Chapter 65 - Lost II - The Royal Hybrid

Tatiana’s POV

I woke up with a mouth as dry as the desert itself. The tingling sensation I had felt for the past few days was finally starting to fade a little and the pain of a knife twisting in my gut had finally disappeared. When Chad first told me about his plan, I was skeptical, to say the least.

I gawked at him so intensely that it felt like my eyeballs would pop out at any second and yet all I saw on his face was the same serious, yet calm expression he had since he told me what he had in mind.

“You can’t possibly be serious,” I exclaimed almost tripping over my own tongue.

“I am,” he nodded confirming that he was indeed not joking. “This is the best way, Tatiana.”

“But-“

“The only way,” he added, interrupting me before I could even figure out what to say.

“No, I refuse to do this to them Chad. I just lost my brother, and that pain is still lingering in me every single day… Another loss like that?” I tried to calm myself by breathing before continuing. “This won’t just be hurting them,” I said trying to choke the sob bubbling in my throat before it could be heard. “It will hurt my mom and dad too. No… It will kill them.”

“It might hurt, yes, kill them? No, but it will work,” he assured me not looking the slightest bit bothered.

“Have you ever lost someone Chad?” I asked, my voice filling with venom. “Have you ever truly loved someone only for them to be taken away from you? Only for you to be trying your damn best to either save them or find another way to keep them alive, only to fail miserably and watch them fade away right in front of you?”

“I am guessing you are speaking about your brother here, aren’t you?” he asked, his back turned to me so I couldn’t see his face, but the annoyance in his voice was clear.

“Fuck you Chad,” I spat. “I was there you know,” I gulped. “I saw him die, I felt him take his very last breath as he leaned his dying body on my shoulder, and then just like that, just like he was living just a second ago, just as fast he was gone. Do you have any idea how much that pains a person?”

“No, not a clue,” he hummed.

“Well, let me tell you this then, it hurts like hell and now you want me to fake my own death and let not only my parents, but my mates as well feel that pain once again? I can’t believe you.”

I never understood Chad. Not when we were kids and definitely not now. He said he had a plan, but this is not a plan… This would be torture and not for me, but for them.

“They won’t get to say goodbye as I did with Lucas. They will just be left in the unknown…” I trailed off closing my eyes shut as I tried to force the images of my grieving family out of my mind but they wouldn’t budge. The sight of them standing in front of yet another coffin… It was just too much.

He turned to me slowly after I stopped talking, and looked me dead in the eye before sighing.

“I know, but at least they will get to say hello again,” he pointed out. “This won’t be a goodbye; this will be what saves you all. They just… They won’t know that,” he shrugged and it was then I noticed something about him.

He didn’t seem like he knew how to act… How to show his emotions to another being than himself.

I held my tongue, restraining myself from bursting out the many spiteful words that had come to my mind, and instead took a deep breath. I had it rough being Killian’s fake daughter, so I could only imagine how Chad must have had it being his own blood and only true heir.

“It will hurt them,” I pointed out.

“I know it will, it will hurt you too for the first few days but trust me when I tell you that it will be for the better.”

He stuck his hand into a small pocket inside the duffle bag he was holding and pulled out a small glass container. He handed it to me and pointed at it while speaking.

“What you see there is a mixture of potions and magic,” he explained.

“Where did you get this?” I asked as I twirled the vial, containing a shimmering blue substance, in my hands.

“I met a witch once, a good one,” he clarified before I could even ask. “She was helping women or more precisely battered women escape from their possessive and abusive mates. She came up with this potion that could fake their death to such a degree that even their mates would believe they had died even without seeing the body. Because of the mate bond, it would also go in and block every scent they had remembered that involved their mate so it would make tracking them down impossible.”

“That sounds…” I was too stunned to continue.

I had no idea that such a thing even existed and yet here it was in my very own hand.

“Impressive right?”

“Yeah,” I breathed. “How did you get your hands on one? After all you aren’t a battered woman,” I sniggered before being able to stop myself.

“Good to see you still have the same crappy humor,” he snorted. “And she has a friend who is special in other ways. She was a seer and she had-“

“Foreseen that you would come?”

“Yes and no,” he chuckled. “She had seen what the world would look like if Killian were to succeed. She also saw images of you and of me so when I appeared…”

“They gave it to you without questioning?” I asked, my eyebrow raised.

“Pretty much,” he shrugged. “All they asked were if you were happy with the mates you had.”

“Which I am,” I nodded.

“Which,” he said in a mocking tone. “Is why I said that too and why they made this.”

He held up yet another glass container but this one was filled with a green substance that reminded me way too much of a musty swamp.

“And that is?”

“The way to reverse it,” he said so casually that I nearly didn’t get what it meant.

“Wait,” I exclaimed and grabbed his arm. “You are telling me that this won’t be permanent? That I can have them back once all of this is over?”

“Yes, so… Bottoms up, princess,” he snickered and nodded towards my hand.

“This better work,” I sighed before I downed the grainy blue substance that the little vial contained.

“It will,” he assured me. “I promise.”

And then it began. The pain, the burning, the, what seemed to be never-ending, screams erupting from my mouth as I lay on the ground twisting in pain.

After feeling firsthand what magic like this could feel like, I made a mental note to never piss off Zaya.

“How are you feeling?” Chad asked as he came into the room with a tray, filled to the brim with food and other goodies, in his hands.

After I had taken the medicine, as I liked to call it, he had moved us to a small inn to make sure that I would be okay and thank the moon goddess for that. I couldn’t imagine going through all of that and all I had to lie down on would be the cold and wet concrete.

“I am feeling much better,” I yawned and stretched out.

“Good, because from what I have been hearing around town, things are about to get heated,” he sighed as he put the tray down on the bed and walked over to the window, pulling the curtain slightly to the side to see out and when he turned back around, his face looked grim. “It’s about to begin.”