The Belgrave Legacy

Chapter 2

Five Years Later

Light flashed across the inside of Fawn's eyelids, tinting them red. She opened her eyes expecting to see sunlight flooding her room but instead, she was surrounded by a black void.

She bumped into something and she stumbled backwards. Pressing her hands to it, she tested its strength. Solid. Fawn groaned. This couldn't get any worse.

"But unpredictable events are the most interesting," a mystery voice countered from the darkness.

She whirled around and saw a person standing behind her. She tried to back away, wary of him and unsure of his intentions, but he followed her. Fawn squinted at him and saw that he was around her age, but that was all she could discern in the darkness.

"Where do you think you're going? I just got here. It took me forever to enter this damn box, too."

If he wasn't responsible for trapping her, who was? She twisted away from him. Please don't hurt me.

Fawn heard him chuckling in her mind and she could feel goose bumps forming on her arms. His laugh seemed lighthearted and yet she feared there were very dark intentions hiding beneath the surface. Like a snake exhibit in a museum, it fascinated her, but inspired too much fear for her to follow her curiosity any closer.

"You have no reason to be afraid."

Fawn faced him. "And why should I trust you? I don't know you."

"But you will soon."

Fawn jerked away from him.

Without warning, the space started trembling. The darkness rippled, resembling heat waves on a hot summer day. Fawn frantically looked around, trying to locate the cause of the disturbance, but she could not find it. The stranger was doing a better job of composing himself, but he still frowning. Did he know what was happening?

Suddenly she was floating in the air, rapidly ascending into the black unknown. Naturally, she tried to fight it. Fawn imagined herself rooted to the ground, but it didn't help. The pull was getting impossible to resist and without thinking, she grabbed his hand. He looked up at her, just as surprised at her action as she was. She stared at him, hoping to see his face, but it was mostly hidden in shadow. At the last moment, she saw a distinctive feature. His eyes shone a piercing violet as he smiled at her one last time before she was yanked away.

She woke up to a blaring noise. It sounded like someone was blowing a horn in her ear. Fawn slammed her hand on top of the alarm clock.

Slowly, she sat up and pulled her knees to her chest. She had not had a strange dream since she got her magical powers five years ago, on her sixteenth birthday. And now, on her twenty-first birthday, not only was she required to attend all of her college classes, but she also had an impending meeting with some narcissist who got his kicks at her expense.

Her thoughts were cut off when the door opened and Ivy, her best friend and now college roommate, launched herself onto the bed.

"Ow!" Fawn yelped as the bed jostled, causing her to hit her head on the wall behind them.

"Sorry. I just wanted to wish you happy birthday!"

"Thanks for that." Fawn threw aside the sheets and walked over to the dresser. She went past Ivy and pulled out a graphic t-shirt with a phoenix crawling up the side she had made back in eighth grade. She cringed as she readjusted the cold silver of her opal necklace lay against her warm chest under the fabric, but didn't let that slow her down. Next came a pair of dark-wash jeans and black ankle boots.