Chapter 2

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All Rights Reserved®

Shelby Crouch

March 2013

I shut my eyes as Alek went into a steep dive, heading straight for the ground. I could just see us hitting the ground and dying.

"Calm down. We're aren't going to die." Apparently I had been voicing my inner thoughts aloud.

We landed with only a minimal amount of damage. "Never flying again." I curled into a ball on the ground, trying to regain what little balance I had before I went up into the sky.

"You'll think twice about that when you've got your own set of wings." He gave me a pointed look, like he expected me to know what he was talking about.

"What?" I looked up at him and he gave me a strange look.

"You really don't know?" He shook his head but didn't say anything else. Then he walked away, turning and walking towards a house set into the woods.

"Wait! I don't know what? Get back here!" I ran after him, grabbing his arm to try and stop him. He ended up pulling me with him, dragging me.

"Not for me to tell you." He shrugged my hand off his arm and walked away. I stood there, shocked, looking after his retreating figure.

Angry, I walked slowly after him entering the house, fuming. I came face-to-face with four people I didn't know.

"Selana, you're okay!" A girl that was around my age came up and threw her arms around me, hugging me tightly.

"I don't know you!" She let go, and took a step back, blushing.

"Sorry." She looked at the floor, her face a bright red.

"Who are you, and why am I here?" I looked at each of them in turn, one face to another.

"I am Mel Knight. I am your protector." A woman with steel gray eyes, and her black hair, streaked with gray, pulled back into a severe bun.

I held out my hand to her, but she just ignored it. I pulled back my hand nervously, and put them together behind my back. I couldn't take my eyes off of Mel's steely gaze.

"I'm Celeste Grange, and I'm your junior protector. I'll take Mel's place when she's not here." Then she walked over and wrapped her arm around Alek's waist. Alek did the same to her, kissing her on the cheek as he did so.

It bothered me for some strange reason. I forced myself to look away.

"I'm Megan, and I'm here because I really wanted to meet you." Her voice was bright and cheery. She was chewing on a piece of bubblegum, and her face was round and happy. She was the one who had hugged me.

"I'm Katie Knight, and I'll be your personal trainer." Her eyes matched her sister's, but her hair wasn't streaked with gray, and she was very fit.

I stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to say to any of these people. Aside from the fact that I now knew their names, they were still strangers.

"Why am I here?" I tried to avoid looking into Mel's eyes as I asked this, but it was impossible. Her cold gaze locked on me, and didn't waver.

"You don't know what you are?" Mel's voice was just as cold as her eyes were.

"I'm a regular human girl." I said the human part with a pointed look towards Alek.

"No, your not. You are one of us. You are hunted, you are Varquay." Mel's voice had a tone of finality, but I didn't believe her.

"Maybe she isn't her. I mean shouldn't she at least know something about who she is? Some kind of clue, maybe a hint?" Celeste wrinkled her nose at me, she didn't like me I could tell already.

"I'm not who? Enough games, tell me why I'm here." I glared at all of them, but especially at Alek. He had brought me here after all.

"You are not just Selana, but Princess Selana. Ruler over all of the Varquay, Keeper of the Prophecy." Mel came towards me and placed a hand on my shoulder, steering me towards a painting hung on a wall.

In the picture was a terrible battle, and in the midst of all the fighting was a baby girl shrouded in pure white light. She was untouched by the battle, and completely oblivious to the death around her.

"That was the Great Battle that occurred sixteen years ago, almost to the day. It happened on the day of your birth. The Hunters attacked us because they heard the Prophecy that marked you as their downfall. They came to kill you."

I stared at the painting, trying to believe what she said to me. How could this be me when I was little? I spent all of my life in Maplewood, not at some make-believe place where people who had wings lived.

I touched the painting, tracing over the picture of the baby girl. Doubt clouded my mind, that couldn't be me, could it?

I felt someone touch my shoulder and turned to see Alek behind me. "It really is you Selana. You just have to believe it."

I let my hand drop, and looked into his brown eyes. "That's the thing, I don't believe it."

"What's so hard to believe?" He stared at me in wonder, searching my face for something.

"First, I'm not a princess, I just can't be."

"And why not?" I ignored Alek's comment and continued.

"Second, how can a person who was born to fly, be scared of heights?" I looked at Alek who was suppressing a laugh.

Glaring, I went on. "Third, I can't just kill someone like the Prophecy says I have to. I'm not who you're looking for, I'm sorry." I turned and started to walk back to the door.

"Where are you going to go Selana? Vincent is looking for you, and your mother might be dead. The only place you're safe is with us." Alek's words cut me to the core, he was right. I had no where to go.

I turned back to face them and sighed. "So what's going to happen?"

"You will stay here until we can find a way to get you safely back to Summit. Until then you can begin some of your basic training with Celeste, Megan, and Alek." Then she walked away, dialing a number on her cell phone.

"I suggest you get some sleep." Katie said, smirking at me. She walked past me, heading to where Mel's cold voice could be heard.

Celeste and Alek walked away talking quietly to each other. I looked at Megan who was texting someone on her cell phone.

I sat down on a chair and after a while I got bored.

"Am I allowed to go outside? Or am I going to be caged like a bird?" I laughed inwardly at my irony.

"I don't see why not. I'll go with you." Megan stood up, putting her phone in her pocket.

The cool night breeze felt good on my skin. The moon was just a sliver, the faint light making it hard to see what was in front of me.

"So what's it like, being normal?" Megan looked at me, the faint light casting her face into shadows.

I laughed, it was bitter sounding, even in my ears. "My family hated me, my school hated me, and now I'm thrown into a world where people have wings and I'm their princess. It sounds like a dream come true, but it's not."

"Here everyone loves you, even though they haven't met you. Isn't that enough reason to give it a try?" Her phone lit up inside her pocket, but she ignored it.

I looked at the sliver of the moon and thought it over. Did I even have what it would take to be a princess to people I didn't even know?

"What if I can't do it? What if I fail and end up tossed out of the palace, because I can't be a princess to people?"

"What's life without a little bit of risk? If you don't do anything fun or reckless once in a while, then what's the point in being young?" Then she grabbed my hand and pulled me behind her as she ran into the woods. I was so confused, I wasn't talking about taking risks, and where was she taking me?

She lead me a little ways into the cover of the trees until she came to a drop-off. We ran into the clearing there, startling Celeste and Alek who were sitting near the edge.

"What are you doing here?" Celeste's blue eyes were trained on me, but her question was for Megan.

"I'm showing Selana how risk can be fun. We want to wing-dive." Megan's eyes were full of mischief. My eyes went wide. Wing-diving? Great, I was going to die.

"No, you aren't taking her wing-diving. You can barely keep yourself from hitting the ground." Alek gave Megan a look, and shook his head. I relaxed inwardly, thankful I wasn't going over a cliff tonight.

"Then you take her. She needs this Alek. Trust me." Megan batted her eyelashes at him and he laughed, still shaking his head.

"Come on, baby bro. Just take her and jump off the cliff. Nothing to it." Alek sighed and came over to her.

"If you weren't my sister, I swear..." He held out his hand to me, and I took an involuntary step back. Alek smirked, and grabbed my hand.

"I'm not going to hurt you." His eyes were bright with excitement.

"No, just kill me." He laughed and pulled me towards the edge. I looked back at Megan, with an angry look on my face.

"I'm going to get you for this." She just smirked and waved me forward. Celeste was standing off to the side, staring coldly at me. Gee, what a great protector.

"Ready?" Alek asked me, turning my attention back to the drop-off before me.

I shook my head, but instead of waiting Alek jumped, pulling me after him. I screamed as I fell towards the ground.

This is it, I thought to myself. I felt the rush of the air tugging at my clothing and skin. I shut my eyes as the ground got closer.

Alek pulled me into his arms and waited. Then just as we were about to hit the ground, I closed my eyes. We were jerked upward as Alek spread his wings.

"Open your eyes Selana. You can't live in fear forever." I opened my eyes and saw the ground rushing by below us. It was so close I could have reached out and touched it.

I let out a laugh, it reverberated through the air, echoing back to me. If I didn't have to hold onto Alek to keep me afloat, I would have spread my arms and felt the air rush past them.

"It's not so bad after all, is it?" Alek's voice was quiet.

"No, its not." I closed my eyes and felt the adrenaline pump through my veins.

Then Alek pulled upward, flying back to the edge of the cliff. Soon we were back and Megan gave me an expectant look as Alek landed and released me. Then she lead me back to the house.

When I looked back I could see Celeste and Alek arguing, then Alek looked at me and held my stare until we could no longer see each other.

"So it was fun, huh?" Megan looked at me like she wasn't asking about the diving at all.

"What was your real plan? You seemed all too keen to make Alek take me wing-diving." I looked over at her, and she looked at the ground, as if embarrassed.

"I have this ability, where I can see a person's heart. I can see what makes them tick or what they love." She looked at me like she wanted me to understand. She was biting her lower lip nervously.

"What's that have to do with wing-diving with Alek?" I gave her a confused look.

"Celeste doesn't love Alek, but he's in love with her. I don't want to see my baby bro get hurt, understand. But I can tell that on some level you two care about each other." She gave me a desperate look, batting her eyelashes like she did with Alek.

"Oh no. I am so not getting involved in this. It is going to explode back into my face if I do."

"Please, Selana." She was begging with me, her eyes pleading with me. "Please. I swear you won't regret it."

"What do you want me to do?" I asked her, sighing in defeat.

"Make him fall in love with you. It shouldn't be too hard, I'll help you. What do you say?"

"I am so going to regret this, aren't I?"

Megan gave a squeal of happiness and hugged me. "Thank you. I can't see him get hurt by her. This is what we're going to do." She lead me into the house telling me about how she was planning to do this.