章節 15: Epilogue Part One
"Let's go out!" Caerys exclaimed. She bounded up from her seat on the carpet with unreserved energy.
"Where?" Regina snorted, "It's the middle of the night!"
The hall clock was ticking steadily towards midnight, and they were reclined on the floor of Regina's sitting room, leaning back against the base of the couch. They were sipping at wine, watching the merry crackle of flames in the hearth.
"Just out." Caerys leaned over her and caught her hand to pull her upright.
"It's freezing outside!" Regina protested darkly. She pushed her weight down towards the floor in an attempt to stay comfortably where she was, but Caerys laughed and lifted her bodily into her arms. She kissed Regina's helpless mouth to smother her objections, and her moonlight eyes glinted with mischief.
"Say please, at least," Regina insisted breathlessly, as Caerys whirled away from her again.
"In your dreams!" the Red Queen laughed. She swept across the room with her uncanny effortless movement, and disappeared through the doorway.
Regina huffed, throwing one last longing glance at the alluring fireplace, and then followed her into the hall. She headed towards the front door to unhook her coat, but paused as Caerys cleared her throat from the halfway up the staircase. Regina swung round to face her, planting her hands on her hips and scowling.
"What?" she inquired. It wasn't so much a question, as a warning.
"First, get dressed," the Red Queen commanded, ignoring her thunderous expression.
"I am dressed!" Regina shot back. She glared pointedly down at her sleek black ensemble.
"Surely you're not going out like that?" Caerys cocked her head at her.
"I was about to get my coat off the rack..." Regina growled. She was rapidly tiring of Caerys' little game.
"I meant get properly dressed," Caerys scoffed wickedly, "What kind of Evil Queen roams the night in a pantsuit?"
Realising what she implied, Regina glared up at her as though she'd lost her mind.
"You want me to wear a dress? It's snowing outside!"
Caerys grinned impudently. "Your magic will keep you warm... Or I will."
She scarpered up the stairs.
Regina stalked up after her, muttering under her breath. Her blood was starting to simmer, despite her best efforts to stay calm. She knew Caerys was baiting her, yet she couldn't help but rise to it.
The Red Queen was already fastening the last tie on her stunning crimson-and-silver dress when Regina darkly entered the room, and she looked up from the work of her slender fingers with a devilish smile.
"You're already wearing the expression, darling," she taunted, "You might as well put on the dress."
Regina's eyes flashed, and she stopped pointedly in the doorway. She leaned against the frame and crossed her arms tightly.
"You are heading towards a line," she said. Her voice was deceptively calm, but her eyes sparked dangerously.
"And I'm going to cross it," Caerys returned without missing a beat. She straightened her star-spangled tiara, and turned the full intensity of her moonlight gaze upon her Regina. She snared Regina's black-sequined dress deftly off the end of the bed where she had laid it out, and held it up with a flourish.
"Your arrogance infuriates me," Regina stated, staring her down from the doorway.
"It also intoxicates you," Caerys purred. She ran the silken train of the dress through her slender fingers, tutting. "Don't tell me you'd prefer timidity from the consort of the Evil Queen?"
Regina didn't deign to reply. She simply glared at her with vexation, and their standoff persisted for a long, tense moment.
"The moon is full," Caerys said at last. She dropped her moonlight gaze to the floor, picking absently at the hem of Regina's dress. "The winter magic is approaching its zenith... I want to feel it - really feel it. Come out with me, Regina, please?"
Regina narrowed her eyes, but she abandoned her vantage point by the door and stalked forth to snatch her dress. Even though Caerys had been the first to relent, Regina somehow still didn't feel like she'd won. The Red Queen had a way of doing that, of backing down without conceding. Regina resolved to keep her wits about her for Caerys' next move. She knew their battle of wills wasn't over yet, despite her partner's retreat.
She changed her attire quickly, pointedly ignoring Caerys. As she slipped on the dress of the Evil Queen, she had to admit that the commanding magic outside was calling to her, too. She'd been parading around as the Mayor of a magicless town for so long, she'd hardly recognised the sensation, but, at Caerys putting it into words, her own blood sang in response. Suddenly, she couldn't stem her eagerness to be out there in its midst.
When she was finally bedecked in her splendid black dress, Caerys leaned back on the bed and let out a low whistle. The ensemble clung to Regina's shapely form, artfully showing off her slender curves, and Caerys devoured her with hungry eyes.
"Wow..." Caerys breathed, "... Long live the Evil Queen."
She got up, and came to help her fasten the long, spiked collar onto her shoulders. Her movements were sultry, measured, and Regina swallowed at the tantalising proximity of her scarlet lips as she leaned around her to fasten the far side of the collar. The honeysuckle and apple-blossom scent of her took Regina's breath away, and the last of her stubborn ire fled with it.
Caerys took half a step backward and met Regina's bottomless, liquid gaze. Regina's lips parted, and she watched her with hooded eyes, inclining towards her. Caerys watched her bite her lip, saw her body draw closer, and watched her eyelashes flutter closed.
The tension built unbearable, but at the last moment, Caerys smiled wickedly and spun away.
Regina, leaning in for the kiss, missed. She gasped, crashing back down out of the moment, and her thwarted heart fluttered like a surprised hummingbird. Caerys stared innocently at her, her huge eyes filled with exaggerated concern.
"Something wrong, Your Majesty?"
Regina's nostrils flared – there it was! Caerys was an expert at backing off in a standoff only to retaliate unexpectedly when the next opportunity presented itself.
Regina huffed, silently scolding herself for letting her guard down. She schooled her features into a haughty mask, unwilling to let Caerys get away with having the last word every time they sparred. She compelled her body not to respond as the Red Queen, smiling smugly, came close again and circled her arms around Regina's slender waist.
Caerys laughed out loud at her aloof expression, as if it were comical that Regina even imagined that she could win in a battle of their wills. Undaunted, she leaned forward and kissed the Evil Queen.
Regina's blood sang in immediate response, and she abandoned her attempt at detachment as a fever of magic stormed forth inside her. She returned the kiss recklessly, pulling the Red Queen hard against her, revelling in the feel of her supple body beneath the silk of her scarlet dress. They broke apart at last, and Regina bit at her lip as she drank in the sight of a breathless Caerys.
But beneath the adoration in the Red Queen's eyes, her mirth danced brightly at Regina's surrender.
"Kissing me is hardly fair," Regina protested.
But she smiled - despite her obstinance, she marvelled at the way the Red Queen could play her emotions like a puppeteer. Faced with the unbridled charisma of her paramour, she realised wryly that, ultimately, she didn't stand a chance. She'd just have to get used to not always getting her way.
Caerys smiled easily at her following silence and implied submission, but graciously didn't rub it in.
"I don't know how you do it," Regina complained softly, running her fingers through Caerys' starlight hair, "I've never met anyone who can infuriate me to the point of murder one moment, and then push me to the heights of rapture in the next."
"I have a secret," Caerys smiled. She leaned forward and whispered into her ear, "I'm not afraid of you."
Regina laughed at last. "You'd be the first!" She smiled sardonically. "Now, are we going out or not?"
"We're going out," Caerys said without hesitation.
She stepped to the bedroom window and flung it wide, leaning out into the night to breathe in the growing winter storm. Regina raised her eyebrows as a flurry of snow gusted past in the darkness. It was a two-story drop beyond.
"As if I've never used this window before," Caerys said exasperatedly, in answer to her unspoken question.
"Stalker," Regina muttered.
But she joined her at the window and took her proffered hand, and they leapt out into the night. Caerys' magic slowed their descent, and they landed lightly in the powdery snow.
In the tumult of the snowstorm surrounding them, Caerys fixed Regina with a wicked grin. She drew herself up to her full height, squaring her shoulders with the arrogance only a Queen could achieve. The fire of a thousand stars shimmered through her long, loose hair, and her eyes burned with cold moonlight. Her dress was like living flame, jealously concealing her fine, slender form, and Regina caught her breath to look upon her.
Even as she watched Caerys, Regina's own power hummed with the call of the wild night. Taking a deep breath, she flung her head back and let the magic flood her with long-dormant darkness. Her dark eyes smouldered with fitful power, meeting the Red Queen's with delicious challenge. They were two creatures of unfathomable sorcery, unchained in the dark and stormy night.
The knowledge was intoxicating.
Dressed in her sleek black dress, dark as damnation and feeling the unerring seduction of the savage winter magic around her, the Evil Queen finally felt utterly herself again. Her power roared, aching for release under the pull of the raw elemental magic, and she ignited a black fireball in her palm. Pulling her arm back, she tossing it high into the air with abandon. Snowflakes hissed fearfully at its passing, and it hovered high above for a long moment. Before it could fade, a blue-and-white fireball exploded into it mid-air with a collision like a firework.
A dazzling shower of silver sparks rained down, denoting a challenge accepted.
Caerys met her gaze across the dark snow, danger glinting in her moonlight eyes. She raised her arms, power flashing, and caused the wind to whip the snowflakes into a frenzy. She flung the squall at Regina, but the Evil Queen laughed and threw up a fountain of snow to repel it. Clawing her fingers, she unleashed her magic instantaneously, tearing a nearby sapling out of the ground by the roots and hurling it forcefully back at the Red Queen. Caerys laughed, her eyes electrified with the intensity of the winter magic. She deflected it with a spiteful flick of her fingers.
"Is that the best you've got?" she taunted. The Evil Queen grinned wickedly in response.
Regina ignited a fireball, and Caerys raised her eyebrows mockingly. Ignoring her impertinence and quietly concentrating on split-second timing, Regina launched it at her. In the heartbeat that it connected with its mark, Caerys blinked against the brightness of the exploding flames, and Regina pulled ferociously at the air with her other hand. A flurry of snow caught the Red Queen off guard from behind, thrusting her forward to within Regina's range.
The Evil Queen caught her through a shower of flame, fisted a hand through her starlight hair and seized a kiss from her scarlet lips. As the flames hissed into oblivion, she released her, and Caerys retreated to a safe distance with a frown of annoyance finally creasing her perfect face.
"Evil Queen – one. Red Queen – zero!" Regina crowed. She grinned darkly.
Caerys recovered her composure, returning her malevolent smile. "Overconfidence is a rookie mistake," she warned.
Regina scoffed, flicking a snowflake off her shoulder. "Perhaps you should take your own advice, dear."
"The night is still young," Caerys promised, and her magic crackled in blue-and-white bolts around her. She glanced away from the town, in the direction of the surrounding woods. The faraway trees hunched menacingly in the gloom of the bleak night, bowed down with snowfall and spreading in a formidable swath of darkness across the landscape.
"I hope you're not afraid of the dark," she grinned wolfishly, and disappeared for the forest in a flourish of red smoke.
Regina smiled wickedly at her retreat, and felt her magic flare deep in her core with the thrill of the chase.
"Oh, darling," she purred, "I am the dark."
The echoes of her laughter rang out across the winter sky. Pulling her power around her, she vanished on the spot.
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