The Awakening Series: Volumes 1 - 3

by Dean Murray

  Intravil stepped through the portal just in time to catch the very end of what Dad had just said.

  "That is incorrect. Up until recently, there hasn't been anyone significant here to join up with, but that is changing as we speak. The Lady's forces have been harassing Kyle's people—specifically the Awakened he has managed to recruit. In the hours since you last talked with her, we've managed to kill another eight Awakened at the price of ten disembodiments."

  I interrupted her before she could continue. "Wait, that's a terrible loss ratio. Why are you continuing to attack like that when you're losing more people than you're taking out? I mean, I know that not all of the fae who were disembodied are going to get stuck somewhere, surrounded and unable to escape, but surely some of them are…"

  Intravil gave me a look that seemed to say that I was being insensitive. "Things are proceeding according to plan and the Lady has assured me that our losses so far—even if the disembodied prove unable to escape—are still well within tolerances. The most recent operations have been carefully planned so that our people would be able to rendezvous at the few remaining operational portals. They are arriving as we speak. It's past time to move if we're to remain on schedule."

  The old me—the one who thought she was just another normal teenage girl—would have just shut up and obeyed. Even the newer me who'd been in five or six real fights in the last four weeks probably wouldn't have gotten in Intravil's face under normal circumstances, but I could feel a pressure building inside me, a pressure that had been growing so gradually that I hadn't noticed it, a pressure that I was only then realizing came from the weapon in my right hand.

  "No. I'm through being herded around without so much as a please or thank you. You let us in on the plan—right now—or you can call up the Lady by way of the blood oath and tell her that she needs someone else to bear the scepter."

  Intravil looked like she was more than ready to squash me like the insect she thought I was, but the threat was far less effective when delivered by someone who seemed to be moving in slow motion. I hadn't even realized that I'd amped myself, but I had.

  Maybe I wasn't a match for Intravil all by myself, but I wasn't all by myself right now. I had a powerful artifact at my side, one that was begging to be used and which seemed to be whispering to me that we were more than capable of taking any fae down.

  Before that moment, I hadn't been sure that there was anything capable of forcing me to touch the scepter with my bare skin again, but my family being in danger did the trick. I slid the towel out of the way and touched the cool metal of the artifact with one finger.

  I still hadn't taken any visible action that could be construed as being threatening, but the scepter had already assumed control of my mental arms and was busy gathering up a dense cloud of shimmering blue sparks around me. I wasn't just a defenseless human anymore. I was more than that—more even than the Awakened I'd spent the last few weeks trying to become.

  We stared at each other for several seconds before Intravil finally blinked. "The Lady's plan hinges around the destruction of as many of the enemy Awakened as possible. If they are dead then they can't serve as a source of replacement power for the dark court."

  "Wait—you don't mean just in the normal way, do you? You're not just talking about the absorption that happens during fights. You're talking about Fenrir and the others chaining them up somewhere and forcing them to work effects until their memories are completely spent."

  Intravil nodded. "It is a possibility. The Awakened who've joined themselves to the dark court have done so because they believe that Kyle will be able to play the various factions inside the court against each other. Barring that, they believe that collectively they are a strong enough force the Unseelie fae won't dare turn on any one of them. As the war progresses and they are killed off, there will come a point where that will no longer be the case."

  "So you're just going to speed that process along? Doesn't that seem counterproductive?"

  "Every Awakened who dies now is one less Awakened who will have the chance to spend the next several days or weeks funneling power into the dark court with their every action. At this point, we have very few good options available to us. This is one of the least bad ones."

  I half expected Jace to jump in. I could see the wheels turning inside of his head. My dad probably didn't understand a third of what was being said, but he looked like he wanted to say something. I wasn't about to let him make himself a target of Intravil's anger.

  I would have spoken up for no other reason, but the truth was that what I said next needed to be said.

  "This isn't just some kind of spur-of-the-moment decision, is it? You guys have been planning something like this for a long time. You knew if things got really nasty between you and the Unseelie Court that one of the first things you would do would be to put down as many Awakened as you could."

  "Just be glad that you didn't throw your lot in with Kyle, and that the light court—at least while it is ruled by the Lady—is above such actions."

  "Don't hold back, Intravil. Go ahead and let the other shoe drop. I can tell there's something else that you've been holding back from me."

  She gave me a condescending nod. "There is a secondary reason to eliminate the Awakened—even at unfavorable rates of exchange—at this point. We're about to head back to Camelot and have Byron begin bringing down the second ward."

  "That's crazy! We'll just end up in the same position we were in yesterday. Kyle and his people will sense the energy being discharged and hurry over to attack."

  She looked at me like I was a particularly stupid child. "That is exactly what we're counting on. The fact that the Lady created a portal so close to Camelot means that we can deploy our surviving Awakened to the location more quickly than Kyle can move his people around. We've mousetrapped the other side.

  "If they do nothing then we will absorb all of the power from the second ward and grow even stronger. If they attack, then they will do so into a storm of energy that will rival the one that we all experienced yesterday."

  Jace nodded and picked up the explanation. "They'll be fighting sluggishly again, just like yesterday. The Lady is setting this up to be a fight where the side with the most Awakened will win. If we can kill Kyle and the rest—and do it quickly enough—then we'll be free to tear through the Unseelie warriors much like we did last time. Only instead of just three of us, there will be many more times that."

  "Indeed. We won't benefit from the energy release of their disembodiments—at least not the initial time, but if you godlings are able to carry your end of the battle, we'll have defeated the bulk of the enemy forces, gained a tremendous amount of power from the second ward, and be able to disembody the Unseelie fae again and again as they reassemble their forms."

  I finally understood, and I was stunned at the audacity of the plan. The Lady had taken what was supposed to be a long, drawn-out war and forced it into a single battle, one that we had a decent chance of winning.

  "For the first time, you'll be the ones with superior numbers and because you're so much faster and more agile, it's very unlikely that any of them will be able to escape once they start rematerializing. Not given that they'll be coming back at different times. Fine, I'm impressed. Let me say goodbye to my dad, Ari, and Sandra and then Jace and I will follow you to the portal."

  Intravil shook her head as four of her people stepped forward, one for each member of my pantheon. "You misunderstand. Our advantage isn't sufficient to allow any able-bodied warriors to sit this fight out. Under normal circumstances your father, sister, and Sandra would be useless against the dark court, but these aren't normal circumstances. They will be coming with us and fighting in the battle."

  Chapter 21

  I'd been ready to throw down against Intravil right then and there. Maybe I wasn't the biggest, baddest Awakened out there, but I wasn't going to let her force my dad and sister into a fight that they were completely unprepared for.

 
; The Scepter of Storms was still humming away in the back of my mind, and the field of sparks floating over us was even brighter than it had been a few moments before when I'd stared her down the first time. Things would have come to blows if not for the fact that my dad and Jace both interposed themselves in front of me, making it so that there was no way to get at her without risking them getting injured.

  The two of them picked me up—one on each arm—and towed me back far enough away to be out of earshot.

  "I know how you must feel, Selene, but now isn't the time to be throwing yourself at Intravil."

  "Do you, Jace? Do you really? Your parents have been dead for centuries, and you and Kyle have been at each other's throats for at least the last two hundred years. She's threatening my family."

  "Yes, I know exactly what you're feeling because she's also threatening the single most important person in my life. You. I know that it's hard, but you need to calm down. There is a reason she waited to tell us this until we were here in the Lady's realm. We're trapped here unless the Lady or one of the portal wardens let us leave."

  He knew me better than anyone else—better even than my dad. I could see where he was going, but he kept talking, making sure that there was no doubt what we were up against.

  "Just the Seelie warriors here right now outnumber us. I saw what you did with the scepter, so maybe you could beat them. Maybe you could even fight off all of the other fae and Awakened currently converging on this place so that they can head over to the portal leading into Camelot, but even if you can, so what? All that will mean is that we'll be stuck here with a very limited supply of food and water, no possible escape, and we'll have contributed to the failure of the Lady's plan and, in doing so, handed Kyle control over the entire world."

  He was right to keep going. Every word he uttered made it more clear that I couldn't afford to buck orders right now, but they also awakened a white-hot fury that exceeded anything else I'd ever felt. I wanted to kill Intravil, not just disembody her—I wanted her dead. The Lady was only marginally lower on my crap list, but it had been Intravil who had lured us here where we had to choose between obedience and a slow and lingering death.

  "Fine, we'll go along until all of us are back in the real world, and then I'll drop her and all of her people. Dad, Ari and Sandra can all make a break for it, and you and I will go on to Camelot and help fight off Kyle and the others."

  Apparently it was my dad's turn to talk. "I'm not going anywhere, Selene. I think it's a good idea to get your sister and Sandra to safety, but from what I understand, this is quite possibly the only time in my entire life when I'll have a chance at taking down these Unseelie fae. I'm staying. Give me a weapon and point me at the bad guys."

  "Dad, you don't understand. Maybe you're right—maybe you would be able to make a huge difference in the second half of the fight after Kyle and all the rest of his Awakened are dead and it's just a matter of attacking fae who are drunk off of all the power they've absorbed. The problem is going to be getting to the second half of the battle. Kyle's people aren't going to hesitate to kill you and they won't be sluggish—they won't even have to get within arm's reach of you to kill you. You're not ready for this."

  Dad shrugged. "Maybe, but the way I see it, the question just boils down to whether I'm willing to send you out there into danger while I run off to somewhere safe. Maybe I'll die out there, but maybe I'll be able to save you from one of those monsters before I do. You're apparently the one with the best chance at swinging the battle in our direction and saving the world. It would almost be worth dying just so that I could say that I helped save the world. It's definitely worth it if I might have a chance to save you."

  I didn't even begin to know what to say to that. My dad was wrong, but he was also an adult. I couldn't force him to do anything—at least not without risking alienating him forever, and having my dad alive but never willing to forgive me was nearly as bad as having him die.

  Jace stepped forward and whispered into my ear. "He's worried about you, but he's also worried about Kat. Let him stay. I'll amp him up. It means that I won't be able to attack anyone from a distance, but if your artifact is as scary as I think it is, I won't need to. You're more than capable of that—what you really need is a couple of people who are willing to watch your back and deal with anything that gets too close for you to hit it with a bolt of lightning. Trust me when I say that Kat and I will take good care of him and your sister both."

  The implication was that there weren't enough of us to also amp up Sandra as well—not if I was going to be focused on raining lightning bolts down on our enemies' heads. It was tempting to leave things there, to trust Kat and Jace to keep my dad and Ari safe and just chalk Sandra up as a loss, but I knew that wouldn't be okay. I took a deep breath and then walked back over to Intravil.

  "Fine. I get the stakes that we're up against, but the only way I'm doing this is if you agree to find someone to keep an eye on Sandra. If I had my way, none of those three would be out there—they aren't ready for this kind of fight—but if you can find someone to amp Sandra up then Kat and Jace can take care of the other two."

  Intravil shook her head. "You're in no position to be making demands."

  I reached out to the Lady, seeking her mind in the darkness that surrounded me, but came away with nothing. I turned to Bethany, who was once again on my shoulder. "Can you get through to the Lady? The only way we're going to make progress fast enough to make her deadline is if she gets involved."

  Bethany nodded, and a second later I felt a familiar presence inside of my mind.

  You're causing problems again, I see. Intravil has been keeping me up to speed on your discussion.

  So does that mean that you're in agreement with her?

  There was a moment of silence and then the Lady gave off the mental equivalent of a shrug. I could be convinced either way. You both have valid points. Your family and Sandra are not prepared for what we're asking of them, but we don't have any choice but to field the biggest force we can.

  So hire a bunch of big bruisers. Intravil's club must have bouncers—pay them to come fight.

  She sighed. I'm trying very hard to avoid having this conflict spill over into the human world any more than it already has. Money is a very poor motivator. It can work in the short term, but in the long term it always fails. Once someone has money, they either want more—in which case you eventually can't meet their demands—or they decide that they have everything they need and you lose your power over them.

  If we lose that won't matter, but if we win, I'd prefer not to have our existence be common knowledge. We are vastly more powerful than any small group of humans, but we are not indestructible. Given enough incentive and time, they would eventually find ways to exterminate us.

  It was sounding like she already had her mind made up, but there didn't seem to be any point in mentioning that. Instead, I played my last card.

  Look, I know you're worried about having yet another of your people operating at less than full strength, but if you don't do this then you're not going to be able to trust me—which means that you aren't going to be able to trust Jace or Kat. Heck, you may not even be able to trust Byron.

  I don't take kindly to being blackmailed, Selene.

  I could feel the cold in her words, could feel her stepping back, but I dove into the connection, stopping her from severing it.

  So don't think of it as blackmail. I can use the scepter, and you want me to be able to focus fully on that. If you take care of my family—even the one I don't particularly like—then I'll be able to deliver lightning wherever it is most needed on the field. That could make all the difference in this fight and you know it or you wouldn't have given me the last artifact in your possession.

  I had her, I could feel it, but she was quiet for so long that I almost thought I'd been wrong.

  You've accessed the artifact, but you're still fighting it.

  How can you know that?

  I k
now it because I know you. If you really want to make a difference in this fight—a big enough one to justify losing the offensive abilities of three Awakened—then you're going to have to stop fighting. You'll have to stop holding the presence at arm's length and let it become a part of you.

  I thought you didn't know how this worked. I didn't even bother trying to hide the venom in my thoughts. She'd lied to me, and done so in a way that meant I'd been ill prepared for the reality of using the scepter. If I hadn't managed to link when I had, Jace and I could have been killed. It would have been totally unnecessary and it would have been her fault.

  Yes, I lied to you. I lied to you because it was the only way to make sure that you would be able to form the link rather than fighting it off. My question remains, Selene. Are you willing to subsume yourself in the link? If not then there is no guarantee that you'll be able to tap into the scepter deeply enough to make a difference in this fight.

  The implication was that unpleasant things were going to happen if I refused her demands, but I'd gone into the conversation knowing that was the case. It was getting harder and harder to tell the good guys and the bad guys apart.

  Fine. You've got your deal. I'll let the artifact completely inside of my mind and we'll all just have to hope that I can still keep enough of a grip on who I am to stop myself from killing everyone on both sides.

  That won't be a problem. If you lose control of the link I'll kill you myself.

  I wasn't sure if she meant that to be comforting, or threatening. Even more concerning was the fact that I was going to be stuck serving her for the next two hundred years. That prospect had been bad enough when I'd been sure that she was one of the good guys.

  Chapter 22

  If I'd had my choice I would have run all of the way to the portal where everyone was assembling—or at least had someone other than Intravil carrying me. I was disappointed on both counts. Once I finished my conversation with the Lady, Intravil stepped forward and wrapped one arm around my waist and launched the two of us into the air.