THE ALIEN LANDS
THE BLACK QUEEN

The entire time she had been at Arcadia Academy, through the First Year, the auditions, the exams, the whole disaster with Stewart, right up until she joined the Comedy Clique, Cordelia had been holding her breath without knowing it. Cordelia is a type of human who is used to being disappointed. She is not used to having the life she had always dream of lasting without horror fall upon her and destroying what little happiness she managed to acquire so far in her short life. Cordelia was bracing to wake up one day and discovering that Arcadia Academy was part of her very wild and very active imagination. Her Earth based teachers have privately joked that maybe she should consider becoming a writer. For a brief time, she had considered doing that and she still may do that after graduation. Even aside from the many laws of probability, she felt as though it was just too good to be true. In the Mount Arm-Joy books, the Colonial children were always sent back to their respective worlds back to their parents, back to reality. Cordelia felt like she was a guest on Earth. Earth was her new home permanently but she still felt like an outsider, still feeling like she needed to find her purpose on Earth.

But thankfully it hadn’t happened. And now, for the first time in her life, she really was getting everything she had been praying to her gods for. She wasted so much time thinking, it’s all a dream, she told herself repeatedly. Someone was going to come in, take all that she accomplished away. Like the Mount Arm-Joy novels, nothing lasts forever. But, reality forced her to grow up and behave like she was. She was a twenty-year-old student at a secret acting school. She already had found fame on Earth as A Taste of Freedom had debut and was number one for the last few months. Cordelia was becoming famous but was not going on tour as the Academy was handling any media inquiries at this moment in her career.

Now that she was among the Comedy clique, she had a chance to observe them up close. When she first met Damien, Cordelia thought that everyone at Arcadia Academy would be like him, but in fact she was wrong for even thinking such a thought. For one thing, this was a different setting from a normal university or academic setting. For one thing, Damien’s attitude does set him apart from the rest of the students. One could easily make the case that there were circumstances in Damien’s life that led him to have the attitudes that he was displaying. But then as she started observing Damien in class, it became clear that he was one hell of a gifted actor who knew his stuff and that impressed Cordelia more than anything. The only thing in the world that she would cop to caring about was his appearance, especially his expensive shirts. Cordelia noticed that Damien has already had three films to his credit in the IMDB.

The first film that he starred in was The Madison Effect, a musical comedy which made nearly eight hundred million dollars worldwide. That made him a star. The next credit listed was a comedy called Throw Joe from the Train. Cordelia watched that over the summer when she found out that Damien had a role in the film. Finally, he acted in a film called Red Blood, a dark comedy that did not do so well at the box office but it wasn’t through his acting, the story was just not all that great and though he took a hit Damien still made quite a bit of money. The only problem he has right now is not following the rules for violating the school dress code.

Billy on the other hand was an interesting case. He always wore the standard school uniform but always added a flare of drama to his clothing. Billy was overweight and always like to make sure his clothes fit his round build, His whole personality was like a bad imitation of the Joker from the Batman movies, the Tim Burton version naturally. His timing was always off as he would tell jokes that felt flat or just not plain funny. It took Cordelia a while to figure out that Billy wanted people to take him seriously which in a way reminded her of Ingle. Two people miles apart, born on different planets but had the same. Billy could be related to Ingle and they would fit in just fine. He wasn’t an ass hole like Damien or wasn’t as power tripping as Sandy but he was a keen observer of human history. In fact, a week ago. He told Cordelia that he’d been waiting for Stewart to snap for weeks:

“Are you kidding? That guy thinks because he’s Native American that entitles him to special treatment. He’s been a ticking time bomb. Many of us had bets going that he was going to snap on someone, we just didn’t think it would be you. Tell you the truth, I’m kind of glad he snapped.”

Unlike the other Comedy Clique kids Billy was nothing to write home about, but once he mastered a skill he uses it in every day conversation. He was always trying to get us to laugh. It was a full six weeks into his first year before he finally had the entire class laughing at his jokes, but when he finally did --- as Damien told the story --- he let out a fart so foul that they had to disinfect the class room for three days and even then, did the fart make everyone laugh out loud.

Sandy’s parents were doctors, of the high-flying Hollywood-ass-kissing variety, and insanely wealthy. She grew up in L.A. being babysat by various celebrities, who she swore under a non-disclosure agreement she would never name. Cordelia supposed that explained her, way over the top drama style when it came to her personality. She was the most outgoing, visible of the Comedy Clique, loud and outgoing and always trying to take control of the conversations at dinner. She freely confessed to us one day that she had bad taste in men and had gone out with half of her high school. Pretty, rather than beautiful, she had a flat, nearly boring figure, but as her mother taught her, use what you must your advantage and men will fly to you like people coming for their chocolate fix.

Then there was Raleigh Foster, not to be confused with the legendary Foster that everyone talks about. Raleigh was someone of a mystery to Cordelia. In fact, for the first three weeks, he would not talk to her much in the way that Christina would talk to her. But then, one day after class, Raleigh began to talk to Cordelia. He was a handsome man, not as tall as Cordelia was, he was about five inches shorter than she was but as her legs gave her a height advantage that would make her a great at basketball. Raleigh’s legs were thick and his frame wide. He always kept his head shaved. He hated facial hair on his face, but after class three weeks ago, that’s when it happened. Raleigh asked her out for a date and they went into town for a nice dinner.

Sandy was an annoying ass hat at times. The female version of Damien but she could still be your friend. Cordelia was neve bored around her. She was passionately loyal, and if she ever got on your nerves it wasn’t because she was trying to piss you off, that was her way of expressing to you that she cared. She got a kick of making everyone’s life miserable and having fun at the same time.

Even though she was part of the Comedy Clique now, Cordelia still made it a point to spend time with the other Third Years: she took her classes with them in P.A. and studied for exams with them, and had dinner with them. When new students arrived at the school, Cordelia and the others took pleasure in helping new students learn how to navigate through the Maze. Cordelia silently laughed as she saw new First Years trying to figure out how to get from one side of the Maze to the other.

Every fall, a huge party would be thrown when the equinox occurred. It was a bit of superstition that if you don’t celebrate any production that you were currently active in would suffer a bad box office weekend, though hardly anyone took that seriously. They had a bonfire, music, a hog was roasted and musical groups with ties to the Academy would show up and give the students a concert. Country music for the white students, a little rap for the black students, some rock and roll for the fans of horror movies. Even Stewart was starting to mellow out a bit when he made Tiswin something that his tribe forbid to be made to the outside but when students tried it, they forgave him for most of all he had done.

That fall, Cordelia’s studies changed again. There was less of practical acting and ancient languages, though God knows that they were trying to learn innovative ways of making people laugh. They spent an entire month on basic comedy rules: mastering your timing. Cordelia discovered much to her surprise that she was better at comedy than she gave herself credit for. Professor Branch taught an improv class and often paired her up with Raleigh. Cordelia discovered they had a gift for doing stand-up together. When Raleigh and Cordelia would do a set together, the class would erupt in laughter.

On alternate Tuesday’s Cordelia worked with Rickman, the Comedy Clique official faculty advisor, who turned out to be a slender man with a thick moustache and military style gray hair who always dressed. His posture was insanely perfect, but he did not allow his posture to scare his students. Cordelia had the impression that Rickman was a man without a country. Rickman was always making jokes about the American Political system, especially the current occupant of the White House. But what worried her was when he would go off on conspiracy theories about why the latest batch of Star Wars movies were getting way. Otherwise, when he wasn’t acting insane or on drugs, Rickman as it turned out was an okay guy.

One afternoon during a seminar --- Rickman specialized in mixing comedy with elements of horror that involved the students trying to keep a scene going that called for doing a series of run-though that not only called for them to be ridiculously funny but at the same time convey a sense of danger that was lurking around every corner: Cordelia found herself trying hard to display the fear because every time she read the scene with Raleigh, she started laughing uncontrollably while at the same time convey the fear that the scene called for. Cordelia had recently watched Scary Movie and couldn’t understand the plot but she didn’t care about it, she enjoyed the movie so much that she stayed for the double feature.

One day after class, Rickman was evaluating Cordelia for a project the class had just recently completed.

“Mr. Rickman.”

Cordelia was feeling insecure. She never felt like this with the other professors but there was something about Rickman that made her question what she was meant to do at the academy, but now her curiosity about Mr. Rickman was flooding in.

“Professor Rickman,” she said, “I couldn’t stand to keep all of this curiosity about you bottled up inside of me anymore.”

“Yes, Ms. Alldice.”

It was a forced smile, something Rickman was not used to doing, one on one with students, but Cordelia was a special case.

“Are you really a world-famous comic?”

“You’ve seen my IMDB page, right?”

“Well, yes.”

“Then to answer your question, I am a world-famous comic.”

One morning, very early, Professor Branch was giving a lecture on acting in superhero movies. Superhero movies was now becoming popular on Earth. For a portly man Branch was very spry, very energetic as he demonstrated the different techniques actors used in the movies. They had been watching several superhero movies in recent weeks. Iron Man, Iron Man Two, Avengers, Batman vs Superman just to name a few.

“Is there any difference between the breathing techniques the actors say in Batman Vs Superman and in Iron Man use when they perform their scenes?” Professor Branch then focused his attention on Cordelia. “Cordelia, please, if you can.”

Cordelia blinked. She must have been wondering on other thoughts.

“There is no difference?” she replied. “Breathing is breathing. Everyone breaths at a different pace. Plus, it also helps to be in shape and not have allergies.”

There was a long, silent pause, into which Cordelia attempted to insert more of an explanation as many times as possible in case there were some people who couldn’t figure out what she was trying to say. People had been shifting in their chairs taking notes down on what Cordelia had said. Branch, having caught the delicious scent of frustration and humiliation, was preparing to wait to see how far Cordelia would take her poor expiation. Cordelia waited too. There was something in the reading and she was sure she was right. She was going to stand her ground and not let Branch intimidate her.

“I don’t understand ---“came a voice from the back of the classroom.

“I’m asking Cordelia, Oliva.”

“But maybe you can clarify something?” It was Olivia Southerland. She persisted, with shit-eating vileness of someone who was so stuck up that she was determined to get all the attention off Cordelia and on her. “What purpose does controlling our breathing help us to better hone our craft?”

“If you are in control of your breathing Olivia,” Branch said exasperated, “You can better control the pace of your routine.”

“But I thought breathing and timing were two separate things?” Olivia put in.

The resulting mass of discussion ended up being so insane and time-consuming that Branch was forced to abandon Cordelia and move on or lose the entire point of the lecture. If she could have done so uninterrupted, Cordelia would have run back to where Olivia was standing and gave her a big hug for taking the heat off of her, instead she gave her a wave and whispered thank you for saving me when Branch wasn’t looking.

Branch snaked his sorry ass into a lengthy lesson on how to combine comedy and animation together. Cordelia found the entire exchange boring as animation really did not bring out any excitement. The class she was looking forward to taking was beginning directing which would introduce her to the world of directing. When that class started, she knew she was in the upper levels of grad work. She already had a movie to her credit but not as many as Damien had by this time in his career.

Either way, Cordelia was enjoying and doing very well in introduction to Directing that when a famous movie producer arrived looking for some talent that he could put under his wing, Professor Branch and Professor Cole decided to team together and recommend Cordelia for the assistant director on his new film, The Changing Face of Evil. Cordelia wanted to act but many on the staff including Professor Branch felt that Cordelia needed to learn about the behind the scenes aspects of the business so they recommended her to assist him on the behind the scenes aspects of making a movie and the money the director offered in addition to the IMDB credits was enough to convince Cordelia to give it a chance.

Arcadia classrooms had top of the line insurance to protect it against any students who would make a mistake to damage the equipment. Sometimes studios would donate any old equipment, like say cameras, lighting kits, audio XLR cables, that sort of thing to the academy so there was no shortage of the equipment the classrooms needed to get through the day’s lecture. From time to time, Professor Branch would come across a subject that he was not comfortable in talking about but as per the lesson plans that were prepared by the school’s leadership, he had no other choice but to discuss an item. Secretly, Cordelia would prey to the Lords of the Colonial that he would mess up so her classmates could see how human, how normal he was.

Branch was finally able to get through the lesson that he was teaching on properly writing a scene in old World English. Everyone could see how he was relieved to finally be getting through that situation and that lecture.

Cordelia was disappointed, but Raleigh, her new best friend leaned over and whispered, “That could have gone better.” Cordelia forced a smile from her face. Raleigh wanted her to laugh a little. Christina though leaned over and said, “idiot,” she whispered, “He needs to spend some time in the library reviewing old English if he’s not comfortable with it.”

Professor Branch was a medium-built man conservatively dressed in a neat gray Armani sit with a beige tie that had a silver Arcadia shield pin attached to it. Professor Branch who was still talking, didn’t realize that something was now starting to feel out of place. Professor Branch looked out at the Third Years archly, as if he was going to share a joke about something or as if the students were ready to start exploding in laughter, at the teacher’s appearance. Branch was not aware of the change in atmosphere within the school.

Then, Branch stopped speaking and froze in place.

Christina and Raleigh stopped, too. The room was silent. A chair made a slight move. Cordelia couldn’t move either but she knew based on this sensation that something was wrong. They were all in danger. There was nothing wrong, nothing restraining her in place, but at this point, a woman, dressed in a black dress that seems to sparkle against the light appeared into the room. She had a tooth-pick like build, her lipstick was jet black like an ink from an old-school typewriter. Who was this woman? Why was she doing this? Christina was still leaned over slightly in her direction as if she was going to tell her something. Cordelia couldn’t see her eyes. But she just knew this was wrong. The woman on the stage was the only one in motion.

Cordelia’s heart began to pound. The woman cocked her head and frowned, as if she could hear it. Cordelia was the only one in the room who knew what was happening. This happened the day the Colonial System was attacked and more than eight billion people were killed and that only five hundred thousand people including her could survive. Cordelia thought by the woman’s build that could be the Black Queen. In fact, she was almost certain that who it was. She couldn’t make out what the woman was doing. Her facial features were almost impossible to read.

She circled Professor Branch. There was something about the way she moved, something too lucid about her posture. When she walked into the light, Cordelia saw that she had the features that matched the description of the Black Queen. She was there, in the real world. How is this possible? The Black Queen was a fictional character. She can’t be real, but when she looked at her forehead, Cordelia could make out a gold medallion on her forehead that had three small half-moons on it. That confirmed that she was the Black Queen.

Fifteen minutes raced by, then half an hour. Cordelia couldn’t turn her head, and the woman moved in and out of view. She inspected Professor Branch’s equipment. She toured the adjourning classrooms. Objects stirred and shifted slightly whenever she walked near them. She had gravimetric field coming from her body. The Black Queen said some words so fast that Cordelia could not make out what she was saying.

An hour passed, then another. Cordelia’s fear came and went and came back in a rush of a river escaping from the damn it was being held back. She was sure that the Black Queen was planning something. In the novels, she would always send her Space Hounds to attack the people of the village. The Space Hounds had a foul odor about them that reminded people of fifteen-day old shit from someone’s ass. In some way though the fact that she did not smell the Space Hounds was a good sign, but what was the Black Queen’s agenda?

The Black Queen seemed barely aware that she was in a room full of people. There was something grotesquely cosmic about her --- her silence was that of an actress who was being paid not to say anything. She appeared to be solid for one moment and then vanished another. She had heard that the Black Queen was from another reality, seeing what she was doing confirmed what she had heard growing up. A large camera was pointed at the Black Queen, it wasn’t recording but the Queen walked towards it and put her hand through it --- she didn’t punch it or anything, but she just forced her hand into it, breaking the glass, snapping the camera in half like breaking a cracker. She was satisfied that the piece of equipment was destroyed. She liked causing havoc everywhere she went.

Class should have been over hours ago. Someone on the outside must have noticed by now. Where were they? Where was Ashman? Where the hell was that dead guy who likes to visit the school every now and then? Cordelia wished she knew what Raleigh was thinking. She wished she could turn around and warn the entire class. She wanted to see Christina’s face.

Olivia voice broke the silence. She must have gotten lose somehow and was using some form of technology to counter the Black Queen’s influence over time. The tech was nothing like Cordelia had seen before. It was designed to disrupt any interruption in the flow of time. Cordelia wondered how she could get her hands on such technology and knew that now was the right time to use it. But before she could finish manipulating the tech. The silence returned.

Morning turned to afternoon in the same way it would in a dream sequence of a badly scripted reality television show. Cordelia was going numb. She heard signs of activity from the outside. She could only see one window but that was out of the corner of her eye, but she knew that something was going on outside. Then, it happened, a bright flash of light struck the door with such force that it exploded open. Cordelia could hear voices from behind the door before it opened. None of this bothered the woman dressed in all black.

In the window, the winds were increasing slightly and Cordelia noticed a yellow flower had been flying around in the wind and landed on the glass. Cordelia watched it. The wind was blowing the flower around at all kinds of angles. It was almost as if some kind of alien technology was controlling the weather. All she wanted to do was move and warn every one of the danger.

She must have slipped into a trance, or fallen asleep --- Cordelia couldn’t remember. She woke up to the sound of a man singing softly under his voice. It was an old Colonial inspirational song design to give people luck on the battlefield:

The man is riding high

On chariots that light the sky

Don’t FEAR the evil of the night

Just make sure you are ready to fight.

For some strange reason, she could start singing the song. Then without warning, the Black Queen vanished.

It happened so quickly, so rapidly that at first Cordelia did not notice that the Black Queen was gone. In any event, her departure was upstaged by Professor Branch, who was standing on stage with his mouth open. Then, to the shock of the students, when the flow of time resumed, Professor Branch could not say anything, but he knocked himself cold on the stone floors.

Cordelia tried to stand up. She wanted to tell her classmates that they had just been attacked. Her heart was racing one thousand beats per minute. She was afraid. Just when she found a new home, just when she got settled down, now her home was in danger from the very people who destroyed the world of her birth. Her legs felt like rubber, she couldn’t lift them. Eventually she fell to the floor like the rest of her classmates She was in agony and she kept wondering what her parents were doing. Were they even aware of the danger? Were they aware the people that destroyed their planet were not on Earth and for that matter the Black Queen is freaking real? How the hell can someone explain that? Waves of pain invaded her body, the pain eventually released her arms, then her knees, then her legs, and eventually the rest of her body. The Black Queen had long since vanished and nothing terrible had happened. Christina and Raleigh were groaning, too. The entire room was like that. Cordelia was just happy that everyone was alive.

Afterwards Cordelia would learn that Ashman had mustered the entire staff almost immediately, as soon as the Black Queen made her appearance. The alien technology they got from the Colonial’s gave them warning although they had various charms and other devices to give them warning should otherworldly beings appear without notice, but the alien tech helped. From what Cordelia was told, Ashman made a surprisingly competent battlefield commander: calm, organized, rapid and cool under pressure, skillful in his deployment of the staff and people who were trained to deal with the Black Queen. If Cordelia did not know any better, she would swear that Ashman got training from the military officials from her home world.

Over the course of the morning an entire field of anti-protons had been constructed outside of the tower. This was the first time that the staff was using the technology. They had been trained on it by the Colonial officers that gave them the tech but this was an all Earth side operation. Professor Cole, even helped to defend the school. Who knew girlfriend had skills. Professor Rickman had heroically tried to use the Colonial tech to phase himself through the wall, but was repelled and set flying flat on his ass. Even Professor Garrett, the overweight half blind black guy who considers himself a guest lecture tried to use computer programming to disrupt the force field, even his smarts couldn’t drop the field surrounding the classroom that Cordelia was in.

That evening after dinner, after the unusual announcements about clubs, events and activities had been conducted, the students attended to, Director Ashman called a campus wide meeting. In her three years of attending Arcadia Academy, she had never seen or been to a campus wide meeting. But he had one mission, one purpose, one goal and that was to explain what had happened.

The dining room was packed full all the students. The First Years sat together at the back as usual, the Second Years sat in their little section, Cordelia sat with the Third Years closer to the front, the few Fourth-Year students sat in their section towards where the staff was sitting, there were no Fifth-Year students as the only two the school had graduated six months ago.

Ashman, under normal circumstances, was a happy guy, a man that everyone wanted to be around. Many people thought of Ashman as that family member you go to when you needed help with something. The crazy uncle that always looked after you, slipped you an extra twenty dollars or given you the last hard piece of candy that was in his stash. He wasn’t in that mood and that did not go unnoticed by the students as they ate dinner.

“If you haven’t figured it out by now, we are not alone in the universe,” he began and he was looking directly at Cordelia when he said that. “Ms. Alldice over there may be human but she wasn’t born on Earth. She was born on a world nearly sixty light years from here is that right Cordelia?”

“Yes, Director Ashman,” Cordelia said as she held her left arm which suffered a burn. No one, not even Raleigh or Christina noticed the burn at first.

“Thank you and I promise you, I’m not trying to bring up painful memories of your past, but I think it will help the students to better understand what happened here today if you wouldn’t mind standing up in front of everyone and explaining what happened the day your world was destroyed five years ago. Would you mind doing that for us?”

“It’s okay.” Cordelia said standing up. She hated going to the front of the group and speaking but if the school was attacked by the Black Queen and if she was part of the forces that destroyed her world. The students needed to know what was going on and what to expect yet.

She slowly walked up to the front of the dining room. Hundreds of eyes watching her as she made her way up front to the dining hall. She has never told anyone this story before. Everyone was glued to their television sets five years ago when the Colonials as they called themselves arrived in the Earth solar System.

Cordelia remembered that day as she was one of the first humans along with her mother and father to set foot on Earth and once their translators was adjusted to Colonial speak, they were amazed at how similar their languages were. A dialogue was opened and eventually the Colonials were given permission to settle on Earth.

In fact, none of the Colonials have told the story that Cordelia was about to tell her classmates. The destruction of their home world understandably is a very sensitive topic with anyone from that system and the journey to get to earth, the fear, the terror they experienced the five years they made the trip.

“Many of us don’t talk about what I’m about to tell you. It’s only been a year since the nightmares stopped. Six years ago, our world, we called it the Colonial Home world was attacked by an alien species. We don’t know who they were, they never answered our hails, they just attacked.”

She took a deep breath, “I was eleven years old when our world was attacked. Ironically the day after my birthday which is equivalent to December 7th. I was at my grandfather’s house celebrating when guards came in and got all of us together and we drove like crazy trying to make it to the space port to make it to my father’s cruiser.” Cordelia was fighting back the urge to cry as Director Ashman put his hand on her shoulder.

“If this is too painful for you ----“

“No, my counselor says I have to talk about this eventually. I been holding this in for a long time. A second cruiser carrying eighty of my family members blew up just as our ship took off. We only had nine ships in all that had enough space for half a million of our people. By the time we left orbit, our world blew up. We made it out of the system in time.” A tear struggled to escape her eye lid. “Eight billion of our people died that day, including my brothers who were all military officers. I cried for six months after that.”

“Thank you, Cordelia, you can return to your seat now.”

Cordelia gathered herself and returned to her seat. Raleigh grabbed her by the left hand as she sat down. She wanted to cry but did not want to display her emotions. Christina touched her right shoulder.

“Our world changed five years ago when her people stepped foot on our soil. They exchanged technologies with us, we signed treaties with them and exchanged secrets with them, but one secret they exchanged with us that confirmed what I always believed was proven to be true when they showed us that parallel words do indeed exist.”

“The woman who attacked the Third Years earlier today is someone Cordelia knows as the Black Queen. We do not know what she wants only that when she appears on a planet, five years of hell follows after her before she ultimately destroys it.”

“Her motivations are difficult to guess.” He sighed heavily. “Even such weak and pathetic species as us, has to have something she wants. Our life force, something in our waters, no one knows. The Colonials most famous author Celeron Belgrave had written a series of novels which was popular. Now, considering this incident, we now must assume that maybe, just maybe, the events that happened in the Mount Arm-Joy novels have a basis or as we like to say on Earth, was possibly inspired by real life events. For right now, we just don’t know.”

Ordinarily, Ashman projected an air of confidence and certainly, tempered by the natural ability to put up with strange, almost non-human like behavior he gets to see in his position as director of Arcadia Academy, but that night, he looked lost, disoriented. He couldn’t concentrate and that worried a lot of the students. It worried staff members too.

“The incident is over now. The students who witnessed the incident will be examined medically and psychologically, and then cleansed in case the Black Queen left something behind. We can’t have spies in our mist. Make no mistake, we’re at a critical moment in human history and I will not let this world fall, not on my watch. Tomorrow’s classes are canceled.”

He wiped his mouth clean, stood up and left the room. Everyone thought he would have more to say.

But all that came later. Lying on her bed in her room, Cordelia only felt good things. She was just happy she was alive. She had seen the Black Queen, up close and personal and survived to tell the tale. Ingle and Lisa would never believe her anyway if she told them what happened. She never thought she would be so grateful for the nice soft bed that was part of her dorm room. She had cried for twenty minutes because of the painful memories she had been forced to live through again because of the Black Queen’s appearance. The first thing she wanted to do, she realized, was to put her hands around Raleigh’s big strong chest. She was becoming seriously attracted to him and wondered if he felt the same way about her.

What Cordelia did not know yet was that Olivia was dead. The Black Queen had killed her, with a blast from her hand.

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