Thana sits up staring at the door, standing in the door was a drunken Quinten. Swaying back and forth stumbling to the bed. Thana pulls her blanket closer to herself. She was only wearing undergarments. She didn’t need him seeing her mark or in general. She watches as he gets to the bed. He struggles to sit on the left side of her bed. He just glares at her and takes a swig of the whiskey bottle. She raises an eyebrow, daring the drunken boy to speak first.
“Did you have a mate while you were with my Cousin?” Quinten says.
Thana’s eyes widened in surprise. She didn’t know what to say. What did he want to hear? She wasn’t going to tell him the truth. People shunned and didn’t trust half souls. She had lost everything in a matter of days. She knew she would survive if she was shunned from everyone. She sighs, closes her eyes and then looks at the boy. She noticed that he wasn’t wearing his glasses. His hair was a mess, probably from running his hands through it. She looked at his face taking his features in. Even though Micah and Quinten were only cousins they shared a lot of the same features. The only difference was the color of their eyes.
“No, I didn't,” She answered.
“You could have had anyone, why my cousin, why a human?” He said,
His face started to turn a shade of red. His eyes her half closed glaring at Thana. She shifts raising the blanket even closer to her face. She holds the tears threatening to spill.
“You know it was both our choice. I didn’t force him. He was a grown man and he wanted me as much as I did him.” She says
“Why didn’t you just wait for your mate. Were you that desperate?” He says,
His voice was steadily rising higher and higher. Thana growled jumping out of the bed, she wrapped the blanket around her like a giant cloak. She walks around the bed standing in front of Quinten. She lowers her face inches from his head.
“Cause I felt like it Quinten. Micah was the only one to see me in that castle. You knew how my family was. He saw me as more than a mistake or burden. No one paid attention to me after I lost my hier status. He did, he stayed by my side. When you were sentenced to come here all those years ago. It was my shoulder he cried on.” Thana shouted.
The others were all standing at their door frames. Being supernaturals they had better hearing and knew Quinten was in there. They also knew the conversation was getting heated. However as a group they decided that it was better for them to let the two hash it out. Then a thud echoed through the hallway. They all rushed in to see Thana with her head down. Her nose was steadily bleeding. Quinten raised a fist again. Erzah and Linkin went to stop him but Thana’s head snapped up at them.
“Don’t get involved.” She says,
Quinten’s arm snaps forward punching Thana in the eye. She stumbles a couple steps back but stays still. She knew Quinten deserved the truth, however she wasn’t ready. Thana also knew that their group tension would not end unless he got this out of his system. She looks up to Quinten, however instead of Quinten standing there it was Micah. Thana smiles feeling the tears leak out of her eyes. She knew this wasn’t real, however she felt so good to see him again.
“I hate you.” Micah yells.
Thana doesn’t even flinch. She just takes in his sight. Wiping the tears from her cheek she clears her throat.
“I hate myself more.” She whispered
A fist connects to the stomach. Thana drops to the floor coughing. Teagen tries to come into the room. However Thana raises her hand stopping her. She looks up and sees that her hallucination was done and standing there was Quinten. He had tears streaming down his face as well. He wipes them away and marches to the bed grabbing the bottle. He takes the last sip and then throws it at Thana. Being drunk he misses her and it shatters next to her. She doesn’t even flinch. She lets glass spray across her.
She sits there staring off into space. She is seeing flashes of her memories flash before her. She sees herself as a young girl. Her dark hair pulled into pigtails. She was trying to get the attention of her father. He ignored her until he got so annoyed he yelled at her to leave. She runs out of the room and into a tree in the courtyard. She sees a young Micah on the ground staring up at her. Asking her why is up there. Then she sees them sneaking out at night to go to the night market. Chasing each other under fireworks at the harvest festival.
Quinten stares at Thana for a couple of minutes before turning. He goes to storm out of the room but freezes when he hears Thana starts to speak.
“I don’t hate you, if beating me up makes it better for you. Do it, as much as you need. The pain never stops for me, so if this makes it stop for you. Even for a moment, do it.” She says,
Erzah groans and reminds both of them that beating squad members is not ok. Quinten storms out of the room when she is done speaking. Refusing to say anything or look back. Teagen follows him. Teagen wanted to make sure he got to his room and just so he wasn’t alone. Linkin makes a joke and heads back to his room. Erzah sighs and tells Thana to get some rest. He then walks to his own bedroom.
Kolt stays leaning on her door frame. He watches as Erzah leaves Thana’s face begins to fall. She begins to lift herself from the floor. She gets up and makes her way to the bed. Leaving behind multiple blooded foot prints. She flops onto the bed and closes her eyes. Kolt lets out a grumble up and pushes off the wall. He walks away from the doorway and returns with a bowl of warm water, a towel and some bandages. He walks over to the bed and taps her shoulder. She groans and rolls onto her back and glares at him. With another pointed look directed towards her she rolls her eyes and sticks her foot out.
Kolt lowers onto his knees and takes her foot in his hands. He carefully plucks the glass from her foot. He wipes it with the warm water and covers salve on the bottom of it. He carefully wraps it and reaches for the other one. All while Thana doesn’t move a muscle.
She stays lying down staring at the ceiling. She wonders what this vampire wants with her. When he would help her before they were both in the Forsaken Legion she assumed it was to have her favor. Now she’s not too sure. She stares at the plain white ceiling she didn’t even realize that Kolt was done taking care of her feet.
She sits up to look at Kolt, he was quietly on the floor watching her.
“Why do you take care of me? I can’t give you anything anymore.” Thana says.
Kolt gets up smiling, shaking his head. He grabs a broom from the closet, sweeping up the broken glass off the floor. He then grabs the cloth and scrubs where the footsteps were. Thana huffs, and rolls her eyes again. She collapses on the bed and closes her eyes. She starts to drift off to sleep when she hears her door beginning to open.
“ Because I want to.” Kolt says.
He shuts the door and walks out. Thana pulls her blanket up to her chin and closes her eyes shut. Shaking she tries to keep the voices of the half soul from reaching her ears. After multiple hours she drifts into a restless sleep.
She wakes up in the early morning to knock on the door. Groaning she gets off her warm bed and walks to the door. Opening it she sees Erzah full dressed. He looks her up and down and starts to rub his eyebrow in discontent.
“You need to get dressed admediatly, the legion has been summoned to the training grounds in forty minutes.” He says,
He glances at her nest of hair and sighs. He turns around and starts to walk down the hallway.
“Please look appropriate.” He says
She shuts the door and heads to the bathroom. She takes a quick shower. Once Thana was out she quickly brushes and braids her hair out of her face. Going to her closet she grabs black pants and a black cropped shirt. She wraps her feet and hands then throws her cloak throwing it over her shoulders.
Thana admergies from her room and heads to the kitchen. Linkin is in the kitchen and passes her a cup of coffee which she takes and starts sipping on it. Teagen is next into the room. She goes into the fridge to grab a quick snack. Erzah and Kolt are next both taking coffee and then sitting on the couch. The group turns to the hallway hearing Quinten doors open.
Everyone suddenly turns to the front door when they hear it swing open and close. The group realizes that Thana went to wait outside. Quinten walks into the living room, looking worse for ware. He had dark circles under his eyes. He grabs the coffee pot and pour a cup of coffee. Once he finishes and places the cup in the sink, the group heads outside.
Thana was sitting on the roof waiting for them to come. She leaps off the roof and flips in the air. She lands in between Kolt and Teagen and the group begins to walk. They are one of the last groups to get to the training grounds. They push their way through the crowd to their place in the left corner of the front row. Once standing there they look up to the podium that is placed in the middle of the grounds.
Standing on the podium was Thana’s uncle, Marcus, and Eleanor, Thana’s younger sister. The group all tenses and looks at Thana. She is standing still, staring up at her sister. Her fists tight against her side. So much, that blood was dripping from her palms. Then suddenly her face breaks out into a smile. A laugh reaches across the whole Legion standing silent in front of the trio.
Thana is bent over with tears streaming from laughing to hard. She quickly wipes them away, still chuckling. The Legion is staring at her in horror of the disrespect. The rest of her squad is looking at her and at each other unsure of what to do. However none of them thought the answer was to speak up. Kolt looked to her uncle who shook his head. Commander John didn’t want him to get involved.
Thana’s eyes however were keeping contact with her sisters. The princess stuck out like a sore thumb. Her hair and make up was to the nines. She had a massive amount of jewelry on. She was wearing a horrifying bright pink gown, with white gloves. Her face was turning the same shade as her dress. She started shaking and then decided to speak.
“What is sooo funny traitor?” She said,
Thana stops laughing and dust of her shirt before stepping forward and giving a formal salute.
“I was just wondering what dress maker you angered Sister.” Thana said,
This caused chuckles to go be let out by others in the Forsaken Legion and military police standing guard. Thana had earned respect throughout her years of training. A princess showing off her wealth and acting like a god never would be liked. Eleanor turned a shade darker and took a step forward as well.
“I am a princess, not your sister. Address me correctly or you will be punished.” Elenor yelled.
This had the crowd quiet down instantly. Thana however raised an eyebrow trying to keep a straight face. However she bursted out into a fit of giggles again. She reaches into cloak and pulls out a flask raising it and then taking a swig. Erzah and her uncle let out a groan at the same time. Thana puts it away before releasing her cloak.
“Princess, you say” She says
“You realise you do not have a royal drop of blood in you right? You are not a princess just the king and a whores daughter.” Thana continues.
Thana straightens her back and closes her eyes. She opens them and in a second she is in her half shift. Letting her wings spread to her full length. Her squad and others have to jump back to avoid the wingspan. She flaps them, raising herself off the ground.
“Let us see your half shift Princess, show us your royal power.” Thana says,
Eleanor screams and throws a rock at Thana. Upset that Thana would make her look like a fool. No dragon can complete a half shift except a true royal. Thana’s mother was the one with the royal blood. Thana stays silent for a couple of minutes, daring her sister to do something. She then fold her wings into her back and lands on her feet.
“When you talk to father and tell him about all this, make sure you remind him that this is my kingdom. I will be back for it.” Thana says
Erzah steps out of the squad line going to Thana, he slaps her across the face. The crowd begins to mummer. Erzah however drops to one knee and holds a salute to the three on the podium.
“I apologize for my squad members actions. I have yet to get her under control.” Erzah says,
Thana lets out a scoff while rubbing her cheek. Erzah gets up and bows again. Commander John gives him a nod and takes a step forward. Erzah grabs Thana’s wrist and drags her back to the squad. Placing her in between himself and Kolt. Kolt gives her a side glance and a smirk before looking back to the commander.
“It is okay Erzah, we do not hold you accountable for her actions. To the rest of you, thank you for coming this morning. We have received news that outpost Eight has been compromised. We don’t have a status just that it was under attack. We are sending a legion out to check it out. Any squads who wish to volunteer may step forward.” He says,
Before anyone can step forward Elenar begins to speak.
“Actually, My father, your King wishes for squad sixteen to have this mission. They are to leave admittedly” she announces
The commander turns to the princess and quietly and harashly starts speaking to her. Thana knew it was in her defense. This is the worst timing for her squad to be sent out. The full moon was in two nights. They are hoping in her impaired state that she would be killed off and not be a problem anymore. Thana shaking her head, bursts into another fit of laughter. She takes her flask out chugging the rest before throwing it on the ground. Shaking her head she steps out of line.
“It’s just funny the timing don’t you think Sis? Don’t worry your favorite sister won’t be killed that easily.” Thana says.
She then turns her back and begins to walk to the squad house. The mass of other squads clear a path for her. Out of fear or respect Thana didn’t care. All morning she was being followed around by hallucinations caused by her half soul. She takes out a rolled cigar of green herb and lights it. She knew her father wanted to be rid of her. He feared her taking his throne and kingdom. However to throw her out on a mission at this point of time was just cruel.
Then again, when was her father not cruel to her. He never actually did anything, but he didn’t stop anything either. Maybe because it was like her mother in both looks and personality. No matter the reason she knew she could never forgive him. She reaches the squad house and barrel through the door. Heading straight to the cabinet that held the whiskey.
She downs the half bottle. Looking around she still is seeing things. She starts to feel angier and angier. She throws the bottle through the executioner. She picks up a bar stool and throws it at a councilman. She screams and starts smashing things left and right. She lets the tears stream down her face. She curses the gods, her father, her sister. Thana looks around the room waiting to see the one face that she wanted to see. However Micah isn’t showing up yet.
She didn't notice that her squad had returned and were watching her. Even with Kolt being the only one knowing exactly what was happening the rest of the group could tell that no matter what she said, that she wasn’t alright. She finally snaps out of her dase and sees the group standing at the door. She smiles at them and chuckles going back to the cabinet grabbing another bottle.
The group starts entering the house avoiding the mess she made. Quinten heads straight to his room without a word. Teagen walks up to Thana throwing her arms around her. Thana leans into the girl and begins to sob. She apologizes over and over again. Teagen comforts her and the girls slide to the floor. Thana curled into Teagen. The rest begin to clean up the room.
By the time the room was clean, Thana had fallen asleep. She was sleeping on Teagen’s shoulder.
Kolt announced he had an errand to run and heads out the door. Erzah nods and picks Thana up and he and Teagen walks to her room putting her to bed. They quietly walk back out and shut the door. They gave each other a look. Neither one wanted to speak about it but Thana’s behavior was unusual for her in the past couple days.Plus they were able to smell green herbs all over her clothes. However they headed to their rooms. They had to get ready since they were leaving at noon, and only had a couple hours to get ready. The squad had their first mission to get ready for.
ns 15.158.61.12da2
