Damon paled instantly, and his eyes widened at once.
He remembered the words she had said to him the last time she had privately met with him to convince him to blame the queen and Ivan.
"Do not give anyone a reason to be suspicious of you and your blind loyalty to the queen. I understand that you cannot help it, but now is the time to free yourself from that commitment and do what is right."
He had merely thought she was bluffing, even with the subtle threat of an unpleasant rumour spreading in the kingdom.
She revelled in his reaction. Seeing him look so terrified brought her great pleasure, and she began to cackle. She looked up, laughing so loudly, while Damon turned his attention towards the door to be sure no one was there.
"You... t-that is nonsense—"
"If you hadn't done that, you wouldn't have gotten rid of Sir Wilson just to hide that fact. And you won't be in this position right now." She said, cutting him off.
Her face turned serious, and her voice went low as she asked, "How does it feel now? How does it feel to be useless? To be hopeless. To be looked down on by everyone. How does it feel?"
She could see it even though he was trying to hide it. Her words were getting to him, and the humiliation and fear were making him anxious.
"I currently have the highest authority in the palace. If you promise to put the entire blame on the queen and Ivan, I will make sure to spare your life and give you the chance to find Damian yourself and get rid of him before your secret comes to light." She whispered while nodding her head, as though that was the answer to all his problems.
"Da-mian?" He whispered, even though the whole thing was still a shock to him. It was obvious he had no idea what Damian had to do with all this.
"He is... Sir Wilson's son." She whispered again before placing her index finger on her lip as she breathed a "shhh."
As Damon's eyes widened in shock, Tyra grinned at him, looking excited.
"Choose wisely before you are called upon. And just like I promised you last time, you will have my full support."
Those were the last words she said to him before leaving his chamber.
Tyra could hear the distant cries, arguments, and displeasure around the palace as people were forcefully locked up, giving the noblemen no choice but to attend the meeting. But she didn't mind it.
She didn't try to hurry to join them in the courtroom either. Thankfully, a good opportunity came to while away time. And that was a report that came from a guard, letting her know that Alvin had left the palace and that Harvey was no longer guarding Princess Amber's door either. Maybe he had left for the morning assembly.
"Who then is watching over Prince Harold and Princess Amber?" She asked curiously since both men had been guarding the rooms for the past few days, giving her no chance to visit.
"No one, my princess. But with your order, guards would be sent—"
"Never mind it," Tyra said, raising a hand, but then something struck her, and she looked at the guard curiously.
"Why did Alvin suddenly leave the palace?" She asked in a curious and anxious tone.
"I have no idea, my princess." The guard responded.
"Send someone smart to secretly follow him and report everything he is up to." She instructed.
"I will do that immediately."
She gave him a nod, and he quickly left her with the other two guards, who followed closely behind her.
They had thought she would head to the courtroom, but instead, she began to head towards Princess Amber's chamber.
She hadn't even gotten close to the door when she said to both guards, "Wait here." Leaving them farther away from the door.
When she got to the door, she slowly opened it and entered, quietly closing the door behind her.
She looked at the bed where Amber lay quietly and just stared at her sleeping figure.
The windows were open, keeping the room ventilated and bright.
Tyra slowly approached the bed, her eyes never leaving Amber's face.
When she stood directly beside the bed, she reached to touch Amber's face, running a finger on her skin in a feather-like touch. Her finger trailed down from her face to touch the side of her neck, and at once, her eyes darkened just as her hands went to her neck as if to strangle her.
But she stopped at the last minute.
She stared at Amber's face for a few seconds before she grabbed the pillow beside her and pressed it down on her face, snuffing the life out of her.
At first, it was going smoothly until Amber began to unconsciously struggle with her body twisting on both sides and her legs dragging along the sheets.
Seeing how Amber was waking up, Tyra exerted pressure, but unfortunately, Amber seemed to have fully woken up and grabbed Tyra by the neck, taking her aback.
Tyra tried to get away from her hold and exerted more pressure on the pillow until the hold around her neck tightened and she could not take it anymore. She instantly let go of the pillow to fight off the hand around her neck, and as soon as she was out of Amber's grasp, she fell to the floor, coughing and gasping for air with tears running down her face.
Amber weakly removed the pillow from her face and loudly sucked in air, also gasping.
She forced herself to sit up, feeling very faint from having been unconscious for days, and then she looked at Tyra on the floor, who was coughing and touching the front of her neck while looking at Amber with evil eyes.
Amber had no idea what she had done to deserve this.
"W-Why?" She weakly asked Tyra.
"Why?" Tyra echoed as though she had just heard the most ridiculous question in her life. "You. Deserve. To. Die!" She said it in a spiteful tone as she tried to stand up from the floor.
Amber narrowed her eyes to look at her. She had been able to see some memories of Tyra with Alicia, and Tyra wasn't this kind of person. But something else bothered her. Tyra looked familiar. And she didn't think this was Alicia's memory.
It was hers.
Amber's eyes suddenly widened slightly. "I... know you." She said it in surprise.
*******
A/N
I haven't been on here for over 2 weeks, and right now, I cannot even bring myself to read the comments because I do not wish to see any comments that would throw me off.
I've had a rough and tough month.
Been from one issue to another. Started with an allergic reaction to a lack of proper blood circulation and then a migraine. And now I'm out of work, so yeah, I'm currently UNEMPLOYED.
You are free to complain since many of you purchase coins and many only read my book here, but I am a person. Just like you, I break down sometimes. And yeah, I do feel guilty about leaving, but I cannot help it most times because I am not in the right frame of mind and there is no platform to make an announcement.
Those who tried to reach me through Miss B, thank you for reaching out. She did let me know, and you can confirm from her that I have been on several medications even till this moment and would be travelling home to my parents' soon to live there for a while and just get back myself.
So when you drop comments sometimes, be nice. Because I also have feelings too. And writing a novel requires critical thinking, which cannot always work if one is not in the right frame of mind.
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