Awakening (Awakening #1)

It’s not every day a girl learns about her past lives, an evil force pursuing her through the centuries and a past lover from one of those past lives intent on finishing unfinished business. Was it any wonder I conjured up my fantasy man in the form of Con? Wasn’t my mom always complaining about my vivid imagination? Then on top of everything else I forgot about Gram’s reading tonight. It wasn’t that I didn’t love my grandmother. I adored her. But I didn’t think I’d be in the mood for company after what would no doubt prove to be one of the most humiliating experiences of my life.

I followed my grandmother into the sunroom after sending a reassuring nod in my mom's direction. She wasn’t too keen on the Morgan family tradition of my grandmother giving each of us a psychic reading on our sixteenth birthdays. Still she’d anxiously gone along with the whole ‘reading’ thing for each of her children as they turned sixteen. She was big on family traditions in general. Since most of the ones we followed were from her side of the family, she was reluctant to complain too much about Gram’s reading.

Everything started out all right. I was actually beginning to enjoy myself when the reading took a suddenly dark turn. I felt it in the flickering candlelight even though no breeze disturbed the still air. An inexplicable chill shook me. I clamped down hard on my imagination. With newly trembling fingers I turned over the third card and almost ran for the door. I didn't even know there was a Death card but there he was staring up at me – the grim reaper personified. Gram seemed to find my fear amusing. I stopped hyperventilating. I didn’t think my grandmother would be smiling at the prospect of my imminent demise. She reached out and patted my tightly clenched hands reassuringly. “The Death card is symbolic of letting go – perhaps of a life, but often of a habit, a friend, or a way of looking at things that no longer serves you.”

I nodded, pretending to believe her. My eyes drifted away from the table to the large picture window overlooking the sea. The deepening shadows from the sun’s descent surrounded us and took on a menacing presence as if the evil awaiting me was not content to wait any longer. The quick advance of night echoed in the stillness of the air, warning me time was growing short. I imagined I heard whispers in the silence, taunting me. He was confident in his eventual victory, knew my every weakness, laughed at my fears. I knew who he was too. Hadn’t he starred in my nightmares for as long as my prince filled my dreams? The sun was all but gone and the moon had yet to rise to take its place. The end of light and the emergence of darkness were perfectly balanced over the constantly swelling waves. I saw my own future perched precariously on the single moment of equilibrium. One misstep on my part and darkness would carry the day as surely as the fading sunlight was even now giving way to the night outside.

I couldn’t do this. Whatever it was they wanted of me, I wasn’t strong enough. Surely there was someone better qualified to do this thing. I was just a sixteen year old girl whose biggest concern until now was not making a fool of herself in front everyone she knew at the school talent show. What could I possibly know about overcoming the dark presence I sensed was not idle in my absence? I instinctively understood the presence waiting for me used its time far more wisely than I to prepare for this ultimate confrontation. I sensed he was still there on my other world, growing in both power and the conviction I would pose no threat to him. I was afraid to go back. Did my fear make me a coward? Wouldn’t anyone be afraid? Even if I could summon the courage from some as yet undiscovered well within me, I didn’t know how to go back. I didn’t even know where to begin.

I chided myself for my fear. None of this was real. It was just a stupid ritual to humor my grandmother. It wasn’t real…