The Awakening Series: Volumes 1 - 3

by Dean Murray

  "I'll bet she all but tore your head off."

  "Yeah. She told me in no uncertain terms that if I ever made an offer like that again she would pay off all my debts and start a trust fund in my name that would make the Conners look like paupers."

  "I knew there was a reason I liked Kat. If it had been me I probably would have just done all of those things and not even asked you."

  "Well then, I guess I should be grateful that Kat isn't more like you when it comes to money and dealing with old men."

  There was something in his voice that told me we were finally starting to get to the heart of the matter. I needed to pick my next words carefully.

  "You're not old, Dad. You just turned forty this year. You still have half of your life ahead of you."

  "Do I? It doesn't feel like it. It feels like I've wasted most of my life working at the factory and I don't have anything to show for it. The really scary thing though, is that I don't know what to do with myself if I don't have to go into work every day. For the last twenty years I've defined myself as a husband, a father, and an employee. Piece by piece that is all being taken away from me. First your mom died, now I'm not going to need to work, and it won't be that much longer before you and your sister will be graduating and leaving the nest."

  "We aren't going anywhere for years, Dad. Besides, you're so much more than any of that, you—"

  "Am I, Selene? Let's ignore for a moment that you, Jace and Kat could end up leaving at any moment and just focus on the heart of the matter. I don't know what to do with myself. I don't have any hobbies and I'm not interested in whiling away the time I have left playing golf or painting furniture. All I know is taking care of the two of you and that factory. That's all I have left in this world, all I love."

  "I'm sorry that Mom is gone, Dad. It's hard for Ari and me, but she and I should do a better job remembering that it's even worse for you. Is this about Kat?"

  "No. Yes—I don't know. All of that other stuff is true. I feel like a fool to have given most of the best years of my life to that factory, but it would be easier to deal with that right now if I wasn't also trying to get my head around this thing with Kat."

  "What's to get your head around, Dad? She likes you and you like her. It's basically the oldest story in existence."

  "No, this is far from a regular boy-meets-girl story and you know it, sweetie. She looks like she's young enough to be my daughter."

  "She's not. In fact, if anyone is robbing the cradle it's her."

  "Yeah, my head knows that, but I'm having a hard time getting my emotions on the same page."

  I tried to put myself in my dad's shoes, but this was just so far outside of anything I'd experienced that I didn't even know where to start.

  "Are you worried about what everyone else will think?"

  "I'd like to say no, but I'm sure that's part of it. I know there's this whole thing about older, rich guys dating girls decades younger than them, but that's not me. My friends—what friends I still have—aren't members of that crowd. Under other circumstances maybe I could ignore all of that, but if I'm not going to be working any more, then what else am I going to do with my time but hang out with people who aren't going to understand that Kat is actually several hundred years old?"

  I shrugged. "I don't have any real answers for you, Dad, but nobody is saying you can't work. If you want to work that's fine, but the key thing is that you won't have to work anymore. You can set your own hours and terms. You can learn something else if you want to. You could become a doctor or an accountant if that would make you happy—there isn't anything stopping you from doing whatever you want."

  "Okay, that's a fair point."

  "Great. As for the other, I know you're probably feeling guilty on lots of levels, but you being miserable isn't going to bring Mom back. I never thought that I would ever be telling you to date one of my friends, but I actually think that you would be good for each other. Kat needs someone in her life to help remind her that life isn't all just darkness and sadness. She needs a good person to help her reach the potential she's spent so long hiding from and I can't think of anyone I know who's a better person than you."

  "It's happening already."

  "What's happening? Did you do that thing where you change the topic of conversation without telling me?"

  "No. I was just realizing that you've already grown up to the point where you're smarter than your old man."

  "Not in six lifetimes, Dad."

  "I sure love you, Selene."

  "I love you too, Dad."

  Journal Entry

  December 12, 1797

  I can't remember any time when I've ever been happier than I am now. Kat would tell me that's just a dodge, but the truth is that even my journal entries from my time with Kyle weren't like this.

  I still miss Kyle. Researching without him isn't the same. I miss having him to bounce ideas off of and challenge my theories. I'm sure that my progress these last several decades hasn't been as fast as it would have been with him at my side, but I'm finally coming to realize that there is more to life than just my work.

  It's funny. I told myself that I was going to do better after Kyle lost himself, but I didn't really change until after he left us. I still thought somehow that advancing the frontiers of my knowledge, mastering some new effect that Jace and Kat wouldn't be ready to learn for another few decades, would somehow fill in the hole that had been carved out of my chest when I lost Kyle.

  Jace was the one who showed me there is more to life than just an endless battle. All of our work wasn't enough to save Kyle, and I've finally come to understand that I'll never be able to guarantee the safety of the people I care most about.

  I actually feel more productive over these last few years since I finally let go of my need to control everything. It's probably an illusion, but I'm trying not to look too closely at it.

  My understanding of the nature of crystals seems to be coming together in leaps and bounds. I so wish that I could tell Jace and Kat about what I'm doing right now, but they wouldn't understand. It's hard to blame them for their disinterest though. This is all foundational work—even I am not sure exactly how it will pave the way for what I'm eventually hoping to do.

  Jace took me out to the opera last night. It was incredible. I spent so long after we arrived here convinced that this wretched continent would never be anything but a brutal wilderness. I can't say how glad I am that I was wrong. Jace was right to insist that we fight against the king. Ever since then it is as though the wheels of progress have sped up with each passing year. We live better now than we ever did back in England and do so on half the expense.

  The soprano was absolutely marvelous—a young lady from Italy who was barely more than a girl. I would try to describe her performance, but I would never do it justice here on cold, unfeeling paper.

  Kat was gone for the night, and Jace sent the servants home, so we had the entire house to ourselves. Our bedroom was carpeted in rose petals when we returned—I finally understood why Jace was so anxious for me to spend the afternoon with Kat. I'm pretty sure my attire for the evening scandalized half of New York society, but I would do it all over again if I had the choice.

  Lying there in Jace's arms last night was a defining moment for me. I shouldn't compare him to Kyle, but I do. I wouldn't even put this down on paper but for the fact that Jace comes out on top in any comparison. I thought that things were perfect with Kyle, thought that I loved how driven he was, but the truth is that he didn't value me like Jace does.

  Kyle appreciated me, but Jace spent more than a hundred years wanting me, a hundred years desperately fighting against his feelings for me, and that adds something to a relationship, something more wonderful than I can even begin to describe.

  I think in some ways that my being with Kyle made him a better person, but what I've come to realize is that Jace makes me a better person. I've never been so balanced, so in tune with who I want to be, as I am right in this momen
t.

  With Jace I never feel like there is any need for me to be anything other than who I am, but somehow that leads me to be so much more than I ever thought I could be. I'm a better friend and a better wife around him than I ever was with Kyle.

  Kyle saved me—saved all of us—back in London, but Jace is the one who made me worth saving. It's hard to explain, even to myself. I owe Kyle so much and I still wish every day that I could bring him back to us, but in a competition between Jace and Kyle as he is now, Jace wins hands down.

  Chapter 6

  I'd finally done it. I'd started reading my journals. I'd been hoping that doing so would make my choice clear. The passage from the night that Jace and I had spent at the opera should have decided me in Jace's favor, but something in the back of my mind refused to let me tell Jace that I'd picked him, that I would never again think about Kyle as anything other than my enemy.

  It was crazy, but I just couldn't seem to get past it. Maybe there was something wrong with me. Kat certainly thought so, but that hadn't stopped her from agreeing to run me into Denver to exchange some of my metal for cash.

  She agreed to go, but that didn't mean that there wasn't any awkwardness between us on the way there. We passed nearly the entire drive in silence, but I decided to try and restart the conversation as we hit the outskirts of the city.

  "Thank you again for taking me, Kat. I know you'd rather be with my dad right now. I just need you to show me the ropes this once and then I'll take care of it on my own from here on out."

  She shook her head. "There isn't going to be another time, Selene."

  "What do you mean?"

  "I mean we're starting to get a trickle of information from the Seelie Court through Kregor. They haven't been able to confirm the fact that there was a huge pantheon taken out in Helena, but they agree that Kyle is on the move and he's targeting anyone he thinks could cause him problems."

  My stomach dropped. "So it's not going to be safe for me to leave the house."

  "Yeah. Honestly, it's not safe for the two of us to be out and about today, but I told Jace to shove it when he tried to tell me that. You and your dad need cash and he's not going to take it if he thinks it's just a gift from me."

  My knees were bouncing around from the adrenaline that had started trickling into my system, but I tried to play it off as nothing more than boredom-induced fidgeting.

  "How many places do you think we'll have to hit up in order to move everything I brought?"

  "There isn't any way to know for sure. It all depends on how much cash the buyers in the city have on hand. At least four or five—maybe as many as ten."

  I patted the heavy steel briefcase resting on my lap and said a silent prayer to whoever might be listening that we wouldn't have to drive all over the city. We needed to get in, get the money, and get out.

  "I guess I owe you an even bigger favor than I thought."

  "No, we're square. Your dad told me about your conversation with him yesterday. I appreciate that—I know this has to be weird for you. It was weird enough back in the day anytime I started to fall for a human, but at least back then it wasn't your dad. By the time you and I met the first time around, your parents were both safely in the ground where I couldn't get to them."

  "Stop that, Kat. You're not some kind of pedophile. My dad is a grown man and if the two of you make each other happy I'm the last person who is going to get in your way. My dad is important to me, but you are too. I know how crazy it probably sounds, but I don't feel like we've only known each other for three weeks. I feel like you're the long-lost friend I've been missing my entire life. I want you to be happy."

  Her eyes were shiny with unshed tears when she finally looked away from the road. "Thanks, Selene, that means a lot."

  "Okay, so I still owe you for this trip and we're square where my dad is concerned?"

  That earned me an eye roll. "We're square on all counts. You don't owe me for anything."

  After that the conversation went much more smoothly and almost before I knew it we were pulling into a parking garage in the older part of town.

  Kat pulled a silver briefcase of her own out of the trunk and then we started off towards the first place Kat had identified online. We'd been walking for less than a minute when Bethany came streaking out of the sky and landed on my shoulder.

  "You should have told me that you were leaving, Selene!"

  "Sorry, you've been gone a lot lately with Kregor and I didn't want to hold Kat up when she said she could go today."

  Bethany frowned at me. "I don't like you going places without me. The last time that happened the results weren't pretty."

  "Okay, Nanny Bethany. I'll try to keep you more in the loop about what I'm planning, but if you're really worried about me leaving the house without you, you'll have to do a better job of staying close."

  Even as I said it, I couldn't help but wonder how much of her concern was genuine and how much of it was her keeping tabs on me for the Seelie Court. If Byron had been sent to us solely to make us doubt each other, he was succeeding. Despite my best efforts I now trusted Bethany less than I had before. She'd already admitted that her first loyalty wasn't to me—at least not this version of me—so it wasn't that much of a jump to suspect that other people might also stand higher in her estimation.

  I really hated all of this double- and triple- think. I would have made a terrible spy.

  Our walk over to the first place went without any problem. Kat looked around for a few minutes, and then walked over to the guy behind the counter who dazzled the two of us with a brilliant smile.

  "My name is Rog. What can I do for you ladies?"

  "I need to see your rates for buying precious metals."

  Rog nodded and grabbed a small whiteboard that had been resting on the counter. Kat accepted it without angling it to where I could see it.

  "Don't waste my time. Platinum hasn't been this low ever."

  Rog shrugged. "There's a glut on the secondary market right now. New York and LA are practically swimming in it. You're lucky that my boss is willing to buy it from you even at that rate."

  Kat handed back the whiteboard and then pulled out her phone. It took her less than a minute to confirm that platinum—and every other precious metal—had recently taken a precipitous dive. She'd walked over to the far end of the store while checking the prices and I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be doing, so I followed along behind her.

  Kat looked up from her phone with a sigh and pulled me in close enough that we would be able to whisper.

  "This is bad, Selene. Platinum prices are down more than thirty percent. Under normal circumstances I wouldn't even bother trying to negotiate with these guys, but he's actually quoting us a decent price given where the market is trading right now."

  "I don't get it. Is it normal for the price of metals to drop like that?"

  "Nope—especially not without some kind of severe shock to the market. It took me less than five seconds to confirm the price he was quoting was legit. I spent the rest of the time trying to come up with a reason for the price to plummet like that. Usually this would be attributed to a new mine opening up."

  "What did you find?"

  "Nothing. Everyone else is just as stymied. All of the talking heads are saying that the change is purely from the secondary market, which probably means that it's coming from other Awakened."

  I took a deep breath, but even that didn't entirely manage to stop me from freaking out. My heart rate was through the roof, but my voice still sounded mostly normal.

  "Kyle. Kyle and the rest of his group are dumping metals."

  "Yeah, and based on the drop we're seeing he isn't doing a pound here and a pound there like we are planning to do today, he organized some kind of massive sale. Based on the volumes being reported, the only reason the price hasn't dropped even further is the fact that everyone is betting this is just a blip—that the price is going to bounce back up to normal levels within a few weeks."
>
  "He really is gearing up for a war—it's just like Byron told us."

  "Probably. There's a chance that this is still someone else, or even that Byron is part of a group that dumped a ton of metal to freak all of the various pantheons out, but I'm starting to believe that this is really Kyle making a move to weaken his enemies by making it so they can't liquidate their stores."

  "So what do we do?"

  "We liquidate everything we brought and if necessary we make a trip to somewhere we can get more raw material to transmute and we clean out every place like this in the entire city. If things are really headed the way it sounds like they are headed, then we're going to want all of the cash we can get our hands on—regardless of how low the price is. Are you okay with that?"

  "Yeah, whatever you think is best works for me."

  "Okay. We should have brought bigger briefcases. At least Bethany is here."

  "Wait, what's Bethany going to do?"

  Bethany had been hovering in front of a big-screen TV, but her hearing must have been even more amazing than I'd realized, because she shot back over to us before my question was all the way out of my mouth.

  "I can shift items over to the unseen realm—not an infinite amount of stuff, so it's good that cash is light—but I can make it disappear and then once we're back to the house I can bring it back."

  My head was spinning again. It was a good thing that I wasn't going to get old and die any time soon. I was starting to suspect that it was going to take me at least the next hundred years getting caught up on all of the basic stuff I didn't know yet.

  "Wow, I take back implying that you were spending too much time with Kregor lately. If he's teaching you how to move money around like that, then it's time well spent. What do we do if another fae shows up and steals it?"