I stared at the receding white crackles in wonder.

What in the realm... What was this thing? Where did it come from? How did I even manage to do this?

"How..."

My head snapped up at the dazed voice of Vance. My brows curled down the instant I realized he was still holding my Hermione with a loose grip. Any moment now and...

I gritted my teeth. "Let go of my daughter, Vance."

The wide eyes narrowed the instant he snapped out of wonder. A lewd smirk stretched across his lips.

He hummed. "So, your strength returned, huh? Much earlier than expected. Nevertheless, this should make things more interesting now. I was getting bored anyway."

"Let. Her. Go, Vance. Right. Now."

He grinned. Our gazes locked in a cold war as he tightened the grip of Hermione's dress collar and suddenly raised his arm higher, earning a screeching wail from my child.

"As you wish."

And he let her go.

It was like reliving the same torture again, only far crueler than before.

Hermione's scream burdened the air just like Damien's.

Her body dropped toward the earth the same way as her brother's.

Her eyes begged me to save her as his did.

But... There was a difference this time.

This time, I stood up pushing away the old hound pouncing on me from my side.

This time, my hands stretched forward, pouring out a swirling current of green and white.

This time, I didn't care when Vance flinched away from the path of my strange current as it curled downward outside the railing at a lightning-fast speed.

This time, I felt the current grasping my screaming daughter's waist in a tight grip right before her soft body could crush against the hard plains of the earth.

This time, I saved my Hermione.

Tears streamed down the sides of my clenched jaw, a shuddering breath escaped my heavy lungs. I twitched my wrist up to pull my daughter up.

Lucinda's gasp and Vance's wide eyes were a background prop when my current safely brought my Hermione back to me, right in my arms. They must've been too stunned to do anything as I rushed to gather her soft, trembling body and pressed her wailing self tightly to my chest.

A part of my soul whimpered for my Damien, but I had my Hermione to keep safe as well. She was my top priority at the moment.

Lucinda lunged at me with a growl and I threw her away with my newfound strength. She flew toward a wall and hit it with a groan.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Vance move toward me, baring his teeth.

But before he could step further, my glowing current coiled around his body a blazing rope, forcing out a pained growl from him as he bent his trembling knees to the ground.

I gulped down a tear as I watched him wriggling against the hold like a caged animal.

For some reason, that didn't feel enough for me. And I knew why when he looked up at me with a feverish lust for my blood in his eyes.

His defiance, his arrogance, they were burning bright as an ever-devouring inferno despite his pathetic bound state. That wasn't enough.

No, that wasn't enough to soothe my agonized mother soul. That couldn't be enough to avenge my Damien who suffered so horribly at that beast's hand.

I wanted him to suffer.

I wanted him to feel pain and fear and every other emotion my children felt.

I wanted him to die!

A strangled groan snapped me out of my crimson reverie and I found my teeth grinding hard against each other as a steady stream of current poured out of my left palm, twisting the bones of the beast.

"Esmarelda! Vance! What's going on!"

My head snapped back toward the archway, where my husband's bewildered gaze his eyes.

I opened my mouth to speak when I heard a sharp crackle and turned to see blue blood floating around Vance's body like an aura. My greenish white current dissolved in the air like vaporized milk.

"Y-Your Majesty..." Lucinda slurred as she stretched out her hand from her lying position. "H-Her Majesty tried to-to kill... Princess..."

What!

I looked at my frowning husband and shook my head.

"No, Terrence! She's lying. They were trying to kill our Hermione! They killed our son!" I screamed, pointing my fingers at both Lucinda and Vance.

The latter was no huffing on the floor, grabbing his chest, and looking at Terrence with a terrorized look in his eyes. "Brother, she's right. Queen-"

"Damien... is dead?" Terrence spoke with a dazed gaze in his eyes, a stricken expression etched on his face.

My heart broke into a million shards at the sight.

"Terrence..." I choked, emotions clogging my throat as I held onto our crying daughter.

Terrence shook his head. "No..." His gaze snapped up at me, confusion, hurt, and fury swirling in those glossy blue oceans. "No. This can't be true. This- You killed our son?"

I froze.

What- What was he saying? Did he thought that I...

"Terrence, no. I-"

"You bloody killer!" His arms snapped up, throwing out a revolting rush of blue current my way.

I could only watch the glowing liquid swirl in the air with a maddening fast speed. My arms instinctively covered my trembling child's head, not wanting her to see how her father planned to kill her mother due to his severe lack of faith.

No, I didn't want that to engrave in my Hermione's mind and scar her for life, not anymore than she had suffered tonight.

So, I closed her eyes and awaited my fate.

Everything that happened next was a mere split second event. But it was drastically impactful, nonetheless.

Terrence's current did rush my way. The wind it carried ruffled my hair. The blinding luminiscence was this close to kiss my skin. I could feel its crackling warmth.

I was so ready to accept my end. What else did I have to live for? Damien was gone. Terrence didn't trust me over his scheming brother. The only consolation was my Hermione. She could keep her father happy and who knows? Maybe one day she might even help him run the kingdom and help him discover the truth. I had that faith in her. There was nothing more that I wanted, that I needed.

And so, I was prepared for the blinding agony to consume me.

Soon enough, a loud scream shattered the windy sky. The sound shook me to my core. However, it took me a solid ten second to realize that it didn't came from me. I did not even felt pain.

With my brows furrowed, I opened my eyes and saw an agonized pair of blue ahead of me, reflecting a dejected, lost, and betrayed soul.

But those eyes weren't focused on me, rather, that pained gaze look down at something behind me.

I turned my head and gasped.

There lay Vance on the ground, curled into a small ball, writhing and groaning as he held onto his bleeding stomach.

Another whimper brought my attention back to Lucinda who was trying to crawl toward Vance.

But what was the use? Vance would soon stand up after his skin stitched up on their own. Blue-blooded people did not injure so easily.

My tired gaze returned to my trembling husband.

He stood there with his hunched shoulders, still watching his brother with a horrifying disbelief, still not meeting my eyes.

A shaky breath escaped my lips as I patted my hiccuping daughter's back and stepped forward.

I stood before Terrence, blocking his view and forcing him to look at me, to look at us.

And look he did.

My inside crumbled and twisted at the searing agony flashing in his eyes.

A chill froze my blood at slight tremble of his lips.

And my entire world stopped at the mere whisper escaping from the depth of his soul.

"E-Esme..."

A strangled choke wrung out of my throat and jumped into his chest, holding onto him tightly for dear life just as I was with our daughter.

Our only surviving child.

Flashes of Damien's tear-stricken face and his scream burned through my mind and I sobbed harder.

"D-Damien... Our Damien... I-I couldn't..." Tears streamed down through my closed eyes as words clogged in my throat.

A heavy hand rested on my head, shaking.

"I know. I know what happened to him."

My heart seemed like it would burst out of my chest with so much agony rushing through my veins. And I had no one to soothe the pain.

No Damien.

My Damien...

"I know who really tried to kill him."

I froze.

Tried to kill...

My head snapped up to find his hurting eyes watching his brother with disdain over my head.

"What-"

"And still, I wasn't fast enough to stop him. Hell, I can't even bring myself to cause the culprit any real harm after what he did. Aren't I pathetic, Esme?" This time his glossy eyes met mine, trying to speak something through those oceans of melancholy.

If it was what I was thinking it was, then-

A wheezy cough rattled behind us and I turned around to see Lucinda had just finished crawling toward Vance.

Blood splat on the floor where she had coughed, she might have been sustaining a grave injury inside as her old bones got smashed against the wall.

Had it been some other time, I might have felt an inch of remorse but tonight...

My fists clenched as I stepped away from Terrence and watched her trembling fingers grasp the edge of Vance's shirt.

She was still trying to cling onto her greed, huh? Even after everything.

Fire burned with renewed vigor in my veins, making me clench my fists.

"If you can't, Terrence," I rasped, pressing a soft kiss on my still-trembling daughter's head. "I will gladly take your place."

I gave Hermione to her father, meeting his stunned gaze once again.

"And you are not pathetic. You just got more in your heart for your brother than he ever did for you."

I wasn't trying to hurt him with the truth yet Terrence seemed like I just slapped him in the face.

Raw guilt and helplessness flashed in his eyes before he closed them and gulped.

However, I didn't wait for his words and turned around to stride toward the demons darkening our lives.

My long shadow loomed over Lucinda's face.

Her eyes widened as she raised her hand out of instinct. But I slammed down her slimy finger bones, ignoring her shrill cry of pain, and threw her arm out of my path with my left feet before grabbing the real evil.

The demon prince.

My fingers curled around that ever-stitching skin of his abdomen, squeezing more of this sickening thick blue blood out of him and stopping his healing process.

He let out a strangled groan in response. His already ragged breathing turned harsh. His skin was sleek with dripping sweat - a severely injured man, this Vance.

But all I could see was the phantom curl of his lips when he threw out my son like he was a dirty pile of waste.

The blazing fire in my veins now began scalding my bones, firming my resolve further.

My fingers dug deep into the sleek flesh of his abdomen as my eyes devoured every twich, every wince, each trace of shiver in his face.

He was in raw agony, that I could tell.  But he was relentless with that trembling curl of his lips.

"I-Is... that... t-the beh-best you c-could do?" He moaned while his twitchy eyes seemed to mock me.

Good thing, I was far from being done with him.

"Of course, not, Vance." He let out a sharp guttural scream as my fingers grasped the slimy flesh of intestine deep within. "I am just warming up. Hope you are enjoying the show, Lucinda..."

Lucinda's horror-struck eyes bulged out and she flinched when our gazes met, snapping her hands away from Vance's fabric.

I assessed her movements with cold interest.

"Because, you are the next." I yanked out Vance's mangled gut in the open air.

The ear-splitting scream of my children's criminal was music in my ears.

Pure bliss.