may be able to, but you will be doomed to hunt him down anyway. I made you a killer; so I could steal that too when I take your eyes. Any chance to grab some extra power; I shall. Any questions so far, honey?"

My head was spinning.

Steal my face?

Snow, once a King?

And the Queen wanted to torture him for being rejected?

"Are you going to kill me tonight?" I ask.

"No, honey, first you're going to spend a night with Snow and heal his wounds. After all - once he falls more in love - you'll help me when I take your identity."

"What lenience do I get from this?"

"A chance, Ellie. If you work out how to escape the castle and the forest - I'll allow you to run away peacefully with Snow. You're a hunter now, either way, honey, I swear it, you're doomed to kill him. He is such a brute you won't be able to help yourself. And I'm happy with either ending. Just don't come after me. I'll do more than take your face - I'll let you live without one," the Queen holds out her knife, "Take another bite, for me, and I'll give you the dagger."

I would be a fool to challenge her while I am confused and without any idea on how to survive.

No part of me wants to do it. But I know I am head strong and resilient from my upbringing.

I pick up the same apple and I crunch down on it and it's blood candy.

The Queen watches me swallow, before she slides the dagger along the table and I pick it up.

"Guards?" she calls out.

I guess it was time to speak to Snow. To... heal him.

Except I would no longer be talking to an ex-wolf warrior.

Snow used to be a King.