~~

Trinity

~~

I acted entirely on instinct. I did not even let a single second pass before I was already moving to save Aunt Glory. I wasn't the only one who was already on the move either. Trevor had sprung into action to protect his mate the moment that Hibiscus screamed and so did many of my guards as well as Aunt Glory's guards.

None of them were faster than I was, though. I moved to save Aunt Glory without even moving from my spot.

I lashed out with a whip: long, blue, shining and made of pure water magic. It slashed across the platform we were standing on and wrapped around Hibiscus's waist in just a fraction of a second.

Once the whip was around the crazy, psychotic bitch I pulled back as hard as I could. Hibiscus's forward trajectory was halted and reversed it was almost comically, as I watched the way her whole body jerked when she flew backwards.

I slammed the 'would be Queen killer' against the ground a few times, creating a pleasant sounding thud each time. After that, I wrapped my whip around Hibiscus's entire body, trapping her in a cocoon of my magic. Now that she wasn't able to move, I suspended her in the air, leaving her body to dangle above the ground, while she continued to scream wordlessly in anger.

"NO! NO! THIS IS NOT RIGHT! NO! LET ME GO! I SWEAR I WILL KILL HER! SHE DESERVES TO DIE! I SHOULD BE THE QUEEN! ME! NOT HER! SHE IS A HORRIBLE PERSON! SHE HAS RUINED MY LIFE! SHE HAS TAKEN IT ALL FROM ME! I WILL KILL HER! I WILL KILL HER! KILL HER! KILL HER! KILL HER! KILL HER!" She was nearly frothing at the mouth by the time that she was done with her explosive display. There was no doubting that this woman was unbalanced, unhinged, and completely insane. She was so far beyond reality that she couldn't see what was truly happening right in front of her. I wondered for a moment what caused it, but I was too busy trying to protect those around me instead.

At the same time that I had pulled Hibiscus back, Trevor had gotten to his mate's side. Right now, he was pressing her against his chest as he held her in his arms.

"No, the only one around here that deserves to die is you, Hibiscus." Trevor was yelling at the crazy woman that had just tried to overthrow the Queen in front of all these people.

"What do you even know about it, shifter? You are not one of us, so you have no say in any of our affairs." Hibiscus snapped at Trevor in response to his words.

"I am her mate. I have every right to defend her and to sentence you to death." He growled at her.

"Her mate." Hibiscus's eyes turned black, pure black. There was no trace of the pink and yellow that her eyes usually held and there were no whites of her eyes left, everything about the turned pure black. "You have no mate, bear. You have no mate and the woman in your arms is trying to kill you. Kill her. Kill her to protect yourself. Get rid of the traitor that you hold against yourself."

As Hibiscus spoke, I saw a yellow mist or powder of some sort coming out of her mouth. That stuff coming out of her mouth was almost like the pollen of a flower, only larger. Or that's what it looked like anyway.

That pollen, for that's what I was going to call it for now, was flying right at Trevor as if it was being blown right into his face on a strong wind. There was no way that I would have been able to stop the pollen once I knew what was happening.

It hit Trevor in the face immediately and I saw him drop Aunt Glory from his arms and drop to his knees while he put the heels of hands against his eyes.

"Shit!" I knew that this wasn't going to be good. I now had to subdue my friend before the spell could be broken. At least now we knew how Hibiscus was controlling people.

Knowing how she had done it wasn't the important part of this right now, though. What really mattered was that now Trevor was blinking the confusion from his eyes, and I saw that they were just as dazed and confused as the guards had been earlier. He was under that bitch's control right now, and that meant that she could make him do anything that she wanted right now.

"Killer!" Trevor's voice was just as dazed sounding as his eyes looked. "Murderer. You're trying to kill me." He was speaking slowly, almost like someone had slowed him down magically so they could watch a superfast scene in slow motion. "I will kill you for this."

"Trevor, no. I love you. I'm your mate."

"I have no mate." He was still moving slow, much slower than any of the others had been earlier.

I had a feeling that the strength of the love he had for his mate was stopping the spell from taking full effect. That was the only thing that I could think of.

"Aunt Glory! Kiss him. Break the spell like he broke it for you. His love for you is slowing down the spell, kiss him and wake him up."

"Trinity?" She looked at me like that was not what she was expecting. Not to mention, she was the Queen, and shouldn't be seen acting so shameful in front of her people.

"Kiss him, Aunt Glory. It's the only way to break the spell."

"OK."

Aunt Glory looked back at Trevor with love filled eyes. The pain and sadness that she had felt just moments ago, when he said he didn't have a mate, had completely vanished when she looked into his eyes.

"I love you, Trevor." She smiled at him and threw herself at him as he started to slowly get to his feet.

Aunt Glory was much smaller than Trevor, so her weight didn't seem to bother him at all as he stood. He rose to his full height with her dangling from his neck and she pressed her lips to his.

I watched as Trevor moved a hand away from Aunt Glory and shifted it into a lethal looking bear paw that was tipped with five inch long claws.

"No!" I screamed as I watched his hand start to move toward Aunt Glory's back.

There was no need for me to worry though. By the time that Trevor's hand had reached Aunt Glory's body it had become the very large hand of a man once again. Trevor was now cradling the back of his mate's head as he kissed her back.

"NO!" Hibiscus screamed, not having believed me that the kiss would work. "This is impossible." She was thrashing around in her bindings, trying to get free.

"You've met your match, Hibiscus." I yelled at her, a smile on my lips as I thought about how she had lost this battle. "It's over now."

"That is what you think. It's not over until I say it is." Hibiscus's voice was that of a mad woman whenever she opened her mouth to speak. However, right now I could tell that she was about to cast another spell and I couldn't let that happen.

"Give it up, Hibiscus."

"Never." She spat the words as she looked around. "YOU!" She was eyeing someone among my group of soldiers, knights, and friends. "You will kill the interloper. You will destroy Queen Trinity. Stop her. Kill her. Kill her." She spoke fast and this time the yellow spores were flying before she was done with her little speech.

Once the words were spoken, I just watched on with slight surprise as I waited to see who she had chosen to be the new target of the spell. Hibiscus was bound to choose someone that she thought would be able to destroy me with their physical prowess or speed. I knew that she wanted me dead as soon as possible. I just wondered who it was that she was going to try and kill me with.. I wasn't worried about it all, I would just need to trap them in a cage or something.