Empress of the Gods

Atarah

The night was calm when they walked towards the inn. Elysia excuse herself so she could attend to a business meeting for the guild while Robbie started playing his mandolin in the tavern of the inn they were staying.

Atarah looked at the golden pendant of her necklace that was the size of a small coin that had a star in the center of it. She didn’t remember who gave it to her, only that she had it for as long as she could remember. She pushed it with her thumb and her index finger, feeling the silhouette of the star that briefly marked on her fingertip.

A couple of drinks were served in front of them as they watched Robbie singing, only she didn’t feel in the mood for it. Everything was too loud, and she only stared at the clay jar in front of her, thinking she didn’t know anything about her kind or even about herself. Everyone was expecting something from her, but what about her? What did she expect from herself?

The reason she was staying instead of running away was her sister. Plus, getting away before the lantern festival would rise suspicion since it was to celebrate the new King and Queen. Also, they needed a break before they started running again and find a new place to hide. Apparently, Euthoria was going to be that place.

Feeling lost was the worst feeling. She no longer knew if she was following the right path, only that she was still following someone else plans. She had been protected her entire life, only it didn’t feel like that.

“You know, I truly appreciate when you tell me you want to protect me,” she said while she drank from her clay jar. She didn’t know if the liquor was loosening her tongue, or she was tired of keeping everything inside. “Protection.” She repeated the word, as if it were a curse. For her, it was.

“I know how cruel the world can be.”

Atarah took a sip from her drink. “You don’t know how many times I’ve heard the word protection. More times than I can count.”

William looked at her, confused.

“Surely, when we’re younger, we don’t know how cruel the world could be, and we need protection until we are old enough to understand the world that surrounds us. The risks out there.” Atarah looked at the liquor bottles on the shelves as she moved her thumbs in the clay jar, feeling the soft material on her fingers. “Put a tiger in a cage when he is a cub and sure you are protecting him from the hunters or any other danger that might be out there. Eventually, he will grow older, and he will be curious about the world that exists behind those bars. As soon as you open the cage, you will see him run into the wild without knowing how to hunt so he can eat, how to differentiate an ally from a foe, or how to survive because he doesn’t know how to. He was never taught how to do it. He was not given the chance to do it. Either a hunter or another creature is going to kill him because he won’t know how to defend himself.”

“If he returns to his cage after he was in the wild, you are going to see him fight to free himself again, until one day he accepts the cage around him and he slowly fades away.” Atarah wiped a tear from her face. “Don’t take this the wrong way. I loved the coven. After all, they were my family, but… I was planning to leave that night,” she confessed. “The day of the attack, I was planning on leaving. I was not going to follow Rhiannon’s plans even when there were a ton of plans in motion. I made my own,” she added. And just like that, she started telling him everything. Every single plan Rhiannon had. “Rhiannon was looking for allies for the witches’ realms. Her family always came the last,” she said in a lower tone of voice, knowing that the only one that could listen to her was Will.

She was thankful driadaes didn’t have a good earing like the fae. Atarah took a sip from the bubbly liquor in her clay jar, feeling like needles that softly kissed her tongue until it became stronger. “I never felt like I could be completely myself. I always felt something was missing.”

He moved his hand in the air to signal the barman to fetch him a drink.

“It’s exhausting, you know?” She kept talking, and he listened to every word she had to say, only she didn’t dare to look at him.

“What is exhausting?”

“Trying to be the perfect daughter,” she replied, feeling a couple of tears slipping down her cheeks. “I felt that I was never enough. Everything I did was never good enough for the Silverclaw leader.”

“You are enough. More than enough,” he said without hesitating. Atarah stared at William as he touched her cheek, letting her feel his warm touch as he cleaned another tear that escaped. “You don’t need to be perfect. You are perfect the way you are,” he added when he tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. “You are perfectly imperfect and there is nothing more beautiful than that.”

“You are making it impossible for me to hate you, Will,” she whispered. “I have to hate you.”

“Then don’t,” he moved his chair closer to her. “Don’t,” he whispered with his lips close to hers. “Because I don’t hate you at all,” he confessed to her. “Quite the opposite.”

“We can’t do this,” she whispered back. “I can’t drag you into this mess and risk your life more than you already have. They are looking for me, Will, and they will not stop until they find me.”

“You forget I have a bounty over my head too,” he said, still with one hand on her cheek and the other on top of hers.

“These are not just bounty-hunters, Will,” she said without taking her eyes off him. His pine scent filled the air. Her heart started beating faster from their closeness. “My fate has already been written.”

“I will write one where we are together,” he whispered as he glanced at her lips.

“You can’t.”

“Watch me,” he said before he gave her a soft kiss as if he was afraid of her running again from him. She put a hand on his cheek when he rested his forehead on top of hers. “Let’s get out of here,” he said to her, and she only nodded without thinking anything else. Atarah didn’t want to think anything else.

The night was young when they walked through the streets until they got close to the sea where Atarah sat in the soft cold sand, listening to the waves landing close to where she was and the salty air kissing her skin. William sat next to her while she contemplated the moon. She could feel his gaze on her.

“I’ve never seen anything more beautiful.”

She was about to reply when William moved her hair behind her ear and then his finger moved on her shoulder, down her arm. Atarah bit her lower lip and looked down to hide her smile. Her body was starting to respond to his touch, craving more.

She put her fingers on her long hair and moved it to the other side. “Careful hunter, you are playing with fire, and you might get burnt,” she warned him with a half-smile on her face.

“I already am,” he whispered in her ear before he brushed his lips on hers, tempting her. Her hands went directly to his cheeks, pulling him closer. “And I would gladly burn just to be close to you,” he said before he started kissing her.

“Will,” she said right away, stopping their kiss. She looked at the waves of the ocean for a moment while she recovered her breathing. “We can’t.”

“Why?”

“How do you know this is you and not the spell talking? How do you know that you are only linked to my life and not compelled to feel what you feel for me? How do you know this is real?”

Atarah wanted more than ever for what they felt to be real. Spells could fail all the time and there was a reason they were improved with time. She didn’t know what the Silverclaw leader did. That could be another one of her plans, since she always kept them a secret. She moved the chess pieces, trying to stay steps ahead of everyone, so she doubted he was only linked to her life. They couldn’t be certain about it and the only way to know was getting to Euthoria.

“I know this is real,” he said with his eyes closed. “I can feel it.” William took her hand and put it in his chest, but still with his forehead resting on hers. “I’ve been feeling numb for a long time Atarah and my heart started beating again because of you.”

She was not convinced by his answer, but it didn’t have to do anything with him. It was her. A part of her didn’t believe she deserved to be loved.

“I seek the dagger to get revenge for those who killed my family. I want to see them suffer by my hands,” he confessed to her. “I won’t rest until I see them pay for it.”