She stood her ground, her face twisted in anguish, forever frozen in that moment of transformation, her body stiff and immobile, but still a raging tempest within. She saw Aidan now—his expression full of loss and regret. He did not catch her in time. Her metamorphosis complete, she had escaped him. Lifting her arms to the sky, she felt one moment of sweet relief and then the red clouds had her.
“Lex, I know you can hear me!” His voice came to her now, full of concern. This was her Aidan, not the monster that chased her. “Don’t resist me.” She felt his hands encircle hers, but she was lost in the darkness, no longer in the forest. She drifted.
The heat came first, then rage, as some intrusive force pressed against her mind. She recoiled from his touch.
“Easy, Allie. I know it goes against the grain, but you gotta let me help you.”
She reluctantly obeyed his distant plea. A sense of calm swept through her, but only for a moment.
She wandered in the tempest, lost in the burning ache shattering her skull. It felt like everything that made her Allie was changing. She could literally feel her mind expanding.
“We should have prepared her for this somehow,” Naeemah murmured. “We train our children for this moment all their lives. How can we expect her to succeed in ignorance?”
“The shock would have done more harm, but she isn’t completely ignorant. Allie has strong instincts and she’s a fighter. She’ll figure it out.” He stroked Allie’s palm and she felt his calm reassurance, but struggled to define reality from her nightmare.
“I suppose your way was best, but it seems monstrous to let her suffer. She is resisting when she needs to submit to it. You have to convince her, Aidan. Soon.”
“I will, Mom. Just let us do this alone. Please.”
As the door closed behind Naeemah, Allie screamed. Her eyes flew open wide and she caught his worried gaze. It was a raw moment of stark reality. She was back in his bed, but she was sweaty. The sheets twisted around her body as if she’d thrashed around for hours. Her mind worked rapidly, attempting to take in everything at once. It was too much. The jackhammer reverberating through her brain made it impossible to focus.
“Take a deep breath.” He reached for her hand. It was a fleeting comfort. Her body seized violently, consumed with convulsions that left her incoherent.
“You have to stop resisting. It will only—”
It has to be a nightmare! Please…just let me wake up! But deep down, she knew it wasn’t a dream. Whatever was happening, she’d known it was coming; had anticipated it for weeks. She clawed through the cloud of confusion, determined to hear Aidan.
“W-what’s happening?” she gasped.
“Shhh. Look in my eyes, Lex. Stay with me.”
Her eyes were wild with fright, but she was finally lucid.
“You know we’re different, Allie. At sixteen, everything extraordinary about us begins to emerge. It’s called an Awakening. You are in the throes of it right now—a trance-like state. Not quite awake, but definitely not asleep, and you are resisting it.”
She bolted upright, her stomach roiling with dry heaves.
“An Awakening is a traumatic rite of passage, but I need you to trust me. I know exactly how much this hurts. But please don’t be scared. It will end, but you must allow it to happen. Only then will you have the strength to fight for control when you need it most. I’ll be right here with you, I promise—look at me!”
She focused on him for an instant. But it was long enough to help ease her fear.
“I won’t leave you, and I will not let you fail.” His words gave her hope, but still she struggled.
“Let go. Trust me. Submit to it. Then, when it’s time, you’ll have the strength you need.”
With a deep breath, she stopped fighting. Trusting him at his word, she knew she had nothing to fear. It felt like drowning, struggling in that last moment before succumbing to the inevitable. It was almost a relief.
She spiraled into the trance again. The pain was still there, but it was subdued for the moment.
“That’s my girl. You’ve got this!”
Her mind whirled with confusion and pain until that blinding light burst and she was back in her nightmare. Aidan was still by her side, but she was no longer aware. Long forgotten memories flashed before her eyes, leaving her nauseated and dizzy. A stifling concussive force gripped her now. Allie’s head exploded with scorching hot light, like the brightest sunlight. The pressure built, settling around her ears with a shrill high-pitched wail. Then the visions came.
She saw her mother and father, chasing a giggling child with blazing red hair as they walked along the beaches of South Africa. The memory was not one Allie recalled, but the little girl had to be her. She broke away from Lily and ran, screaming with laughter toward two figures in the distance. She screamed for them, her laughter dying, replaced by tears.
The shadows returned before she could reach them. The hot light preceded each vision and highlighted every significant event of Allie’s life. She revisited her home in Nigeria when she was a baby; she watched the expression on Lily’s face when a local woman took a special interest in Allie. They left for Egypt not long after. Then the Sudan. Joss left home for school in London. She didn’t see her big sister for several years after that. Whenever someone got just a little too close to the young Allie, they left. Seeing it now, it was obvious. They were running—running from those she connected with. Those like Aidan and his family.
A sudden move to rural Scotland bought them some time when she began school. But one of her classmates made her cry with his strange stories. They left that night for Germany where they spent the next several years bouncing around Eastern Europe. She recalled these memories more easily. They spent a year in Amsterdam when she was only nine, but the new neighbors down the street threatened her family, so they ran again.
They landed in the Philippines next. Allie fell in love with the ocean there. But they didn’t stay long. Brazil came after, then back to Egypt. Year after year, they stayed on the move, but someone always seemed to take notice of Allie.
Finally, she saw the little beach house in New Zealand. They spent nearly two years there. Allie vividly remembered the day she and her father came home from a long kayaking trip to find one of Lily’s grad students leaving. She was tall, her dark hair pulled severely back from her perfect face. There was something familiar about the way she moved, graceful and fluid, like she was comfortable with her height and slender limbs. She was angry, afraid and confused all at once. She was searching for something and hadn’t found the answers she wanted.
They left the next morning for Sydney where Navid became part of Allie’s daily life for the first time in years. He was like the others, but her parents trusted him. He was safe—at least until his last visit. They fled halfway across the world that night.
It was all related: the moving, the strange connection she shared with Aidan. His burned, but healed, hands. The things Allie just knew—those things she’d always attributed to her strong intuition. Her parents were aware enough to bring her here, to people she could trust, people who could help her, but she also understood that Aidan and his family didn’t need to know that.
This is real.
Something strange and powerful awoke deep within her. It was both wonderful and frightening at the same time. She couldn’t deny what was happening was positively terrifying, but somehow it was also the most natural thing in the world.
“Wake up, Lex. You have to fight for it now. You must gain control of that immense power stirring in your chest. You are strong. So much stronger than you know. You can do this!”
Her body raged, but she still couldn’t speak. She didn’t know how to fight this. She only wanted to sleep.
“Wake up!” She felt his slap, and her eyelids fluttered, but she couldn’t shake it off.
“Too much,” she murmured.
“No, it’s not. It is never more than you can bear. Everyone’s Awakening is differe
nt. Mine was violent and lasted twenty-two hours before I fought it off. If I can do it, you can do it.”
Twenty-two hours! I’ll be nothing but ashes by then!
“I know you hear me, you stubborn redhead! Come on, Allie, don’t lie down and give up now! That’s not you. Fight it. Take control and end this!”
How? Whatever this was, it was winning. She fought just to take a breath. Her heart raced like it would beat right out of her chest.
“Your power is raging inside you. You have to tame it, push it back. If you don’t you’ll never recover. I will not let that happen. Now take deep, long breaths and ignore everything else.”
She did as he said, holding on to the sound of his voice. She felt the heat radiating in her chest; a swirling mass of raw power. She did the only thing she could think of. She visualized it. The heat enveloped her, creeping down into her limbs. If she let it cover her whole body, she was gone. With every deep breath, she imagined that heat receding back into her core.
“That’s it! That’s my girl!”
The warmth eased back from her biceps into her shoulders and chest. She gasped for breath, sweat poured down her face. She pictured the heat searing her legs, willing it back up her thighs until her core blazed white-hot. With a last shuddering breath, she seized control, confining the raging tempest into the deepest, strongest part of her body.
“Aidan?” Her voice was nothing more than a rasp. Her throat was raw from screaming, but she was alert now. The pain hit her like a hot knife—every nerve ending like a live wire.
“Don’t talk, just breathe, Lex.” He kissed her fingertips; the relief in his bloodshot eyes gave her strength. “It’s not over yet. You’ll slip back under, but the worst of it is behind you. Just don’t lose control.”
He looked haggard and tired, like he’d experienced everything she had. She lifted a trembling hand to his face. For the first time since it all began, everything felt real.
“Water,” she whispered. He lifted a straw to her lips and she drank greedily.
“What’s happening? I don’t understand.”
“Now’s not the time. I know that pisses you off, but after today, I’m done dodging your questions. After today, I’m a big giant open book.”
Allie shivered as if dunked in icy water. Aidan carefully wrapped her in warm blankets and held her.
“Why are you doing this?”
“That’s a stupid question. You think for one second I’m going to let you go through this alone?”
Her slight reprieve lasted only a short while before she slipped into the trance again. She was on her rooftop, collapsed in a heap among the tall grasses that grew there. She couldn’t move. A pins and needles sensation swept her body and escalated into a new kind of torture. Allie laid completely engrossed in the mindless ache that left her limbs feeling bloodless and heavy. Her face began to itch and no amount of scratching would relieve it. Soon, she was a bloody mess, clawing at herself.
She could feel the tight bands of Aidan’s arms around her, but in her mind, she was still on her rooftop alone, the storm clouds churning overhead.
She thrashed in anger, begging it to end.
She fought him, sometimes breaking free to scratch at her recent burns, which seemed to be the source of irritation. She quickly expended what little energy she had, falling limp against the grass she knew wasn’t really there. The sight of her blood staining the ground should have frightened her, but it just made her want to give up.
“Don’t stop fighting yet! It will be over soon.”
She knew he was lying. The night was growing late and still her body raged, burning away all traces of the girl she’d been.
She heard an echo of Navid’s voice fill her mind.
Remember this girl, this version of yourself.
It was a warning. He knew this was coming and wanted to help her through it. She really missed Navid.
Her sight blurred and dimmed as she stared at the ominous sky. A blue fog descended over her. Thunder clapped in the distance and eerie golden-green lightning flickered in the sky. The visions returned. They were no longer memories now. She saw a figure in the distance. Aidan, his eyes filled with anguish. Quinn’s mother comforted him. Then Allie saw him leaving for Germany with Wendy. He looked broken.
In a flash of green light, she saw herself with her family. A strange young woman joined them. She was tall, with dark ebony hair. She was beautiful, her perfect face so familiar. Allie laughed with her as they watched Joss’s children playing with Carson. Another man sat nearby with his beautiful blue-eyed daughter, who reminded Allie of someone she knew but couldn’t place. Aidan was there among the strangers, each so vitally important to her, but she didn’t know them yet.
She saw herself standing defiantly with Gregg before a panel of judges as Aidan and their friends moved in behind her.
In another instant, the dark young woman returned, but this time she loomed over Allie with hate and fear clouding her icy gray eyes.
Alexis, remember her! Navid’s voice echoed in her mind. For a moment she thought he was there with her, but in a flicker of that strange green light, he was gone.
With a violent jerk, the bizarre images faded and the excruciating headache returned. On the beach now, Allie fisted handfuls of the sand beneath her. The waves rushed over her. She cried out, suddenly blind and deaf, the water swept her out into the depths of the cold, dark lake.
“Aidan!” She knew he was close. She wasn’t really drowning. She felt his warm embrace, but she slipped into an oppressive void. She was dying, her senses shutting down one by one, plunging her into darkness and solitude.
“Fight it, Allie!”
She panicked in the emptiness. It felt like days before her pain lessened, but in the torment of her oblivion, it was not the sweet relief she longed for. She continued to drift.
We have all been exactly where you are right now. You are different even among those like us. I cannot imagine the incredible loneliness you’ve endured all your life; how isolated you must have felt when others shied away from your touch. Never understanding what set you apart. Despite how much you love your family, they just haven’t been enough. You are safe among these dear friends. Trust them. They will teach you and guide you. They will protect you in a way your mother and father never could. No matter the agony and fear you’ve suffered today, it will end very soon! But you must keep fighting! Don’t let the void take you.
The mysterious words gave her the strength she needed. Allie struggled to find the surface, but refused to give up. Gradually, all sensation returned and she could feel Aidan’s arms around her. She fought hard, hanging on to his warmth. Peace washed over her. She clutched him tightly, grappling for that tenuous thread of reality. And just as suddenly as it all began, the trance lifted.
With a deep breath, clarity returned. “It’s over!” she gasped, but she was so tired, she couldn’t keep her eyes open.
“It’s safe to sleep now, Lex. I’ll be here when you wake. Just remember…I’m still me,” Aidan whispered as an unnatural sleep took her.
<><><>
CHAPTER
ELEVEN
Allie hovered somewhere between asleep and awake, too afraid to face the realities this day would bring. The sun streaming in through the windows was warm on her face. She’d slept through the night and well into the morning.
When she could avoid it no longer, Allie gave a careful flutter of her eyelids. The room swirled around her, like she wore prescription lenses she wasn’t quite used to yet. Everything finally snapped into super-sharp-high-def, and she took a deep breath, shoving the blankets aside. She stood, glancing down at the bed that held the ashes of her former life—a life that was nothing but a lie.
Her gaze drifted to the mirror. She stared, dumbfounded by the reflection she did not recognize. Her hands drifted over the smooth unblemished skin of her arms.
It’s like the fire never happened! Her burns were gone and barely a freckle remained. She
remembered the searing, burning itch she couldn’t scratch. I’m…healed?
She studied the riot of fiery red curls framing her face. It was more vibrant than ever, shot with gold, silver and copper threads, but it was longer! Like it was before the fire.
Her eyes, always an unusual shade of green, stared back at her like unnatural twin jewels, shining with golden-green light. It frightened her the way they flickered and flared like a candle flame with every rapid beat of her heart.
“Just breathe, Allie,” Aidan said as he entered the room. “It will calm.”
She felt it then; the heat radiating from her core. She watched the light dim in her eyes as she took a deep breath and pushed the warmth back to her center.
He stepped behind her and she shivered from the odd sense of awareness that told her he was near. She felt it before—that thing they had between them—but it was much stronger now. The white noise rushed into her ears and her heart clenched with anxiety.
He’s dangerous.
“It’s just me.” His voice was thick with emotion.
She whirled to face him, her eyes wide with disbelief as she backed away. He was so different. His eyes were dark, like black star sapphires, with a sunburst of shifting golden light at their center. His hair wasn’t the silky brown she remembered, but so jet-black it was almost blue. His skin was flawless, warm and golden, contrasting sharply against the cool darkness of his features. He was beautiful—like a deadly viper—and not the Aidan she knew. This was the menacing Aidan from her nightmare.
He’s a stranger, someone to fear and respect.
“Please? You know me, Lex,” he said with a hint of despair. She saw a flicker of her Aidan. “Don’t be scared. I-I couldn’t stand it if this changed us.” She could hear the hurt in his voice and knew her best friend was in there somewhere.
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