—
I gasped loudly as I shot up into a sitting position. It was still dark out, and I had a few hours left before it was time for me to start classes, but I knew that I wouldn’t be getting any sleep. I dreamt like this every night, but this was the first time that I ever dreamt of Rayah having powers, and I never would’ve expected them to be black.
I sighed and pushed my hair back with both hands, leaving them on the back of my head. I was exhausted, but too afraid to sleep again. I didn’t want to see Rayah that way, even in my mind.
Lately, I had been noticing a few changes in her attitude and aura but didn’t comment on it. The two of us hadn’t even spoken in weeks.
After Rayah’s fight ended with Sandra in the arena, I saw something in her that I couldn’t describe. I’d always known that she had an inner strength, but that day, something beside her inner strength was in motion. Something dark had come to the surface and took over her body. No one else could see it, but Rayah was surrounded by a black aura.
I sighed again and turned to look in the mirror that was hanging from the wall on my right. It was happening again. Since I could remember, after waking from a dream, my brown eyes would glow an orange-like color. There were still hints of brown, but they mostly looked orange.
My parents were terrified about what would happen if people found out about my defect, but I learned to control and hide this problem before I was even sent to a Vex household. It was natural for me to turn it off like a light switch, which was how I had never been caught. They feared that I was a Gods Daughter, but I knew that I wasn’t, and I was glad. To live a life in hiding, afraid to use my powers without being caught, was a horrible way to live.
After years at the academy, I came to the conclusion that I had a slight defect. I only had one ability, and the color of my light was dark blue, so I knew that I was a regular Lighter. The one and only thing that I thought was unordinary about myself was the fact that I could sometimes dream of things that would come true.
I prayed that tonight’s dream would never come true.
—
I sat in my usual seat during History class, and so did Rayah. It was awkward being so close to her since we weren’t speaking. As usual, she was drawing in her notebook, but I noticed that she was drawing something familiar to me. It was only half of a man’s face, but he was still somewhat familiar. Maybe it was the curls?
Rayah slightly turned her head towards me to look at me out of the corner of her eye. When she noticed that I was observing her drawing, she slowly closed her notebook and started doodling on the cover.
I just sighed and faced back to the front of the class. It was my fault that the two of us weren’t speaking, but I wished that she wouldn’t treat me like a complete stranger. I simply didn’t know how to look at her as the same sweet little Rayah that I grew up with after her fight with Sandra.
But I miss her…
It was funny, because she was sitting right next to me, and I missed her badly. In the academy, your friends were your family until they either graduated or failed leveling. Rayah hadn’t done either of those things, and I still considered her to be my family, but she wasn’t the same girl that I used to know. There was something different about her. I knew that she had been hiding things from me. Especially, after the night that we tried energy flowing, but I didn’t think that whatever she was hiding would change her. She wasn’t someone that I could protect anymore.
I patiently waited for the class to end so that I could escape our awkward silence, but it proved to be taking longer than it should have. I focused in on the professor as he continued to give a lesson about the God of Destruction, and a thought occurred.
It was from something that I remembered Rayah mentioning a while ago during one of our study sessions.
Kalsoton was a half demon.
I frowned, trying to understand why this felt so important to me. It was as if there was an alarm going off in my mind, and I couldn’t find the switch to turn it off. I sighed and shook my head.
“Are you alright?” Rayah asked.
My eyebrows furrowed, but as I was about to speak, I noticed a turquoise blue aura surrounding her and no words surfaced. This was something new that I was experiencing, and I mainly only experienced this around her, besides the time that I was able to see Lithaly’s white and blue aura.
Class was dismissed, and I still hadn’t spoken. Why is it blue now?
Rayah sighed and stood up with her eyes still on me, then with a huff, she walked away. It was the first time that she’d attempted to speak to me after I completely ignored her existence a few weeks ago, and I felt like a fool for not responding.
The rest of the day I spent thinking to myself. I went to my classes, but mentally, I wasn’t there. My mind went back to the dream and how Tristan was in it. That was how I knew that the dream would never come true, because he was dead. A while ago, Artemis came to me with a smug grin on his face to tell me the horrible news of Tristan killing himself. He told me to thank Rayah for his death, and even though I knew that he was just trying to get in between us, I slightly blamed her for Tristan’s failing. If he never failed, then he never would have died as a slave.
I didn’t realize just how badly I was making her feel until I actually looked into her eyes. She blamed herself for his death, and here I was, blaming her as well. It made me sick to my stomach to know that I made her feel so low, even when she tried being the strong one.
Rayah always kept her chin up no matter what, but I could tell when she was ready to break. She used to look like she was going to crack at any moment, but somehow, she didn’t. That was why I thought that she was so strong, because she was unbreakable.
Now she was different. When she raised her chin, she didn’t look like she’s going to crack. She looks strong physically and emotionally. Intimidating even. She was no longer just my sweet little Rayah.
—
A Vex Class.
Rayah was of the Vex class. I stood in shock as I watched turquoise blue sparks flash at her fingertips. She was on the rooftop by herself, trying to create an energy ball, but all she managed to do was create sparks. For a level one trying to get to level two, that was good, but for a level one trying to jump to six, that could be a problem.
I took a deep breath before walking towards her. She didn’t seem to notice me coming as she repeatedly forced sparks to flash over her fingertips. I stopped a few feet away, still feeling awkward about getting too close, and watched her for another few seconds, then cleared my throat.
Rayah stopped what she was doing and looked up at me with a frown on her face, but I figured when she realized that it was just me that interrupted her, her expression went blank.
I offered her a smile. “You’re trying to force your energy out of your hands.” I held my palm up between us. “You have the right idea, but you just want it to flow out instead of blasting.” Her eyes dropped down to the energy ball that appeared in my palm, and then came back up to me.
“What are you doing up here, Carmen?” Rayah asked.
My smile faded before I let my hand drop down to my side. “I came up here to watch the city. I didn’t know that you’d－”
“I’ll leave. You can stay up here,” she cut me off. Her voice was calm, but I could tell that she was upset. Almost every time that we came near each other, her aura would turn dark blue.
My mouth opened to speak, but Rayah was already passing me by. I sighed in disappointment. It was my fault that she was upset with me in the first place. I just couldn’t look at her the same after her and Sandra’s fight, but maybe now I should try? If I wanted to rekindle our friendship, I had to try.
“No, Rayah wait,” I sighed as I turned around to face her.
Rayah stopped at the door and looked over her shoulder at me. “Do you need something?”
“No, well yes. I want you to stay up here with me.” I waited for Rayah to respond and when she didn’t, I felt my heart sink. “Please.�
��
Rayah nodded and turned completely around. We both stared at each other in silence for a moment before she raised her palm. “What were you saying about making the energy flow out?”
I gave a slight smile and went over how to form an energy ball. She was able to create more powerful sparks by the time that we were finished, but still couldn’t form a ball in her hand. Still, I had the feeling that she would be getting the hang of it sooner than later. She only had but a few months left.
The two of us sat with our legs dangling over the side of the building as we watched the city together in silence. It was just like old times, only we were missing one valuable person. Tristan. It felt as if he were here with us somehow, but not exactly. It was as if he weren’t dead, but I knew that he couldn’t be alive. He killed himself.
“Do you think that it’s possible for anyone to escape Lytonia?” Rayah asked. Her eyes weren’t on the city, but on the tall walls in the distant, slightly hidden by the mist.
“Well, I don’t think that it’s impossible, but I know for a fact that it’s extremely hard, and not to mention dangerous,” I answered. “Why do you ask?
Rayah leaned back on her palms with her long brown waves of hair dangling over her shoulders. She usually never took it down until she was in the security of her dorm, but tonight it was out and free. It was beautiful. “Because, I like the thought of freedom.”
I stared out at the wall, wondering what might be out there. There may have been poverty, chaos, and death, but there may have also been freedom, and not the kind that Lytonia offered us, but actual freedom. “I do too.”
Chapter 13
“A Gods Child was rare, especially in Lytonia, but this was no Gods Child. I wasn’t sure what this was.” — Sandra
5 Months Later
“Rayah!” I yelled as I ran into her dorm, but she wasn’t there. “No,” I whimpered, breathing heavily. “Where are you?” I wanted to cry, but I couldn’t. I had to find her before this entire place went down. I couldn’t give up yet.
As I ran back out of her dorm, I noticed that the red backup lights were on, making the hall seem dim. When I inhaled a puff of smoke, I doubled over and began coughing.
“Please, exit the building,” the automated system echoed throughout the halls. “Emergency. Please, exit the building.”
The alarms going off along with the automated system only caused my panic to rise. There had been an earthquake, and a bad one. Parts of the academy were already going down, and most of the students had already exited the building. I was lucky to get out of my dormitory when I did, because the entire wing had fallen apart.
The first person on my mind was Rayah, and I knew that she was smart enough to leave with the other students, but I had the feeling that she couldn’t for some reason. Rayah was in danger.
“Rayah!” I yelled. I could sense her, but the signal that I was receiving from her was weak, and over the past few months, it had never been this weak. For some reason, I had grown the ability to sense her presence over time. I figured that it had something to do with my being able to read her auras, but because I couldn’t go to her or anyone else about it, I hadn’t found out why I was able to do these things.
The building shook again, and I almost fell but used the wall to keep my balance. Once the shaking died down, I ran out of the dormitory and down the hall, then stopped in a four way where the halls interconnected.
“Rayah, where are you?” I whispered, closing my eyes. Her connection was growing weaker by the second, but I was able to figure out what direction to run in.
I sprinted down the hall on my left and came up to the windows that gave a view to the courtyard. I was going to turn down the hall on my right when I noticed something on the other side of the school, just across the courtyard, and in all of this destruction, it was absolutely beautiful.
A beam of light was shooting from the building and into the night sky. The beam was made up of the colors of the rainbow, but what worried me was the thick black energy spiraling up the beam. I knew what this was, and exactly who caused it. What worried me, was why it was caused.
“Rayah.” I ran to the nearest door and sprinted through the courtyard. Rayah was doing The Calling, which meant that she had to be in some sort of danger. My mind didn’t have the time to process that she was a Gods Daughter, but I had the feeling that she was much more than a level nine Vex Dim for a while now.
I followed the beam of light and ran into the other side of the building. I didn’t think, but just ran, knowing that my legs would take me to her. I only hoped that I wouldn’t get to her too late.
I had run down multiple halls and stairways until I was in a part of the academy that I wasn’t familiar with. I knew that I was heading in the right direction, because in the room ahead of me there were large gusts of wind blowing from it, and it was also where a bright blue-colored light shined from.
My heart slammed against my chest as I finally made it to the entrance of the room, but I froze once my eyes set on Rayah’s. They were an inky black and nearly vacant as she lay still on a large silver table with her wrists and ankles strapped down to it. There were two white pads connected to her temples with wires that were hooked up to a large machine on the other side of her, but what bothered me most was the collar around her neck.
I wasn’t sure of what happened in here, but Major St. James was unconscious on the ground, slumped against the wall, and there was a man in a white suit breaking down into crystal ashes beside him.
Rayah’s colorful beam of light shot back into her chest, rocking her body, and leaving a hole in the ceiling. As her eyes began to roll into the back of her head, I started to lose my connection to her.
“Rayah!” Right as I ran into the room, a man had dropped from the hole in the roof and landed on the end of the table that Rayah was strapped down to. I slid to a stop with my eyes locked on his, knowing exactly who he was. He had glowing green eyes and long blond curls. Rayah had said his name before… “Soren?”
DEAR READERS
Thank you so much for reading The Calling, Book Two of The Descendants Series! If you liked what you read, please leave a review on amazon. Also, if you’re interested in reading The Unbroken, Book Three, subscribe to my newsletter and get future updates. You’ll also be receiving the most recent updates of my upcoming novels, free giveaways, and also get the latest exclusive news.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Destiny Hawkins is a multi-genre author with a dark imagination and a love for magic.
She enjoys cooking, running, swimming, listening to music, reading, and of course watching anime filled with fantasy! Her favorite genres to read and work in are Fantasy, LGBT, Paranormal, Romance, Dystopian, Sci-fi, and young adult. Currently in her third year or writing, she’s published 17 books with more coming soon! Get ready for The Unbroken, Book Three of The Descendants Series!
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
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The Calling Page 14
