Hello, my darlings! This was long overdue. Please enjoy this last installment of this piece. Thanks for reading!
Raven winced in pain. Snakes were wrapped around her limbs and she felt another snake crawling up from her torso to her neck and slowly but surely wrapping itself tighter by the second.
"Give up, little bird. Just give up," Apple's voice boomed although she remained unseen.
"N-never!" Raven choked out.
A bright pink fog began to overtake the space that Raven was trapped in. She tried to speak only for half a gasp to escape her.
"What in the world is this!?" Apple finally appeared to Raven.
Wincing, Raven looked up to see Apple, now a former shadow of the princess that Raven had tried to befriend; the princess that everyone had tried to befriend at one point and that several fairytales had even idolized. Apple's physical form was being dealt with in the depths of the underworld by Cupid's Uncle Hades but, Apple's spirit was not yet gone and she still appeared the same way Apple's human form had. Her blonde hair was now streaked with jet black, she wore an armored corset of licorice black and red that very much highlighted the look of her hair and the long flowing skirt of her gown that faded into red at the bottom to reflect the blood of her slain enemies gave her both a menacing and elegant look. Her once ice blue eyes were permanently magenta, reflecting how much she used the dark magic that ran through her veins.
After Cerise had gotten Dexter to Maddie and Alistair's place, she sped back to the castle infirmary. She was nervous, to say the least. Her head was killing her and she felt her temperature rising by the second. She held her head in her hands as she moved closer to Daring's hospital bed. He was still alive but, he was just barely holding on. As much as Darling's words of encouragement had helped Cerise, this new sickly feeling over her certainly did not.
The half-wolf maiden began to shake and while she was doing her best to fight it, she fell forward landed with a hard crash to the ground.
At the hard clunk Cerise's body made on the tile floor, Daring's heart rate picked up.
"Ngh…" Daring blinked and woke up slowly.
His vision was blurred. After a few more blinks, he could see again when he saw Cerise laying on the floor, his heart rate went even faster and he was able to find the strength to speak.
"GUARDS, NURSES, TEND TO MY WIFE!" Daring shouted at the top of his lungs.
The pink fog within the dream realm that Raven was trapped in did not stop there. Said fog was overtaking Maddie and Alistair's shop—with good reason. Thanks to Cupid and Ginger's help, they had crafted the Waking Elixir just fine and while they'd mixed an overabundance, it was better this way. There was no way of measuring the amount of poison already in Raven's system without possibly causing her harm so, this was more of a precautionary measure.
Then again, it was unclear what would happen once Apple's curse was broken. But, Raven was sure to survive. She had to or—No!
Dexter shook his head, doing his best to forget those thoughts.
"What are you waiting for!? Kiss her now," Maddie urged from the other side of the room.
"R-Right," Dexter's nerves dissolved at that, he was going to save Raven now or never.
As his lips touched hers, the cloud of the pink fog of Waking Elixir expanded and grew even thicker.
"N-no…" Apple felt herself getting weaker and about to melt, "Fine, then. Since Hades has me trapped behind glass to rot, look at me directly is something you'll not."
Raven gasped in an attempt to catch some air when Apple grabbed the snake that had been around Raven's neck. Oxygen was flooding back to Raven and she felt her heart start beating at a normal pace again.
However, nothing prepared Raven for the scream she let out when Apple plunged the snake's fangs into her right eye socket.
"With your loss of vision comes kingdom-wide collision. Far and wide, fires will spread. Chaos will unite those that survive right here, in this land. Though unity is far off because the link in this conflict is no longer what the outsiders knew. I'll offer a little reminder but, your demise is only over yonder."
Apple raised her left hand and cackled evilly one last time before succumbing to choke on the pink fog. Apple's spirit went to join her physical form down in Hades' place in the Enchanted Mirror of Flames.
"Is she…?" Alistair was the first to speak once Dexter and Raven were no longer interlocked at the lips.
"I…" Raven attempted to answer and began to cough. Once she took a few seconds to actually breathe and get a good whiff of the Waking Elixir, she seemed like herself again. Of course, save for the part where she was holding a hand over her right eye socket.
"Raven, are you alright?" Dexter asked, reaching up and touching the hand she held over her eye.
"Sort of. When I was in that dream realm Apple's spirit said that…"
The violet-eyed princess was rendered speechless as Cupid walked back into the room. While the winged maiden retained her wings and pink hair, one side of her face was burned deeply and some of the bone on her face showed through while her eyes now looked ghostly. While subtle, the edges of Cupid's wings now appeared burnt.
"Apple had one more curse to cast, Raven. You and I were both casualties in it. Well, to a point. She took your eye and she did this to me," Cupid sighed, "If you can remember the rest of what she said, I'm sure we can figure out what she's planned. And, given the skeletal element of what she did to my face, I have a pretty good idea."
"She took Raven's eye!?" Dexter growled angrily. He wasn't going to stand for anyone hurting his beloved anymore and…
"Whoa there. Heel, Beasty Little Bro, heel!" Daring hobbled into Maddie and Alistair's place on crutches.
"Daring, you're alive," Dexter was relieved to see his brother, "Where's Cerise?"
"She is being kept safe in the palace infirmary. The entire kingdom looks as if hoards of dragons have had hissy fits of flames all over everything. While our castle is still standing, we'll have to reach out and make sure no one's homes have fallen," Daring answered and even offered a bit more explanation.
"So, what you're saying is…" Cupid's voice trailed off as she reached a hand up to touch the exposed skeletal part of her.
"Attempting to kill me and preventing others from getting their Happily Ever Afters wasn't Apple's end game and neither is this," Raven sighed, "This is only the beginning."
A/N: And here's a good place to stop! I'm sorry to do this to you but, keeping it vague allows me to continue on in the next part of this that I have planned. If you haven't yet, please answer the poll on my profile because it is relating to the next installment of this story which will be a different fic entirely. Again, thank you for reading this and supporting me. I will be doing my best to update my other fics. I am working two jobs currently and will be going back to school in a few months so, please be patient, thanks!