Page 1 of Wings of Destiny

Chapter one

Erin

I ran as fear gripped my chest, making it increasingly harder to breathe. My throat was on fire and the air in my lungs constricted. I had to keep going. I didn’t know what or who I was running from but instinct kept me rushing forward into the darkness that surrounded me.

My pace increased as I barreled through the pitch-black world. I sprinted forward until I slammed right into what felt like a wall. My balance failed me and I fell backward. Instead of my body colliding into the ground below my feet, I went into free fall. My lungs began to deplete of the oxygen within them; I was suffocating. As I used every bit of fight that remained within me to suck in my final staggered breath, I awoke.

It had been a week since that nightmare. It was on constant replay in the back of my mind, partnered with a sense of impending doom, which nagged at me night and day. My alreadywonky sleep schedule had taken a hit over the last week, tossing and turning as I revisited the same nightmare night after night.

“Miss Snow, are you with us?” The familiar boom of my college professor’s voice pulled me from my sleep-deprived train of thought.

Shit.

I had gotten completely lost in my own world, and I’d been caught red-handed. I dragged my eyes from the top of my desk to meet Mister Jensin’s aged, angry, amber glare as he waited for my response.

“Sorry, Professor, what was the question?”

“Miss Snow, it’ll do you well to actually pay attention once in a while. The question was: who brought forward the realization that the empire was falling?”

Oh crap.

I racked my brain in search of the correct information. “Was it Lady Leonora?”

Mister Jensin heavily rolled his eyes as he tapped his pen on the sand-colored desk. “Correct. Now pay attention.”

The end of class couldn’t have come quick enough; I practically bolted when we were finally dismissed.

“Erin, wait the hell up!”

As I turned around, I saw Seth running toward me with a huge ass grin plastered on his face.

“So, what’d you do, fall asleep in Jensin’s class? Guy looked like he was going to pop.” Seth chuckled as he slapped a hand on my shoulder.

Of course, Seth thought it was funny. Usually,hewas the one Jensin picked on. I couldn’t even begin to count the amount of times Seth had fallen asleep or slacked off in his class.

And yet, jackass here is acing everything. Prick.

“Ugh, tell me about it! I space out one damn time.” I huffed.

“Yeah, no kidding. So, what’s got your panties in a twist, Snow?”

“I was thinking about that weird dream I had the other night, the one with the running and impending doom. It keeps popping up in my head and it’s bugging me. I can’t even get a solid night’s sleep.”

“Dunno, maybe you’re just finally losing it”—I whacked him on the arm—“or may-be it’s just a weird dream. People have weird dreams all the time. No biggie. And besides”—he flicked his brow-length, shaggy, midnight-black hair to the side and stuck his tongue out at me— “when do you ever ‘get a solid night’s sleep’ anyway, Booknerd?”

I shoved my shoulder into his side. “You’re a dick, you know that?” I let out a laugh. “But you’re probably right.”

He smirked. “Of course, I’m always right.”

We walked down the hallway and made our way out of the main building on campus; Seth animatedly rattled on about his other classes, getting closer to finals, upcoming plans, his newest fling. That one kind of irritated me a bit, not that I had any right to the guy. Seth and I had been best friends since we were kids. We grew up right down the street from each other and never really crossedthatline into the more-than-friends territory. Ever since girls stopped having cooties, he’d chase girl after girl and was always attached. Me, on the other hand? In college I’d only slept with one person, the first relationship I ever had and the guy was a total tool. Seth was more than happy to tell the douche to beat it after he called me a bitch for ending it. Until then, Seth had always been like a big brother to me, but in thatmoment, I felt a spark. A lick of something more attempting to burrow itself in my chest. I’d fought it and shoved it down every day until I’d been sure it was snuffed out once and for all.

“So, what do you think? Want to hit that new movie with Libby and me?”

Shit.

Apparently,my active listening skills were in the shitter.

“Uh, sure. Sounds good.”

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