The Assassin and the Sorceress Ch. 10

Adrielle felt a lump of hot rage in her chest, and her heartrate surged. Yes, her 'love' for Morgana had started off as nothing more than an act to gain her trust, but Adrielle had kept it up for so long that even she had started to believe it. Suddenly, she felt cheated. Morgana deserved all of her self-induced suffering, and more.

And then thought came to her, intoxicating in its pure bitterness. Adrielle knew how to hurt Morgana. Maybe she could bring justice to that wretched sorceress yet! Tonight, even! Morgana had finally trusted Adrielle enough to open up her heart to her. She had made herself vulnerable to her! Well, then her words could hurt her as well! She could find Morgana in her chamber and tell her exactly how she felt about her, and watch the look on her face as her heart fell apart in her chest! It would be so satisfying! Though a dagger couldn't pierce Morgana's enchanted flesh, Adrielle knew her words could stab straight into her heart! To think she had finally found love, even salvation, only to hear it had all been a lie from the start... To feel the only love she had felt in centuries betrayed...

Morgana would likely imprison and torture her, maybe even kill her, but maybe it would be worth it to finally serve justice to a murderer who had avoided it for centuries! To throw yourself at your most hated enemy, in one last act of defiance...

She sat up from her bed with a sense of urgency, as if intending to act out her plan before she had time to think better of it. But she paused at the door to her chamber, holding onto the doorframe as if clinging by her last shred of reason. She was clenching her teeth so hard she nearly bit her tongue. Her mission! If she acted out in anger like that, her mission would almost certainly fail. And what would become of the friends she had made in the castle, if she shattered Morgana's healing heart and reverted her to the tyrant she had once been? Was this justice? Or was it revenge?

Her father had given her a lot of wise words, his musings about the universe. But her mother was just as wise, though maybe in different ways. She remembered her mother telling her that when she felt angry, she should stop and pray.

She forced herself to sit back down on the bed and breathe. She mouthed a few words to the Lord, begging him to lead her away from wrath, instead to mete out justice with an even hand. But if anyone in the universe heard her feeble words at all, she had no way of knowing. Maybe she was just speaking to an empty room.

The rage only continued to grow in her chest, until she was clenching the bedsheets in her fists. She wanted to hurt Morgana, hurt her in any way she could! Even at the cost of the mission she had spent months of careful work on. And during all those days, not once had she felt such rage as she felt now! Why? Why was she so hot headed only now, now that she was so close to succeeding?

And then, it all made sense, as her eyes shot open with a horrifying realization!

"Verus, leave me alone!" she commanded to the walls of her chamber. "You'll find no ally with me!"

And, suddenly, it was like a storm had passed, leaving her with only the vague terror of what had almost happened. Had the one Morgana called Verus really just attacked her? Had Adrielle just been visited by the devil? She remembered how she used to fear Satan when she was a child, how she used to clutch her wooden cross in terror in her bed late at night, letting her mind run wild with the horrible things the Adversary might do to her. Had Satan himself just been in the room with her?

Whatever Verus truly was, his influence was powerful! But in the end, he had failed. Her spirit was stronger. Adrielle laid herself back down on her bed and breathed a deep sigh of relief.

But her eyes suddenly shot open with another horrible realization! Would the Devil really accept defeat so easily? Or would he try another angle of attack? There were others in the castle who could surely succumb to his influence.

"Gwendolyn!"

Adrielle bolted upright in her bed and dashed from her room!