The Awakening Review Novels & Stories

“They weren’t rogues. They were… organized. Too calm. Too sure of something they thought I was.” Maxine frowned. “Which is?” I hesitated. That word—awakening—still crawled across my spine. I had heard it in the dark, tied to a chair, breath shaking, Myron unconscious beside me. “She’s awakening,” one of them had said. “If we don’t trigger it now, someone else will.” I wrapped my arms around myself. “They kept talking like there was something inside me. Something that was supposed to… emerge.” Maxine blinked. “Like what? A power?”

"I thought you said that it wasn't that easy or something and how exactly are you supposed to awaken him. Your dad has been badgering me for months for me to awaken him and I'm like I don't know how and suddenly you do." Cassian glanced away from me as I rambled. "Oh, I get this adds to the list of things that you are still not telling me, doesn't it," I openly accused him and he had the audacity to remain quiet. "I am way too sleepy for this shit," I grumbled walking across the room. "It's not like that. I've been…experimenting, listening to all that Kylen has to share," he said defensively, finally! "Yeah, he thinks that you will have a greater chance of winning if you awaken him yourself

I stopped and collapsed near a small stream and I tried to catch my breath. My body felt dizzy, I tried to get up but I couldn’t move my legs anymore. No, I couldn’t pass out there. What if they eventually found me? I didn’t want to die — they looked like they were ready to kill me. But I couldn’t resist my eyes as they shut off. Maybe this was the end for me. I woke up to the scent of leather and pine. My body was aching and I looked around and found myself in an unfamiliar room. I wasn’t outside anymore, I was lying on a bed with clean sheets.

“You want to know what you’ve done? You gave her to fire. She's going to be tortured. That's what it is. She'll feel pain. Lots of it.” Evelyn shook her head in disbelief. “No. That’s not… Arnold wouldn’t let that happen to her. Would you, honey?” She glanced at Dad and he gives her the same rehearsed soft, and calm look. “She’s fine, darling. You don’t need to worry.” I laughed again, bitter this time. “You’re lying to her. You always do that crap instead of telling it how it is.” Evelyn’s hands trembled. “Wait—what exactly happens in the Awakening?”

And the alert tone… it was strange, unlike anything I had ever used. "Who… who are you?" I gasped, my heart pounding. Another notification sounded. [Hide the body first.] I didn't dare overthink it. Scanning the room, I decided to shove the body into a suitcase. [The suitcase isn't the best choice.] It… it knew what I was doing. I asked, "Then what should I do?" [Needs calculation. Please wait.] It could hear me. It could hear me. For some inexplicable reason, I found myself looking forward to its "calculation." In my terror and panic, it felt like a lifeline.

When I opened my eyes again, I was in a hospital room. Fortunately, I had called the police. Both Edith and I were rescued. Evelyn's voice came. "Edith, you haven't eaten for a day. I've brought you food." I looked up and saw her cutting fruit into different shapes, trying to feed Edith. Edith was annoyed, but when she noticed that I was awake, she raised her eyebrows proudly and took a bite of the fruit.

***"And she realized the story was a cage. So, she closed the book." --- ### The Awakening (The True One) **GASP.** Liquid flooded out of my mouth as I bucked upward. My lungs burned with a cold, chemical fire. I wasn't in a park. I wasn't on a desk. I was in a dark, cold room filled with the hum of a thousand cooling fans. I was naked, covered in a thick, translucent gel, and there were tubes—real, rubber and plastic tubes—plugged into my spine and my throat.

Ryan had had a lot of kisses from his mate. Hell, he’d once orgasmed just from Jeremy’s kiss in that very suite. But nothing compared to what he was experiencing that very moment. The intensity, heat, sensations, and sizzle made that kiss absolutely phenomenal. When they eventually parted and Ryan opened his eyes, the Ojah’s breath hitched in his throat at what he saw. The flame from each candle instantly quadrupled in size, making the suite extremely bright. “Ryan?” The Ojah breathed, staring at his beautiful mate whose eyes were, at that moment, glowing like beams of light. He remembered catching a glimpse of that being the day he came back from purgatory. With those eyes and that white ha

I lick my lip to try and feel out what's so wrong, only to find teeth sharp and long, and a sensation of fur around the edges. I wolfed. I’m a wolf, and I shake it off, shake my head to bring my sight back to clear and fuzz-free, so I can turn and see the others around me. A weird movement that’s ungraceful and dog-like, that knocks me off balance. Nearby, a smaller wolf sits and looks at its paws, as I was, yet it glows too. Blue and surreal, as though the moon has rolled down to illuminate us with her touch, and it’s eerily pretty. Something I have never seen before at an Awakening. They don’t seem to be in pain anymore, either, and I wonder if the worst has passed. None of them is crying

She wasn’t a separate being. She was Lena. And Lena wasn’t broken. She wasn’t a vessel. She was whole. With one last breath, she pulled the doppelgänger into herself. The darkness exploded. --- The Awakening Lena gasped awake, air rushing back into her lungs. She was lying on solid ground. Cold stone pressed against her palms. The scent of damp earth filled her nose. A torch flickered nearby. Cassian was at her side, gripping her shoulders. His eyes were wide, frantic. “Lena?”