Daughter of the Red Dawn (The Lost Kingdom of Fallada) (2 page)

In the years since the disappearance of the girls, Eranna has grown in strength
and power and has now captured King Endroth, whom she holds
captive with her dark spells
. She has erected a fortress impenetrable b
y
Fae
ries and
Fae
magic
and has partnered with her
Witches
and
Sorcerers
to create an army worthy of her vanity and conceit.

Now, in our darkest hour, haste is needed. I have entrusted Jacob and
Wilhelm
with the task of finding the lost girls.

How, you ask?

Ah, we
Fae
are
wise,
perhaps because of the amount of time
we have
lived. While King Endroth did not ask it of me, I took it upon myself to install a portal within the wall. It is small and impenetrable to anyone that does not have the key. I myself wear this key upon my person at all times and have not let it from my sight
in
all of these years.

Today is the first day that I will be making use of the portal, to send the brothers on their way. As they embark upon their journey I can only hope that all of my hopes aren’t for naught. The land
of Goldun will never fall—the
Fae
are too powerful—but it would grieve me beyond all imaging if the rest of Fallada were lost to Eranna’s evil.

And so, dear friend, we embark upon the dawn of our mission.
Seven missing girls and not a clue to where
any
of them have been all this time.
I can only keep my energies on shielding our comings and goings from the far-seeing eye of Eranna, and pray for an end to the blackness that is spreading out
,
even unto the far reaches of Fallada.

~*~

Chapter One

Twin Oaks, Texas

Blades of tall grass swayed in
the
gentle Texas spring breeze. Wildflowers in shades of yellow, red, and orange blanketed the grassy field and bluebonnets covered the landscape in patches of deep lavender. The sun was high overhead in a cloudless sky, and the only movement besides the swaying grass was the figure of a lone girl wading through the foliage.

Selena McKinley’s
coppery red
hair bl
ew around her heart-shaped face. Her
whiskey
brown eyes,
narrowed against the
sun
, gleamed from behind long bangs
as she moved across the abandoned field she walked through every day on her way home from school. Selena always enjoyed her walks home because they were the only time she ever had to herself. Once at home she would have to endure her grandmother’s questions about
school
and Selena just didn
’t feel like talking about that. N
ot
today
or any other day for that matter.

At school she was often alone, but not in the way she would like. The eyes of the other kids were always on her and their whispers always just loud enough for Selena to hear. It didn’t matter that she kept to herself and never bothered anybody. It didn’t matter that she hardly ever raised her hand in class or called attention to herself by appearing too smart or too dumb. Her grades might be high but she didn’t flaunt her intelligence and she didn’t strive to be popular.

None of that mattered, because
as long as Selena could remember she’d been different from everyone else. She’d never s
eemed to find a place to fit in. S
he wasn’t a beauty queen, she wasn’t a nerd,
and she
wasn’t a skater,
stoner,
Goth
, or prep. She wasn’t the cheerleader type and she’d never had a boyfriend. She wasn’t artistic and she couldn’t play an instrument. She wasn’t the class president or school council type either. While all of the other kids seemed to fit pretty nicely in
to
each of these categories, Selena had never really found her place.

The only thing that had ever brought her solace was her spot on the track team. She was
the fastest girl
on the team and was always chosen to run third leg in the relay. But even her athletic abilities hadn’t earned her very many friends and Selena still found herself sitting alone at lunchtime and without dates to school dances. There was Zoe, her best friend since Kindergarten, but no one else really
. Except maybe
the girls from the track team
, but
even they were standoffish around her.

It was as if they knew, just like Selena did, that something was wrong with her.

Screw them,
she thought to herself as she adjusted the one strap of her messenger-style backpack and walked on.
Only a few more weeks of school and
I’m
done with ole Dirtpatch, USA.

Living in such a small town only made Selena more aware of just how awkward and different she was.
In a town where the kids drove tractors, wore Levi’s, and listened to Trace Adkins, a girl who preferred Converse’s over Cowboy boots stood out like a sore thumb.

She couldn’t wait to graduate, just one week before her eighteenth birthday.
Selena’s earnings from her
part-time job at Dairy
Queen
had been going into her savings account for years, and now she had more than enough to move away from Twin Oaks, Texas forever. She was hoping to start over in
a place like Dallas or Houston,
a place big enough for a girl like her to get lost in the crowd. With so many people around it would be awful hard for someone to feel out of place or abnormal.

A sleek apartment,
a car of
her own, a steady job, and the freedom to do what she wanted to do would be more than enough for her.

Although,
she thought as she paused at the center of the field,
I will miss one thing about Twin Oaks: wide, open spaces.

She glanced around her one last time to ensure that no one was watching before taking off at a run. The grass bent beneath her sneakers and the wind whipped at her hair and filled her expanding lungs. She pumped her arms and willed her legs to go faster, barely cognizant of
the
blur that was Twin Oaks whizzing past her.

A flock of birds sensed her approach and scattered, beating their wings frantically in an attempt to escape the whirlwind breezing through the field. When she finally skidded to a stop, she felt as she always did after a good run—cleansed and free. She couldn’t even cut loose like that on the track, afraid that someone would know just how fast she could run and turn her into a science experiment. She wasn’t foolish enough to think that showing people what she could really do would make them like her more. If anything, it would brand her a freak for the rest of her life.

Unless Professor X and the other X-Men decided to make an appearance and offer her a place in their crew, Selena was on her own
and probably the only person in the world with such a bizarre talent. Even her grandmother, who’d raised her from infancy, didn’t know the truth.

As Selena contemplated taking another lap around the field, she turned
and found the lone figure of a boy standing at the edge of the
meadow,
which was ringed by cedar trees. Her eyes widened as she took him in from head to toe: impossibly black hair falling into his eyes, stony features, long legs, and slender form. In his skinny jeans, Converse sneakers, black t-shirt, and sleek sunglasses, he was unlike any other guy she’d ever seen in Twin Oaks
,
where Wranglers and
large belt buckles
were the dress code.

He raised his chin slightly in acknowledgement and Selena stood rooted to the spot, unable to move or even utter a sound as the boy stepped into the tall grass. The sun glinted off of his
black
hair, giving it a slightly bluish tinge, and his dark sunglasses mirrored her reflection to her as he closed the distance between them. The grass seemed to part to make way for him, and Selena couldn’t make her legs function
as he approached.

He is strange
, she thought as he stopped in front of her
with his hands in his pockets. But strange was good. It meant that she was now one of two people that didn’t belong in Twin Oaks.

“Hey,” he said.

One word
,
but Selena couldn’t help but notice the silky smooth tone of his voice. He smiled, showcasing a row of perfectly straight, white teeth. The canines were a bit on the long side but she liked them. She
also liked his pale blue eyes, which he revealed
by
pushing his glasses up into his hair.

“Hi,” she answered back breathlessly. She tried to smile
,
but her lips wouldn’t move. She fiddled with the strap of her backpack instead.

“I’m Titus,” he said, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet.

“Selena,” she answered.

“Pretty name,” he said.

“Thanks. I like your glasses.”

I like your eyes. I like your hair. I like your skin.

Selena bit back the words, embarrassed by her almost instant crush on the cute stranger.

“Are you new
in town
?” she asked, trying her best not to gawk a
t
him and failing miserably. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you before.”

“Not that new,” he said with a shrug
. “I’ve seen you around a lot, a
t school, on the track field, at the Dairy Queen.”

Selena’s eyes widened in surprise.
“You have?”

He nodded, a sly smile spreading across his face.
“Oh yeah.
When I saw you today walking through this field I thought, ‘now’s the perfect chance to get to meet the prettiest girl in Twin Oaks’.”

Selena couldn’t help but laugh at that one.
Prettiest girl in Twin Oaks?
Hadn’t he laid eyes on Allyson, the chee
rleader with the biggest boobs
a teenage girl had a right to have? Or Janelle, who’s long, perfectly shaped
legs
had earned her the honor of being captain of the dance squad? Or what about Trisha,
whose
hair was that perfect shade of blond tha
t most girls had to buy a box
of hair color to achieve?

This guy obviously didn’t get out much.

Selena snorted.
“Yeah right.”

“It’s true,” he said, taking another step toward her. Selena felt her hands shaking as he reached up to stroke a lock of her straight,
red
hair. “Besides, you’re different and I like different.”

“You must be the only guy in
town
that does.”

He laughed. “Would you believe me if I told you that we were two of a kind? That I’m as different as you are?”

Selena frowned. “What do you mean?”

He leaned even closer, his nose nearly touching hers as his grin widened. His white teeth flashed in the sunlight, the sharp canines displayed proudly.

“I saw you,” he whispered.
“Running.”

Selena clutched her stomach as she felt nausea welling up in her. From the expression on his face, it was obvious that he didn’t mean to say he’d seen her on the track at school. How could she have been so stupid? She hardly ever allowed herself the freedom to run uninhibited in broad daylight. She had thought herself alone, completely oblivious to the watching eyes of a boy named Titus.

What
to do?

Titus’ smile was blinding, a flash of white teeth that left her stunned while she tried to find words
…
any words
…
even ‘please don’t tell my secret and make
me
end up on the six o’clock news, or on a lab table with a bunch of tubes coming out of my body’.

Her mouth opened
,
but nothing came out
.
A
s panic gripped her, Selena could think of only one thing to do.

Run!

~*~

“Hi
,
sweet pea.”

“Hey
,
Gram.”

Selena
quickly
breezed
past her g
randmother
and into her room. She slammed the door and leaned against it, sinking down to the floor and covering her face with her hands. Her heart pumped rapidly, sending a rush of blood through her veins that created a pulsing sound in her ears.

“Holy shit,” she murmured as she fought for air.