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Prologue
(Eva)
I was striding through the haunting, beautiful landscape again. I looked around for the child that had accompanied me before, but I was completely alone. There was a chill in the air, the balmy breezes from previous visits nowhere to be found. This time when I looked out in the distance, I didn't see just rolling hills covered in lush trees. This time, I saw a sparkling white structure, castle like in its design and enormity, standing tall in the distance. It called to me, feeling more like home than anywhere else I had been. I felt a longing in my heart for it. I could feel it beckoning to me, asking me to return to its depths. I began to walk quickly towards the building, my tentative steps turning to a full run as the castle seemed to get farther and farther away as I tried desperately to approach it.
I stumbled, falling to the ground and scraping my knee, losing sight of the building momentarily. When I stood up, the white building had disappeared, replaced by the ash strewn landscape that always replaced my paradise in the end. I let out a wail of sorrow, knowing intrinsically that I had lost something irreplaceable to my heart, something that I would never be able to find again. I watched a drop of blood slowly collect in my scrape before it dropped into the grey powder that covered the ground. A flash of light almost blinded me.
And then I woke up.
Chapter 1
(Eva)
My senses came alive as wintergreen and leather enveloped me. A calloused hand swept some of the hair off my face. My eyes slowly opened. Mason's twinkling indigo eyes stared back at me looking concerned. "What happened?" I asked.
"I'm not sure," he replied. "I was about to introduce you to Beckham, and you just fainted," he said worriedly.
I sat up. Mason had moved me off to the side of the room, behind some plants to give me more privacy. Where was Beckham? He had said something, something important, but I couldn't remember what it was.
"Where did Beckham go?" I asked Mason.
"He and Vanessa went to go see if they could find a doctor for you," he replied. "We were all worried about you."
I grimaced. "Can you please text him or something and tell him I'm fine?" I asked in dismay. The last thing I wanted was to ruin the night with being taken to the hospital.
"Are you feeling okay? Should we leave?" Mason asked.
I pushed myself up and stood very ungracefully, smoothing down my dress and making sure nothing had torn. I looked up at Mason and smiled.
"I'm fine. I promise. I just haven't eaten very much today so my blood sugar is probably low," I told him.
"Well let's go fix that. There's enough stars fucking starving themselves tonight to leave plenty of food for us," he said laughing, the gravelling richness floating over me.
Mason grabbed my hand and led me towards another room where service stations with stacks of every kind of food imaginable were set up all around.
"Did Beckham say anything strange?" I asked, still struggling to grasp what had happened.
"Not that I saw," said Mason. "I don't think he actually had the chance to formally introduce himself since you fainted."
Mason was interrupted by an excited voice calling my name. I turned around and saw Lexi. She was dragging a relaxed looking Lane behind her.
"I'm so glad you're here!" she squealed. "Isn't this just the coolest thing ever? I can't believe it. Selena is going to shit her pants when she finds out we got to go to the Grammy's and she didn't!"
Mason was laughing at Lexi's enthusiasm.
"You and Lane hit it off last night didn't you?" he smirked.
Lexi's enthusiasm seemed to ramp up a notch if that was possible.
"Oh my gosh. Lane is the absolute sweetest!" she squealed louder.
Lane appeared to be out of it at this point, smiling goofily at nothing in particular. Lexi let go of Lane and grabbed my arm.
"Let's get food! Everything looks so amazing!" she cried.
Mason smiled at me indulgently and released my other arm. "Don't go too far," he laughed. "The show is going to start any minute."
Lexi started piling everything on her plate at once. I was a little more circumspect in my choices as there were a lot of things I hadn't heard of before. I hadn't lied to Mason though, I really hadn't eaten, and I was starving. Maybe I had fainted because of that. I hoped we would see Beckham again. I wanted to see if he said anything when he saw me this time. I wondered if I was losing my mind and imagining things since Mason hasn't seemed to notice anything strange. The feeling that I was forgetting something was heavy on my mind.
