Daughter of the Red Dawn (The Lost Kingdom of Fallada) (5 page)

“I will not be questioned by you, you insolent puppy! All you need
to
know is that I want her dead. If you do not wish to find your parents and sister ripped to shreds when you return to Mollac, I suggest you do
as I have commanded. I will give you one more day, Titus, to see the deed done. I do not want to have to come back for you.”

Titus felt her supernatural hold on him slackening and drew deep gulps of air into his lungs as he fell to his hands and knees on the floor. Eranna glided back to her chariot and took up the reigns.

“Do we understand each other, Titus?”

Titus nodded once with a jerk of his head. Eranna nodded and snapped the reigns over the polar bears’ heads.

“Good boy.”

~*~

“Ok
ay
, seriously Selena, have you heard a word I’ve been saying?”

Selena’s eyes slowly focused on Zoe as she bent to tie her running shoes. The dark gray track circled the football field and gleamed in the Texas sun. Selena took a sip of water from her squeeze bottle and smiled sheepishly at her best friend.

“Sorry
,
Zo.
I guess I zoned out for a second.”

Zoe blew her dirty blond bangs out of her face and sighed. “You’ve been like a zombie all day.
You going
to tell me what’s going on, or what?”

Selena
sat on
the ground to begin her warm-up stretches, which conveniently gave her the chance to avoid Zoe’s probing
hazel
gaze.

“It’s nothing, really, It’s just
…
I got a bad grade on my last English test.”

It was a lame excuse
,
but it was all she could come
up
with out of thin air. Zoe rolled her eyes and joined Selena on the ground, folding on
e
leg in while extending the other one out and bending it toward it in a stretch.

“
Okay I’ll take it for now, but when you’re ready to talk, I’m here.”

“I know, Zo.”

After a few minutes of silent stretching, the two girls joined their teammates near the coach.

“All right,” said Coach Kremlin as she twirled her gleaming whistle around one finger by its string, “we’ve got a meet this weekend against the Ellison Eagles, so this week’s practices are very important. I need y
ou all to be on time, suited up
and on this field no later than three-forty-five.”

Selena watched the bluish-green gum roll around the coach’s mouth as she talked. Coach Kremlin stood with her muscular legs braced apart and her hands on her khaki short-covered hips.

“Coach Tomlin will take the long jumpers and Coach Lyons will take the hurdlers. I want to see the 1x400 relay team.”

Zoe pushed her bangs out of her face with a headband and waved to Selena as she followed Coach Tomlin to the jumping pit. Selena moved into place with the three other girls on the relay team. The four girls eyed the coach expectantly, waiting to be informed who was going to run which leg for the meet. Selena could already feel the eyes of Alison, the team’s second-fastest runner, boring into her menacingly.
Alison
had no love for the girl that was the fastest on the team and Selena could feel the venom in her stare.

“All right ladies, I want to see smooth passes out there,” Coach Kremlin advised as she approached with a clipboard and aluminum relay batons.
Running fir
st leg,
Alison
Caney
.”

If at all possible, Alison’s glare turned even deadlier as she went to take her place on the blocks. She hated running first leg.

“Second leg, Jennifer Donnelly.
Third leg,
Selena McKinley.”

“Of course,” muttere
d Alison as Selena walked past
her to take her place.

“And on fourth leg
Natasha Whitfield.”

Selena ignored the stares and glares of the other girls as she took her place to await the baton.
At the sound of the coach’s whistle, Selena’s focus moved away from staring eyes
and jealousy. A
s she waited for the second leg to come toward her, Selena felt the familiar rush of adrenaline that came just before she ran.

When
the second leg runner approached, Selena reached out with her arm and took off at a trot, waiting for the aluminum tube to hit her palm. When it did, she was gone with a small burst of speed—nothing too freaky, just enough to propel her around the curve and toward the fourth leg a few seconds under her usual time. Even after the fourth leg had taken the baton, Selena felt the whirl of hot air around her and wished she could just keep on running.

Wouldn’t that be something,
she thought; running off from that field in a blur with the dry heat of the air propelling
her
miles away
…
when she stopped she rested her hands on her knees, closed her eyes and tried to imagine the moment.

Coach Kremlin came onto the field, clapping her hands and smiling. She thrust her stopwatch toward Selena with a wide grin.

“Three seconds faster than last week, Selena.
You keep it
up,
we might actually have a shot at district finals.”

Her teammates came over to offer their congratulations, though Selena guessed correctly that Alison only came to give her more dirty looks. The
brunette
crossed her arms over her chest and stared at a spot over her shoulder.

“
Not bad
,
Selena.”

“Thanks.”

“Who’s the hottie?”

“Huh?”

Selena turned to follow Alison’s gaze and felt her heart dropping down into her stomach. It landed there like a frozen stone and sent shivers up and down her spine.

Titus
.

He stood with his arms propped up on the gate surrounding the field and bleachers. His dark hair was tousled and falling over his forehead, a match for his stretchy black t-shirt. He was wearing his glasses again
,
but Selena could feel his eyes on her. She turned away quickly and shrugged.

“What makes you think I know?”

She knew her attempt at sounding nonchalant had failed.

“Because he’s been staring at you since he showed up.”

Alison flipped her ponytail and shrugged on
e
shoulder, her eyes still locked on Titus.

“Not that there’s much to look at,” she added before turning to join the others near the starting line.

Selena let Alison’s comment slide
off her back like she did every
day and went to practice the 100 meter dash. She tried not to glance back, but Titus’ eyes burned her skin with their intensity and she couldn’t resist another peek. When she looked back though, he was gone and Selena felt equal parts relief and disappointment unfurling in her chest.

What was he doing here? After his warning last night Selena hadn’t expected to see him again. Now curiosity burned more than ever and Selena knew she would have to see him again. She wanted answers and something told her that confronting Titus was the only way she was going to get them.

Resolved, Selena went through the rest of practice distractedly counting the minutes until five o’clock.
When the coaches finally released them, she drew her sweats on over her running shorts and tank top and slung her backpack over her shoulder. She declined Zoe’s offer to give her a ride home and headed straight for the abandoned field. Somehow she knew that she would find him there.

Sure enough, he was there, sitting on a rotting log with his back to her. His back muscles tensed as she approached and she knew that he was aware of her.

“You shouldn’t be here,” he said without turning around.

With a huff of annoyance, Selena walked toward the log and plopped down next to him.

“Yeah, well here I am. And I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what last night was about and why you’re acting so weird. One
second you’re being nice to me and the next you’re running me off. What’s your problem?”

“Selena, I warned you
…
”

“Your warning didn’t make any sense. You don’t make any se
nse! Who are you? What are you?”

Her last question was a strained whisper. “
What am I?”

Titus turned toward her, his dark sunglasses removed, his blue eyes penetrating. His eyebrows snapped together over them as he exhaled.

“I don’t know if you really want to know what I am, but we can start with what you are.”

“Okay.”

Hope flared in Selena and she inched closer to him on the log. Her hands trembled as she waited, anticipation gripping her tightly.
For years she’d wondered, hoped
and waited for some
clue, some inkling of what she was and if there were others like her. She waited for the answers silently.

He ran his hands though his hair and sighed.

“Damn Selena, I’m not even supposed to be telling you this. I’m supposed to
…
”
he paused and shook his head. “I’m going to tell you anyway, because you need to know.
You’ve felt different your whole life haven’t you? But you haven’t been able to pinpoint why, to understand why you can do what you can do.”

Selena nodded. That was exactly how she felt.

“That’s because you’re from a whole different world than this one, Selena. The kind of world filled with people that can do things a lot
like what you can do. You were sent away as a baby to this world. That’s why
you don’t feel like you belong;
b
ecause you don’
t.”

“What does that mean, another world? Like another planet? Tell me!”

He threaded his hands into his hair and pulled, grunting in frustration.

“I’m trying!
”

Selena leaped to her feet, her mind racing a million miles a minute. Anxious, she paced back and forth
.

“If what you’re saying is true then Gram isn’t even my real grandmother.”

Titus continued staring
at
her. He looked as if he was going to be sick.

“Then that means my parents are out there somewhere and probably looking for me, right?”

The
hope
she’d been carrying since she was a little girl
sparked
to life at the thought of finding out where she really came from. Maybe her father was super-fast too. Maybe he had other abilities. Maybe her mother was where she got her brown eyes and dimpled cheeks from. And then, realization hit her like a ton of bricks and she gasped.

“Gram’s been
lying
to me my whole life. Why do you think she would do that?”

“I don’t know.”
Titus shook his head glumly. “That’s a question you’ll have to ask her.”

“I’m sure there’s a reason. Gram wouldn’t lie to me unless she thought she needed to protect me.”

She paused and turned to stare at Titus, who had finally found the courage to look her in the eye.

“Would she need to protect me from anything, Titus?”

“Selena, you have no idea.”

“You basically just told me that I’m some kind of alien with freakish powers from a world full of other aliens filled with freakish powers. If there’s anything else, I think I can handle it and now’s the time to tell me.”

He leap
t
to his feet, reaching out to grab her by the arms. His grip was tight, desperate, a lot like his darting eyes.

“There is a woman, a queen from our
world that
is looking for you. She wants you dead, Selena.”

“Me? What did I do?”

“Nothing!” he roared. He closed his eyes and shook his head, taking a deep breath
,
in
an attempt to control his emotions. “You didn’t do anything,” he said calmly. “She banished you and the other six princesses from Fallada when you were only children because she knew that
you were a threat to her plans
.
N
ow that there’s a chance the
Fae
may try to bring you all back she’s se
nt her hunters out to find you.”

“Whoa, slow down.”

Selena felt as if the whole world was spinning three times faster than normal. The chaotic whirling of her thoughts made her dizzy, until all she wanted to do was
sink
to the ground and bury her face in her hands.

“That whole speech touched on a lot of things I’
ve only ever read about in books
.
Fae
ries?
Evil queens?
You’ve got to be kidding me.”