A/N I don't own anything that you recognize. That goes for the rest of the story. If you're reading this, I expect you to review! lol. Enjoy. Also! Just so you know, even though it starts out on earth, the rest of the story is in Tortall, and it's unlike any story that you ahve ever read. Trust me.

Prologue:

Celene Dion's voice sung sweetly from the radio as the blue BMW exited the busy highway and entered a calmer housing development. Blaine sung along with Celene as she felt her shoulders begin to relax. Already she was picturing opening the door to her home and seeing the love of her life waiting for her with open arms.

Her beautiful face stretched into an even more beautiful smile that millions of cameras had tried to capture. Her hands unclenched on the steering wheel and she gave a wistful sigh as Chris's face smiled back at her in her mind. Oh how she loved his smile.

She didn't know how she had lived her hectic life without him for so long. As a child star her life had been anything but normal. And living with a mother who loved her money more then the girl hadn't made for a happy life either. She has starred in her first commercial when she was six months old. She had been a Gurber Baby model until she had turned a year and half and from there her career had boomed. She appeared in her first movie at seven, but hadn't starred in one until she was nine. But since then she had been in countless more, not to mention T.V. appearances, commercials, and mini-series. She had even done a two-year stint as a model. There wasn't a person alive in America who hadn't seen her face.

At least the face she had for the camera. Behind the scenes things hadn't been as pretty. Her mother had pushed her constantly to "be the star she was born to be". She had never been to a real school, only taught by the most expensive tutors. She had never had a real best friend, only those her mother hired. She had been lonely, miserable, and unable to show it. She had wanted more then anything for her mother to be proud of her, and you "didn't get there by complaining." So she had sucked it up and put her game face on more and more outside the camera's range. Her life had diminished to a living hell by the time she was eighteen.

But then Chris had stepped into her life and like magic everything had been perfect.

She had met him on set in the tropics while she had been filming her tenth movie, a daring romance with violence and love and near death experiences that had fused the two characters together. Off set, however, they had fallen in love over candlelight dinners and long walks on the lovely beaches.

They had returned to New York on the same plane and moved in together the next day. Three months later she was planning their wedding. Her heart couldn't have been more in love.

Her beautiful smile took a dreamy tint as her bottle green eyes darkened. She could see her house as she turned the corner, and the houses on either side of hers paled in comparison, though they were built nearly the same.

That yellow house was hers! Hers! With the white picket fence and the small tree in the yard losing its autumn leaves. Those were her flower boxes that needed to be weeded, her yard that needed to be mowed. Her perfect little paradise in the New York suburbs. All her house needed was a dog and a kid to go with and her perfect life would be complete.

She gave a bright laugh and pulled into the garage, which Chris had left open for her. He must be expecting her, she thought with a secret little sparkle in her eyes. She knew he was home; his car was parked next to hers. She hoped he would be surprised that she had been able to get the night off of her previously scheduled film shoot.

She stepped from her car and closed the door slowly, slinging her workout bag over her shoulder. Because of her newest movie, which involved very athletic scenes, she had been taking exercise classes every morning. Just carrying around the bag with the two eight pound weights was enough of a workout for her, she thought jokingly as she fit her key in the lock and opened the door into the dimly lit kitchen.

As the door swung open a sudden discord struck her.

This wasn't right, she thought as low playing music tingled along her skin. Why was he playing music like that? He liked rock music, not this soft stuff, this fluffy, romantic music. And why were there candles? He never lit candles!

She frowned before a light dawned in her brain. He was expecting her! He had set this up to surprise her! She clapped her hands together and controlled a squeal of delight as she dropped her bag and headed for the bedroom.

But wait… She stopped, a discarded shirt at her feet. Why was there…? It had to be hers, she decided as she stepped over it. She must have just left it there on accident, out in the hallway. But she never wore pink shirts; it didn't really go well with her hair. She frowned but shrugged it off. It had to be hers. Who else could it belong to? She was the only woman in the house.

The song ended and in the sudden silence she heard what was unmistakably a giggle. Chris doesn't giggle like that, she thought, as the hair on her skin stood on end, rigid with the adrenaline the suddenly surged through her veins. She stopped outside the cracked door to the bedroom and slowly lifted a hand to push it open easily.

This has got to be fake, she thought as with the tips of her fingers she pushed the door wide open to reveal what it had blocked from her view.

For a moment, as she looked inside, she wished desperately she could slam her eyes closed and step away, shield herself from the sight that greeted her, but there was no way of getting around this. No way to turn back time. No second chance for her suddenly breaking heart.

"Hello Chris. Hello Samantha." She said it calmly. It's funny how easily old habits return, she thought as she fixed her facial expression into a mask of falsely bright humor. It's funny how easily I can slip into a role, even when my heart breaks like this.

"Blaine!" Chris shouted as he pulled himself from the bed. "What are you doing home?"

"I got the night off. I thought I'd surprise you," she gave a cold bitter laugh. "Surprise."

"It's… Blaine it's not what it seems!" Chris stammered, rushing to her, a sheet wrapped around his hips. She looked at the sheet, the cool green silk sheet that she had picked out, knowing that they would share the bed, that it would be their sheets. She felt a fragile crack splinter across her mask and stepped back from his outreaching hands.

"I don't know what else it could be, Chris. It's pretty obvious that it's exactly what it seems. If you'll excuse me, I need to go throw up."

She turned and walked calmly away, disbelieving that she could be this calm, when her heart had shattered into a million pieces. How can it be, she whispered in her mind, that I so easily except this blow life has dealt me?

"Blaine wait!" Chris called, and grabbed onto her arm, turning her to face him. She stared up at him, looking into his beautiful blue eyes, at his beloved pale face sprinkled with freckles, at the fiery red hair that capped his head, memorized them, burned the image onto the flesh of her shattered heart. And broke away from him, ran, whispering goodbye to him even as he called for her.

She ran from the house and into the road, didn't even see the car that slammed into her body. All she saw was the pain of her broken heart.

(PAGE BREAK)

Blaine came alive with as gasp, her whole body arching off the solid surface beneath her as she sucked in air. Her bottle green eyes sprang open and stared into infinite starry night. She pitched a screech as pain lanced through her heart and it was then that she remembered what had happened. It felt like an eternity had passed since that moment, but the pain hadn't lessoned.

She curled over onto her side, wrapping herself into a tight ball to stop the ache. Anything to stop the ache. Love hurts, her mind screamed as her face contorted and her mouth opened to release the agony with a shout. Why did it have to hurt? It was supposed to be wonderful, the best thing in the entire world. It was supposed to make even a rainy day seem sunny, even the ugliest flower beautiful, the worst day wonderful. It was hearts and flowers and cute little puppies.

It was not supposed to be like this. Ugly like this.

"Do you want the pain to stop?" the voice washed over her like a wave of salvation. It soothed away the hurt as it echoed across her skin and she turned to the owner of the only chance of peace she had, curving her body towards it.

"Yes," she whimpered and reached for him, reached for the remedy to her wounds. He was the antidote to this toxic poison of pain.

"Do you promise to return the favor?" he asked, just beyond her grasp.

"Yes!" she screamed, desperate. She'd promise to anything as long as he fixed this, made this stop. It was unbearable, beyond her level of tolerance. Killing her.

His hand soothed over her forehead like the cooling balm she had sought and the pain subsided. She fell to her back and relaxed against the ground. The pain had stopped and her pinched face loosened, her eyes opening to the sight of a beautiful man leaning over her.

Truly he was beautiful, she thought objectively, and though she knew most men would cringe at being thought of beautiful, that's the only word that accurately described him. As the final lingering webs of agony disintegrated, she studied him. His long blond hair was falling over his shoulders and nearly touching her face, shadowing his own. She could see his strong, hard chin balanced out by full lips. His face was a strong one, she thought, but that wasn't what she found most interesting. He had the most enchanting eyes.

She couldn't seem to be able to tell what color they were, even though she was staring into them. It seemed impossible and yet, every time her mind tried to focus in and identify a color, they seemed to shift, melt into another one, then another and another until it seemed that he had the eyes the color of a rainbow. It was mesmerizing.

The continual shift of colors had a hypnotic effect on her, causing her eyes to fall closed, even as she sighed. Though this man was a stranger, his eyes, staring into hers seemed to make her feel at ease, as if he had taken over her troubles and solved them. She could almost sleep, she thought dreamily, feeling a gentle breeze dancing along her skin. The pain was completely gone now along with any and every worry she could possibly have. It seemed that along with the pain, this beautiful stranger with astonishing eyes had also taken her ability to care.

"Where am I?" she asked almost dreamily as her eyes opened again and she began to study her surroundings. She was drifting in the infinite night, and even as she looked around, looked under her, to find what it was she was resting on, all she could see was night and stars. How strange, she thought as she laid back down, to be laying on a piece of sky. She had always assumed it would not hold her, that it was intangible.

She hummed in her throat and contemplated a nap, maybe an eternal one. This place was so peaceful.

"We're in-between," the man whispered in his wonderful voice. She tried to decide if it was soothing or just low, but decided that it was both. In fact, it seemed this man was everything. He was a mixture of all things in the world and that made him beautiful.

"In between where?" her eyes opened lazily and she nearly yawned. Her limbs felt heavy, almost to heavy to bother with lifting. She gave a dazed smile and nearly gasped.

A shooting star!

She grinned wider and sighed. She had seen a shooting star once, down on Earth. But here, in-between, it was better, brighter, more beautiful. Closer.

"In-between the worlds, Blaine. Are you ready to wake up?" She frowned at him, but his words nagged at her. In-between the worlds? Was that even possible? The heaviness in her limbs was receding, the foggy state of her mind clearing.

"W-what do you mean? What's going on? What happened?" she was starting to think, starting to realize. This wasn't normal, this wasn't even possible! You couldn't breath in space! And surely she was in space, what with the stars surrounding her. What had happened to her?

She tried to think back, to the last thing she remembered before she had woken up. Chris, the tears, the pain. Running from the house, into the street. Screech of tires. Chris yelling her name. Force hitting her. Then nothing. Nothing.

Now this, here, the man. Her breath began to hitch, her mind to panic. Car, she had been hit by a car. Now, she was in the stars, in the heavens. Dear Lord… "Am I dead?"

"Calm down Blaine, and I will explain," he whispered again, soothing his hand over her brow again. She felt the panic leave and faintly wondered if he had drugged her. She certainly felt drugged, now that she was aware of the fact that she could possibly be dead. Wait… could she be drugged if she was dead?

"My name is Gainel. And I brought you here before you died. You are very much alive. At least in spirit. Your body, however, is not in good shape. I am afraid it will be nearly impossible for you to return to it," he continued to stroke his hand over her brow and stroke by stroke her thoughts disappeared until she was simply listening.

"Now, I know what you must be thinking. If I have no body, what is the point? What are you going to do now? Am I close? Well, I have a proposition for you. You see, there just so happens to be a body without a spirit. If you are willing, I can put you into that body and you can live there. How does that sound?"

"It sounds like you're freaking nuts!" the words spewed out before she had a chance to stop it. But instead of him becoming angry, like she had feared, he chuckled deeply, a sound that reminded her of waves crashing on a beach. She smiled faintly at that. She had always loved the ocean, the waves, the salty breeze.

"I suppose I do. But this could be a wonderful opportunity for you, if you think past the bazaar aspect of it all, and just concentrate on the chance I have given you. You have one of two choices, Blaine. You can say yes, and I will place your soul inside the body, allowing you to live a second life, have a second chance. You will be able to do all the things you have never been able to do. No mother to nag you, no producer to direct you, and no Chris to hurt you. Doesn't that sound nice?

"Or, you can refuse. This option brings you to two more options. The first, I can place you back inside your body. There is still a slim chance that it will survive and you can recover. However, your body and face were severely damaged and I imagine that your career will be over. And without a big moneymaking career, I feel it's only the truth that many of the people in your life would leave you. You will grow old, all alone, likely die alone, miserable. That is though, if you survive. Your second option is for me to take you straight from here to the afterlife, skipping right through the death part. And trust me, the afterlife… not exactly the best option. So, Blaine, I ask you, which do you choose?"

Well, when he put it like that… "I guess I'm going with the first choice."

"As I myself would have."

"So tell me about this girl I'm bumping out of a body," she said, deciding it would be less horrible if she thought of the girl she was more or less killing as a role in a play, and not a real person. And to become a character in a play, she needed background so she could build herself into it.

"Her name was Princess Marissa De Veinto of Tusaine. And you're not bumping her out of a body. Her soul has already left. Princess Marissa was born a sweet, naïve girl. But also very weak. She struggled most of her life to live up to the expectations of being a princess, but it was very hard on her and she was never very happy. When she got sick a few months ago, she refused to struggle and instead, allowed her soul to flee her body. Now it is simply an empty husk. If someone does not enter the body soon, it will die and the country will be left in shambles. Because you see, Princess Marissa is part of a prophecy."

She made a humming sound in her throat. So, it wouldn't really be body snatching. It would be doing a favor. And it wasn't like she was harming anyone, because the soul was already gone. And now there was prophecy in the mix? This was becoming interesting. "What kind of prophecy?"

"Let me give you a little bit more background first, before I explain. Tusaine borders the country of Tortall. And though they have never had a war fought between them, neither have they been on the friendliest of terms. In fact, they hadn't been on any terms. Tusaine is a very isolated country. They don't like to deal with foreign affairs and tend to let boundary disputes be settled the old fashioned way. Kill and let die. That was, until one of their most renowned prophets wrote a prophecy around a future princess of Tusaine. And as the people of Tusaine are very religious, there was no ignoring the prophecy."

"Yes but what did it say?" She was grateful for the background information, had filed it away for later. She fully intended to learn everything she possibly could while in Tusaine, as that was one of her favorite things to do, but at the moment, curiosity had a tight hold on her priorities.

"It said that the second child of King Henrick would become a knight of Tortall."

"Ah!" Blaine gasped with glee. "So, Princess Marissa was the second child, and a woman, which, I assume, is uncommon for a knighthood. And since she was born, as you say, weak, she probably lived in constant fear that she would never make it as a knight, that she would disappoint her people, that she would, tragically, never fulfill the prophecy and so prove the religion wrong. I see. Well… where do I fit in?"

"You are to become Princess Marissa, train to become a knight, and then do so, to fulfill the prophecy, and as you say, make her people happy. But there is more."

"More?" Blaine pulled herself out of building herself a cozy little character role to live out while in Tusaine and focused on Gainel once more.

"Yes, more. I have a favor to ask from you. In exchange for the second chance that I'm giving you."

"And what is that?" she asked, suddenly suspicious. It had sounded a little too good to be true. How often was it, that a stranger saved your soul and offered to put you in another body so you could have a second chance? Not that often, she thought.

"Once you are well on your way to becoming a knight, I will have a mission for you to fix a mistake made by a foolish young mage who tried to aspire to great heights, and instead managed to put the entire world in danger. Are you up to it?"

She thought for several long seconds, weighing the options the choices. Really, what was one small mission in return for a second chance at life? "You betcha!"

"Excellent. Goodbye Blaine!" he gave her that wonderfully confusing smile and ran his hand over her face, the tips of his fingers brushing her eyes closed.

When she blinked them open she found herself staring into an entirely different face, one that seemed entirely shocked as she felt. Where had all the stars gone? The infinite night? Gainel?

Instead, she was staring into a pair of pretty golden eyes staring quite adamantly at her own, as if willing her to wake.

"Who the devil are you?" she snarled, pushing herself up with surprisingly short arms.

"I'm Darren, you're bodyguard. And what a wonderful day to finally wake, Princess," the man, Darren, had a secret little smile of his rugged tan face. She stared at his wild mane of golden hair and was struck by his uncanny appearance that reminded her of a lion. But his words slowly sunk into her brain.

"What day would that be?"

"Why, you're eight birthday! I'm sure glad you're awake. You had slept like the dead." He had to be lying to her, she thought numbly, staring at him with a flat look.

Climbing to her feet, she pulled herself across the room to a mirror she had spied from her bed. Peering in, she came to a shocking conclusion.

He hadn't been lying.

A/N There you go! Now review!