~Elise~
Elise’s eyes darted nervously as she stepped onto the Proving Grounds, following Athena and Swallowtail. Her sister was walking into a death trap!
The beta Callie was here; the kappa Sydney too. And poor Helene, cowering. Elise’s eyes flicked to Swallowtail.
“I hope you die regretting how you hurt your children,” said her sister, ever an incendiary woman. “You were once a good queen I hear, Queen Athena.”
The Mad Queen lunged, fire flaring. Elise rushed to Helene as the girl let out a wracking sob. “It’s alright, Helene. Nothing will happen to you.”
Athena tried to dive for Swallowtail’s throat, and the nimble young warrioress stepped aside, letting Athena land a half hit with sharp claws that tore a few surface scratches in her shoulder; Athena skidded in the soil. Swallowtail lunged after her, pummeling the Mad Fire Queen with a half hit that, if full, would’ve torn open her side; as it was her sister’s teeth latched on and ripped a large swathe of skin off Athena’s side, making Sindri’s queen shriek.

~Sydney~
Swallowtail’s painful half hit was followed up by another one, pummeling Athena in the face and blinding the queen in one eye; Sydney guessed that if it had been a full hit both would have been slashed and torn. She realized that Athena stood no chance-Swallowtail was an expert fighter, an agile woman unhampered by insanity. The Fire Queen, Sydney’s queen, the queen of Sindri, was going to die here and now.
Athena’s howls ripped to the sky. She whirled toward her challenger and sent a web of fire right at her face and throat, the crackling flames hot enough to send their heat to Sydney.
Swallowtail crouched, and the fire ignited a tree and several bushes some twenty feet behind her; she faced the queen. “You used your ability,” she told the woman, serenely. “I get to use mine now.” And quick as the strike of a viper, she called water to her, twisted it into the sky, and shot it, faster than a speeding bullet, straight through Athena’s heart.

~Helene~
Her mother was no longer the queen.
Her mother was dead, she had been murdered by this Swallowtail woman. No. She had to face the facts-it wasn’t a murder; it was a fair, clean kill.
She was safe, wasn’t she? At least from her mother, Sindri’s Mad Queen. But what would the new queen do to Helene, given who she was?
Elise supported her as tears ran down her face; she was vaguely aware of Swallowtail calling a pack meeting.
This could be it for her.

“Baby, I been, I’ve been praying hard!”