The Awakening

Prologue

Sophie Foster woke up in New York City with a massive headache. The last thing she remembered was Mr. Forkle telling her that she would figure out who her biological father is soon enough.

Sophie had went to meet up with him, trying to get answers about strange things that had been happening to her. Her friends and her had found an open spot in a luscious green valley next to a spring where they could train their abilities, skills, and fighting techniques. They had gone there pretty much every day the past three weeks, learning tricks from their bodyguards that they could use against the Neverseen.

In a fight with Keefe, Sophie had tripped on a cluster of grass, which was slightly uneven compared to the rest of the valley, and face planted. Sharp rocks embedded themselves in her hands, which she had extended in front of her in an effort to protect the rest of her body during the fall, and a steady stream of blood oozed from her palms.

She pushed herself onto her feet and dusted herself off, her sword lie slightly off to the side where she had thrown it the moment she started falling. Keefe was instantly by her side, face full of conflicting emotions of concern and amusement.

"You okay?" he asked, biting his lip as if he were trying to hold back a laugh, which he was.

"I'm fine," she grumbled, embarrassed by her usual clumsiness. "I'm going to go clean my hands."

She walked over to the spring, hearing a soft chuckle from the place she had just left. Signing, she knelt down by the water and placed her hands on the surface, watching the ripples glide away. Her cuts should've stung at the contact with the water, but she had found it to be soothing. The way the water flowed under her hands, almost fueling her energy.

After several long minutes of peace, she begrudgingly retracted her hands from the water, turning them over to examine them. She gasped and stared in shock at her hands, the cuts now barely visible, as if they were never there to begin with.

And that was the moment she decided she needed answers, whether she learned that the Black Swan had given her water-healing powers or some other crazy DNA mutation.