Page 2 of Rapunzel Unchained
“When Master Tuck, the blowhard, found out about the diaries, he thought he’d found the motherlode,” Rebecca began again, lounging on the chair at the vanity, one long leg crossedover the other. “Thought he’d found something that would get him the Arch Mage position without having to lift a finger.”
I shook my head. “I don’t understand. How did he even know I was there? How did you?”
Rebecca picked up a gold necklace and fiddled it between her fingers. “Your stepdaughter hated your guts. She raved and ranted about you for pages and pages. Had a real ball of rage in her, but she also wanted revenge. She wanted you to suffer. Suffer the way she suffered. By taking it all away from you.”
My lips ticked at the edges. “The tower.”
“Yep,” she popped the word out. “See, she somehow got it into her mind that what you wanted was power. The riches, the attention, the crown.” Her eyes darted down to the crown in my hands.
I sat down heavily on the edge of the bed, my hand falling over my face. “So the tower was supposed to take that away from me. Make everyone forget me, leaving me with nothing.”
“Exactly.”
I shook my head, my hair shifting back and forth. “What does that have to do with Master Tuck?” I could barely get his name out, the image of him falling apart in front of me rushing through my head.
Rebecca smirked. “Tuck thought you were some all-powerful mage. Someone that would feel like they owed him something for saving their life. Someone who would help him rise above Adam.” She threw her head back and laughed. “The way that idiot ranted and cursed when Adam and his friends got to you first.”
The image of Adam crawling through my window that fateful day floated into my head. “And who might you be, sweetheart? Or maybe I should just call you Rapunzel?” My heart warmed at the memory.
“Then,” Rebecca continued with a maniacal giggle, “after he found out, not only had he not been the one to officially save you, but you were human to boot. Oh, that really pissed him off.”
“I can imagine,” I murmured.
Master Tuck hadn’t been happy to see me at the hospital. Finding out I was human had messed up his little plan. Even so, he’d been desperate to get me to come with him. To get me away from Adam and the others. Now, I know why.
“Of course, Adam getting to you tweaked my own plan.” She pushed up off the chair and stepped toward me. “I’m sorry for the theatrics. I couldn’t let them know that I knew who you are, what you are.”
“And you do?” My pulse raced in my veins. The prospects of getting all the answers so close I could taste it.
She stopped before me. “If that bastard Tuck had just taken the time to read further, searched a little more, he would have found out the truth. Tuck and that fake queen—”
“Snow,” I provided.
Rebecca inclined her head. “Snow, right. They had you all wrong. You didn’t want fame and fortune. If anything it was a bother, a necessary evil to get what you truly wanted.”
Something inside of me purred at her words, the crown in my hands feeling heavy, an itchy feeling to place it on my head forced me to curl my hands tightly around it.
“And what is it that I truly want?”
Kneeling before me, Rebecca peered up at me with fire in her eyes. “Revenge. Against all the mages.”
Chapter 2
Revenge. Did I want revenge? The ball of rage inside of me surged with the very thought of it. The queen wanted revenge. She wanted it so much that she had charmed her way into the highest position in the kingdom. All, from what I could discern, for her mother.
I tried to remember her. Her mother. My mother. But it was all fuzzy. The only memory I had of her was back when I was a child, she was brushing my hair, telling me everything would be alright.
The mages had something to do with it. They killed her. And the evil queen hated them for it. I hated them for it.
Except those mages are long gone and dead. Did the current mages deserve her wrath? Mine?
“You’re confused.” Rebecca placed her hand on mine. “Understandably so. I can’t imagine how you must feel with two halves of yourself warring for purchase. Adam and the others... have been kind to you. This you. But if they knew what you were, who you truly are, do not think for a second that they wouldn’t turn on you.”
Tears burned my eyes, I blinked them back and sniffed. “You don’t know that. They care for me... they wouldn’t.”
“They would,” Rebecca interrupted, her hand tightening on mine. “And they will. It might be hard to hear this, but the mages haven’t gotten any better over the centuries. If anything, they’ve gotten worse. They can be open with their magic and power, and they have no issue using that power to subdue the humans. Which they do regularly.”
I couldn’t argue with her. I’d seen the results of mages being out in the open. The oppression they had pressed down upon the humans. If anything, they were better off when the mages werein the shadows, then at least, they could live normal lives, not culled and collared by the mages as nothing more than pets.
