Abandoned (Born From Shadows #2)

When Tatianna woke, she was alone, the Red Prince was nowhere to be found and to her surprise neither was a guard. She struggled to stand up, her body sore from the night before still feeling everything that had happened. As soon as her feet planted against the ground she limped around the room in a frantic search. Shuffling through every draw and closet for a weapon. A stick, something.

There was a pain from her lower area with every movement and it felt as if he was still pressed into her. The uncomfort she was feeling just amplified her desperation to find a weapon and drive it into the Red Prince’s body. Perhaps even give her enough time to escape before she was hunted down.

Searching and searching there was nothing for the girl to find. No weapons, no ways of escape. She looked out of the window, a thought crossing her mind. The bed chambers were well elevated from the ground, but she was an Elf. The fall would severely injure her, but she would still live to walk away. The only obstacle in her way was the locked glass. She took a step forward to inspect the glass, her hand running up the transparent crystal.

“I wouldn’t do that,” a voice said startling Tatianna from her thoughts. She whirled around and saw Tyrion standing there with his arms crossed. She froze like a possum caught in the light, waiting for his reaction. “Suppose you don’t break every bone in your body from the fall, do you really think you would be strong enough to run away from a legion of armed guards? You will get caught, then probably thrown back into the dungeons.”

Tatianna did not say anything in response to his words, knowing that what he said was true. She would have a moment of freedom, but was a moment worth the pain? “Or I could just walk you down to the gardens and we can have a nice stroll within the Palace grounds,” offered Tyrion. “The choice is yours.”

“Gardens,” she mumbled, still looking out of the window. She needed a breath of fresh air, she needed something to get rid of the images from last night. His face that was imprinted in her mind as he stole the one thing she had never given. People had tried, the amount of men that had came for her was ridiculous, but every time she fought and they were the ones that came out penetrated by her blade. Yet he had taken it, just like that.

She walked by Tyrion’s side as he led her through the Palace’s hallways and staircases to the world outside. The gardens were beautiful, that Tatianna could not deny. Filled with gradient-coloured flowers that looked rich with magic. Then she saw the kennels in the distance, knowing that Nylif was chained in there brought her footsteps to start walking in that direction.

“Tatianna…” Tyrion started as if he wanted to tell her something. She watched his hazel brown eyes get swarmed in a heated battle, each side trying to deem themselves as the more moral option.

Whatever Tyrion was going to say was lost into the wind and replaced with silence. Tatianna looked upon her dark grey wolf with joy, moving as fast as her chained legs could carry her until she was able to loop her arms around Nylif’s fur.

“I missed you girl,” she muttered, clinging onto the wolf. She then sat down onto the ground next to Nylif, allowing the wolf to rest its head on her lap. She ran her fingers along Nylif’s back feeling something within her mind reach out and latch onto the wolf, pulling them closer together.

“How old are you?” the Fae asked.

“Eighteen,” she replied. “Why?” She prayed to the six gods that for once the following question would be answered. Just this one time.

“Just wondering,” Tyrion replied. Just like that the growing hope within her dimmed back down.

“Please…tell me why,” she begged of him, staring straight into his face. She needed to know at least one thing. That was all she asked.

Tyrion took a deep breath before answering. “You’re young. Too young for any of this bullshit.”

“How old are you?” she asked looked at the Fae male who only physically seemed to be in his early twenties.

“One hundred and eighty two,” Tyrion replied. Tatianna’s eyes widened in shock. She would’ve never had guessed such a large figure.

“That’s…old. I never would’ve guessed,” she said.

“Perks of being immortal, you don’t see the physical effect of being old. The emotional ones are still there,” Tyrion responded light-heartedly.

Tatianna decided to take this opportunity to ask some more questions. Tyrion was talking to her as if she were a person rather than an object. She didn’t want to waste this chance. “So then, why do some Elves look to be forty while others seem to be fifteen?”

“Elves…are different to the Fae. I don’t know if I am allowed to say anymore.”

“Please, I just…I can’t keep living in the dark like this. I need to know,” she pleaded with him. Ignorance is bliss they say, yet she hated living in this false reality where everything was a cover of the truth.

“I can’t go against your Queen,” Tyrion said firmly. “That is my final word. We should probably head back to the palace.” Tatianna had one last hug with Nylif before walking in silence back to the Palace feeling more confused than ever.

As soon as they opened the doors into the Palace the Red Prince stood there with an angry expression plastered across his face. Tatianna’s heart skipped a beat in fear, flashbacks haunting her mind. “There you are Coward. The Queen asked for you both half an hour ago to meet in the throne room. My mother does not like to be kept waiting,” he said staring directly at Tyrion, not even acknowledging Tatianna’s presence.

The Red Prince then walked away, not wasting any more of his time on them. Dread filled Tatianna’s bones at the thought of meeting with the Queen in front of Elves who thought herself a willing bride. She just wanted to go back to Nylif, not pretend to be anything but a hostage in front of a crowd of people.

“Prolonging the inevitable will get you nowhere. You have to acknowledge it, accept it, then face it with your head held high,” Tyrion said to her. She looked up at him who had empathy in his eyes. He wasn’t like the rest, at least from the surface he didn’t seem so. His words were enough to urge her feet into movement.

The throne room was exactly how she remembered it. The guards surrounding the room. The throne majestic in its own uncomfortable way, the wooden carvings laced with silver sparkling in the birthright lit room. The columns Tatianna walked past to approach the throne made her feel small and powerless compared to the might of the room. She held her head high.

The Queen sat with her crown rested heavily upon her head along with all the metaphoric burdens it came with. “Princess Tatianna, thank you for coming,” the Queen said. Tatianna was surprised by the polite tone, even if she knew it was fake. A show to the guards and other Elves gathered in the room. To pretend she wasn’t a captive but a member of the family. Tatianna found it to be quite an interesting tatic on the Queen’s behalf. The truth could never truly be kept secret. The more lies that are piled onto it the more easier it is to reveal. Soon the majority will learn what the few kept in the dark.

“My pleasure,” she replied, putting effort into appearing happy to be a prisoner. Then the Red Prince entered the room, standing beside his mother on the platform for the throne. It was as if his fiery hair was an endothermic reaction due to the way he sucked all the warmth from the room and chilled Tatianna to her bones causing a shiver to run up her spine. She kept her head held high.

“You are a part of the family, Princess, come up here and join me,” the Queen said. Tatianna wanted to refuse but her movements said otherwise. She walked up the stairs, making sure to stand on the opposite side of the Throne to the Red Prince. It amazed her how different it felt to be standing on the platform rather than amongst everyone else. It felt as if she had an ounce of power in her possession, even if she knew she did not.

“I have summoned all of you to inform you that from tomorrow the Kingdom will temporarily be in the hands of your Prince Darvey Hark while myself and the Princess attend some paramount duties in another kingdom. Any issues you shall go to him till I return,” the Queen announced to the people gathered in the throne room.

Tatianna released a deep breath she didn’t know she was holding, and she held back a smile that was forcing its way onto her mouth. She would be free of the Red Prince…temporarily, but to her even temporarily was enough to spark joy and relief in her heart.

Her head stood proud.