Natalia’s P. O. V

Humming a tune, I bounded down the stairs, taking them seven at a time with bountiful leaps.

Upon entering my kitchen, I rummaged around my cupboards for the ingredients used to make blueberry pancakes. Breakfast was always the worst meal of my day back at the Lightwood pack. Mostly because I had to wake up extremely early simply to make large amounts of food for ungrateful creatures coupled with the fact that I technically wasn’t allowed to eat anything in the morning. Oh well.

While eating, I felt Candy stir.

‘Morning, Candy.’

‘Good Morning, Nat. What are we doing today?’

I swallowed the food in my mouth and replaced it with another forkful. ‘Well, it’s the third day since we saw Mrs Burton so were due for a visit. Maybe we’ll learn more about mom and our history.’

‘Sounds good.’

Standing up, I cleaned up after myself, washing dishes and pans, and wiping table tops. When I was done, the sun was barely touching the sky and it was beginning to get brighter.

‘Let’s go work on the garden.’ Candy quipped, being the nature lover she was.

I went to my closet to get suitable footwear the ventured into said garden, grabbing tools from the shed on my way to the flowerbed. For the next few hours, I weeded and trimmed, tending to the flowers and watering them. I cleaned the birdbath and fountain, tidied the shed and raked fallen leaves from the trees.

Sighing with contentment, I admired my work as I threw the last leaf away.

‘It looks gorgeous!’ Candy squealed with delight.

I laughed, ‘If we ever shift, you’d better not mess this up.’ I warned as I put the tools away and walked inside.

‘Wouldn’t dream of it. Now go get ready, its already past nine and it takes longer to get to Super Banking from here.’

‘Yeah, yeah. I know. This was your idea anyway.’ I grumbled.

After a quick shower, I changed into a red shirt that boldly read ‘Drop it like it’s hot!’ in black and jeans with oxblood ankle boots. Grabbing my bag, I left my house, locking it behind me.

‘Do you think it’d be faster to run? It’s already pretty late.’ Candy asked.

Taking off my shoes, I agreed, ‘I think so.’

Since I didn’t know the direct route to Super Banking, I ran to my old house then to my destination, arriving with half an hour to spare.

Making sure no one had noticed my sudden appearance, I put my shoes back on and walked into the building, welcomed by the comforting feeling the place gave me.

“Morning, Melody.” I smiled.

She bowed her head slightly in reply, “Good morning, Your Highness. It’s good to see you looking well.”

I did a double take, “What did you just say?”

Her eyes widened in realisation and she covered her mouth, as if to take back her words. “I’m so sorry. Mrs Burton told us not to refer to your status until she’d explained everything to you today. I forgot.”

“Is she available?”

“Yes.”

I marched down the hall, into the masked elevator and into Mrs Burton’s office without bothering to knock.

She looked up from her papers and smiled, “Good morning, Natalia. How a- Is everything okay?” she asked, noticing my expression.

“Why didn’t you tell me what it means to be a Syrenlina?”

She sighed, “I wanted to give Your Highness some time to settle in before explaining everything to you.”

“How hard could it have been? ‘Natalia, by the way, you’re royalty.’ It’s not that hard and I’m not that fragile.” I countered.

“I’m sorry for not telling you. I was just doing what I thought was best.” She sighed, “Would you like me to explain it all to you?”

“Yes” I took a seat on the chair across from her.

“The real story began a thousand years ago. Vampires were fiercely dominating the supernatural and natural worlds, preying on every specie. The humans couldn’t explain the strange deaths and attacks, they never could.”

“But they weren’t the ones suffering the most, we were. To vampires, the sweetest and most intoxicating thing is the blood of a Syren. Depending on the power and special ability of the Syren, our blood tastes different to them. Bottom line is, they were capturing Syrens and keeping us for their festivals and special events where they would bleed us out into jugs and serve our blood to the elite. The royal vampires would be gifted Syrens to feed straight from the vein and keep as slaves. No Syren was safe. There was nowhere to run or hide because the vampires could find us anywhere on Earth by the smell of our blood.”

A look of reverence bled onto her face, “A Syren, Rebekah Florencia Syrenlina changed that. Her power was the rarest and has never been seen again in history. She had the ability to create parallel worlds. She could only use this power once so she decided to create a world for Syrens that vampires would be unable to access. There was a catch though; the world had to be anchored to something alive or it wouldn’t last for more than thirty moons, so she anchored it to her bloodline and named the world Syrenlina. As long as at least one descendant of Rebekah lives, Syrenlina will not fade away and Syrens will have a haven to run to. To keep her and all her descendants safe, Syrens made her bloodline one of royalty.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

For a full two minutes, silence reigned as she finished. I stared as Mrs Burton as I processed the bomb she’d just dropped on me.

‘Well, I wasn’t expecting that.’ Candy stated after a lengthy amount of silence.

“I really didn’t see that coming.”

She nodded and got up, “If you’re up for it, come with me, Your Highness.”

I followed her out of her office and into the elevator. Instead of going down, she placed her palm on the mirror in the rear. It opened up to a dark stairwell dimly illuminated by lamps.

“This building was originally a safe house enchanted to not let vampires in. Over time, we disguised and renovated it but it still serves its primary purpose; it is one of the fourteen bases on earth that are used to travel to and from Syrenlina.” She explained as we travelled down the spiralling stairs for what seemed like ages.

Finally, we reached a wide room. It was brightly lit and had portraits of different women on the walls. I recognised one as my mother while the others had striking similarities. These women were my ancestors. At the other end was a huge golden bowl with an intricate design filled with red dark liquid surrounded by golden flowers. It sat on a silver pedestal that seemed strategically embedded with onyxs and diamonds in its design.

From afar, I noticed that the red liquid smelled like blood.

Glancing at her “What is this?” I asked cautiously.

“To travel to and from Syrenlina, two things are needed: the blood of every living member of the Syrenlina line and a flower that grows only on Syrenlinan soil. For almost sixteen years, nobody has been able to travel to and from Syrenlina. Initially, we thought your mother had died but when those in Syrenlina told us the world hadn’t faded after thirty moons, we realised that your mother had a child. Syrens in both Syrenlina and Earth searched for you two but it was like you’d disappeared.”

I stared at the pedestal, studying its design, “My mother disappeared when I was six. She just vanished on the night of my birthday and I have no idea where she is or if she’s alive.”

She looked thoughtfully at the bowl of blood, “We could find out if Queen Aquina is alive depending on the state of Syrenlina.”

I perked up and gave her my full attention, “Really? How?”

“Well, as I said earlier, Syrenlina is connected to the Syrenlina bloodline. If more than one Syrenlina is alive, our world thrives, more so than if there were only one Syrenlina living.”

“Apart from me, who else is there?”

“There’s no Syrenlina alive other than you and possibly Queen Aquina, Your Highness.”

No family from my sperm donor, no family from my mother.

‘You’ve got me; I’m family.’ Candy soothed.

‘Yeah.’

If Syrens live long, what happened to the other Syrenlinas?

Mrs Burton removed a gold knife from the pedestal that I hadn’t noticed, “This bowl and pedestal are enchanted. The contents of one become the contents of the other thirteen on Earth and the other seven in Syrenlina. You need to bleed into the bowl so that Syrens may be able to move freely between Syrenlina and Earth again, Your Highness.” Bowing, she handed me the knife.

Taking a deep breath, I sliced my wrist and held it over the bowl. My blood dripped into the combined blood of my ancestors and mixed in effortlessly. Light trailed along the designs of the bowl and down to the pedestal, leaving the onyxs and diamonds glowing in its wake. The blood began to swirl, glowing from the inside out.

The cut on my wrist healed as the light faded. Turning to Mrs Burton, I found her bowing deeply.

“Thank you, Your Highness. Now Syrens and their life partners are able to travel between worlds.”

I nodded, “What’s next? Are we going to Syrenlina?”

She shook her head, “We have a number of things to do here before you need to venture into Syrenlina, Your Highness.”

“Like what?” I asked as we went back to ground level.

“You need to be registered in the School for Syrens here in New York. Once you do that, you’ll have to attend classes for a year before you go to Syrenlina to assume your place on the throne.”

“What are the classes like?”

“You have your standard sophomore classes in the first half of the day then you’ll learn about things like the different supernatural species, the supernatural history and other things relating to the supernatural world. You’ll also learn about the different powers and special abilities.”

‘Well, I know what classes I’m skipping. There’s no way I’m going through normal sophomore year classes again.’

Candy agreed, ‘You’ll have to take the morning classes at college then.’

‘That’s not a problem.’

“Mrs Burton, could we keep my bloodline between only those who already know?”

She nodded, “Of course, Your Highness. Only Melody, Gaiana and I know of you. But, by the end of the week, every Syren will know that the youngest Syrenlina has returned.”

“That’s fine, as long as they don’t know it’s me before I’m ready. Mrs Burton, you said you had some things to give to me?”

She looked sheepish and bowed her head, “My apologies, Your Highness. It was a lie I told to get you to come back again.”

“That was unnecessary. You could have just asked me to come back. And you don’t have to call me ‘Your Highness’, it’s too uncomfortable and uptight, just Natalia will be fine.”

“Alright, Natalia. But it’s the proper conduct when in Syren public to refer to your status.”

“I understand.”

In the elevator, Mrs Burton asked if there was anything else she could to for me.

I shook my head, “No, I’m fine.”

Arriving at the reception while Mrs Burton went back to her office, I told Melody not to refer to me by my status and not to tell anyone about me.

“It’s really important that nobody finds out about me.” I whispered, “I’m not ready for every Syren to know who I am, especially not at the School for Syrens.”

She looked at the many waiting customers in the reception, “Alright, Natalia.”

“Thank you. Please tell Gaiana as well.”

“Sure”. I waved as I walked out while Melody went back to her job. I decided to walk home to give myself time to grasp everything.

‘At least no one can ever say our family isn’t interesting.’ Candy piped.

I rolled my eyes, ‘What family? Our mother disappeared when we were six and I don’t even consider the sperm donor my father. Apart from Brittany, Harry and him, I technically have no relatives and those three are dead to me. The only family I have is you, Candy. I don’t think I’m cut out for this royalty business.’

‘True, but I’m talking about blood history. The sperm donor comes from a line of Alphas – leaders. Mom comes from a line of royalty – leaders. You were practically born to lead and that’s why you will make a great queen to the Syrens and an excellent Alpha to the pack you’re going to build.’

‘Thanks Candy.’

She laughed, ‘Anytime. Now, what are we going to do about college? I don’t think going to Killdrain would be wise if you keep reacting like that.’

I shrugged, ‘I guess we’ll just have to look for alternatives if I can’t get myself under control.’

‘Why don’t we go try it out?’

‘Alright.’