Mated To An Enemy

'No!' Lily shouted as she felt the tendrils pulling at the tear in the walls she had built.

She tried her hardest to hold, but she could do nothing.

When the obsidian blade had pierced the golden wall, Lily was struck. The tunnel she had built fell away because she could no longer maintain it. But she could create a small prison to contain the Dark Queen and give Caleb and Ashleigh a chance to escape.

She wasn't lying when she told Ashleigh that they needed to hurry. The explosion really was moving between the gates. But she wanted them to move quickly because she knew she did not have the strength to hold the Dark Queen for long.

And now, the Dark Queen had found a chink in her armor. She was pulling on that weak point. Lily felt as though her own flesh was being torn away.

She cried out but still held as hard and long as possible. She just needed a little more time. Ashleigh and Caleb were almost there. She could feel them nearing the Winter gate. Just a few more precious moments, and they would be clear.

The tendrils pushed through the tear in the wall, one, then two. They pulled at each side until the golden wall shattered, and Lily screamed.

The Dark Queen laughed victoriously and then turned her attention toward the Winter gate with a snarl.

"No!" Lily shouted, moving to stand in the Dark Queen's path.

A malicious grin appeared on the wooden mask.

"You don't have enough left to stand against me, child."

Lily tried to summon her armor and her sword, but nothing came. The Dark Queen was right. Lily was practically running on fumes now. Still, she couldn't just let the Queen go after Ashleigh.

Lily threw herself forward with an angry growl, raising her arm back to strike the Queen. But before she could reach her, she was caught by several of the smaller roots. Wrapping at her wrists and legs.

She tried to get loose, but it was impossible.

The Queen pulled her close, an angry smile on the wooden mask.

"Fine…." She whispered in her raspy voice. "I will finish you first. You are so weak after all that there will still be plenty of time for me to go after them when you're gone."

Lily clenched her jaw and swallowed as a thick root moved along her body. It wrapped around her waist and moved between her breasts to slide around her throat.

The root tightened, and Lily gasped at the choking sensation. Then, almost immediately, she felt her remaining power slowly pull from her body.

Her body was weak, her mind muddled.

She saw flashes of her life and her death.

Loki, her mother, Solana. Smiles and laughter, tears and shouting. She saw Ashleigh crying at the thought of losing her.

'I'm sorry,' Lily whispered in her thoughts. 'Mother, Loki… I should have paid more attention… I should have listened.'

The Dark Queen squeezed tighter to Lily's throat and grinned with satisfaction at the gasping breaths she took.

'Ashleigh… you will be fine… trust yourself and Caleb.'

It was almost over. She knew the feeling of death, and this was as close as it came to it. But she that this time the deadlands would not call to her. Her soul would be consumed. This was the end of everything.

"Sol…" she whispered painfully. A tear escaped her eye. "I'm… sorry…."

The Dark Queen laughed, and Lily closed her eyes, wishing it would not be the last sound she heard.

And it wasn't, as the Dark Queen suddenly screamed. The root that held tightly to Lily's throat suddenly loosened and fell away, followed immediately by the smaller vines that held her body in place.

"What is the point of apologizing if you intend to leave!"

Lily opened her eyes at the familiar voice. The long auburn hair, the battle armor, and the giant sword extended before her. Lily smiled as the woman turned to face her. Lily had traced the same scar countless times, the same plump lips she had kissed, and the same grey eyes filled with anger and worry.

"Sol…" Lily whispered with exhausted joy.

"It is so like you to be so selfish as to not give the other person a chance to respond!" Solana growled. "Keep your useless apologies!"

"AAARRGGHH!!" the Dark Queen howled angrily from a few feet away.

Lily could see now that Solana had severed the roots that had bound her to the Queen. It wasn't quite as damaging as the obsidian blade, but certainly, enough to sever the roots painfully.

"You damn children are a nuisance!" The Queen shrieked, her wooden mask shaking with her fury.

"Our Queen trained us well," Solana replied. "We all planned to die today anyway. Can't think of anything better than to stand in your way to do it."

The Dark Queen snarled and shook with rage. The window was closing. There was no time left for her to get past these two and reach the Winter gate. She knew, for the first time, that she had lost.

But she refused to lose alone.

Solana and Lily watched the Dark Queen. They saw the anger slip away as an evil grin widened on her wooden mask.

She let out a soft and ominous chuckle, then roots and vines, twisting and turning, flew in all directions. Solana stepped before Lily and brought her sword up to block the attack. After several moments of these tendrils flying at them and being swatted away by Solana, the Dark Queen stopped.

Solana held Lily with her arm, using her own body to support Lily's weight.

The Dark Queen panted from the exertion, and then she laughed.

"Has she lost her mind?" Solana asked aloud. "Has her defeat left her in madness?"

The Dark Queen laughed harder, and then she stopped and raised herself to look between the two women.

"I have lost," she rasped and then turned her attention pointedly toward Solana, "but so have you."

Solana furrowed her brow.

"No…." Lily gasped, drawing Solana's attention.

Solana followed Lily's gaze; her eyes widened when she realized what had happened.