^Good song above^

Might be a spoiler for this chapter but I'll let you choose if you want to listen to it now or after. I was debating about picking one with just lyrics or this one but I like this one more.

*Hecate*

What the hell am I doing? I thought, laying face first into my pillows. I should be catching up on all the shows I missed.

Even as I told myself that, I had little motivation to move.

Did I screw up? Did-did I really do something wrong? No. Then why was I so upset?

I yelled into my pillows, kicking my feet and banging my fists against the bed.

"Umm..."

I looked up. Quin was standing by the door, just clicking it closed.

"Didn't we just get in a fight or something? I did't even get a ten minutes break, cause that'd be really nice."

"I'm sorry."

I shrugged. "You didn't do anything wrong."

I plopped my face back into the pillow. I felt the bed move beneath me and I knew he was sitting down.

"Yes, I did. I was harsh. Too harsh."

I tried to let out a sigh into the pillow, but it turned into more of an attempted sigh before I realized it was hard to breath into pillows. So yeah.

I pushed myself until I was leaning against the wall that the bed was pushed up against. I pulled my legs up until my arms were wrapped around my knees.

"It's not like...you were wrong."

"What?"

I brushed my hand through my hair. "You-you weren't wrong, or anything. I really was planning on dying. My life was...nothing but a burden to my people. Like I told you, I make them want to fight."

He came over until he was leaning against the wall besides me. "No, you make them want to live."

"And for us, living is dangerous."

"Is that what you think or is that because of Alex?"

My head jolted up and I was looking at him. "Alex..."

"Why don't you tell me about Alex, okay?"

"Did she..."

"Yeah."

I let out a sigh. Slowly, I reached my hand out to touch his forehead, but he'd caught my wrist, stopping me.

"I don't want to see it, Hecate, I want to hear it."

I glared at him, letting my head fall back with a big thud.

"Fine."

---

Alexandria Chevalier, or Alex for short, was a cute little magician girl, born in Paris France. Not like your thinking. The girl wasn't born in a hospital, she was born at home. Well, as home as home can be.

She wasn't royalty or anything special. No, she was at the bottom of the human food chain, because Alexandria was the daughter of a prostitute.

Her mother traveled with a group of widows that specialized in a number of illegal skills.

Still, that didn't mean her mother didn't love her. No, to Alex was beloved by every member of the traveling group, especially her mother. Having no father didn't matter to her, not in the least. Besides, her father probably didn't even know she existed. If he did, he'd want nothing to do with her.

So, when little Alex set her book on fire, all that time ago when she was three, the women of the group knew she was special. And they went to great lengths to teach her control.

No, they'd never get rid of their special little gift. They cherished her even more. From saving money to buy her tutors off the black market, to staying up to midnight and keeping watch over her, just in case anything went wrong.

Because in France, magicians are nothing more than slaves. Lower than prostitutes and drug dealers.

"Ma fille douce," her mother told her, "vous serez mieux que moi."

(My sweet girl, you will be better than me.)

Because her mother wanted nothing but the best for the girl. The same could be said for Alex towards her mother.

And things went well. They easily slid past guards and magician hunters and the magicians hunting other magicians because their masters told them to. With the great control Alex easily found in her powers, hiding and running became easy.

Of course, even magic couldn't save some of the women from sickness and disease, which, without real medicines, became common. They lost three women the year Alex turned six.

And the year Alex turned seven, the with Witch Hunt began. All of the King's forces went into finding Magicians and killing them. To hold true to the origin of the name, they even went as far as to burn them at the stake.

Since members of the travelling group were changing, the younger generation saw no benefit in keeping the little sorciere, and even tried to sell her for a bounty. Alex's mother closed for business the next day, and they were gone.

She spent a whole year stealing for the little girl, even taking the consequences of getting caught, which was usually a brutal beating. Eventually, she stopped getting caught, and the little girl wanted to help. So that's what she did. Using her magic, she stole and she lied and she cheated. All for the sake of the woman who still believed in her.

"Pas," he mother told her, when she found out about the tricks she'd been playing, "vos pouvoirs sont un cadeau. Vous ne devez pas devinir moi. Vos etes mieux."

(No, your powers are a gift. You must not become me. You are better.)

And when Alex turned eight, her mother told her her plan. Her mother planned to get them on a plane to America where they could start over and live as humans or die proud. Using old connections in the black market, she managed to find a cargo plane heading over.

And so that's what they did. The plane went smoothly until they actually saw how heavily guarded the plane was. Whatever was in the plane was precious.

Still, it was their chance. Her mother had used the last of her old debts to get this information. So, she rushed the little girl past the guards and onto the plane.

That was when the first gunshot went off. Her mother, who was behind her, fell.

"Courir!" Her mother yelled. "Masquer."

But she couldn't leave the woman who had meant to world to her. She stepped around the fallen woman, tears streaming down her face, and raised her hands.

A fire, so bright a furious, consumed everything that was in front of her, singeing her own hands and clothes. Fire. That had always been Alex's breaking point. Because fire was something angry and furious and yet so passionate. All things she had never known. But she did know that fire was a weapon used to burn and hurt and destroy. And that's what her fire did.

She turned, face stained with tears yet still smiling. Until she saw the crumpled woman behind her. Burt crispy and charred black.

Alex never understood passion and fury and anger and rage, so when she tried to use it as a weapon, it consumed her.

She didn't cry for long, because she knew she had to run. People were running towards the plane.

So she ran and she hid like the coward of a monster she was.

In France, little Alex was the monster.

The plane turned out to be hiding not cargo, but magicians. All bound with silencers. Once they got to America, Alex had already freed them all. They fought there way out. They offered to help their young savior, but she refused.

In America, she helped others. She was done being helped and hurting others. So she dedicated her life to it. She studied to become smart and learned the different forms and uses of magic.

In America, there was no more Alexandria Chevalier. In America, there was Hecate. Not a monster daughter of a prostitute who'd killed her own mother and ran. A Queen who helped and saved and healed.

Alex was dead.

Long live the queen.

---

*Quin*

I don't know what I was expecting from her story, but that wasn't it.

"I should've died instead of Mom. She was so perfect and strong and brave. I wish my fire had consumed me instead. She would've done anything to help people."

I draped my arm over her shoulder. She was curled up, forehead pressed against her knees. I think she was crying but there really wasn't a way to tell.

"I'm glad you didn't."

"This isn't the time to flirt, jackass."

"I'm not flirting. I mean it. If you didn't live thousands of magicians would be dead. Besides, I don't think your mom planned on getting on that plane."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"It was an older plane, right? If I had to guess, I'd say there were about twenty magicians on that place, not including you."

"How'd you know that?"

"We, the Black Hands still used the place for transportation. It's really made for weighted cargo, but I guess the magicians would be considered just that. It can only hold so much weight before it falls. Twenty and a half magicians, to be exact."

"You're lying."

"I'm not."

You're lying!"

I felt the magic buzzing in the air again. Electricity making my hair stand on edge.

"I'm not."

"No! Mom would never do that! She'd never-"

"Why are you so convinced that you're a monster!" It wasn't even a question at this point, it was just me venting. "You are not a monster! You save lives on a daily basis, Alex! You make people want to live. You. Are. Good."

"I'm not. I'm not good at all. I'm a monster. I'm a killer. Monstre. Muertre. Je ne martite pas de vivre. Je devais juste mourir. Mourir. Mourir. Im un monster. I'm awful. Terrible. I shoul-"

I don't know if it was the electricity or if I just wanted her to shut the hell up, but I had both hand holding her arms to her sides and I was kissing her.

The buzzing in the room turned up a bit. Just enough to send a shock down my spine.

But then her hands were free, pulling themselves through my hair, and I felt her tongue on my lips and-

And she was leaning on my shoulder, still crying.

"Comment je pense que je t'aime vraiment."

"God, I hope that means you love me."

She chuckled into my ear, her breath hot.

"I think."

It was quiet for a minute before she spoke again. "Speaking of, I think I have a theory about the magic absorbing book and the stone. I think they're related which would make sense based off-"

I let her babble on and on and I listened because she needed me to and I wanted to. Because I had my Queen back.

-Author's Note-

Finally decided to be proactive. It only took forever. Anyways, what did you think? Too cheesy? It's pretty cheesy. I kinda like cheesy though so that's okay.

Anyways, part of the reason I took a long break was because I was working on another story called The Hunt which is actually, surprisingly, being received pretty well.

On a final note, Modern Magic is pretty close to done. There's about two more huge plot thingys I gotta write and I plan on it.

So thanks for reading.

Love you all,

~Q