Evening Star by Melantha Mei

Evening Star by Melantha Mei

Prologue

"Sometimes, when I'm in bed at night, I get this feeling like I'm falling. Its not like jumping off a cliff, either. It feels like a sudden drop and I'm falling, so I need to grab onto something or else I'll die. My head is swimming and I feel like someone stuck a spoon in my gut and stirred up my insides. I begin to panic. But then, just as I'm about to scream, I realize that I'm in my bed. I'm holding onto the mattress. I'm covered in sweat, my pulse is racing, and I feel so incredibly stupid because of it. Yet, it still happens. Sometimes I wish I really would fall, maybe then I could escape."

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Thea looked up at the sky through her bedroom window. The stars shone so brightly that they looked like little shining diamonds adorning a cloth of black velvet. It was so beautiful that she just wanted to reach out a pluck one of the stars from the sky. She sighed and turned back to her room. It was getting late. "Are you ever going to bed, Theodora?" came a voice from across the room.

"Yes, Erika," she sighed, rolling her eyes at the impatient blonde. She cast one last glance back at the velvet sky, then retreated to her bed, next to Erika's. But she wasn't ready to go to sleep. "Erika? Do you think we'll ever get to travel outside the Hebe Kingdom?"

"I don't know," came Erika's muffled reply. She turned over so that her gaze met Thea's. "But for right now we'll be staying right here. It doesn't look like the tension between the kingdoms will let up anytime soon, so we might as well just stay here and enjoy what we've got."

"That's easy for you to say," grumbled Thea, "You have guys chasing you around all day long. I have to spend my time training to me a princess. I'll probably end up in an arranged marriage to some shmuck that I don't even like, let alone love and I'll be miserable for the rest of my life!" Suddenly a silk pillow came in contact with her face.

"Now," said Erika sternly, "You will stop being so negative and either go to sleep or I'll make you!" Then her look of anger dissolved and she winked at Thea before returning her head to the pillow and resuming sleep. Thea decided she might as well follow suit and lay down, ready to dream about flying around that black velvet sky.

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