Chapter 57 - Lost II - The Royal Hybrid

Tatiana’s POV

It had been a week since the funeral, and everything seemed to slowly get back to normal. We were all still grieving, no doubt about that, but we also had a life we needed to get back to because all the upcoming problems didn't wait for anything or no one.

People came up to us the first few days after, wishing us their best along with their condolences. Despite the fear I had that I wouldn’t be accepted within the pack, people came up to me and told me how they looked forward to seeing what kind of queen I would become. It was really odd for me to get such positive comments from people. Going from being a freak to being the future queen Luna was really something, but it didn’t come without doing the hard work it required.

Losing Lucas only put everything into a bigger perspective, and I knew that no matter what kind of work I had to do, or how many nights I had to spend training, I would. I now not only had made my brother a promise, but also the rest of the pack and for ones the people given that promise was actually looking forward to seeing it and wishing me the best.

Kathleen and I had been spending quite a lot of time together too. I learned from her that she had been volunteering to go on missions regarding Killian’s whereabouts and she even proved her loyalty when she interrogated her own brother.

It had hurt in my heart to see the hatred she now carried toward him, especially after I had lost my own brother, but I wasn’t going to be the one who would try to push her back to him. After all, he wasn’t a good person and all he wanted to do, was to do Killian’s bidding for him in order to gain more power himself. She had told me how he even out loud during one of the interrogations had said that, if it would mean that he got more power, he would even go as far as sacrificing his own sister to get it and that nothing was going to stand in his way.

I had seen the hurt in her eyes as she spoke and as I could not remove the pain or make him take back those horrible words, I simply just hugged and wished her the best on her upcoming mission before we both returned to Zaya’s tower where Kathleen would watch my training before her departure.

The past few days had on my account been filled with training, along with more failures and only some success, but hey a little success counts too, right? As for today, it wasn't any different.

Kathleen had left for her mission earlier this morning; Hayden was training the pups and Gabriel was training amongst the warriors so we all had our own stuff to look after.

“You did good today,” Zaya smiled. “You are improving very fast.”

“You call this doing good?” I laughed as I pointed to a broken table, the small holes in the walls, and a bookshelf that was no longer attached to the wall or attached at all. Only a few books on it had managed to survive my many attacks and how I did not know.

“It is better than a few days ago,” she pointed out. “At least this time you have made holes that went through and through.”

She let her hand run over the shattered bricks and I watched once again as she fixed it all as if it had never happened before.

“I don’t think I will ever get used to seeing that,” I yawned.

“If you keep breaking it, I am sure you will get used to it at some point.”

This time it was her who laughed before she yawned as well.

“It is getting rather late,” she hummed. “You should go to bed so we can get an early start in the morning.”

I had already regretted that I told her that we had no time to spare for this. I missed sleeping in and what I missed, even more, was being out and around with those I love.

After the funeral, I had spent every waking moment in this tower. I didn’t even leave to eat as the food was being brought to me. I took my promise very seriously but as my mom had told me a few days back, I needed to remember that there was more to life and now that I had a life to live, I should go live it as well.

“Do you mind if we start a bit later?” I asked slowly.

“I thought you wanted it to be bright and early?”

“I do,” I assured her. “But I miss having breakfast with the others and two hours won’t matter much, right?”

She bent down and picked up the books that were still whole.

“Two hours will matter,” she said. “But I sometimes forget that you have a life other than this and that I am not my mother,” she frowned.

“Your mother? She was the elder witch before you right?”

“She was, I’m surprised you remember me telling you that,” she grinned.

“Of course, I do,” I chuckled. “She was a good one, wasn’t she?”

“She was the very best to ever exist, but she took her duties very seriously and it ended up being brought over to me when I started to show my magic powers. Every morning, every noon, and every night was spent practicing spells and potions. I sometimes need to remind myself that even I have more to life than just having my head stuck in that old book,” she laughed. “Tomorrow after breakfast then. Now off you go.”

I nodded slowly and with a smile, I exited the room. Zaya was tough and she kept to the rules a lot, but she was fun, and she cared a lot as well. You may not notice it at first but all she ever did was for everyone’s best. Yes she could be strict as hell and she reminded me a lot of one of the teachers I had in my own pack, but the difference with her was that whenever you had done something right or good, she would reward you whereas in the old pack all you’d get was another job to do and one they expected you to do even better than the last.

I reached my bedroom, the dim light of the moon lighting up the area with my bed. I didn’t even bother undressing. I was tired, no, not just tired, I was mentally and physically used up for, not only the day, but the rest of the week and so when I let my body hit the softness of my mattress, I instantly fell asleep.

The hall was filled with darkness in one half and light in the other. The ground beneath my feet was soft, so very soft that it almost felt like it wouldn’t be able to carry my weight even though it did it without any problems. The air was still, there were no scents to smell and in all, it felt as if there was no wight to the place, almost as if I was floating and gravity had suddenly disappeared. It was not a place I had been before and when I finally took a closer look around I discovered that I wasn’t alone.

People were walking all around me with their heads down not looking up even when passing me. It was as if they didn’t notice I was there.

I took a few steps forward, walking towards the lighter side when I noticed a figure staring at me in the distance.

“Hello?” I asked as I waved.

The head of the person quickly bend down and before I had the chance to stop them, they had turned around to walk away.

“Hey! Wait up!” I called and ran after them, but the distance didn’t seem to close in between us. “Hey! I just want to know where I am! Can you tell me? Please?!” I yelled as I began running but no matter how fast I tried to run, I still didn’t get any further.

“He-“ I was cut off by someone stepping right in front of me.

Looking up, about to give a scolding for scaring the shit out of me, I lost every word I had been prepared to say as I stared into the face of my brother.

“L-Lucas?” I stuttered out. “What-“

“There is no time,” he rushed. “Tati, you need to wake up!”

“Wake up? What are you talking about?” I laughed dryly as I shook my head. "Is this a dream?"

“This is nothing like a dream! You need to wake up! Now!” he yelled as he grabbed my upper arms and began shaking me. “Wake up!”

I sat up panting, panicking slightly as I tried to reach for the nightstand to turn on the light. My fingers grabbed the switch but no matter how I turned it, the light wouldn’t turn on.

“What the…” I mumbled.

I flicked with it a few more times until I suddenly felt someone else’s presence. Someone was here, in my room with me. I held my breath as I flickered the light one more time to throw off whoever was in my room and make them believe that I hadn’t felt them yet. As I flickered it my left hand went to the top of the drawer where there was a small hidden space, just big enough for my pocketknife to be placed. Once I curled my fingers around it, I pushed the small button and made the blade appear before I let go of the lamp, turned around as fast as I could, and pointed the knife out into the room.

“Who is here?” I asked through gritted teeth.

It was quiet and the only thing I could hear was my own breathing until I suddenly held it in again as I scouted the darkness of the room and then another’s low breathing made itself present.

“I will not ask again,” I threatened.

“I didn’t expect you to wake up,” a way too familiar voice said and when they stepped out of the corner and into the still dim moonlight shining through my windows, my eyes widened in shock and my heart started to pound.

“Why are you here?” I asked. “Shouldn’t you be elsewhere? How did you even manage to get here?"

Despite the tone of my voice, I didn’t lower my knife. I didn’t know why, but when I as much as thought about lowering it, my body wouldn’t comply and with the dream I just had… It wasn’t a dream. I was sure of it.

“I knew that would be your first question. Now… Why don’t you ask me what you really want to know since you aren’t lowering your weapon?”

“Why are you here?” I asked again, this time with a steadier voice. “What I want to know is just that, and also, why do you have that in your hand? How do you have that?” I asked as I nodded toward the silver dagger from Zaya’s tower.

“Simple enough,” Chad chuckled. “I came to do what I have been asked to.”