59: Diana's awakening

Hundreds of eyes stared down at Demetri and I as we knelt down, chained before the King and Queen. It was becoming apparent to me that this was exactly what she wanted. She wanted Demetri and I to stumble upon her meeting, she wanted him and I to get caught by Sebastian, and more importantly, she wanted to execute me here, in front of all her guests from her meeting. The woman was absolutely sick.
Propped up on the throne next to his father's, was Sebastian who, although lay unconscious in his seat, was now beginning to heal again, but the deep gash in his face still remained the same. I wondered if she'd let him awaken first before she killed me, or if she was using his unconsciousness as a way to get the job done without his interference. Perhaps that was why Sebastian blamed himself for my death. He wasn't able to save me from his wicked mother.
The King suddenly stood up from his throne and gazed down at me, half in horror and half in scepticism.
“Is it true, Diana. Did you try to murder my son?” He asked, genuinely disturbed.
“No, father. I would never do anything to hurt my husband. I love him.” I said, seriously.
The Queen rolled her eyes and grunted in annoyance before saying, rather rudely, “Of course she is going to lie, dear. Now that she and her lover have been caught, she’ll say anything to get herself out of this situation.”
The King huffed and then held a hand up before saying, rather aggressively, “Enough Katherine. You’ve said enough.”
Slowly but surely, he began to near me. Admittedly, I was frightened of that intense look appearing on his face.
“Your eyes don’t lie Diana…” he uttered before placing his fingers beneath my chin and tilting my head up so that my eyes met his. He searched them for a moment, and then asked clearly, “Diana Dragović, do you love my son?”
I stared him dead in the eye, not once blinking before I uttered out sternly, “Yes father. I do love your son. I love him more than I’ve ever loved anyone else in my life. I’d never do anything to harm him intentionally.”
The King waited for a moment, still searching my eyes before his eyes softened and he gave a curt nod. “I believe you Diana.” He then turned towards his wife and pointed harshly at her. “What have you done Katherine!”
“Why do you always assume I did something?” She uttered in utter disbelief.
“You’ve been wanting to get rid of Diana the moment she married our son. What did you do?” He was angry now and his fist was shaking. But the Queen never once showed any sign of being frightened. Instead, she stood up and said, rather coyly, “Of course you’d take her side. You always take *her* side you pathetic, stupid man!”
What happened next, unfolded so quickly I could barely even keep up. She reached behind her back swiftly, grabbed from her undergarments a small, yet sharp knife and threw it at her husband, hitting him right in the side of the neck. He exclaimed in shock and immediately grabbed at the knife, pulling it out of his throat. Blood gushed from his neck, but before he even had the chance to heal, his wife ran towards him, grabbed at his head and in a quick, swift movement, ripped it clean off of his neck. His head flew into the air and then landed on the floor, spilling blood while the rest of his body collapsed. I stared at the gruesome sight before me in silence, and so did Demetri. This crazy bitch just killed her husband… and no one was even saying anything. In fact, after a moment of silence, the rest of the room erupted into cheers, as though they’d been anticipating it.
The Queen wiped the blood of her now-dead husband against her dress and then moved towards the head. She bent down, picked it up and held it in the air, as though she were holding a trophy. The cheers grew louder and louder until they eventually did a good job of waking Sebastian. The moment he saw his dead father’s head in his mother’s hands, his jaw dropped, and he gasped in absolute horror.
“Mother, what have you done!” He screamed. I gazed up at him, helplessly and wanting nothing more than to take that horrified and saddened look on his face away.
His mother turned around and grinned maniacally. “Oh, son… you’re awake? I was just getting rid of a pest, as you can see.”
“P-pest!” He exclaimed, “You just killed my father! Y-your husband!”
Sebastian was about to run toward his mother when she clapped her hands and immediately, he was being restrained by guards. He struggled against them, but still was not yet strong enough to break free.
“Mother let me go this instant!” He yelled.
She dropped her husband’s head onto the floor, once again letting it roll on the floor as if it were nothing to her. “I don’t think so, dear boy. Now that you’re father’s gone, I can finally teach you a lesson you ungrateful little bastard! I can’t believe you went and married this useless bitch! And to make it worse, she can’t even bare you any children. Do you think I’m going to let our bloodline end this way? Do you think I’m going to let anyone else take our throne?”
I was shocked at her words, especially those regarding Diana’s infertility, mainly because I faced the exact same situation. Because of my highly unstable, hybrid body, I was unable to have any children at all which never once bothered me… until now. It seemed there was no shortage of reasons Sebastian’s mother had to hate me.
Sebastian gazed at me, and his harsh gaze he once aimed at his mother turned to one of sadness when he saw both Demetri and I shackled and on our knees.
“Let her go, mother.” He hissed through gritted teeth.
She gave a little scoff before nearing me and snatching at my chin with her cold, bloodied hand. “How could I let her go when she hurt my son so badly? When she betrayed him not only by not being able to produce children, but also not being able to be a good wife. Tell me something, did you two at least try to have a child after the doctor gave you the news? Or are you both still as untainted and pure as you were when you were born?”
“That’s none of your business, you bitch!” I spat in response to her nasty little comment. But I could tell by the lump in Diana’s throat that she never had. Diana was still a virgin who had recently learned that she could not have children of her own. And as the memory began to infuse into my brain, I began feeling the exact way she once did. The feeling of deep, unrelenting sorrow.
“Oh, come on Diana. I was just curious whether or not you’d die without having experienced pleasure. It seems you will die not even knowing its fine touch. Such a shame.” She purred out.
“Get your hands off of my wife, mother!” Sebastian growled out warningly. She grinned and did as she was told before shrugging. “Oh, dear boy, you have no idea what I am going to take from you now. Are you ready to witness the death of your wife Diana? To see the life, leave her body? Are you ready to know real pain? Because that’s what you deserve after you disobeyed me. So, consider this your punishment!”
“Don’t you dare lay a hand on her!” It came from both Demetri and Sebastian who now both struggled against their restraints in urgency.
“Mother if you touch her, I swear I will kill you!” Sebastian hissed out.
She pretended to shiver and then said mockingly, “I’m so scared, son.”
And although the Queen was not scared, I could tell by the erratic thudding of Diana’s heart, and the way she struggled against the silver chains coated in wolfsbane, that she was terrified. I was too.
The Queen then turned towards the crowd, and asked in a wicked sense of amusement, “Who is ready to watch this hybrid burn for her crimes?”
The crowd roared in a series of I dos and cheers of agreement.
“Kill her!”
“Rip her apart!”
“Tear out her heart!”
It was the last enthusiastic cheer that really caught her attention.
“Silence!” She yelled, and then fell into a state of deep contemplation before grinning again. It was sickening to see that smile stretching across her face.
“That’s it! That’s a fitting way to kill her!” She then turned towards me and chuckled before saying softly, “I will rip your heart out, the way you ripped mine out when you decided to marry my pureblood son.”
“No!” Sebastian yelled struggling even harder. Demetri and I were trying the same, but the guards were well prepared and begin blowing powdered wolfsbane into our faces again, making our struggling less violent. Sebastian, however, had more guards holding him back as he struggled.
“Don’t you touch her!” Sebastian cried out. The look on his face was one I never ever wanted to see again. It was contorted into a deep look of absolute terror and desperation. In fact, he looked just about on the brink of tears. Demetri was none the better, but instead of terror, his face was angered and had a violent, stormy look to it. He looked just about ready to kill the Queen.
I felt myself shiver as the Queen neared me, and then, almost as if to keep my pride, I straightened and lifted my head up high.
“Do your worst to me, Katherine. I don’t fear death. What I do fear, however,” my gaze then rested on Sebastian and he immediately stopped struggling, “is regret. Sebastian, I was never unfaithful to you. What I meant to say earlier was that I love Demetri as a good friend and nothing more. You, Sebastian Dragović are my husband, and my love for you is infinite, unconditional and unrelenting. I love you, my love.”
His lips parted and a little gasp escaped them. “Diana…”
But our sweet moment was cut short when Queen Katherine gave a few mocking claps. “How touching! Now, Sebastian, say goodbye to your little wife.”
“No!” Sebastian yelled out and started struggling again.
But Katherine wasn’t concerned with his protests, instead, she gripped at my hair and lifted me by it. I growled out painfully. I was too weak to muster up the power I needed to get out of her grip after my earlier fight with Sebastian and this overdose of wolfsbane.
“You’re a heartless bitch!” I hissed, and then spat at her. She snickered and pulled at my hair harder before leaning in and whispering in my ear, “I’ll see you in hell, Diana.”
The next few moments unfolded almost in slow motion. It began with Katherine who dove her clawed fingers into my chest and wrapped her fingers around my heart. But it was not her that dealt the deadly blow. No, in fact, it was Sebastian who, in all this madness had tried to yank his mother’s hand out of my chest, oblivious to the fact that she already held my heart. The next thing I knew, my bleeding heart was in her hands and there was nothing but a large hole in my chest, gushing with blood. I felt no pain, only complete and utter shock. But it wasn’t until I saw the mortified expression on Sebastian’s face, that the gravity of the situation sunk in.
Katherine fell to the ground and went into a laughing fit as she stared at my heart while Sebastian immediately rushed to my side. The guards whom he had managed to overpower attempted to restrain him again, but Katherine waved them away.
“Let him have his last goodbye. It is, after all, his fault that she is dying.”
I gasped and wheezed and although I was grateful, I wondered how on Earth I still had this little bit of life in me. But it was fading fast, and Sebastian knew it too the moment he gazed down at my bloodied body.
“My beloved I am so sorry!” He uttered, pulling my body close to him and clutching onto me for dear life. Tears streamed down his face and he choked as he cried. “Maybe I can fix this!” He uttered, looking at the heart which was now lying on the floor. “Maybe I can put your heart back into your body and-“
But I cut him off, placing my hand against his cheek weakly. “It’s done, my l-love. Y-you can’t und-do this…” I mumbled out softly. I now realised that I was crying too, and I could feel the grip of death slowly pulling me under. I didn’t have much time left.
“I was so stupid! I am so sorry my beloved… so so sorry!”
I wanted to tell him I forgave him, that it wasn’t his fault, but my ability to speak was now gone and my breathing had become softer and weaker.
“… what have you done!” Demetri exclaimed beside me. I could hear him crying too. I wished again that I could speak and tell him not to blame Sebastian. But all I could get out were whimpers.
Sebastian shushed me, ran his fingers through my hair, and then his eyes zeroed in on something on my neck. Slowly he reached down and gripped at the Vita necklace before returning his blue eyes to my golden ones. His eyes had become intense and serious now.
“I will not rest until I have you beside me again. Until you can call me your love, and I can call you, my beloved. I will bring you back, Diana. No matter the cost.”
And that was all I could remember before my vision began to fade, and I finally succumbed to the darkness and silence of death.
I expected to wake up in my room thereafter, to find some sense of normality wherein I could process everything. But when my eyes opened, I was standing in a field of white roses which spanned endlessly and disappeared into the warm, twilight skies. It was beautiful here, beautiful and quiet. I gazed around, hoping to find an end to the roses, and was surprised to see three figures standing in the distance with their back turned towards me.
“Hello?” I called out as I began to walk toward them. But I was too far away for them to hear me. And so, I began picking up my pace until, eventually, I was sprinting towards the three figures.
“Hello!” I yelled, once I was just a few feet away. This time they did hear me, and the moment they did, all three of them turned around and I froze immediately. Staring right back at me were the faces of Sebastian, Demetri and… Diana. They gazed at me as though they had been expecting me… no, rather, as though they had been waiting for me for a very long time.
Diana stepped forward and gave a small smile before saying, “Finally, Diana, it’s time to wake up.”
I gasped the moment she called me Diana and involuntarily, tears began streaming down my face, as though I’d been waiting to hear those words as well.
Slowly, I began walking towards the three of them, and they began walking to me, until we were right in front of each other. Suddenly, both Demetri and Sebastian touched at Diana’s shoulders and in a matter of seconds, they disappeared, leaving only Diana standing in front of me. She reached out, holding her hand in the air and gave me a reassuring smile. Instinctively, I touched my hand towards hers, feeling the warmth of our skin. Her hand then began to glow and so did the rest of her skin until she was shining golden.
“Wake up, Diana.” The moment she said this, she turned into a warm glow of light which began spreading through my fingertips, into my hands, my arms, my shoulders, up my neck, and then eventually, the golden glow of light rested at my temples. But contrary to their soft colour, they began to cause a scorching heat in my head. I screamed out and fell to my knees as the pain intensified. I could feel them all- my memories. And as they infused into my brain, they pierced through the barrier of my mind and entered forcefully. Sebastian was wrong, it didn’t feel like my brain was being thrown into a blender, instead, it felt as though my skull was cracking right through and my brain was being pierced over and over again with the tip of a branding iron. But the pain was all worth it as I watched my life unfold before me. Walks with my father, conversations with my mother, growing up with Sebastian and eventually growing in love with him. These memories were sweet and pure and now, they were mine.
Finally, I’d become myself again. Finally, I had awoken.
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I'm honestly so excited regarding the rest of this novel! Also we need ship names! They can be ships of romantic relationships which already exist or romantic relationships you wish existed between **any** of the characters!
Stay safe! Stay healthy! Sending my love!