Abandoned (Born From Shadows #2)
Chapter Nine

Tyrion watched her anxiously as Tatianna dared to take her first step on her own in months. She touched her feet to the floor, taking a deep breath. One movement at a time, she told herself. Do it slowly, don’t rush. She pushed her body to a vertical position. Her legs wobbled slightly beneath her weight, but they held. She was standing. Just that in itself made a smile approach her mouth.

Don’t get your hopes up, the voices told her, but she shoved them aside and lifted one of her legs, moving it forward. The chains on her ankles made it even harder but she was determined, she would not let them stop her. Her toes curled against the floor as she placed the foot back down. She did it, she took a step. Everything in her rejoiced. Now all she had to do was take another step. A small simple task, when she lifted her other foot, her supporting leg shook violently and she crumbled to the floor. It didn’t matter that she fell. It was progress.

Tyrion came to her side and helped her back onto the bed. “You’re getting stronger,” he noted. She nodded in response; she still hadn’t spoken yet. It felt foreign to use her voice. Maybe one day she would regain that, take back another thing she had lost.

The door handle rattled and Tyrion back away from her as the Red Prince entered the chamber. She didn’t have time to get off the bed, his bed. Anger flushed his face till it was the same colour as his hair. Her fiancé did not say a word as he harshly shoved her off the bed. She landed flat onto the floor.

His foot raised straight into her gut causing her to cough as the air left her chest. “What did I tell you, whore?!” the Red Prince yelled at Tatianna as she tried to crawl away from him. Had she had her strength she would kick his ass to the ground but unfortunately life doesn’t always go the way she wanted it to. So, she just tensed her muscles and tried to prepare for every strike.

He kept kicking till his rage had left his body. “Never again,” he sneered. “Stay,” he commanded as if she was a dog, his bitch. He left the room with a slam of the door. She didn’t fight the command, she laid flat on the ground struggling to take a breath. She felt all hope disappear from her with each shaken breath.

It didn’t matter if she managed to walk, no matter how much she took back they would take it away again. There was utterly nothing for her to fight for, no day where she would be able to run, no day where she could spend every moment by Nylif’s side nor her friends. Eternity like this, nothing felt so hopeless to her. So long, she wished she could end it. Perhaps that’s what she should fight for, her life. But what would be the point?

A hand wrapped around her arm, picked her up and placed her on the chair in the room. Cloth wiped against the blood on her body. Why are you being so nice? She wanted to ask Tyrion, but she was only met with the silence of her voice.

Once again tears pooled at the edges of her eyes, she didn’t notice them as she stared straight towards the closed-off window at the side of the room, noticing that it was opened for the first time since she had been there. She could see everything out of it, the vast forest that stretched for miles. Freedom. Everything felt like it was dying within her as she stared out the window, motionless getting wrapped up in her own thoughts.

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When you are kept in chains for a long period of time, Tatianna realised the true importance of freedom. Of being able to run, to talk to whoever she liked. Everything that freedom offered would keep her out of her head. Being alone with only her thoughts and no one to break the silence was infuriating. She debated talking to herself to try and know what it was like to have a proper conversation, but she still couldn’t get a word out of her mouth.

She cradled her knees and rocked back and forth on the floor of the bed-chamber. She counted each movement until she reached the thousands. Tyrion had left to take a break and a new guard had taken his place. This guard was quiet, he did not say a word but just glared intensely and unnervingly at her. She hadn’t seen the Red Prince all day except for in the morning when he woke up and left the chambers.

She was happy about that, not seeing him meant she wouldn’t have to endure any more beatings. Her hand felt the side of her rib cage. She was filling out slightly, but there were multiple bruises along her side now courtesy of the Red Prince. Her weak body was struggling to heal as fast as it normally would.

The doors of the chamber opened causing her to back further into the wall on instinct. In walked both the Red Prince and Queen Salina.

“Leave us,” the Queen commanded, the guards immediately left the room leaving her alone with the royal family. “A bird just arrived. We are to meet with the King, Queen and Princess of Haveenté by the next month.”

Tatianna sat there processing everything in her mind. Haveenté, she couldn’t go back there. There were too many memories, too much pain.

“Of course, that means that your marriage would have to be postponed as we cannot do it outside of Lyracris. As a resolution to this complication, you both will be married on Saturday,” the Queen announced.

Tatianna didn’t know what day it was, but by the way the Queen spoke, she knew the wedding was set to be soon.

“How are we supposed to prepare everything in four days?” the Red Prince asked. Four days, she thought, my life will be gone in four days.

“We won’t, but I am not going to delay this. As of Saturday, she will be crowned a Princess of the Elves. So, son, I don’t expect to see her cowering away in a corner. Whatever you have been doing to her to make her so scared ends now. She will be your wife, a Princess, treat her like one. Although, the monster will still need to be contained, so the chains are to remain on her ankles.” The Red Prince looked towards his mother in shock, trying to figure out how the Queen could’ve known he was abusing Tatianna. There was a silent stare-off between the two, while Tatianna just looked at the floor in thought.

She had but one question, the same as always that had been pressing against her mind. For the first time in months, the whisper of a voice left her lips, “why?”

Why was she marrying the Red Prince, why go through all the trouble for her?

“Because this Kingdom is fragile. If I kill young girls for their parents’ crimes my people may not be as willing to follow me. I can not do anything that makes my people have to question their morality, the Elves do not rule from fear. It is not a dictatorship, nor a monarchy as the human’s rule. But now is not the time to talk politics with you, I have a wedding to plan,” the Queen replied leaving Tatianna more confused than ever. Her parents? What did the Queen know about her parents? She wished someone could just give her a straight answer instead of these cryptic words that she had to decipher on her own.

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