The Awakening Series: Volumes 1 - 3

by Dean Murray

  Fenrir wasn't just a threat to me, he was a threat to everyone else I cared about. If I was going to stop him then I needed to know how to fight. If Kyle would teach me then I would be more than happy to help take the fight to Fenrir, and I wouldn't stop until he was dead for good.

  He would be good practice for when I went after Mephistoles.

  Unaware of the direction my thoughts had taken, Kyle nodded. "I would. I want two promises out of you though."

  I felt my enthusiasm start to melt away. "What are they?"

  "The first one is that you won't use any of the things I'm teaching you against me as long as you're my guest here in the bunker."

  Talk about the world's biggest shock. I'd been expecting something overreaching like a promise to never use anything I learned against him.

  It was like he was reading my mind. "There isn't any good reason to ask for more than that, Selene. We both know that you wouldn't honor your promise if breaking it was required to save my brother."

  I wasn't surprised at the bitterness in Kyle's voice when he mentioned Jace. What was surprising was the fact that there was less bitterness there than I'd expected.

  "Fine, I can agree to that. What's your second condition?"

  "You never breathe a word to anyone about what I've just told you. Not even Jace can know that I've made so much progress when it comes to creating my own artifact."

  "I'm not particularly keen to start keeping secrets from Jace and Kat, Kyle. I already have too many secrets in my life just from keeping all of this from my dad and sister."

  "I wouldn't ask this of you if I didn't have a good reason, Selene."

  "Fine, what's the reason? If you want me to start keeping secrets for you then convince me."

  "Every single person who's ever created an artifact died within weeks of it becoming common knowledge."

  I shrugged. "That's hardly surprising. You said it yourself, you want to use your knowledge to enslave the rest of us. That's the kind of thing that is bound to make multiple pantheons rise up and try to kill whoever is gunning for the top spot."

  Kyle looked like he wished he could go back and just not tell me about his research. "That's just it, Selene. I've managed to get my hands on some journals that everyone thought had been destroyed. I'm not so sure that it was other Awakened who took those researchers down. It's starting to look like the fae—not just one court, but both courts working together—killed them."

  "I thought the courts hated each other too much to ever work together."

  "Yeah, that's what they want us to think."

  Chapter 11

  After Kyle's conspiracy theories regarding the Seelie and Unseelie Courts, I wasn't sure what to think. He'd already admitted that extended isolation wasn't good for our kind. Maybe this was all just the delusion of someone who was already three steps too far down the road to crazy town.

  I stood there in silence for several seconds as I tried to think through the ramifications of what he was asking me to promise. I considered just lying, but Kyle was uncannily good when it came to reading me. He would probably know if I was less than honest—and then refuse to teach me what I needed to know. Besides, it wasn't in my nature to lie.

  In the end, I couldn't come up with a good reason not to promise to keep his secret, so I agreed. Kyle searched my eyes for several seconds before nodding. He walked over to the warded area and rekeyed it so that I could enter.

  It turned out that I'd been right in thinking that he used that section for experiments that were too dangerous to perform out in the open. I just hadn't realized that I was going to end up as one of those dangerous experiments.

  Kyle once again took me by surprise. I'd expected him to be a grouchy, short-tempered teacher, but he was exactly the opposite of that. He was patient and calm. He'd claimed several times that his true calling was research, but if that was the case all I could figure was that he was hell on wheels behind a microscope because he was an incredible instructor.

  Of course it probably helped that I once again picked up the effect he was trying to teach me in record time. I now had a name for the attack that Kat had been using on Fenrir when we'd been running away with Ari. Kyle called it a sun lance, which was way better than calling it a sun beam. I hadn't actually stooped so low as to call Kat's most powerful weapon that—even inside the privacy of my own mind—but it had been tempting a couple of times.

  Sun lance was a much tougher, deadlier sounding name. Hopefully it would stick for me so I could avoid pissing Kat off by using the wrong name. The thought of her getting all indignant made me smile.

  It was odd that I could be such good friends with people who were so different. Kat was a mind-blowing combination of fear and in-your-face spitfire, while Jace was relaxed—almost passive—until someone threatened us, or we were kissing. Once either of those things happened, he was even more intense than Kat.

  Kyle on the other hand was like a mirror image of Jace. He had the shortest temper of anyone I'd ever met, but once you peeled the surface layers back he was shockingly gentle.

  That realization made me wonder what it would be like to kiss Kyle, which caused me to instantly blush. Luckily for once Kyle didn't seem to be able to read my mind. I forced all thoughts of kissing—Jace or Kyle either one—out of my mind, and got back to learning the proper way to manifest a sun lance.

  I was starting to realize just how many levels of understanding went into crafting an effect. Kyle initially taught me to manifest a sun lance by dwelling on feelings of heat and light until I felt like I was going to burst into flames, and then directing that feeling outward until a golden beam shot out from my hand and spent itself against the shimmering wall of Kyle's wards.

  When I demonstrated mastery of that way of doing things, Kyle began adding refinements to my style. It was just like what I'd noticed the first time I'd amped myself after waking up in Kyle's bed. Apparently you could brute-force nearly any effect, but the more you understood about what went into the effect—in this case the way that waves and particles functioned—the more powerful you could make it.

  There was an obvious lesson there, but it also felt like there was another, more subtle realization waiting for me if I could just reach out and grab it. It was an unsettling sensation, the kind of thing that normally would have stayed with me like a splinter in the back of my mind, but this time around my efforts to master the sun lance were sufficient to distract me from the feeling.

  After a little more than an hour I finally managed to master the effect at what Kyle figured was about twice the strength I'd started out with.

  "I'm not sure I'll ever manage to be anything more than an irritant to someone like Fenrir."

  Kyle shook his head. "You're doing an amazing job picking this up. Most Awakened would still be trying to get a handle on the regular-strength effect, and you've taken things to the next level already. A double-strength sun lance isn't going to be enough to put Fenrir down, but he'll know he's been hit by it."

  "So what comes next?"

  Kyle walked over to one of the free-standing cabinets that surrounded the metalworking equipment in the center of the room, and pulled out a heavy-looking sword.

  "Under other circumstances I would probably keep working with you until you managed a triple-strength lance, but I think we'd be better off taking a trip out to the third ward and doing as much damage as we can to Fenrir before his friends show up."

  My throat went instantly dry. "Do you really think that I'm ready?"

  "You'll be just fine. Your emotional reserves are probably a little on the low side, but you should still have enough to amp yourself up to four or five times normal speed and still have enough left over to hit Fenrir with two or three lances. The key thing is to stay as close to the ward as possible. Step across, hit him with a lance, and then step back to the other side where you are safe before he can get close enough to hurt you."

  Kyle handed me the sword and I was surprised at how much heavier it was tha
n Excalibur. I was able to lift it with two hands, but only just.

  "I don't have a sheath for that one, so you'll have to carry it like that, but you won't have any problems wielding it once you're amped up."

  "All the strength in the world isn't going to help me given that I don't know the first thing about using one of these things."

  "Yeah, we'll get into the proper way to swing a sword before the next time we go after Fenrir and company. I don't expect you to need it, but if nothing else get it between you and Fenrir and let the force of his charge push you back through the ward."

  "Okay. Let's go do this before I lose my nerve and run away with my tail between my legs."

  Kyle gave me a funny look. "You're many things, Selene Jenkins, but you're not a coward. Just remember that we have to go through Fenrir before you'll be able to go help rescue your dad."

  I was shocked at the wave of warmth that crashed through me in response to Kyle's praise. Somehow the fact that the praise had come from Kyle made it more valid, more real than if it had come from anyone else.

  I couldn't manage a verbal response after that. I just nodded and gestured for Kyle to lead the way. I half expected him to rekey the ward to his workshop as we left, but he didn't. It was another sign that he trusted me more than I would have if our positions had been reversed.

  We stopped off to confirm that Fenrir hadn't managed to bring down the third ward yet. Kyle said it was nothing more than a formality, that he would be able to sense the third ward as soon as we'd stepped across the boundary of the fourth ward, but I wasn't going to complain about a few extra precautions. The last thing I wanted was for Fenrir to take us by surprise out in the middle of the Lost City when we were too far away from Kyle's wards to disengage at will.

  Kyle stopped at the top of the stairs to confirm that his new shoes were properly laced, and then inspected my shoes. They were much the worse for the wear as a result of my earlier sprint up the stairs, but he seemed to think that they would do the job still.

  "When we get out to the third ward we need to drift away from each other. We need to make sure that there's enough space between us that Fenrir can't come after both of us at the same time."

  "Okay, I'll just pretend that I don't like you. That shouldn't be too hard."

  It was the wrong thing to say just before we headed off for battle, and I knew it as soon as the words left my mouth. I expected Kyle to get offended, but he just rolled his eyes.

  "I'd say that I don't remember you being this sarcastic, but that's not the case—I just don't remember you."

  Now it was my turn to roll my eyes. "Touché. So how do you expect this to go down?"

  "Fenrir will have to choose one of us as his primary target. It could go either way, but I suspect he's going to figure that you aren't as much of a threat as I am. If that's the case he'll come after me and I'll do my best to cut him up without letting him get his teeth on me."

  "Which means I can just stand back and hit him with sun lances until I don't have any emotional reserves left."

  "Yeah. The next fight will be more interesting. Fenrir will know that you're capable of hurting him, so he might charge you in the hopes of eliminating you right off the bat."

  "Oh, goody."

  Kyle opened up the door to the bunker and we headed out into the abandoned city. I made a note to ask Kyle to teach me how to create a floating ball of light, but knew better than to say anything while we were outside of the security of the bunker. It was better if Fenrir didn't know Kyle was actively teaching me new effects until I hit him with my first sun lance.

  A few minutes later we arrived at the third ward. I recognized one of the hallways a dozen yards before the ward and fixed a scowl on my face a few seconds before Fenrir was able to see us. I put more than a dozen yards between Kyle and I by the time I finally stopped in front of the ward.

  "Back so soon, Kyle? I'm surprised. I expected you to spend hours still licking your wounds after our last encounter."

  "Indeed I am. I'd say that I came back to offer to let you walk away now before you lose even more of your strength, but we both know I can't go back on my word."

  "No more than I can, but you're pursuing a fool's errand. I've absorbed enough energy from your ward to nearly replace everything you took away from me in our last clash."

  "I guess I'll just have to work harder this time."

  I felt Kyle amp himself up with a warm rush that reminded me of the way I felt when my anger was roaring along at full tilt. He'd caught me nearly as much by surprise as he had Fenrir, but when I reached for my anger it was more than happy to crash into the front of my mind.

  The sight of Kyle flickering across the ward, unsupported nearly brought me to panic. I reached out to amp my system and once again reached for more than I would have if I'd taken the time to think about what I was doing.

  Luckily something clicked again for me and the effects that clicked into place were the more extensive set of changes that I'd managed when I'd been trying to run away from Kyle. I shifted my now-feather-light sword into my right hand and stepped across the ward as Kyle dodged to one side to avoid Fenrir's charge.

  It was obvious that Fenrir didn't expect the attack to score; he was just trying to push Kyle out where it would be harder to retreat away from the ward if Kyle got into trouble.

  Fenrir spun around with a speed that should have been impossible in something so big, and then arrowed toward Kyle, but Kyle once again spun away. Fenrir had brushed him with a massive shoulder, and the force of the blow would have shattered the bones of someone operating under a less extreme set of augmentations, but Kyle managed to get a long slash of his own in and Fenrir was bleeding as he whipped around to take another pass.

  I took a deep breath, grimacing at the way the thick, viscous air refused to fill my lungs, and then I reached down deep for the heat and light I'd only just mastered.

  The sun lance shot out of my hand and hit exactly where I'd wanted it to strike. The blow landed right in the deepest part of the cut Kyle had just made on Fenrir's flank, and staggered the big wolf. It couldn't have come at a better time; it let Kyle slide out of the way of Fenrir's next attack and this time his sword licked out and took Fenrir across the back left leg.

  It was the kind of blow that I thought should have taken the leg off completely, but some unnatural vitality turned the blow enough that Fenrir got to keep the limb. It was still a big win for us though because I could already tell that Fenrir had lost some of his mobility.

  The big wolf hopped to the side, trying to knock Kyle over with his shoulder. He succeeded to a degree, throwing Kyle into a nearby wall, but Kyle bounced off the wall like he was made out of rubber and his sword took Fenrir across the nose again at the same time that I cut loose with another superheated bar of golden light.

  This time I didn't manage to catch Fenrir completely off guard and my beam only carved into his flesh for a second before he slid out of the way and the last half of my attack wasted itself against the rock wall a few yards away from Kyle.

  I was astonished at just how much damage I'd done to the wall. My sun lance had carved a trench into the stone nearly a foot deep and two feet long, but all it had managed to do to Fenrir was burn away a fist-sized divot out of his hip.

  I was still processing the results of my last attack when Fenrir spun around and charged towards me with a speed that dwarfed anything I'd ever seen out of him before. It didn't seem fair that he could both turn faster than either of us and be so much faster in a straight line.

  The abrupt change in tactics paralyzed me for a fraction of a heartbeat. I raised my sword, instinctively trying to get something between me and the two or three tons of charging dire wolf, and then remembered Kyle's order to jump back through to the other side of the ward.

  Just as I started to take my first step, Fenrir put on the brakes and turned so he could snap at Kyle. My heart jumped up into my throat. Kyle had committed himself too heavily. He'd been so worried
about catching Fenrir before the wolf could make it to me that he'd come in too fast.

  Fenrir's jaws snapped shut and I thought for a second that the fight was over, but Kyle threw himself over top of Fenrir, spinning like a corkscrew, his sword flashing as it sliced into Fenrir's neck.

  It was a masterful display of acrobatics and strength, but it was going to fail. Kyle hadn't had any other options open to him, but the cut to Fenrir's neck hadn't been fatal and the wolf was already whipping around to make sure he would be able to sink his teeth into Kyle before Kyle could land and change direction again.

  Kyle seemed to be moving in slow motion. Our eyes met and it was obvious that he knew he'd failed. He opened his mouth, probably to tell me to get back behind the ward, but I didn't give him a chance to get the words out.

  I once again reached down for the heat and light I needed to generate another sun lance, but this time there was something different about my effort. The rage that had served me so well up until now was a shadowy, brittle thing. There wasn't enough of the emotion left to fuel the effect I needed, so I reached out and instead found an all-consuming happiness waiting for me.

  I wasn't happy that Kyle was about to die, but there was something about knowing another person was willing to sacrifice themselves for me that demanded my gratitude and it was a very short trip from gratitude to happiness.

  I grabbed hold of every ounce of emotion left to me, both happiness and rage, and forged it into heat that exceeded anything I'd ever felt before. The earlier sun lance—the one that had felt like an unquenchable bonfire—was nothing more than a candle in comparison to the supernova of destruction that burst out of my right hand.

  The beam of light crashed into Fenrir with the weight of a wrecking ball and I realized that I'd just consumed my first peak memory. I couldn't have even told you for sure what it was. The missing piece was bigger than I'd expected, like it had consumed everything that gave the peak memory context. It seemed to have taken place at an amusement park, so maybe it had been my first rollercoaster ride.