Chapter 1
You know most little girls dream of being a princess, but no one ever stops to think, what do little princesses dream about? Well I don’t know about all the other princesses, but I dreamed to be normal. I wished to live a normal life and part of me still does with this upcoming war, but I have to fight my uncle and my aunt to get my throne back.
Thankfully I am not alone. Between Jason my wizardy-wolf fiancé, Alex my vampire best friend, Alice my dragon of a sister, Nikki my shapeshifting cousin, Jackson my wizard friend, and Harrison who is my advisor, future father-in-law but most importantly a friendly wizard that protected me when no one else would, we just might pull this off. Harrison, if you remember is now married to Christina, a human, but she has caught on to everything going on quickly. She has been researching while everyone has been training.
It has been a month since we have moved back to the Otherside, and it is time to make changes. I’m a little scared, to be honest. I do not think I am ready to be a leader, but really I truly do not have a choice anymore. I am too far in now and if I am going to die, it is going to be because I was fighting for what I believe in. So in other words, ready or not, here I come.
I slowly woke up to the rays of the sun starting to come through the window. I rolled over to Jason. His shaggy brown hair was all messed up. I slowly moved over and kissed him softly. “It’s time to get up my love.” I whispered softly in his ear. His blue eyes slowly opened.
“Good morning love. First day of training with everyone in the group. Are you excited?” He asked, but he already knew the answer.
“I’m scared about the speech, hon.” I replied, my nerves were shaken by the reminder of what the day was.
“You’ve rehearsed it so many times I even know it. You will be fine.” He tried reassuring me.
“We will see. Let’s get ready to go.” I said changing the subject.
I quickly grabbed my wand and magically changed my clothes. Jason did the same thing and then put on my father’s sword; yes I gave it back to him. I was wearing a black, pleated miniskirt, a white dress shirt, the black duster coat Harrison gave me, and of course my knee high black boots. I have been wearing that style lately. I stuck my wand in my left boot and my dagger on the inside pocket of my duster. We were ready to go.
We walked out to the living room and to the kitchen and got breakfast from Christina. We then went to the table and sat down. Alex, Alice, Nikki, Jackson and Harrison were already eating. Christina joined us shortly after we sat down. We all ate and conversed.
“Jay, we need to talk.” Harrison spoke up after we finished eating.
“We will meet up with you all later, head off to training.” I told everyone else. Jason kissed me softly before he left with everyone else. “What’s up?” I asked not sure of the motive behind his blue eyes.
“Your hair, it’s getting longer.” I sighed at his answer, I knew he chickened out on what he was going to say.
“It is still short. At the most I would say a few inches past my shoulders. Is that really what you want to talk about?” I asked a little afraid of his answer.
“Walk with me.” His reply was short and sweet. We walked away leaving Christina at home. We headed towards the training field.
“Seriously Harrison what is wrong?” I asked again after we were out of the house.
“Nothing really. I just know you are nervous.” He replied sounding nervous as well.
“What’s wrong? Really?” I sighed.
“We have a lot riding on this speech.” He replied.
“I don’t see why? They know who my father was.” He shook his head at my response.
“That is part of the reason. You stand for mixed breeding and your advisor is a human lover. There are many reasons, but also and most importantly, they don’t know you.”
I sighed “Okay, got it. No pressure.” I was so much more nervous after he said that. We were almost there. He hugged me.
“You can do it. You will be fine.” He grabbed my hand and ink with words to my speech appeared on my hand. “Just in case.” I could hear he was just as scared as me. Did he sell me to the crowd too high? I then got up on a crate in front of everyone.
“I can do this.” I muttered to myself.
“Quiet down and listen!” Harrison yelled quickly getting everyone’s attention.
All eyes fell on me. “As you know, we are preparing for war.” I quickly began to see their faces and their looks were not pleasant. I looked down at my hand with the writing on it. It was smeared with my sweat, I looked back up realizing it wasn’t going to help. “We need to work hard and we can win our kingdom back. I promise you this tyranny will end.” I looked at their faces, I was so nervous. I could see them all writing me off and whispering amongst themselves. It suddenly hit me, they see me as just like my father. Well if not my father they know I’m a terrible speaker. The real point is, is that Harrison’s words sunk in. They do not know me, they do not know who I truly am.
Right then something came over me, sort of like an adrenalin rush. I quickly tugged at my necklace, my family emblem and broke it off. I held it up high in the air. “You see this!” I yelled getting their attention back on me. My voice grew strong and confident. “I may be my father’s daughter, but I am NOT my father! When I promise change, I really do mean for the better.” I threw the necklace to the ground. “From this day forth I am your leader, Jay McClayn Anderson! I will lead you to victory! With our hard work... Ladies and Gentlemen, we will go far!” They were shocked by my actions and my words. “If you didn’t already notice, I do not believe in race barriers, nor do I believe in race segregation. I am not a full witch, I have shapeshifter blood. The times are changing, and we need to break away from old ways and find a new way. Not a way that works for just one person on a throne, I mean a way for us all to be happy and thrive! Like I said earlier Ladies and Gentlemen, when I promise change, I mean change.” I raised my voice louder. “So let us get fired up! Let us change for freedom! For justice! And for the love of our friends and family!”
After I finished my speech I turned to Harrison. “We need to come up with a test for next week. We need to mix things up, we need to break away from certain races only doing certain things.” He just stared at me shocked. I then looked back at the crowd and they were staring at me too for a minute. Then cheering came.
I slowly got off the crate. “Let’s get training!” I yelled out to them. Harrison broke everyone else up into groups, but only for warm ups and basics. Everyone was going to learn how to fight in different styles and with different instruments and tools, well outside of our quick basics and warm ups. I was hoping it would shake up the ranks and that the tests will mix all the races with each other. There were 20 groups, my friends who have been with me all along each led a group, the rest were lead by some people Harrison saw fit to do so. Harrison and I broke away to talk about what we needed to do.
