Hello, people of Earth!! Isabelle Knight here again, and I am VERY happy to share with you a short excerpt of my book, Enchantria: Guardian’s Heir!!!!! Hope you enjoy! Go find it on Amazon or on the Books page of this blog to read the rest! It’s on Kindle Unlimited if you’d like to read it for free!
Prologue
In the kingdom of Enchantria, in a land far from our own, the stars foretold a prophecy. Old and ancient. For years, people spoke of the prophecy that was rumored to foretell either the rise or fall of the kingdom. Thousands of years passed. Eventually people forgot about the prophecy. Until one fateful day…
Chapter One
Elena Ramirez hesitated at the foot of the creaky wooden stairs leading to the attic. Sixteen years old today, and what was she doing? Cleaning out the attic. She gave a resigned sigh, her shoulders slumping. Perhaps she shouldn’t have asked her father about her mother. Or she could’ve at least been a bit less blunt about it.
She shook those thoughts away and sighed, taking a step forward. The stairs groaned and creaked under her weight, as if they hadn’t been stepped on in years. Which was probably true. The attic had been left abandoned for eleven years. No one had touched it. Not since…
Elena shook those thoughts away again. Stop thinking about that, she scolded herself. She glanced up as she reached the top of the stairs.
A crooked wooden door greeted her, adorned with a rusty old metal doorknob. She twisted it. It let out a long screech, but nothing else happened. She twisted it, and it let out another long screech. But still nothing.
Gritting her teeth, she pushed and shoved until she finally forced the door open, stumbling into the attic.
Dust swirled around her as she did so, and she coughed, blinking, her eyes adjusting to the dim light filtering in from a single small window. Cardboard boxes towered around her, filling the cramped attic space, completely coated in a thick layer of dust.
Bending down, Elena picked up a faded photograph, her fingers tracing her mother’s face. A pang of sadness washed over her as she remembered happier days before her mother had left. Left and never returned. Her gaze drifted to the golden key hanging from her mother’s neck in the picture. The very same key that now hung from a cord around her neck. The same key she’d been given just before her mother had disappeared.
Made of gold and glittering with several multi-colored rhinestones, it didn’t do much. In fact, it didn’t do anything. She’d tried every single lock in the house, and not a single one fit the key. They were either too small or too large or just didn’t fit.
She sighed. But before she could dwell further, a voice shattered the silence. “Elena!”
Startled, Elena glanced towards the door to see the doorknob jiggling and wobbling furiously.
“Is this thing locked?” She immediately recognized her friend, Addie’s voice.
“No!” Elena called back, tearing her gaze from the photo in her hand.
With a final jolt, the door swung open, and Addie stumbled into the attic with an undignified crash, sending dust billowing through the air.
Elena rushed to her side, coughing from the dust. “Are you alright?” she cried, helping Addie to her feet.
Addie coughed, waving away the dust and shaking the cobwebs out of her dark red hair. “I’m fine,” she said, plastering a smile onto her face, her green eyes still bright. Then her eyes widened. “Whoa. What’s that?”
Elena furrowed her brow. Then she saw what Addie was talking about. An ornate mirror stood tucked away in a corner of the attic, its frame made of gold and decorated with intricate carvings of illustrious tigers and vines. She frowned. Unlike the rest of the objects in the attic, this mirror seemed perfectly… fine. No coat of dust covered it. Its surface gleamed with a sheen almost as if it were brand new. But there was also something that seemed… old about it too.
“I don’t know,” she frowned. She approached the mirror, brushing a lock of dark brown hair out of her eyes. She narrowed her eyes and gasped. In the corner of the frame was… a keyhole. But that was impossible. Who ever heard of a keyhole in a mirror? Her hand instinctively went to her key.
“Elena? What are you doing?” But Elena barely heard Addie. All she could hear was the distant roar in her ears. Driven by a sudden impulse, she took off her key and inserted it into the keyhole. A blinding light erupted from the mirror, completely engulfing her.
“Welcome, Elena Ramirez, daughter of the guardian, daughter of the warrior,” a voice whispered.
The last thing Elena saw was Addie’s hand, desperately reaching out to grab her. Then everything went dark.
Chapter Two
When Elena finally came to her senses, she found herself standing in the heart of a lush, green forest. Sunlight filtered through the dense, green canopy above, casting dappled shadows on the emerald-green grass. The air shimmered with a strange glittering golden hue. Birds sang in the trees, and a gentle breeze carried the scent of blooming flowers.
Elena furrowed her brow. “Where am I?” she murmured. She desperately tried to recall how she came here, what she’d done. She gasped as it hit her. The mirror in the attic, that keyhole. Her key. Her gaze flew to her key which still hung on that cord around her neck. Something about it seemed to have… changed.
Suddenly, a sharp twang cut through the air, followed by the thud of an arrow embedding itself deep in a nearby tree trunk, only inches from where Elena stood. Startled, she stumbled back, eyes widening. Her heart began to pound. “H – hello?”
Two women emerged from the bushes. But what caught Elena’s attention wasn’t the arrow – it was that one of the two women, the one with long, flowing blonde hair, had wings. Wings. Two wings, blue and resembling a butterfly’s, jutted out from her back. A fairy? But it was impossible. Fairies weren’t real.
“Who are you?” another woman demanded. Her long black hair was loosely tied back, and her piercing blue eyes were blazing. A sword hung at her side, its silver hilt glinting in the sunlight. But the most curious thing about them were their markings. Both women had markings of a tiger on their right forearm, almost like a sort of tattoo, except that these ones seemed to be shimmering.
“Well?” the woman demanded, glaring at Elena.
Elena jolted. She struggled to find her voice as she forced herself to meet the woman’s glare. “I – I’m Elena. Elena Ramirez,” she stammered out.
The woman with the sword narrowed her eyes. “Ramirez? That’s impossible.”
Despite her fear, Elena felt a flicker of irritation. “And why would that be impossible?”
The two women exchanged glances. The fairy stepped forward, her gaze uncertain. “Ramirez… it’s not a common name, here in Enchantria. And-”
Elena furrowed her brow. “Enchantria?”
The fairy looked taken aback. “Yes. Enchantria. Don’t you know?”
Elena gave a reluctant shake of her head. “N – no.” Her mind was spinning. Who were these people? What was Enchantria? And what were those strange markings on their skin?
The woman’s cold glare intensified. “Well, then we’ll just have to-”
But Elena never found out what she was going to do because at that moment, there was a whoosh. The sun hid behind the clouds, and the air became colder, chilling to the touch. Elena shivered. And it wasn’t just from the cold.
The woman narrowed her eyes and drew her sword, taking a step back.
“Namari…” the fairy began anxiously as she nocked an arrow, raising her bow.
“What’s going on?” Elena asked, trying not to tremble.
Namari shot her a cold glare. “Quiet,” she hissed. What happened next nearly stopped Elena’s heart. A torrent of inky black smoke appeared, shooting through the air, almost as if it was looking for something.
The fairy’s eyes widened. “Namari,” she murmured. “It can’t be…”
Namari silenced her with a shush. “Quiet, Crystalyn. It appears the rumors are true after all,” she said, her voice low.
“What rumors?” cried Elena, forgetting all caution as fear seized her. Her heart pounded. “What’s going on?”
Namari glared at her. “Quiet,” she snapped. Elena obeyed, stepping back, her heart pounding so hard she feared someone could hear it.
The torrent of smoke zigzagged through the air, leaving behind it a smoky trail. Then, as quickly as it had appeared, it vanished, swooping into the bushes and disappearing.
Crystalyn let out a sigh of relief. The sun came out of the clouds, casting its shimmering golden light upon the forest and warming the air, and the birds continued their cheerful birdsong.
Elena shivered. “What was that?” she cried.
Namari was still glaring at the spot where the torrent of smoke had been, her sword drawn. Finally, she sheathed her sword, turning to Elena. Her gaze was cold, but she replied, “That… was a shadow fairy. Or at least, it’s how one looks when they travel.”
“Shadow fairy?” stammered Elena.
Crystalyn nodded, her mouth set in a grim line. “They’re not supposed to be around here. They haven’t been seen since the Dark Ages. That’s the second sighting we’ve had in Enchantria.” Worry flickered in her blue eyes. She shook her head. “They were all supposed to be gone when…” she caught Namari’s sharp glance and faltered. “When she disappeared,” she finally finished.
Elena stared at them blankly. “She?”
No one answered. Namari straightened. “Crystalyn, we need to take her to the queen.”
Crystalyn startled. “The queen? Namari, are you sure-”
“She’s clearly not from here. Besides…” Namari lowered her voice and gestured at Elena, “her key. Her name, Ramirez.” She shook her head. “The queen has to know about this.”
“Are you sure? Maybe she’s just a girl from the village.”
Namari shook her head. “She’s not. The queen has to know about this. Besides… if she really is Madeleine’s daughter.”
Crystalyn stared at her for a moment. Then she dropped her gaze and gave a nod.
