“What?” she asked, turning around, and she felt her heart dropped. This was the last place she wanted to be. “Oh,” she said, kicking the ground, slumping in defeat. How she wished she could be anywhere but there.
“Hey,” Dimitri said softly, but she moved her head away from him so he didn’t see the tears threatening to fall. “Hey,” he said again, this time lifting her face toward him and tilting her chin up. He gently wiped away the tears and took her in his arms. “I know this is overwhelming, but you’ll get past this. You have friends who will be here every step of the way.”
Tatyanna wrapped her arms around his waist and released her anguish. She was so mad she wanted to hit something, but all she could do was cry. Crying wasn’t going to make things any better, yet she found she couldn’t stop. “I should hate you,” she sniffled.
“I didn’t lie to you.”
“No, but you didn’t tell me the truth either.”
“I will give you a point for that, but you shouldn’t hold a grudge against Emmett. He had fought with the Elders for years to tell you the truth. He was only doing what he was told to do.”
“And that’s supposed to make everything better?” she asked, wiping her tear-stained face with his shirt.
He laughed softly, gently rubbing his hand up and down her back. “No, I guess not. But you need to understand he never meant to hurt you. Even now, he went against what he was told to do. He couldn’t handle the lying, or the deception, and decided to tell you the truth.”
Dimitri pulled away from her, but still held her loosely in his arms. He didn’t say anything as he studied her and glanced down when Althea whined softly. He nodded at his animal, as if they were in silent communication with each other. “Come on, let’s go get a drink. I think you could use one.”
Tatyanna peered behind her at the decrepit building. “I’d rather stay out here, if you don’t mind.”
“He’s not in there,” he said.
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” she said, denying the obvious.
He laughed at her. “You suck at lying, Princess. Try again.”
Her shoulders slumped, and she let out a long drawn out sigh. She looked back at the entrance again, and then at Dimitri. “Everyone in there knows who I am, don’t they?”
“Most of them do by now. Maybe not at first, but it is hard to deny who you are now. The blue hair, the tattoo, the necklace…wait what…a necklace? When did you get this?” he asked, holding up her left hand.
“This morning. I woke up to find this strange old man in my room, but I wasn’t scared when I saw him, I felt a calming sensation when he was near, and he gave me this necklace. Before he could explain, Emmett showed up out of nowhere—literally—and the other man disappeared.”
Dimitri’s jaw dropped, “You…you saw Grandfather?” he asked in awe.
“Yeah, I guess so,” she said nonchalantly. “What’s the big deal?”
“He is the oldest of our kind. Some believe he was the first one to walk the Earth. He keeps himself pretty scarce these days, only coming out in great need and then he disappears again. It is an honor to be visited by Grandfather.”
“Huh.”
“And this,” he said, gently taking the necklace out of Tatyanna’s hands, holding it up to the light and making the blue gem inside sparkle. “This is yours. It contains the power of your family. Wearing this means you accept the throne and all the responsibility that comes with it.”
“But what if I don’t accept it? What if I’m not ready?”
He smiled sweetly at her. “You are ready. Don’t you see that? You are stronger than you can imagine, and you won’t be alone. There are so many people who are rooting for you and will be by your side every step of the way. We believe in you. You just need to believe in yourself.”
Tatyanna took the necklace back from Dimitri. It certainly did look old to her, maybe even ancient, and she could feel the power inside humming to her. She knew it belonged to her, and only her. As much as she was scared of what the future held for her, Tatyanna knew she couldn’t let everything go. This was her fate, whether she liked it or not. She handed the necklace back to Dimitri then turned around, holding up her hair. He was happy to oblige. He raised his arms up and moved them in front of her face, laying the pendant against her chest as he clasped it behind her neck. He stepped away from her, dropping to the ground on one knee, a fist over his chest.
Tatyanna turned around and was startled to see Dimitri bowing down to her. She didn’t want to be his superior; she wanted to be his equal. “Please rise, Dimitri. You never have to bow to me again.”
“As you wish, my lady.”
She gave him an evil look. “Enough with this ‘my lady’ crap. I am Tatyanna, and you are Dimitri, that’s it.”
“As you wish,” he said, bowing slightly at her.
“You are being way too nice to me, and you are out of character. Since when did you become the kind of guy to comfort a crying female? And for Pete's sake, swear, or something. You are starting to scare me.”
Dimitri grinned and bowed his head. “As you wish.”
She threw her hands up in frustration and grumbled to herself, heading toward the door. “I think I’ll take that drink now,” she said, leaving Dimitri trailing after her, laughing.
As always, when Tatyanna first entered the bar, she stopped just over the threshold giving her eyes a chance to adjust to the light, or lack thereof. Today was no different, except everything had changed. Gone was the smoke-filled room and the pool tables and darts. But that wasn’t the only change. The people she was used to seeing were now dressed differently. Most of the men were in buckskin clothing, with weapons strapped to their backs, while the women had donned dresses that slid off their shoulders.
“What is going on here?”
“What do you mean?” Dimitri asked, standing close behind her.
“Everything is different. I feel like I just stepped through a portal that took me to another place. Normally it is loud, and everyone is drinking and playing pool, but now there are actual barmaids and weapons strapped to many of the men in here. They are speaking a language that sounds strangely familiar, yet I only am catching every other word. What is going on here?”
“Nothing happened here. When you were just plain Tatyanna, unaware of who you really were, the bar and everyone in it appeared the way you expected it to appear. But now you have taken the step to accepting who you are and the challenges that await you, the bar is what you expect to see. This isn’t your ordinary bar. I know you were half-joking when you said you felt like you stepped through a portal, but that is what this bar is. It’s a place between our world and the human one. Think of it like a rest stop when you are traveling. If you head out the door on the other side of the bar, it will take you to our world. If you head out the door we just came in, it will take you to the parking lot.”
“What if someone comes in here who doesn’t belong? What will they see?”
“They will see a condemned building, on the verge of collapse.
“What about the people? Will they see them?”
“Nope. Everyone here is magic. Outsiders don’t see magical folk, because they don’t believe in magic; so all of us would be invisible to them. Now, there is an exception, but that’s another explanation for another time.”
“Huh.”
“I know, it takes time to adjust to it all, but you are doing remarkably well. Here, take this,” he said, throwing a hooded cape over her shoulders and adjusting the hood so it hid her hair. “Just in case.”
Tatyanna stood there, feeling like an outsider, as the patrons went on their business. She lost count of the number of people who wore weapons, including the women, and it made her wonder what kind of world she came from. She had never been around weapons before, so this would definitely take some getting used to. She had a sinking suspicion she was going to end up taking a crash course in fighting and how to survive in an unknown world, where she didn
’t know what the rules were.
“Can we trust these people? Are they good? Or evil?” she asked, wondering if she should start worrying about her life now, or wait until she makes the journey home.
“They are like humans. There is a mixture of good and evil in everyone. I can’t point and instantly tell you who you can trust and who you can’t, because I honestly don’t know. Maybe, at one time I could have told you but now I can’t. What I will say is anyone Emmett or I leave you alone with can be trusted. But, while we are here, please don’t leave my side, or if you must, take Althea with you. She is loyal to you and will protect you with her life.”
“Why is that?”
“Well, isn’t it obvious?”
“No”
“She is blue,” he said holding out one hand. “You have blue hair.” He held out the other hand, as if he was weighing the two points. “Don’t you see the connection?”
Tatyanna looked bewildered.
Dimitri rolled his eyes. “She comes from Yemaya, the land where you are from. In a way, I guess you could say the two of you are connected. I have raised her from a pup, but one day, she will become yours, like her family has done for centuries, and protect the royal line.”
Tatyanna blinked once, then twice, raising her hands in defeat. “This is all a little too much. I need that drink now.” She headed toward the bar. After the morning she had, Tatyanna was in information overload and didn’t think she could take much more.
It was harder to get to the bar than the last few times she had been there. The room was packed. Everywhere she looked, people were either fighting with each other, men were groping women, or there was some kind of gambling game going on, because she saw a lot of money on several tables, with funny looking dice.
“Excuse me,” she said, squeezing her way past two burly men arguing with each other. When one turned to yell at her to mind her own business, he immediately caught a glimpse of her blue hair that was poking out from under her hooded cape and her necklace, and got down on one knee, bowing down to her. The other man that was part of the ongoing argument pulled a random stranger back by the collar of his shirt and shoved him, causing him to trip over the kneeling man, and he fell into Tatyanna; causing a chain of events which left Tatyanna speechless.
Immediately, Dimitri jumped in front of Tatyanna, shoving the man who fell into her aside. The man jumped to his feet and pulled the axe strapped to his back, waving it around, threatening Dimitri and demanding he apologize for his cruel treatment. When Dimitri stood there, refusing to say anything, the man raised his axe over his head. As he was bringing his arms down, Althea ran through the crowd, leaped into the air, and opened her mouth to grasp the axe by its handle and pushed the man down, landing on top of him. The man screamed, yelling for the beast to get off him, but Dimitri refused to call off his wolf.
“Let him go, Althea,” Tatyanna commanded. Althea whined in protest, but obeyed her mistress, letting go only after she gave the man a deathly glare. She snapped at him, jumping to stand next to Tatyanna’s side, as if she belonged there.
“I demand the right to kill that beast,” the man on the ground bellowed, standing slowly and picking his axe up off the ground. He was a huge man, as tall as he was wide, with arms the size of barrels. He had long, thick, red hair, with a matching braided beard that fell to mid-chest. The man was breathing heavy and had an evil glint in his brown eyes.
“You will come nowhere near her. You harmed her mistress, and she was protecting her,” Dimitri spoke matter-of-factly.
“Really? It looked like she was protecting you. I have the right to have you beaten and hanged for your indiscretions.”
“Under whose authority? This is a safe haven. There is no fighting allowed here.”
“And, yet, your beast walked away unharmed. I say it is allowed now.”
“I asked you a question, under whose authority gives you the right to hurt me, or any other person, or animal, in this room?”
“Prince Larik gave me the right.”
Dimitri’s stature immediately changed, along with about half the people in the room. Althea stood closer to Tatyanna, baring her teeth, and growled, warning people not to come close. Tatyanna wished she knew who they were speaking of, but was too afraid to ask.
As she listened to the two men argue, she felt like she was having a war with herself. A part of her wanted to shove the man to the side and tell him she wasn’t a coward, to prove there was at least one royal out there who would take a stand. But the other part of her wanted to continue to live her life in hiding, one where no one paid much attention to her. As she thought about what was right and wrong, Tatyanna felt her necklace grow warm every time her thoughts turned to announcing who she was, but when she thought about walking out and continuing her life in hiding, her necklace grew cold. It was as if her necklace was telling her what to do.
“Are you admitting you have aligned yourself with him?” Dimitri demanded to know.
“Anyone who doesn’t swear their allegiance to him is asking for a death sentence. He controls our world now that the other royals have ditched their people,” he said, sneering at the word ‘royals.’
“That isn’t what happened, and you know it!” Dimitri said defensively.
“Yeah? Well then, Mr. Know-It-All, where are they?” The man turned around in a circle, holding his hands up in the air, glancing at everyone in the bar. “Have you seen any of the other royals?” he called out to the crowd. He stopped in front of Dimitri. “There you have it. No one has seen them, no one has heard from them. They have deserted us and will not come back to save us. We might as well align ourselves with Larik, or be at his mercy. I don’t know about you, but I want to live.”
“Then, you are a coward,” Tatyanna quietly said.
“What?” The man side-stepped Dimitri to get closer to her.
“You heard me. I called you a coward,” she said again, pushing Dimitri to the side. When he didn’t budge, she laid her hand on his arm. “It’s okay. I know what I’m doing.”
Dimitri gave her a look of uncertainty, but he granted her wish and moved to the side.
“And who are you to question what I do?” the beast of a stranger asked her.
It was the moment of truth. There would be no turning back. Tatyanna had pieced enough things together to know her land, her kingdom, and most importantly, her people needed her. She may not have had the full story, but she was needed to stop the evil from spreading, and today, she was going to announce her intentions.
Tatyanna untied the cape and gently lifted the hood, dropping it to the ground. The bar was completely silenced as they took in her blue hair, her necklace glowing as bright as a star in the night sky, and then stopped at the mysterious tattoo on her right hand. The crowd started to murmur, and Tatyanna knew they recognized her, or at least the signs there was a royal in the room.
“For those of you who don’t know me, I am Tatyanna, the only daughter of Gerulf and Adele, the last rulers of Yemaya.” She took a deep breath, summoning up her courage. “And I am here to save my land, my kingdom, and my people, and to stop Larik.”
Chapter Eleven
A New Queen
“You’re mad,” the man said. “Announcing that in a place like this. I am a hired killer, and I will enjoy carrying your head to Larik for my reward.” He advanced toward Tatyanna, but stopped when Dimitri immediately stepped in front of her. He raised her right hand, showing it first to the assassin, and then held it up in the air for everyone in the bar to see.
“She has the protection of Marek of the Phoenix Clan. Anyone who tries to harm her, in any way, will have to deal with his wrath.”
The man glared at Dimitri, and then Tatyanna. “I will take my chances,” he said, pushing his way toward her.
Emmett came running through the bar toward them. He held out his arms and a huge blast of air blew the man across the bar, and he slid all the way to the wall. “You will show her some respect, or you will meet yo
ur death.”
The man stared at Emmett and grinned. “Prince Larik will pay me double for the head of a Guardian. You have not seen the last of me.” He shoved his way through the crowded bar, muttering under his breath as he left the building. About half of the bar emptied out after they, too, stopped to stare at her tattoo, clearly understanding what the mark meant. They would not go against Marek, regardless of what the reward was.
Tatyanna felt like she was on display, and suddenly knew what it felt like to be an animal placed in a cage at the zoo, only there for the amusement of others. She turned to Emmett, who was breathing heavily, his hands clenched into fists. This was a different side to the Emmett she had come to know, and she could see he was her protector, but it still felt a little weird to be around him.
“Well,” Emmett said, surveying the room. “You certainly know how to clear a place out, but I do believe I’ve told you that before.” He turned around and grinned at her.
Tatyanna held his stare, biting the inside of her lip in concentration, contemplating what she should say, what she should do. He was her Guardian, which meant she was stuck with him. She might as well learn to play nice. She shrugged in response to Emmett’s comment, channeling Lilah for her response, “It must be a gift. I think I deserve that drink now,” she said, walking past him and settling herself down at the bar as if she owned the place.
Emmett walked around the bar and made up three drinks for them. When Tatyanna took a sip, she realized he had made her a Shirley Temple, and it was exactly what she wanted. She mouthed ‘thank you’ to him, and knew deep down she had already forgiven him. She nursed her drink as she watched Dimitri and Emmett down their ale and refilled their mugs. They chatted about their plans to come, but she tuned them out.
Tatyanna suddenly felt exhausted and just wanted to go to bed when something in the air changed. She felt the hair on her neck stand up, and saw Cale walk into the bar sporting three long gashes on the side of his cheek. She immediately tensed, causing Althea to stand and growl at him as he walked closer to them. He didn’t seem to mind, or care, that they were the only ones there.
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