The Awakening Read online

  “Oh,” I felt the stone in my fingers. “I had forgotten about it.”

  “Forgot?” he laughed.

  “I mean… I never take it off.”

  “Never?”

  I shook my head.

  “Not even in the shower?”

  “No,” I said. Realizing his eyes were fixed on mine—and not the road—I asked, “What is it?”

  Though before he could answer, a deer ran out from the woods and startled us both. Cole hit the brakes, skidding to a stop alongside the edge of a muddy cliff. I peeked out my window and immediately slid closer to the middle. Closer to Cole’s warm and open arms.

  “You’re safe,” he hushed.

  “I know,” I whispered in return.

  We both looked to the deer, who was standing still as her breath plumed into the chilly air outside. Her eyes were bright and sparkled like crystals of honey. Even in the darkness, she had a certain glow to her. The white freckles in her hair stood out from her smooth golden coat and caught every fragment of the shining headlights. Her presence, though, seemed to set Cole on edge. He gazed at her with curiosity and a slight hint of fear.

  The deer’s eyes glistened in the night mist and locked onto him. She stood without motion, breathing with ease and patience. Her ears rose high as I heard a strange chirping sound come out of the trees. Then, with her eyes back at Cole, I turned to see his reaction. His hands gripped the wheel tight as he stared at the deer with wide eyes. The chirping came again, and the deer sprinted into the trees.

  “Cole?” I said, scooting over to my seat where I could see him clearly.

  His eyes found mine and they were almost golden. Of course, inside his dark car, his eyes weren’t exactly beaming with light, but I had never seen them look so bright. His deep, hooded eyes were one of the things I thought about constantly while he was away. They had always allured me, staring to me with an endless gaze—a dark, rich brown gaze. But golden?

  The deer had seemed aglow, so I thought maybe the lighting of the misty woods and the full moon had made everything brighter.

  “Hey?” I reached over and touched his arm to break his concentration, and he flinched like he was in a daydream. “Are you alright?”

  Cole cleared his throat and faced forward. “Yeah, of course,” he said while he drove away from the edge and parked safely.

  “I can just walk home from here,” I popped open the door.

  Cole, reaching over me to shut the door fast, warned, “It’s not safe out there.” I followed his eyes as they darted across the woods. “Besides, your car is in the city, right?”

  “Oh, yeah. Well, my aunt can drive me over tomorrow.”

  “Sure?”

  “Yeah.”

  Cole drove down the road as the car filled with silence. Of course, I couldn’t just sit there and let things be peaceful.

  “Why that night?” I asked without thinking about the words before I spoke them. “Why not any other night?”

  The air between us thickened as he sat tall. Shadows from the trees peeked up over the dashboard and through the windows as the wind rattled the woods. I waited for him to answer, but he didn’t say a word.

  “I haven’t forgiven you,” I said just as fast as I could think it. Whether it was true or not, I can’t say.

  “I don’t need you to,” he answered, looking to me from under his brow. “I did what I needed to, and someday you’ll understand. But you never need to forgive me.”

  I couldn’t believe him. I faced forward and crossed my arms, and neither of us said another word until he reached my house. After he parked, I undid my belt and opened the door, and then he said something to me.

  “Thank you.”

  I held the door in my hand as I leaned down to talk to him. “For what?”

  “For listening to me about the stone.”

  I reached up and felt the stone in my fingers. “Why did you give it to me?”

  “So it would protected you from… things while I was away.”

  “I didn’t need your protection.”

  “No, it looks like you didn’t.”

  Cole sat forward and looked out the window. It was clear he wasn’t going to say anything else, and that just made me even more curious about everything. Why did he have to be so mysterious about it all? I shoved the door shut and went up to my house, fumbling the keys as I tried to find the right one in the dark.

  And the minute I got inside, Cole drove away.

  Chapter Five

  Early in the morning, when my sister walked through the front door and trotted upstairs with heavy feet, I woke.

  “Charlotte?” I called to her with one open eye. “Just because Aunt Cressa’s gone doesn’t mean you can stay out all night.” I waited for her to give me some snappy response of sarcasm, but she didn’t even turn and look. My sister always had something to say, and it was often the things no one else would. I got up, followed her up the stairs and scolded, “Mom would be disappointed.”

  That didn’t stop her like I thought it would, and so I regretted saying it.

  “Alright, I’m sorry,” I followed her to her room. Inside, she dropped her handbag to the floor, spilling the contents without a glance. Her lip gloss, the one that was really red—brighter than a cherry—rolled to my foot and I knelt and picked it up. My sister wasn’t exactly the type of girl who would stand back and watch things happen. She was the kind to take the spotlight. But ever since our mother died, she seemed to care less about everything in general, including her well-being.

  “Charlotte?” I felt panic set in as I watched her reach for her blanket numerous times but never grab hold. “Did you take something?” I went right to her and helped her pull her blanket over her legs. She mumbled that she was cold and sure enough, her hands were freezing. I clicked on her bedside lamp and she immediately turned away from the light. “I’ll make some tea to warm you up.”

  Charlotte nodded and curled up into a ball as she shivered.

  I went downstairs quickly and microwaved a cup of water. I tossed in a bag of Lady Grey and then a spoon of sugar. I thought about calling my aunt, but she was with her date in Talon Grove, a quiet place two hours to the south. She’d been talking to an old friend for a few weeks and they finally decided to go out.

  I’d seen Charlotte come home wasted a few times that summer. Once, she nearly poisoned herself. My aunt made her tea and she was better within the hour. I didn’t have time to rummage through the recipe books—the spells of healing potions we called tea—and find the right concoction to heal Charlotte. I was making her good old-fashioned tea, with a lot of love.

  I went up the stairs quick as I heard a car pull up out front. Charlotte moaned from her room and I went on up without checking to see if it was my aunt.

  “Here,” I got to Charlotte as footsteps hit the stairs in a rush. “Drink this.”

  “Is she okay?” Caleb blurted at her door.

  “No,” I scolded him. I knew she’d been with him all night. She was always with him. Charlotte pulled the blankets up to her chin and moaned again. She was freezing cold, every bit of her. “What did she drink this time? Was it a drug?”

  Caleb looked at me with an apologetic stare. He came over and knelt at her side and held her hand in his. His initial worry turned to sorrow as his eyes filled with tears.

  “I’m so sorry, Char,” he said to her.

  I put the tea on the side table and crossed my arms.

  “What did she take?”

  Caleb looked up to me and sighed.

  “I know you don’t trust me,” he started.

  “No, not at all.”

  “But please, I can help her.”

  “How?”

  “I um,” he stammered as he got to his feet. “It’d be best if you left the room.”

  “You’re kidding, right?”

  “No,” he shook his head. He wasn’t playing around.

  “Caleb, I’m not going anywhere,” I said, tightening my arms around
my body. Charlotte was chattering her teeth then, and I felt like there was little time for us to argue.

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” he warned.

  “How would you even—” I said, but the glow that was starting to emerge in his eyes stilled me. Just as fast as it appeared, it faded away.

  “I did this to her,” he said with grief in his tone. “I have to fix it.”

  Whatever was going on, it had to do with magic. And not the magic I knew, something else entirely. Caleb wasn’t human, that was clear. He knew he could hurt me if I stayed in the room, but that didn’t mean he could control his power. Charlotte had gotten hurt at his hands, whether it was an accident or not. But I had no way of helping her, and I had to trust him.

  “How did you know to come here?” I asked him as I went toward the door.

  “I can… feel her. I didn’t think she was this weak when she left this morning. Her energy is draining, she can’t replenish herself fast enough to heal.”

  “Heal from what?”

  “From me.”

  Charlotte wheezed as she drew in a breath, and Caleb faced me with urgency and a glow in his eyes.

  “I can’t leave her,” I said as I went to her side and took her hand.

  “You have to, Irene,” Caleb demanded. “I’m not strong enough around your kind. I’ll lose control.”

  My kind?

  “Is that what you did? You lost control?”

  He knelt at Charlotte’s side and yelled at me to get out. With the look in his eyes and the tone of his voice, I couldn’t argue anymore. I hurried to the door as little orbs of deep brown light appeared in the air. It was like seeing stars, but they were really there, in the room, tangible and full of energy. A distant hum came to my ears as I stepped out into the hall and tried to watch.

  Caleb had his back to me, kneeling face to face with Charlotte. The humming intensified and the orbs brightened until I had to look away. It lasted several seconds, and then the sounds and the lights faded. I peeked into the room as Caleb was getting to his feet. Charlotte was sleeping peacefully with rosy cheeks. She wasn’t curled up into a ball moaning and wheezing anymore. He had healed her somehow. And my kind was not at all like his.

  Chapter Six

  Sometimes I’d get a whiff of my mother’s perfume as I walked through the house. Like she was following me, guiding me from the Otherside. After I checked on Charlotte again later in the morning, I went and curled up on the couch and fell asleep.

  I’ve always had vivid dreams that seem too real to just be in my mind. My aunt would tell me it was part of the magic, that I was seeing things for what they were. I didn’t usually take her seriously, but as of late, things were finally starting to make sense.

  My dream that morning as I finally got some well-needed rest, was just as odd as I would have expected considering all that was going on. In my dream, I was right there on the couch. I could hear the wind swirling outside, but it was a fading echo, far and eerie. I could see the leaves rustling in the trees from the window, but they were distant and blurry.

  Then, I saw a shadow come near me, and I felt afraid for a moment, but something came over me and I was relaxed. Before anything else could happen, though, I woke up to my aunt walking in the door.

  “Oh, my dear, I’m so sorry I startled you,” she boasted. She had two brown paper bags in her arms as she stumbled through the door. I got up and helped her as the screen door hit her heels and she cursed. “Sorry,” she smiled.

  I was laughing.

  “How did your night go? Oh, you got my message from Charlotte, right?”

  I just looked at her.

  “That girl,” she sighed.

  We took the bags to the kitchen and she pulled her long open sweater off and draped it over a chair.

  “Yeah, I need to talk to you about Charlotte.”

  “What’s happened?”

  It was like she already knew.

  We put the groceries away and I explained what had happened. And she wasn’t that surprised.

  “What other… magic is there?” I had to ask. She opened her mouth like she had something to say, then she held her tongue. “Aunt Cressa, I saw it. He’s not an enchanter. He’s something else.”

  Her brow flicked in thought, then she took my hand and sat me down. Sitting beside me, she folded her hands together.

  “I’ve been waiting for this day,” she said. She was staring at the table and at her hands as she tapped her fingers on her knuckles. I could tell she had something important to say, but that she wasn’t sure where to start. “Your mother only ever wanted the best for you.”

  “I know.”

  “Well, listen,” she stopped me. “Mothers don’t always make the smartest choices, but they try to do what’s best.”

  “Then, what did she do?”

  It didn’t take a scientist to see that my aunt was trying to excuse something my mother had done. Something that was most likely meant to be to my benefit.

  “I didn’t agree,” she shook her head. “But after she passed… I’ve just been pretending like nothing’s going to change.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Your magic is calling to you now,” she said. “It needs you as much as you need it.”

  “That’s not a bad change.” I was presuming, and I was wrong.

  “You should have grown with this magic and learned to control it at a young age. Alongside your mate, Lord Elliot.”

  My what?

  I’m sure my mouth was wide open then, but I couldn’t feel anything. Absolutely nothing.

  My aunt got up and went to the bookshelf and pulled a thin blue book from the second row. I watched her look over the cover with a grateful smile.

  “This book,” she sat back down, “belonged to your great-grandmother. Your father’s grandmother.”

  I tapped my toes on the cool floor as I could start to feel the sensation of nervous ripples—a wave of uncertainty and fear—pass through me.

  “She was called, Lady Lenora Jean of the Dragons. She was like a princess.”

  Okay, that was all I needed to hear. I got ready to say something, to question everything, but all I could muster was a laugh.

  “Irene,” my aunt shook her head at me. “Take this seriously. You need to understand your heritage.”

  She looked over the book once more before putting it down in front of me.

  “Everything you’re about to go through is in these pages. Promise me you’ll read it.”

  I looked down at the book, almost afraid to touch it. I still had a grin on my face, but if I held the book and read it, and then took it seriously, then I couldn’t mock the ridiculousness of it all. I’d have to accept that Aunt Cressa was being truthful when she said my ancestor was a dragon.

  “My dad?”

  She nodded.

  “But I’m an enchantress, like Charlotte. Dragons aren’t real.”

  “They certainly are. So are other creatures, if you’d open your mind.”

  “What did you mean by mate?”

  “Read the book.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me until now?”

  My aunt bit her cheek. “I promised your mother I would protect you from…” she paused in thought.

  “From what?”

  Shrugging, she smiled, “It doesn’t matter anymore. Your magic has truly awakened.”

  “No,” I pushed the book away. “Tell me what mom did.”

  My aunt shook her head. “She concealed you all these years. You weren’t safe here, but she couldn’t go back to Frostmoor.”

  “Back where?”

  “I’ve been hoping you’d get your magic,” she reached over and held my hand. “But with it comes a choice.”

  “What kind of choice?”

  “Your magic comes from a place far away. And if you choose to not go, to ignore Lord Elliot when he comes for you, then your magic will fade.”

  “He’s coming for me?”

  “He’s your ma
te, Irene. You were born to be his, and he was born to be yours.”

  “Does he even know me?”

  “I’m sure he’s learning of your awakening as we speak.”

  “And what if I go? Will I get to keep my magic? Why isn’t it like yours?”

  My aunt shushed me. She could probably feel me shaking in her hands. “Irene, don’t worry. Your family will always be here for you no matter what you decide. Just promise me you’ll read this,” she slid the book toward me. “I don’t know their world like I do my own. I don’t have all the answers.”

  Chapter Seven

  I got ready to go into town and somehow completely forgot my car was still at the bookstore. After calling Dylan and getting no answer, probably because he spent his mornings sawing away at new timber, I texted Lydia.

  And not ten minutes later, there was Cole, coming down the road with a determined look in his eyes.

  Ugh!

  Why I couldn’t just go on ignoring him was beyond me. It was like the universe was trying to shove us together now that he had come home.

  “Hey,” I said, opening the car door and getting in. “Did Lydia talk you into this?”

  “She has an art class at ten. Besides, I was actually headed to see someone.”

  “Well, thanks.”

  “Sure,” he smiled. He pulled out and went down the road, and we sat in silence. I could just feel the tension building, and by the time I got ready to say something, he was already apologizing.

  “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  “You didn’t.”

  He wasn’t ever this cocky before, but there he sat, laughing at me.

  “Who are you going to see?”

  He answered quickly, “You don’t know her.”

  Her?

  We came to a stop light and he faced me. “Listen, there are things that happened to me over the summer, things I don’t really want to get into.” I watched him lick his lips as he thought over his next words. “But I can tell you the reason why I left.”

  “Okay.” I’m all ears.

  “It was because of that stone,” his eyes darted to my neck. I took hold of the stone and held it up into the morning sunlight that was coming through the trees behind us. There was a strangeness to the atmosphere then, a certain glow that felt warm and yet so bitterly cold at the same time.