5. Chapter Five

Chapter Five

Tia wiggled in her sleep, trying to get a bit more comfortable in the arms that were holding her. She loved the feel of being held by Tieran. All she wanted to do was sleep until the sun came up and then open her eyes and meet his navy-blue eyes.

The sound of a door closing interrupted her sleep and then another door closing and then before she realized it, it was one door after another that continued to close, irritating her. All I wanted to do was sleep," she complained. The sound of her voice made her think she was awake, maybe? Tia wasn’t in bed anymore and Tieran wasn’t by her side. She was standing in a long hallway where she couldn’t see where it began or ended. There was nothing but doors on each side, and they were opening and closing.

Was this a dream? It must be, but it was such a weird dream that she wasn’t sure what to do with it. Why am I dreaming when all I want to do is snuggle close to the man who just rocked my world?

“Look, I think she’s awake.” The voice was androgynous. It didn’t give her male or female. That made her shiver because that’s not what she usually heard when she listened to different voices.

“She is, and remember, I want to get to meet her. As well as get to know her.” This voice was definitely male. It was deep, and it had a cadence she was familiar with. If she didn’t know better, she would say that she knew who was speaking. But this was a dream, and she obviously had no idea what was going on.

“Hurry dear,” the first voice said. “It’s not like we have all night.”

The male voice chuckled. “You have a journey in front of you before the sun comes up.”

Tia wondered if she closed her eyes and she prayed hard, could she just go back to sleep and ignore this interlude in her life?

There was laughter from the androgynous voice. “Oh, dear, you’re one of mine. That’s not going to happen.”

“I’m what?” The only person who could claim her was her mother. Heck, she wouldn’t even let the mysterious I h and ran father reclaim her. There was more laughter as she started walking down the dream hallway.

She pulled her blue bathrobe around her waist and tied the sash tighter. Wasn’t it nice of her imagination to provide her with clothes? Jeans and a tee would have been better, but beggars and all.

Since she was naked when she went to sleep, she had to agree with her previous thoughts that this was a dream.

“Dear,” the androgynous voice said. Maybe you’re having an out-of-body experience.”

“Don’t mess with her,” the deep voice said, calling the other voice a name, but there was no way she could decipher it.

“Why am I here? Who are you and what do you want? This dream was frustrating her.

“We want you to find us because if you can’t, this endeavor will blow up in all our faces.”

This wasn’t funny. Tia wanted to stomp her feet. Instead, she started walking down the hallway. Each time she reached for a door, she felt coldness come from it and something in the back of her mind told her don’t touch. So, she kept walking. It felt like she walked miles and that it should be day by now. Finally, she came to a door that was unassuming and easily overlooked. It differed from the rest of the doors and when she reached for the knob, heat emanated from it.

She stopped and took a better look at all the doors she hadn’t paid attention to when she first got here. She had desperately wanted to be anywhere but here. That was a lie. She wanted to be with Tieran. The hallway was dark. It was lit like there was a night light giving you just enough light to get up in the middle of the night and stumble your way to the bathroom or the kitchen for a drink.

The doors were all tall; they were massive now that she looked at them and they were all white, the nightlight effect in the hall allowing her to see them more as shadows than anything else. Tia could barely see the door. She was standing in front of it. If it wasn’t from the heat coming from it, she wouldn’t even have known it was there. She would have walked past it without realizing. Turning, she scanned the doors on the other side to find the same thing and she knew that this was the only door that was going to lead her to where she needed to be.

Every time she thought of touching one of the other doors, goosebumps ran up her arms and beads of dread played on her spine. When she thought of turning away from this door, a heaviness sat on her chest almost as if she were going to have a heart attack. Tia reached out, grabbed the doorknob, and turned before she could think too hard about it.

The hallway she left felt like nothing, neither good nor bad. It wasn’t hot or cold; it just was. She walked into a room that was beautiful. Warmth surrounded her. It made her want to stay a while.

“Hello.” her voice echoed around the large space.

“Is anyone here?” There wasn’t any response, making her think that maybe she picked the wrong room. She turned around to where the door was, only to find out that it was gone. There was nothing behind her except a wall. Forward was the only direction to go, so she started walking.

The floors were beautiful, warm peach marble. It wasn’t until her feet touched the floor that she realized she wasn’t wearing any shoes. The robe that she was wearing became an elegant dress.

This was something she would have worn to a beautiful ball, which, by the way, she had never been to. She was twenty-nine; it was time to step up her game. There were beautiful chandeliers overhead. The prisms were gorgeous, looking like diamonds in the reflected light. The light made them glow seductively. She walked straight ahead, not being able to turn to the right or the left. Although she could see the furniture that was surrounding her.

The furniture was thick and comfortable, but it also looked very expensive, as if it were something she would never see in her life or maybe even on earth. She stopped when she came to a pair of huge double doors. They were cream with gold inlaid on them. Beautiful.

Tia reached out because in for a penny, in for a pound. She placed her hands on the doorknobs and pulled, taking a step back. Instead of the doors coming towards her, they opened inward. One glimpse told her that she was in a throne room.

She’d never been in one before, but it was obvious. Tia was standing in what she could only call a bubble in outer space. She was still breathing and didn’t feel the coldness from the stars.

There were no walls, floor, or ceiling, which is why she called it a bubble. How else could she be standing here in the presence of these two people she had never met before? She forced herself to turn her eyes away from the beauty of space to look at the two beings in front of her because they weren’t people. The first had the most beautiful pinkish-black hair that she had ever seen.

It looked like it was all the way down to his or her waist. This must be the androgynous one. Their skin was so creamy looking at it made her want to lick it.

The other one was a broad, thick male, and it didn’t make any sense, but she knew that this had to be Tieran’s father. He was supposed to be on the other side of the veil unless she missed her guess.

“Where am I?” The question held more meaning now that she was standing on nothing.

“Welcome, Tia De La Rosa,” the androgynous one said to her.

“That’s not my last name.”

“Yes, dear, I know. I know who you are, what you are.”

I know more than you do, and I choose to call you de la Rosa because that is who you are.”

Do not argue with a pretty being when you are standing on nothing in the midst of space. Tia cautioned herself. “Your name is?”

“You may call me Mael. That’s the identity I want to assume today, and I know your people are really concerned about pronouns. You may call me they/them.” Tia wasn’t hung up on pronouns.

In fact, she thought it would be easier if the whole world went by the same pronoun. Hey, let’s all be shes. Hey, let’s all be hes. Or maybe let’s all be theys. It really didn’t matter to her, but she would honor the wishes of this being. The throne Mael was sitting on was alive.

It was changing slowly, but she had watched things crawl from one part of the throne to another, and she didn’t think it was an animal or an insect. It was simply part of the living throne. She shook her head and rubbed her eyes before she turned to look at Tieran’s father.

“Do I know you?” she asked. He gave her a smile and a wink, reminding her so much of Tieran.

“I think you have other questions to ask, witchling.”

His voice gave her comfort, not the same kind that she got for Tieran, more like he was a father to her as well as him.

“I’ve already asked why I’m here and no one has answered that question yet. Why should I assume you will answer a different one?”

“I will caution you not to assume,” Mael said.

“How do you know what will or won’t be answered unless you ask the question?”

“Logic,” Tia grimaced. It’s too late at night for that. Soft music played, and she found herself swaying to it. The more she danced, questions invaded her mind until she finally stopped on one. She needed to know.

“What would you have me do?” she asked.

“Finally,” Mael said. “A question worth answering.

“Tell me, Tia,” Tieran’s father said. “You have mated with my son. Will you stand with him through thick and thin? That’s a lot to ask for, in a relationship that is less than twelve hours old,” he said. Tia stopped swaying to look at the male because he was right.

Her relationship with Tieran was less than twelve hours old. Would she stick with him? All her past relationships made cameo appearances. She had known then, and she knew now, that they weren’t the ones.

The thought of losing Tieran, the thought of walking away from him, made her sick. She knew she would follow him, even if following him meant following him into death if that was the only way for the two of them to be together.

“Yes, I’ve never heard of mates, and I don’t understand the concept. This is what I do know. I am tied to him in such a way that I will never be free.”

“Witchling, you are an intelligent female, and I appreciate your answer. Because you have answered my question, we will answer yours,” he said.

“The veil between the worlds is disintegrating faster than anyone knows,” Mael said. “But what the humans don’t understand and neither do the monsters understand that if their world is destroyed, if the world Tieran and his people are living in is destroyed, then their original world will cease to exist because they are tied to the Earth.” Mael stopped to stare at Tia, hoping she understood.

“Without them, there is no Earth. So, if Tieran and his people die, everybody dies.” Tia couldn’t conceive of the planet she was living on just going boom.

“How much longer?” How long did she have to fix this problem? They could get everyone involved.

“This is the last All Hallows',” Tieran’s dad told her.

“What do we do to stop this?”

“Not we, you,” Mael said.

“Me?” Tia shouted. “I’m human. What can I do?”

“Do you doubt that you were born for such a time as this?” Mael asked.

“Um, yeah, I doubt that very much.”

The music increased in volume, and Tia found herself swaying once again to the beat. It seemed to reach out and touch her, stroking the anger and the disbelief that she was feeling until calmness touched her soul.

“Come here, daughter.” Tiernan’s dad called her.

She drifted towards him until she was standing at the foot of the throne.

“Approach,” he said. Tia climbed the steps until she was standing on the platform right in front of him.

“It is up to you and Tieran to form a brand-new world, but before you can form it, I need to give you something that he can’t.”

“Say what? That doesn’t sound shady at all.” He started laughing.

“You will be an entertaining daughter-in-law. Tieran’s mother, my queen, was destroyed when all of this happened. Before she passed from this world to the next, she granted me a boon to one day pass on to her daughter-in-law. I would tell you to close your eyes, but you’re a little stubborn for that.”

Tieran’s father touched his chest with his hand and when he brought it back, hand flat palm up in the air on it sat living fire. Tia could see the flames and feel the heat from where she was standing.”

“From one queen to another.” He blew on the fire, and it consumed her.