Awakening

Sophie ate slowly. She picked at the pepperonis on her plate and watched the group. What did that creature want with six students? She looked over the group again. She was far from a warrior. A little taller than Lilli, she was still shorter than most girls. With her gentle and petite form, Lilli reminded people of a pixie. Her green eyes never lied.

Aidan definitely had a fiery nature, but that and his punk rock look belied his caring soul.

Tristan and Jackson were jocks. They both had muscular bodies and golden-boy looks. With their gifts, they could’ve fought that creature off.

She sighed and bit into a pepperoni.

“What did that thing want?” Lilli set her plate down. “Why did it come after us?”

“Our gifts.” Sophie pushed her plate away.

“Can I have that?”

Sophie smiled. “Yeah, I’m not going to eat it, Aidan.”

He swiped the food and put it in his mouth.

“How did it know about our gifts?” Tristan leaned forward.

Sophie’s mouth went dry. The fact that he could shape shift only enhanced his attractiveness to her. She licked her lips. “Um, I don’t know that much. But when he was yanking my hair, I was connected to him.”

“Connected to him?” Jackson frowned.

“He was behind the kidnappings of the students, and they’re all dead. I’ve been turning in anonymous letters to the police with clues, but they never followed them.” Tears formed in her eyes. She could see their mangled bodies. “They were used in some sort of ritual.”

The symbols carved into their flesh were seared into her brain. She forced the tears back. “He didn’t want us for a ritual, though. He wanted to turn us in.”

Lilli wrapped her arm around Sophie. “To who?”

“I didn’t get that far. An evil woman.”

“Maybe the professor knows who that woman is. I think it would be best if we met with her and the security guard. Figure this out. In the meantime, I think we should get some rest. We’ve had a long night.”

“That’s a good idea,” Jackson agreed. As he and Lilli cleaned up, Sophie passed Tristan his jacket.

“Thanks.” Tristan’s fingertips brushed hers, and a shaft of heat traveled up her arm. His eyes darkened. Music rang in her ears, and a vision of Tristan in black battle armor danced in front of her eyes. She blinked it away.

He pulled his hand back and slid the jacket on. Sophie watched for any sign that he’d seen the vision with her. She relaxed when all he said was goodnight.

Aidan hugged her before he followed Tristan to the window.

Sophie smiled at Lilli and Jackson and headed into the kitchen. She put the empty pizza boxes in the garbage and heard Jackson speaking to Lilli, then a curse from Aidan as Jackson lowered him out the window. A few minutes later, Lilli called her back into the living room.

“He’s so cute with that auburn hair and those dark eyes,” Lilli said. “Aidan’s cute, too, especially the way he looks at Morgan. And I see the way you look at Tristan. He’s so intense.”

Sophie slumped down onto the couch and held her head in her hands. “Do you think they’re only being friendly because they have gifts like ours? And Jackson’s so quiet. Why is that?”

“If there’s a reason, I’m sure he’ll tell us once he gets to know us better.” Lilli sat next to her. “You don’t look so good.”

“My head is killing me.” Sophie rubbed her temples. “It’s been like this ever since…you know…the thing attacked us.”

“Hmm.” Lilli shrank into the couch. “You don’t think there are more, do you?”

Sophie shook her head and lied, “No. What are the chances of that?” She prayed Lilli would believe her. Her friend didn’t need to stay up all night worrying that something else would attack them. “Besides, you saw that security guard. He took that thing out.”

Lilli twirled her ponytail around her fingers. “Yeah.” She sat up. “Let me heal your headache.”

“No. You used your gift to the point of exhaustion earlier. I’ll just take something to relieve it.” Sophie summoned up a small smile. “We should get some sleep.”

“Okay.” Lilli stood and stretched, letting out a yawn. “But if the meds don’t work, promise you’ll let me help.”

“Promise.” Sophie waited until Lilli went to bed before she walked into the kitchen and reached for the nighttime cold medicine. She poured the green liquid onto a spoon. As soon as the medicine touched her tongue, her stomach roiled. She rushed to the bathroom and heaved.

After brushing her teeth, Sophie crawled into bed. Never had she been this worn out. Being attacked by a scaly man-thing might do that to you, she thought. She pulled the covers up to her shoulders.

Adrenaline still coursed through Sophie’s body. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw that thing pouncing, ready to devour her. Sophie breathed slowly in through her mouth. After a second, she exhaled. Bit by bit her muscles relaxed.

Slowly a vision formed.

This time it seemed like more than just a vision. It was a memory.

***

Sophie’s green medieval dress flowed around her brown riding boots. Somehow she knew she was in the tombs beneath a temple. Shadows bounced off the stone walls, and as she watched them, she also recognized the emotions this place evoked.

Terror. Grief.

Despite the heavy cloth of her dress, she was cold. Not just goose bumps cold…bone-chilling, teeth-chattering cold. It wasn’t the temperature of the air but the atmosphere around her.

“Sofrina, there you are.”

Sophie whirled around, one hand at her throat. Her other self—Sofrina—recognized the man standing there. Her cheeks grew warm as memories surfaced of just how well she knew him. Sophie faded into the background of their shared consciousness.

Sofrina sighed. “Thane.”

“You are late.” Thane took her hand, and Sophie sensed Tristan’s essence in it. He led her through the catacombs at a pace that made her stumble. His black battle armor was stained with blood. The rips in the sides of the metal caused her instant alarm.

Sofrina’s heartbeat sped up when his fingers curled more tightly around hers. “I was lost. It isn’t every day that I find myself down here.” She ignored the freshly placed tombs and the smell of new dirt and focused on the back of Thane’s head.

All those people, dead. The grief swelled up, and Sophie almost took back control.

Thane took her through a series of twists and turns in the tombs before leading her down a stairwell and into a circular chamber. There stood the others, all dressed in the same type of clothes, all wearing different faces, but in each she could sense her friends’ essences.

“We thought….” Lilah crossed the room and grabbed her hands, choking back a sob.

Sofrina smiled at her friend and absorbed some of her worry. Lilah leaned back slightly. “You are soaked.”

“Apparently the Demoness knows what we are about.” Ash sat on the edge of a crumbling pillar. “She’s commanded the skies against us. We have to hurry if we are going to do this.”

“Are we certain this is what we want to do?” Morgana rubbed a hand down her face. “We will be leaving our people to a life of servitude to that demon.” She clenched her fists at her sides. “It is not fair.”

“What people, Morgana? If they resist her, they die. Have you forgotten how many we buried just yesterday?” Sofrina paced. Her wet boots slipped on the stone floor. “If they decide to worship her, they become soulless…husks who have no true mind of their own. No, our people are gone.”

“We have no other choice, Morgana.” Ash held out his hand to her. After a pause, she took it. “We are not abandoning them.”

“It seems as if we are.”

Julius, who stood quietly in a corner, pushed off from the wall to come to Lilah’s side. “What we do tonight is for the greater good.” He shook his head. “I am sure of it.”

Sofrina was running on empty, as the others were, and didn’t have enough strength to fight the group’s rising emotional tide.

A light flickered in the stairwell. It washed over the tombs and then the walls of the chamber.

Sofrina tensed. The men pushed the women behind them.

“Who is it, Sofrina?” Julius asked. The light flickered.

Mentally she reached out to determine if the person had ill intent. Her mind brushed the familiar one of High Priest Harold’s.

“It’s Harold.”

Thane’s muscles uncoiled.

Sofrina’s didn’t. She knew their destiny came to greet them.

A few seconds later, Harold appeared in the doorway. He leaned against the wall and wiped sweat from his forehead with a tattered cloth. He barked out a dry cough and limped closer.

“The dark makes me nervous.” Harold set his bag on a nearby tomb. Sofrina heard the faint music of glass clinking together.

“Us as well.” Lilah grabbed his hand and helped him take a seat on a stone slab. When she released it, some of his color returned.

“Thank you, milady.” Harold bowed his head. “We must hurry.” He swallowed and wiped his forehead again. “She is on to us.”

“How did she find out?”

Harold shook his head.

“Then we must do this now before she arrives. The fate of the world depends on what we do here.” Julius stepped forward and picked up the bag. He reached in and passed the corked bottles to his friends.

Sofrina’s hand shook as she wrapped icy fingers around the bottle. Her gaze met Thane’s. I love you.

I love you. Thane’s voice caressed her mind.

“This will be quite painful. It’s a very powerful spell that separates your souls from your bodies. It’ll keep you in the in between until it is time for the last battle. Then your souls will be reborn with no knowledge of this life,” Harold explained.

Sophie felt a chill. It wasn’t cold, and it didn’t feel like the hair on the back of her neck was standing up. It was strange and frightening at the same time. Sofrina didn’t feel it, and that made Sophie more aware.

That’s when she saw him.

He stood in the shadowed corner of an upright tomb. She couldn’t make out his features, but knew he stood there as if this was something he witnessed every day. His essence was unlike anything she’d felt before. He sucked every bit of emotion from the room.

His head turned toward her. Sophie could tell he knew she was there inside Sofrina. The torchlight flickered, and she saw the lower half of his face. Luscious lips curved upward in a smile.

Then he was gone.

“We couldn’t have picked a better place to do this.” Ash stared down at the bottle in his hands.

His words brought Sophie back to the reality at hand.

“Ash.” Morgana’s eyes took in the tombs surrounding them. “This is no time to be playful.”

In Sofrina’s mind, Sophie could see the Demoness riding hard through the city streets for the temple, priestess robes fluttering behind her like sails.

“She is coming.” Sofrina’s harsh whisper spurred them into action. Her fingers wrapped around the cork and hesitated. Would the spell work or would they only die painfully and not accomplish what they needed?

There was no time to question what they had to do. She pulled the cork out and let it roll off her fingertips. It hit the ground and rolled to a stop where Sophie spotted the man standing in the shadows.

Sofrina watched the others lift the bottles to their lips as she did. Her heart thumped in her chest, and her skin flushed. She tilted the bottle up and downed the dark green liquid in two gulps. Her eyes watered and she gasped. It burned down her throat and settled heavy in her stomach.

“That was horrible.” Lilah furrowed her brows at the bottle.

“How long should it take?” Ash set his empty bottle on the stone slab. “I would hate for the Demoness to make her way here before it is done.”

“Only a few moments more. I was assured that it would work rather quickly.” Harold was still seated on the stone slab. Tears fell down his ruddy cheeks. “I wish it would have turned out differently for us.”

Sofrina noticed the prickly sensation behind her ear first. It started as a little tickle and evolved into a bee sting. She reached up and tried to rub it away. It spread down her neck, leaving a trail of fire, and consumed her body. She couldn’t stop shaking. A jagged arc of lightning shot through her skull and her teeth clamped down on her tongue.

She cried out in agony. Thane reached for her with shaking hands.

Her knees gave out. She heard the cries and moans of her friends. Lights swirled in a mocking dance before her eyes. The dusty stone floor was arctic compared to her burning flesh. A sharp cramp twisted her stomach and she vomited. Just when she was sure she couldn’t take any more, she collapsed in the reeking puddle before her and closed her eyes.

Sophie floated above, released from Sofrina. Six beautiful strands glided out from each body. They wove together in a graceful dance before they disappeared.

The chamber stilled.