"I WILL ALWAYS BE THEIR QUEEN."

ROSABELLA'S POV

"No."

"No? Your Majesty, this is for your own safety. We rarely get such attacks, but when we do, they're- they are lethal."

I shook my head and refused to move.

"Colin, do you see all of them? All of the frantic maids, and the brave guards? They are all my people. I would rather die her than stay in hiding and let them fight alone. Give me your sword. And a gun. Bring me a gun, too."

He stood there for a second, probably thinking of a way to convince me otherwise. But once he understood that I wasn't changing my mind, he sighed and handed me his sword.

I looked around once more and saw how the intruders were fighting. They didn't have any guns, or modern weapons. But they did have some weapons that I had never seen until now. I carefully held the sword and moved forward. My heart was drumming in my ears as my vision blurred every few seconds. I could feel my whole body pulsating, and every negative thought just washed over me like an ocean wave.

All the Lormeian soldier were fighting in the west wing. That was where the attack was more severe. Most of the Lormeians soldiers had strength as their power. Some even had the power to induce pain. But we rarely asked them to use it.

My power was useless at such times. All I had was my own physical strength.

"Martin, take all the maids downstairs. The basement of the castle. Keep them safe in the holding cells. Take a few other guards with you too."

He nodded and bowed.

"Yes, Majesty."

I pushed my sleeves to my elbows and began to walk towards a Lormeian guard who was being attacked by two intruders.

I pushed my sword into the cluster of the three people, carefully, not to touch the guard.

I pushed him away, and hit both their swords with mine.

They were strong. Almost as if it wasn't just their physical strength.

"Who are you?"

I tried to keep both the blades as far away from as possible but my left hand began to burn from the pressure. My wound from that fight with Ryker had still not healed.

"We have come for you. And your kingdom."

One of them took their sword away and made a lower cut. I jumped back and and took out my own sword and that hung in my scabbard.

"You think you can just walk in and take my kingdom again?"

I held their eyes and made a simple strike on both their shoulders. I didn't want to kill them just yet. I wanted some more answers.

"Then think again."

I nicked their shoulders but they didn't show any sign of pain. I moved laterally, hoping to confuse them of my movement. I couldn't keep this up for long. I needed to move ahead. I looked behind their backs and found that almost the whole hallway had been empty. All the maids were taken to the hiding cell.

All the council members and the guards were probably in the west wing.

There were a few bodies on the floor but I didn't want to see whose were they. I didn't want to see whether they were my people or not.

At least not now.

"Who sent you?"

They looked at each other and grinned.

"Kill us but your are not getting any answers out of u-"

The fell to the ground. I pulled out my swords from their chests and stepped over their bodies, careful enough to not touch them.

I began to walk towards the west wing that wasn't too far away without any remorse.

They were useless to me right now. That's why they were dead.

I ignored the red drops that fell on the marble floor from my blades and kept my head high.

Don't look down.

No matter what, just don't.

I could hear the grunts and the screams from the west wing even when I stood a few meters away from it.

I took a deep breath in, and pushed open the doors.

The Lormeians were winning. But the intruders weren't too far too. I looked around and saw some faces I recognized. Looking at the ground wasn't an option here too. I needed to keep my head in the game and fight.

Do what i have always done.

Never look back and fight.

I walked into the dining hall that had now become a blood battlefield and began to fight off the intruders that came toward me. The gun was easier to use, than a sword. I didn't want to use the gun at first.

Even with those two guards.

Because I wanted answers. Now that I know that none of them were going to open their mouths, I had no choice.

The bullets fired one after the other. I didn't care look at the faces of the people I was killing right now. I couldn't.

I just looked straight ahead, and fired the shots.

My heart had almost gone numb, and I couldn't even hear it drumming in my ears anymore. Even my hands were pulling the trigger but I couldn't feel it anymore.

I felt numb.

"Majesty, what are you doing here?"

It was that rotten excuse of a man, Edgar.

"I am fighting for my kingdom. I am being there Queen."

From the corner of my eye, I saw an intruder coming towards me. I knew that I didn't have enough time to pull the trigger at him.

I took my sword and and held it against him right when he was almost a metre away from me. The blade just penetrated his stomach and his eyes widened.

I ignored the baffled look on Edgar's face and continued to fire bullets at those who who had been attacking the Lormeian soldiers. Almost everyone was down. I could see how the intruders were trying to run out of the castle when they saw the number of people dressed in green on the floor lying in a pool of their own blood.

When only two intruders were left, I finally noticed who they were fighting with. It was Edward. Sir Cameron had been badly injured and he was on the ground behind him.

Edward was trying to protect his father. Something I can never do. Something I never did.

My gun had run out of bullets.

I checked my pockets. I had used up all of my extra ones too. There was no time to bring more.

Edward was struggling. I had to jump in. I had to fight. I pushed through the number of bodies and winced when I saw the the blue fight suit. Many intruders were killed. But we had lost many Lormeians too. The remaining Lormeian guards had ran after the intruders to chase them out.

It was only Edward, a severely injured Cameron, the two intruders and me.

My sword made an upper cut at one of the guards and distracted him, so Edward would only have to fight one of them.

His arm right arm was bleeding badly.

"You really think I will be defeated by a mere woman?"

I wanted him to have an easy quick death. But he just didn't want that, did he?

I kept nicking at his neck and his shoulder, as he tried to move back. He hit the wall and his sword slipped from his hand. I smirked and slowly placed the tip of the blade on his neck. He was shaking as his eyes kept moving from me to the blade.

"P- Please. Please have mercy, your Majesty."

"Majesty, huh?"

I took the sword away only to push it back into his chest. He fell to the ground with thud.

I blinked continuously to push the blood away from my eyes. I brought my hand closer to my face. There were countless droplets of blood. I wiped it away, knowing that it would stain. Edward had fallen to the ground near his father after killing the other guard too. He was trying to lift his father to his feet so he could bring him to the infirmary.

I couldn't think of anything else. I closed my eyes, and I saw my father's body being brought to the infirmary. I opened them and I saw my mother's.

I breathed out a shaky breath and walked towards them.

"How is he?"

"Highness! You are bleeding."

I looked down and saw the side of my torso covered in blood. I hadn't even noticed when I had gotten injured.

Now that I saw it the, pain came. Hitting me like a train.

"Oh, I had- ah, I hadn't seen that until now."

I closed my eyes tightly hoping that the pain would go. It didn't.

"How is Cameron?"

He looked at me and then back at his father in conflict.

"He probably has a concussion. Plus we need to get his abdomen checked. He was stabbed there."

I nodded and helped him lift his father. We slowly walked toward the infirmary that was thankfully not too far away. We laid Cameron down on the bed, and waited for the healers to come check up on him. We had a large infirmary. There were at least 500 beds.

Right now only 30 or so beds were left empty. All of them were occupied by patients with either mild or severe injuries. The Lormeian army had clearly won. But we weren't left untouched.

The intruders were defeated but I don't think they were going to rest peacefully. We needed to find out who was coming for us and then go for their throats.

"Your Majesty, you need to get your wound checked out. It's bleeding profusely. It might be serious."

I shook my head and held his shoulders tightly.

"Lie down here. You need to get yourself checked. Your arm looks pale. It looks like you have had excess blood loss. I need to check something. Let me just do that, okay?"

"Your Majesty, I strongly insist. You can not go around while you are this vulnerable. Who knows? Maybe some intruder may still be standing on the castle grounds."

I shook my head but gasped as another wave of immense pain shot through me.

"I need t- ah- I need to see whether all the injured guards have reached here."

He nodded his head.

"I understand that, Your Highness, but right now you need to stop being their Queen and be Rosabella Agapov for a few minutes. You need to get your wound checked."

I smiled slowly, because I didn't think I had the strength to speak much. "I will always be their Queen-"

I couldn't complete my sentence. Darkness flashed in front of my eyes as my body gave up on me.