Playlist:
Taylor Swift; Kendrick Lamar - Bad Blood
3OH!3 - DONTTRUSTME
Foo Fighters - The Pretender
Billie Eilish - bad guy
Florence + The Machine - Girl With One Eye
Coldplay - Viva La Vida
Major Lazer; MØ; DJ Snake - Lean On
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the words. Stephanie Meyer owns the Twilight series, and the songs belong to their respective people.
Bad Blood
After Alice and Edward leapt towards Kaedra, attacking her with intensity borne of predatory instinct, Bella was quick to lead the whole group out of the hall. Marcos was levitating Edward's still-snarling frozen form and Kaedra was pale.
"They attacked me, Izzy." Kaedra was saying when the shocked and angry mumbles of the crowd subsided enough that Carlisle could hear the rulers' soft discussion. Bella's response was terse and whisper-soft as she responded, filled with a heavy mistrust that Carlisle would not have expected of her.
"Alice is a Seer, my friend, and Edward Sees with her. Tell me, Kaedra, what did they See that made them react in such a way?"
They had reached the long, magnificent garden that sprawled out the castle's front entrance, their hurried strides not slowing so Carlisle could take in his surroundings. Though Esme glanced longingly at the flower beds, Carlisle devoted his full attention to the conflict unfolding in subdued violence before him, straining to hear the hissing voices of the Queen and her Regent.
Kaedra stopped dead in her tracks, her face calculating and terrible. Carlisle felt his hackles rise; the hair on the back of his neck stood up as the warrior hidden in the Fae was revealed. The air suddenly crackled.
"You know." It was a statement, not a question, and Kaedra's face twisted into shame and confusion.
Bella took her regent's hand, lacing their fingers together. "Of course I do, Kay. How could I not know? Sit."
They had reached a gazebo in a hidden space in the garden, a surreal clearing hidden from view by long-vine trellises that were half overgrown, the space wilder than the surrounding manicured land. The sun shined high in the sky.
As Keadra and Bella sat under the shaded shelter of the gazebo, Carlisle noticed his sons. Emmett and Jasper were on either side of their still furious brother, but faced outward from where Bella sat, guards at their posts. Edward was hissing wildly, his hands arched into claws, but was still restrained by a focused Marcos, who was a few feet in front of him. Alice's face was also twisted in fury, but she remained still of her own accord, motionless as only a vampire could be, with her eyes tracking Kaedra's every move. Her hand extended behind her to tangle with Jasper's, their backs turned to one another but still connected. Rosalie was behind his Fae daughter, one hand on Bella's shoulder as she glared at Kaedra, daring her to make a move. Emmett stood at her back. Esme's hand was tangled in his, and her eyes were fixed on Bella, looking to her for cues.
His family was in full battle mode, and Carlisle had no understanding of what was going on.
DONTTRUSTME
Bella materialized a gilded book from thin air. The cover of the thick journal was unassuming, a worn black leather that had cracked with age, its binding handwoven and stained with old blood. Though the book was not unusual in appearance, Carlisle felt heavy with the dark magicks that radiated from it. He crossed himself. His motion drew Bella's gaze to him, and she motioned to the third chair sitting near her at the table, beckoning him to sit down silently.
Carlisle sat, and Bella slammed the worn tome on the table with sparking fingertips, looking at her friend with betrayal casting dark shadows on her face. However, when she turned to him, her face melted into serenity.
"I've known Kaedra for a minute. She, Marcos, and I met during a dark period in my life, one when I wasn't acting as a queen should." The scent of blood hinted in the air, the silencing spell warning his daughter to cease speaking.
"I had to run, to hide in the mortal world. I gave up my title and fled Havana. But before I lived in Forks, I lived in Miami for about a year. I would've destroyed myself there, tried to. I was consumed with wanting to forget." Bella's expression had grown regretful as she spoke, and Carlisle tried not to think of Bella's file, the medical jargon that hid the brutality inflicted on his chosen kin. "Kaedra and Marcos kept me ticking, and I trusted them without consideration."
Bella motioned towards the book, its evil tainting the atmosphere around them. "I was looking for it before I ever even met you. It's what me and Marcos were going after, that night you caught us in the club. The whole time I knew you, I searched for it. It took me forever to find it again." she said, turning to face Kaedra with disappointment on her face. "Did you know then? Who I was?"
"I figured it out. You were pretty raw. We all had secrets to keep." Kaedra's voice was soft and subdued, horror and grief in her tone. She reached to brush blood from Bella's lips, but Bella pulled away before Kaedra could touch her. Kaedra's hand hung in the air for a moment before she shakily withdrew it.
"I didn't- I don't mean you any harm, Izzy. I truly do care for you, more than I have any right to."
"I know. It's the only thing saving you from the edge of my blade." Suddenly frustrated, Bella jerked up from the table, letting go of Kaedra's other hand and beginning to pace. "'You don't deny it then? That you are the Master's lover?"
"Would it make you feel better if I did?"
"Maybe; I don't know." Bella ran her hands through her long hair. "God- Kay, how can I ever trust you again? How can I allow you to remain here, near those it is my duty to care for? You destroyed my life; I won't let you destroy theirs."
Bella's clenched fist erupted in flames at her side. She shut her eyes on a hopeless sigh and sank back into her chair, turning once more to Carlisle.
"Interwoven in the history of the Fae is the same story, over and over." She motioned Marcos to approach the table as she spoke, and blood began to pool in her mouth as her lips split and cracked. "It's the story of Shannara, the first Queen of the Fae, and her lover—who we know only as The Master. His name, if ever he had one, is lost to history."
Marcos picked up the explanation, turning to consider Kay with wide eyes and releasing his telekinetic hold on Edward, who rushed to pull Bella into his lap, hiding her bleeding face in his chest.
"The Master is responsible for the most shameful act in all of Fae history, The Purge, where the Ipswitch line was murdered for their magicks and consumed by the Master's greed. See, Shannara and the Master ruled in harmony for hundreds of years. They established Havana, the Choosing, the Temple, the School. They united the fighting Fae bloodlines with nothing more than the force of their will, made the Fae realize that it was time to leave the human world. But the Master was jealous of Shannara's poise and power. Shannara was almost equal in exceptional power to Isabella."
Bella picked up the story once more. "Shannara turned a blind eye to the Master's greed because of her love for him. But after the Ipswitch line was massacred-" Bella choked, and Marcos cut in.
"Shannara had no choice but to face her lover on the battlefield. After a long and fierce battle, she held the Master at her mercy, but she found herself unable to kill her husband. Shannara Bound the Master in her grimoire, trapping him for all eternity in its pages. Then, she buried herself alive with the book to keep it hidden."
Marcos's face twisted into anger and sadness, empathy making him reach for Edward's lover with a gentle touch. "Somehow, the Master has been released from Shannara's grimoire. No one really knows what happened, only that Adeline and Fiore died and Izzy disappeared before The Master started his dark revolution. I had the pleasure of meeting Isabella shortly after her ordeal, and I can tell you that when I met her, her soul was badly wounded. Kaedra came along shortly before me, but she and Bella weren't close; she worked at the same club as Bella. "
Carlisle reeled under the information laid out before him, like a case before a judge. He had so many questions that remained unanswered. His train of thought was interrupted by Bella, who had turned to look at her regent with condemnation written on her face.
"Of course, if I had known who you were, I would've run for the hills a lot sooner. Allow me to re-introduce you, Marcos. Marcos Ipswitch, meet Shannara Salem, formerly known as Kaedra."
Shockwaves echoed through the small clearing.
The Pretender
Bella's face was terrible: sad and cold and angry and betrayed. She spoke in a whisper as she stood calmly from Edward's grasp. Kaedra stood too, stepping to the side of the table furthest from Carlisle.
"You pretended to be my friend, but you are the reason for this war. I've read your spell book, Shannara. You let him live. The Fae are dying, and you let him live. What would you have me do?"
The clearing was silent; Kaedra had no answer for her Queen.
Bella met her regent's eyes as she reached for Keadra's throat, but Keadra intercepted her jab, sweeping it aside as she swung into a high kick that caught Bella across the jaw. Bella slammed into the table, sending it skittering off the gazebo's platform, and Carlisle had to leap out of the way. Edward rushed to her side, helping her up as Bella wiped blood from her chin.
Kaedra snarled. "I don't have to explain my choices to you. Shannara is dead, has been for centuries. I killed her for her betrayal of her oath and it took me a thousand years to do it. There is only me now, and I don't give a damn about the greater good. I don't have to."
Fury flashed across Bella's face, and when Edward focused his eyes on hers, her pupils were twice the size they should have been, fighting with shimmering gold to dominate his lover's eyes. The ground started to shake beneath them; all around the clearing, plants grew wicked sharp thorns that flew at Kaedra.
She screamed her frustration. "The greater good. Give me a break. Shannara is the reason they died! The Master took everything from me. You let him live."
Bella intercepted Kaedra, who was busy dodging the foot-long thorns that flew at her heart. She slammed her regent into a post that supported the roof of the gazebo and a crack was wrenched into the ceiling above them. Kaedra tried to headbutt Bella, who used her forward momentum against her, throwing Kaedra into a thistle of thorns on the trellis, vines immediately strangling her lying friend. Kaedra was blue before she managed to cut her way free of the thorns, her nails suddenly inches long and wicked-sharp.
When Kaedra lunged, Bella was ready for her. The two furious girls exchanged rapid fire punches and kicks, and Edward knew that –had he been human- their forms would've been a blur. He ran towards his love, followed closely by Marcos. When they were three feet away from the intense battle, fire sprouted from nowhere, separating the fighters from the rest of the group. Marcos cursed loudly, spraying water from his palm that turned to ice around the fire before melting away with no effect on the roaring flames.
"Goddammit, this is so out of my pay range. Fucking Royalty. The casts are too powerful. Stay away!" He grabbed Edward's shirt, pulling him back from the flames.
Kaedra screamed. She kicked Bella squarely in the midriff. Bella, for all her power, was still shorter and thinner than Kaedra. She flew across the clearing and hit a tree that fell at the impact, a thump on the shaking ground. Edward heard bones cracking. Kaedra used the pause in the fight to extend her outspread hand upwards. Thunderclouds blocked out the sun.
"You think you're the only one he's destroyed, little girl? You think I can't live with the knowledge of what Shannara allowed to happen? I saw the Ipswitch line fall to nothing. I saw the ruination of the Fae at his hands, and I loved him still. Why are you so different?"
When Bella got up from where she lay crumpled at the foot of the now-fallen tree, her eyes were golden fire, her movements snake-like and slow as she stalked towards Kaedra, heedless of the lightning that always seemed to just miss her. Ice ghosted her breath as she breathed. Out of the corner of his eye, Edward saw Esme running for cover from the baseball-sized hail that avoided his mother but flew past her to hit Kaedra hard in the chest.
Bella's fury was peaking on her face.
"You are no Queen. You betrayed the Fae. You betrayed me. Look what you've done."
Lightning was striking the ground near Kaedra now, and the fire that separated Marcos and the Cullens from the battle raged higher. Alice shrank from the heat of the flames, hiding her face in Jasper's shoulder as he wrapped his arms around her helplessly. Edward struggled to see through the flames.
Bella ran directly at Keadra, who was struggling to move as ice spread from her chest to immobilize her. But when the regent closed her eyes in anticipation of death, Bella stopped, inches from her regent's face.
"I bear the scars of your choices, Shannara."
Bella had Kaedra's jaw captive in a tight grip, meeting her friend's eyes as Kaedra's hopeless whisper rang through the clearing.
"Why are you so different from them?" Kaedra's face was suddenly stripped raw, her expression confused and desperate. "Why is it I want so badly to give you my loyalty? Why can't I let him destroy you?"
Bella's face was expressionless and strangely serene. "I could kill you, here and now. I could die at your hand in this clearing, or you at mine. I will die for you, Kaedra, if you ask it of me. But answer me this: Once upon a time, the Master had a name. Once upon a time, you loved him more than the Fae themselves. Tell me, before we fight to decide who will die for The Master's glory: Do you love him like you did, so long ago?
Bella licked the side of Kaedra's face in a long stroke before releasing her, the fire in front of the Cullens dying out suddenly as Marcos shot forward through the flames.
Bella pinned Kaedra to the shaking earth in a provocative pose, her legs spreading on either side of the regent with Bella's weight braced on Kaedra's hips. Her face was inches away from the regent, and her eyes were bleeding black.
bad guy
Edward was trying to process the sudden change of atmosphere in this dangerous situation. As he watched, Kaedra arched her back under his lover, her hands rising to brush Bella's skin as they slunk downwards from Bella's shoulders towards her hips in a long, sensual stroke.
"Take it from me, then. I don't want this choice. Let me show you what power looks like, little girl."
The air began to vibrate around them, swirling lazily in the start of a tornado. The ground was still shaking and beginning to pour heat from its surface. Smoke and steam rose in the silent air, swirling around where the two girls lay. Bella released her hold on Kaedra and stood, backing away slowly with her hands raised in defense and sudden panic on her face. Kaedra's face had changed; she was Shannara once more.
"I will not take your choices from you. They are yours to bear. I Bind no one, Shannara."
"You should. For all the power you hold, you are weak where it counts. Tell me, Queen, what if I choose him? I know your weakness."
Shannara slithered up from the ground to stand, poised across from Bella's fearful form. She met Bella's eyes, smirking as she tilted her head towards Edward.
"Tell me, Isabella. What will you give for your people? Will you give what I could not?"
Suddenly, Edward was the one pinned against the side of the gazebo.
Kaedra rolled her head into the side of Edward's neck like a cat and ground her hips into Edward's groin. Edward closed his eyes for a moment as lust and adrenaline pulsed through his head, telepathically amplified. When Edward opened his eyes, his vision was full of Kaedra's face, her eyes wide and pleading as a seductive pout pursed the beautiful woman's lips.
Keadra kissed him.
For a moment, Edward froze as the unnatural lust in his system pushed him to respond, before he threw Kaedra from him violently. The regent caught herself in mid-air, turning gracefully to touch her bare feet to the suddenly still ground. She was approaching him again, gentle sway in her hips with each carefully placed step. She reached for his face, spreading her palm to brush her fingers against his temples. Edward was helpless, frozen in place and half-spellbound.
There was a sudden intake of breath from Bella, who had flashed next to them, holding the cross guard of roses in her hand. Her blade was fully extended, and the tip of her sword rested on Kaedra's pulse.
Girl with One Eye
Bella's eyes were fixed on his own as her eyes faded back to innocent brown. When she turned sideways to face Kaedra, she forced her to back away from Edward by increasing the pressure of the blade at her throat, her eyes melting into glitter.
"I will not make that choice, Shannara. Edward is not the Master. He will not ask me to."
Bella slapped Kaedra with the flat of the sword she wielded, leaving an already-darkening bruise and knocking her to the floor. When Kaedra began to run, Bella pinned her swiftly against the railing of the gazebo by her hips. Bella slid a hand up Kaedra's bare leg.
"What was it like, to be so betrayed by the one you loved- a man who kills your people? What was it like, choosing between love and loyalty?"
Bella moved smoothly, rocking her hips to meet Kaedra's and rolling against them in two long, circular grinds that made Kaedra gasp and throw back her head in pleasure. Bella's left hand moved from where it had rested against the regent's waist, shaking as it reached up to clutch Kaedra's jaw. She forced Kaedra to meet her gaze as her right arm rose, sword still extended, towards the former queen's immobilized face. Edward had never seen her look so desperate, and when she spoke her voice was choked and begging.
"Somewhere far from here, I can hear your screams of agony, Shanarra. Tell me—how do you turn pain into pleasure? How do you kill the past? How do you die, and live still?"
A strangled, halting gasp escaped Kaedra as her left eye was destroyed, Bella's blade caressing her from brow to cheekbone slowly and digging into the soft organ.
"I don't- I don't know. How did you?"
Bella's hand twisted in Kaedra's ebony hair, and with a disgusted flick of her wrist Bella threw the regent onto the floor of the gazebo. Her eyes flashed black, and she licked Kaedra's blood off the gleaming blade.
"Do you regret it?" Bella asked the question offhandedly, her voice uncaring as she slid her gaze up Edward's still-tense form, lazily checking him for injury. Edward could feel a band of heat moving up his body in time with Bella's golden eyes.
"Yes. I regret it, Isabella. Every day, but never so much as when I saw what he had done to you."
Bella scraped the table that held Shanarra's grimoire back into place telekinetically and resettled her flipped-over chair before levitating the other two chairs back into place. The sword retracted, her arm sealing whole once more, save for the thick red line that was the only hint to its existence.
Isabella Swan, Queen of the Fae, sat down in the ornate chair, her eyes consumed with golden fire as she leaned forward with intensity, clutching the armrests of the chair to hold herself back from further violence.
"Then get up."
Viva la Vida
Kaedra wiped at the blood pouring down her face from where she had collapsed on the floor; clutching at the empty socket on her face as the close contact with the wound made her wince.
Bella, by contrast, was resplendent and poised; perched lightly on the chair with her legs crossed at the knee and her hands resting on her lap. Her posture gave no sign of having been in battle, though the frightening black ooze still left tracks on her face.
Kaedra scrambled up from where she knelt and hurried into her chair across from Bella. The girls were on equal standing once more, despite the wounds that marred them. Brown eyes met across the grimoire, a thousand years of history separating the friends and rulers.
Carlisle waited with bated breath, blind to what would happen next. When Bella looked at him expectantly, he too pulled out his chair and sat, pale doctor's hands shaking. Bella turned to him, asking with a light touch on his hand if he was okay. He nodded, and she spoke to him.
"Shannara made her choices, and we have all suffered for them. There are many questions left to be answered, and none of them are easily remedied. But Kaedra was kind to me. She stood by my side for no other reason than that she could, sheltered me from the dark. Hell, she taught me to meditate, to face myself and the choices I have made. Her loyalties are in question, but her love is not."
Bella's eyes flared a brighter, paler gold and the thunderclouds shifted, sunlight slanting through the garden in stained-glass tones. She turned to Kaedra and traced the wound on her face with a delicate, gentle touch. Kaedra's wound faded to a delicate scar that didn't detract from her beauty, though her eyelid hung slack. Wonder and awe painted the disgraced woman's face.
"I can forgive you, Kaedra. That is my choice."
Bella reached across the table, turning her hand palm up and extending it towards Kaedra's awe-struck form.
"I have no claim to Shannara, but you are mine. You always will be. I can forgive you; I can be your friend. I can give you my trust. Shannara is dead and buried, and thousands of years stand between her and you. Help me bury her sins with her. Fight with me."
Kaedra hesitated only a moment. Then, she took Bella's hand determinedly. Light streamed from where their palms touched. It spread to engulf the evil of the book, and the Cullens had to shield their eyes from the brightness. When they looked back at the table, all that remained of Shannara's grimoire was a pile of ash on the table, already blowing away in the breeze.
Lean On
Over the next week, the Cullens adjusted to life in this strange new world. They ate their meals with Bella in the dining hall, usually interrogating her about matters of state or Fae culture. Bella arranged for them to hunt with a Fae escort twice a month. Kaedra stayed away, doing her job with a friendly and polite demeanor, but with an air of distance.
Marcos, however, was quickly becoming the main annoyance in Edward's life, his flirtatious interactions with Bella driving Edward to heights of jealousy he had never known. What was worse was that Bella often responded, gifting Marcos with her beautiful blush as she laughed with ease. When Edward visited Esme and Rosalie in the kitchens, he had heard two cooks mention how nice it was that the Queen was getting on so well with her commander. He was chased away by his mother for denting her "good cast-iron, Edward, really?"
Carlisle was spending his days training to become a healer with Josephat. Jo had laughed in Carlisle's face and healed Bella's broken bones with a simple touch upon their return from the gardens. He promised Carlisle would know real healing one day, not that "western pharmaceutical mumbo-jumbo".
Alice was training with the Fae seers, a creepy bunch with clouded eyes who Bella had introduced to her the day after the 'Big Friendly Fight', as Alice called it. She had warned Alice heavily that true Sight was a heavy burden to bear and to respect Destiny's hand in the future and the past. "Seeing Destiny is different from seeing pathways, Alice. Remember the story of Cassandra, in Rome? Destiny does as she wills."
Jasper spent most of his days in the Library, and Emmett or Edward often joined him; though Emmett would start to loudly complain after a few hours about cricks in his neck.
Edward joined Bella in her day-to-day activities most of the time. He was desperately worried for his lover, whose days were long and difficult. Bella had a great deal to catch up on, and it seemed everyone needed Bella right that instant: that dragon destroyed my roof, Isabella; He didn't pay for that apple, your majesty; what's your plan for this, my queen; what's your plan for that. Edward was about to lose his mind from the constant questioning and expectations, and he didn't need to sleep! Any spare time she had, Bella spent locked in her office on the second floor, and even Edward was usually sent away so she could focus. The one part of Bella's day where Edward refused to accompany her was her training period.
Apparently, Fae were quick to solve their conflicts physically. Win the fight, win the argument. Bella was the most powerful and everyone knew it, but her soldiers challenged her every decision just for the chance to fight her. Edward simply couldn't deal with the sparring and tussles that often broke out and took a full report from an amused Josephat and Carlisle after each session as to Bella's injuries.
Bella didn't sleep much anymore, but Edward let it slide and the rest of the Cullens didn't really notice.
That is, until the day Kaedra came into the attic with Bella slumped against one shoulder. She sighed upon seeing the Cullens' stiff, attack-ready forms, and levitated Bella softly onto the futon. "She just needs sleep. Izzy never learned the candle is only supposed to burn from one end. I found her passed out on the training grounds." Keadra approached Bella on the bed cautiously, meeting Edward's eyes and raising her hands as she approached. She brushed a lock of hair out of Bella's sleeping face and left the attic.
