Rejected Queen by Meg Xuemei X.

CHAPTER 16

Tessa

 

 

 

 

 

 

I strode into the dining hall of Hell’s Academy, Snow White in tow.

I wore my disguised armor and boots, my sanjiegun tightly sheathed on the outer layer of my boot. My hair was pinned up neatly with the poisoned hair pin.

It seemed I was the last one to arrive. The hall was packed with about two hundred contestants. Nearly seven hundred had been eliminated in the second trial. Only the elite fighters still breathed and were here to join the lunch.

A dozen demon guards patrolled the hall, looking for troublemakers.

At my entry, every table turned to stare at me. I held my chin high as I trudged along the main aisle, searching for an empty table, preferably in the corner.

While I ignored the glares, either taunting or threatening, shooting my way, Snow White smirked like a Cheshire cat, loving the attention and adjusting her bowtie.

In the scorching land of Hell, the cat was my only ally.

“Cunt!” The voice came from a large table occupied by demonesses. “The cunt thought she could be our queen.”

Someone spat.

The demonesses hated the females of other species coming to their territory to encroach on their king.

“That mouse will never be a queen.” Veronica let out a high-pitched shriek of laughter from the center of the hall. “The king said he’d slash her open before she could crawl into his bed.”

My jaw tightened.

Every contestant probably knew that the King of the Underworld had rejected me even before the third trial.

“Crawl back to where you came from, slut!” several more contestants shouted.

“Oh, she can’t,” Veronica said giddily, her hateful eyes roving over me. She suspected that I’d slept with Loki. “You’ll die here. Think you can have the king? He already threw you out like an old shoe, didn’t he? You weren’t even at the king’s party last night when I rode him.”

My stomach felt as if acid was drilling holes in its lining.

“Fucking stupid, lying cunt,” Snow White hissed, her front paw thrusting forcefully in the direction of the vampire princess. “He dumped you a long time ago. You don’t get to ride the king ever. He’s reserved the seat for someone better, prettier, and superior to you, bloodsucker.” She spat, glaring at the contestants in disdain, and no one could pull off that expression better than the Hell Cat. “It stinks in here. Pigs wearing lipstick!”

Veronica snarled, her claws out, and her vampire goons all rose to their feet, eager to assault Snow White.

I yanked out my sanjiegun from my boot, twisting it in my fingers. The chains clanged, and the spearhead popped out sharply. My ice magic hissed along the solid sticks.

“I won’t fight any of you over the Demon King,” I said. My cold voice could cut diamonds. “But touch my cat and your blood will be my red carpet.”

The cat and I sneered together as we strode toward the buffet table in the front of the hall.

A foot jutted out to trip me in the aisle.

Snow White stumbled since she was busy glaring and spitting at everyone, and I was busy plowing through the hybrid witch’s calf with my blade-toed boot. The half-witch, half-demon howled in pain and dropped from her seat, and the short blade retreated into my boot, hidden again.

Her coven around the table all rose, tossing a stream of nasty spells at my face without fair warning. The witches like to deform and maim their opponents first. I bet the witch who shot me with a poisoned arrow in the second trial was among them.

I’d make sure she wouldn’t live through the third trial.

My ice magic snapped to attention, strengthening the shield over Snow White and me. The spells bounced off my shield. I smiled at the witches, blades popping out from my armguard wrapped around my knuckles, and the witches flinched in fear.

Then the majority of the contestants leapt over the table, ready to come at me. I kicked over the witches’ table to throw them off. Several witches tumbled from their seats while dishes fell on them. Angry yelps rose from the ground.

I snapped open my sanjiegun, scanning the approaching contestants, hot for a battle.

“Snow White, take cover!” I shouted.

“I’ll never leave you!” she shouted back. “Get used to it. I’m The fucking Hell Cat. I don’t appreciate being bossed around!”

The patrolling demon guards looked on, boredom wilting from their faces, replaced by excitement, like sharks catching the scent of blood.

“What did I say about no fighting in the dining hall?” a familiar harsh voice demanded, and the Duke of Envy was suddenly beside us in the aisle. “Who volunteers to be executed on the spot first? My hands are itching. I haven’t slain anyone for a few days. I miss the high.”

My heart hammered erratically, until I realized that it was just the duke who had made an appearance. The despicable playboy king was nowhere to be seen. And I counted that as a blessing. I didn’t know what I would do in his presence, and I had no idea what he would do to me.

Even though I didn’t think it was likely, I had to consider the possibility of Loki finding out about my true mission. He was pleasuring me one second, then the next, he was hellbent on killing me. If he was merely bored with me, he could just toss me out of his castle and be done with me.

But if he’d discovered my dirty secret, he wouldn’t have allowed me to walk out of his castle alive. He didn’t even need to dirty his hands. Esme and his dukes would have offed me. Instead, Lady Esme, his most trusted advisor and personal weapon, had steered me away from the king’s fury and violence and gotten me out of the castle.

This whole affair didn’t make sense. And why had Loki destroyed half of the castle?

Something had happened, but I didn’t know what.

And here came the duke, putting a stop to a fight that wouldn’t benefit me. This was also the first time the gamekeepers had offered to feed all the contestants and even demanded that everyone come to the dining hall for lunch since the start of the Bride Trials. It almost felt like the king’s inner circle was trying to keep tabs on me and guard me in their own way.

Why?

I was no one to them. And their king had treated me like garbage after we returned from the ill-fated Manhattan date.

Snow White seized the opportunity to leap onto the next table and toss a plate of food at a witch with a tall hat. The cake smeared the witch’s left eyebrow and eye. Then, at rapid speed, she threw a bowl of noodle soup at another prickly-looking witch.

That cat was damn fast and mean, and the way she used her paws was an art form.

Some noodles stuck to the witch’s face, and the other witches hissed, their potions in their hands.

I’d slaughter them if they harmed a single hair on Snow White.

“I said no fighting!” the Duke of Envy bellowed threateningly and swatted at Snow White.

Snow White twisted out of the duke’s reach, and I moved fast, blocking the duke from reaching her.

My gaze locked with the duke’s.

“She’s my cat,” I said. “I bear the responsibility.”

“She isn’t your cat,” the duke snorted. “She’s the Hell Cat, and no one can control her.” He shook his head at Snow White. “Seriously, Snowflake? You can’t stay out of trouble for a second?”

Snowflake?

I turned to give the Hell Cat a look, and she pouted, obviously hating the nickname.

“Execute the freak who puffs out frost, Duke Leviathan,” Veronica demanded from several tables away, flanked by her vampire guards. “She attacked the witches for no reason.”

“Didn’t you hear what I called you, stinky lying cunt?” Snow White nearly barked, and she was a cat.

The duke frowned at the cat over my shoulder, since he towered over me. “Language please, Snowflake. You know the king forbade you to use the c-word a while ago. And I’m investigating here. We have ladies present!”

Ladies? I nearly laughed.

“That cun—she attacked me unprovoked, Duke of Envy.” The wounded witch pointed her black-nailed finger up at me, still on the ground as another witch crouched beside her, chanting to stop her calf from bleeding.

The rest of the witches also protested, demanding justice.

The duke narrowed his eyes, violence vibrating from him.

“Order me again, and see how it works out for you,” he said, looking around threateningly. “Please, anyone?”

No one challenged him, and all of them glared at me.

He gave me a harsh stare, and I stared back. Snow White landed beside me, glaring up at the duke too to offer me some sort of moral support. It was more like a “we’re two against one” thing. If I had less power, I might shudder under the duke’s hard look.

The duke shook his head in resigned disgust before barking at all the contestants. “Resume your lunch. Just remember, I actually welcome anyone stirring up shit. My lamp needs a new set of skin.”

“Excuse me, Your Highness,” I said, getting past him. “Since the business is concluded, I’m getting my lunch.”

“Me too,” Snow White said, stalking beside me, her chin held high, her glare potent, but it was wasted on most of the contestants since they couldn’t see the short-legged cat that carried an attitude.

The duke turned. With a few long strides, he caught up with me. “It seems no one likes you here, Lady Tessa.”

I flashed a row of white teeth at him in a big smile. The cat mimicked me, but it came out with a different effect.

“What can I say, Your Highness?” I said. “Hell’s a tough place, but I eat hostility like a cake, with a cherry on top.”

“I eat hostility like ice cream, with a lemon on top,” Snow White offered. 

The duke shook his head for the third time and stormed away.

Snow White and I secured an empty table in the north corner. She gave me a detailed list of what should be put on her plate before I headed to the buffet table. When I returned with four big plates—three for Snow White—and two bottles of water on the tray, I found that we had guests coming.

The Hell Cat no longer perched on her chair but arched her back to make herself bigger, her white fur bristling and standing on end, and her tail shooting up high. She was hissing at a bunch of shifters who approached our table, led by Raina.

Their alpha and the rest of the pack had all been killed in the first two trials. The six of them were all that was left now.

“Dogs, you aren’t welcome!” Snow White started. “Tess and I have claimed this corner!”

“None of that, Snow,” I scolded, putting down the tray. “I owe the shifters a life debt.”

The cat ceased to hiss, but she gave them a mean look before she dragged all three plates to her side, hoarding them.

“May we?” Raina gestured at the seats.

“Please,” I said. “And my food is your food.”

I pushed my plate toward them, following the shifter custom, as the shifters sat around the table.

The beta, who had moved up to alpha now, shook her head. “We already ate. We’re heading out, but we wanted to swing by and invite you to join us for a drink tonight at the Bad Bunny nightclub.”

My heart skipped a beat, and bile rose to the back of my throat. I hoped that bar had nothing to do with me. The King of Hell had called me Bunny while he’d been interested in me. And when I scouted Hell, I hadn’t come cross any bar with such a ridiculous name.

“The club’s former name was Bleeding Heart.” Briann volunteered the intel at my look. She’d carried me to the canal in time and saved my life. “They changed it to Bad Bunny last night. It’s the hottest bar on Earth.”

It was the Demon King’s sick joke then, at my expense. He or his minions hadn’t let me off the hook. They still wanted to mess with me.

I dreaded what would come next, but hadn’t I promised to eat antagonism like a dessert?

I straightened my back and nodded at the shifters, who all looked at me expectantly, and shrugged off the uneasiness.

“I could use a few drinks,” I said with a smile.

And I’d show whoever mocked me that nothing could really touch me.

I might not be ice and steel while I felt so vulnerable and raw from the hurt, but I could always fake it.

“See you at midnight.” Raina rose from the chair, and the pack left.

“The wolves were brave to sit with us,” Snow White said, lifting her face from a half-empty plate. “They were either sending the message to the rest of the contestants that they’ve thrown their lot in with you, or they are going to ambush you tonight. The question is which.”

They could switch sides even if they’d once helped me.

I eyed the Hell Cat. “Isn’t that the million-dollar question?”

And I knew the rules in any bar in Hell—there were no rules.

Violence was waiting to happen.