Awaken (The Goddess Incarnate Book 1) Read online

  This is a work of fiction.

  Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  First published in

  Copyright © B.L. Callaghan, 2020

  All images used under license from shutterstock.com

  B.L. Callaghan asserts her moral rights as the sole author of this work.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or otherwise, without prior written consent from the author unless expressly permitted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968, as amended.

  ISBN (Paperback) 978-0-6488448-5-3

  ISBN (eBook) 978-0-6488448-6-0

  Published by

  Bianca-Lee Callaghan

  ABN 32 857 304 185

  www.blcallaghan.com

  For the Kindred Spirits,

  The people that escape real life by

  diving headfirst into books.

  Okay, you got me.

  I’m talking about myself.

  This one is for me.

  But you can read it too.

  - B.L. Callaghan

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  The night was strangely still.

  No wind blew through the wattle trees that lined my front yard, and dark clouds hid the moon and turned the sky into a patchwork of stars and darkness.

  My garden, full of fragrant lavender and roses, usually a bright and cheerful sight, now an eery floral army standing to attention. What little shadows they cast off managed to come across as menacing.

  “Sapphira?”

  I turned from where I stood, frozen by my front door, staring at the southern cross in the sky. Under the carport of my rented house, my three friends sat in deck chairs with drinks in hand.

  Fallon, with her bright smile and playful blue-green eyes, who always managed to make you laugh, flipped her long auburn hair before taking another sip of her wine. I had known Fallon since I was a child, a seemingly ageless guardian and protector. The woman never let me go without, always taking care of everything - often before even I knew that I needed anything as if she were psychic.

  Colte, the only guy present, was always ready to party. He had an opinion to share – about anything, smiled smugly, brown eyes sparkling. Colte had just appeared at one of our get-togethers a few years ago and never left, a friend of Fallon’s he’d said. And now mine too. He’d moved into my house a few months ago, needing a place to stay after being kicked out of his last home.

  Ari, who could convince you to do just about anything, and make you think it was your idea, ran a dark hand through her shoulder-length black curls. She looked annoyed at being left with them. Again. Ari was a reluctant fourth; she’d pushed herself into my life about a year ago, a moody little firecracker. She fought with Fallon and Colte on just about everything but seemed to enjoy it immensely. Not that Ari would admit it. She often told me that she only put up with them for my sake.

  I loved them all; they were the only family that I had, even if they didn’t get along all of the time. Even if it felt like they were all in on some cosmic joke that they had forgotten to tell me about.

  “Sorry, what’d I miss?” I asked, taking in their expectant stares in my direction.

  “Are you okay?” Fallon asked. “You seem lost in thought.”

  “I’m fine.” I flashed her a smile. “What were you guys talking about?”

  “I was just saying that if there was something else out there, we would know about it,” Colte continued, looking back at Fallon. Obviously, this debate had been raging for a while.“I mean surely after thousands of years-“

  “I thought that we had agreed; these beings would have hidden all proof of existence,” Fallon cut in with a frown, flipping her long auburn hair over her shoulder. “You know, to control the panic and keep the authority?”

  I looked at Ari as I sat in the empty chair next to her, eyebrows raised. I sipped from the glass of Vodka that I had just poured as she rolled her blue eyes in response.

  “Another debate on alien life forms?” I asked quietly, grinning. “Wasn’t this last weekend’s debate?”

  “Oh no, this one’s about other apparently fictitious creatures.”Ari shook her head, sending her black curls bouncing over her dark shoulders. “The entire paranormal world” She let out a snort and smirked. “You know, monsters and other creatures of the night.”

  I choked on a mouthful of the Vodka, spluttering and gasping for air as my heart pounded loudly in my chest. Ari pat me on the back, laughing.

  Colte and Fallon were watching us expectantly.

  “All stories start with a shred of truth…” Ari shrugged, taking her turn in the debate when she was satisfied I wasn’t dying. “But how much is twisted and changed before it’s just another story to scare and entertain humanity with?”

  “I’m staying out of this one.”I shook my head, looking down at my glass when all eyes turned to me again.

  “I guess I win by default,” Colte chuckled, reaching for his packet of cigarettes. “Fourth weekend in a row!”

  “Oh, no way!”Fallon groaned, folding her arms in front of her. “Come on, Saph, back me up!”

  “Nope, this one is a Sapphira free zone.” My voice shook, and I coughed to cover it before taking a large gulp of my drink.

  I saw flashes of the past, a night not unlike this.

  Only I was seven, and there was blood everywhere.

  The broken bodies of my mother, my father, and my older brothers, twisted and strewn across the yard.

  My two brothers had died first, a look of shock on their typically smug teenage faces. My father had tried to save them, screaming and clawing at the monster as it tore into them with talons that had reminded me of an eagle. Large jaws filled with razor-sharp teeth had taken his head, silencing him in one bite.

  My mother had died trying to hide me. Her final words were a plea for me to run.

  An inhuman scream had pierced the silence, and I was running, as if my life depended on it – and it had.

  I still didn’t know how I managed to get away so quickly or where the monster had gone. I knew, though, that if I had stayed still - if I hadn’t run and hid from the thing that was chasing me, I would have been killed. Torn apart like the rest of my family.

  I could no longer picture what they had looked like before that night, my memories refusing to surface. I couldn’t hear their laughs, I couldn’t remember a time of joy; only their pain, fear, and inevitable death.

  I shook my head again, goosebumps running along my arms. What would my friends say if I told them what had happened back then? Would I become the next topic up for debate: Is Sapphira certifiably insane? That was not on the cards if I could help it, thank you very much
.

  Fallon was watching me, frowning slightly. Her blue-green eyes were full of concern. She nodded after a minute, though, seemingly content that I was okay. “Fine,” She let out a long-suffering sigh and turned back to Colte. “You win by default.”

  My hands were shaking, the ice rattling softly against the glass. I forced a smile, still trying to shake the memory, trying to reach the happy version of myself again. What was the point in drinking with friends if you were going to be a downer? No one wanted that, not at what was supposed to be a party.

  Colte clapped his hands. “As always.”

  Ari groaned, rolling her eyes again. “And with such poise and modesty.”

  “You just wish you were as awesome as me.” Colte joked, running a pale hand through his short dark hair. He reached for the stereo remote, flipping through the cd tracks until he found his new victory anthem. Good feeling started pumping through the speakers, and Colte pumped his fist in triumph.

  The smile on my face wasn’t forced this time, letting out a laugh at my friend’s goofy antics.

  I felt a sharp pain in my head as if a thousand needles were piercing the spot behind my eyes, and I fought the urge to cry out. What the hell?

  I’d had migraines before, but this was on a whole other level. I closed my eyes, using my free hand to rub them, hoping to ease the pressure building there. A high pitched ringing in my ears blocked out the music, and I felt a sense of terror, an impression that ran through me so quickly, and with such force that my body screamed Danger!

  I forced my eyes open but –

  Everything felt like a blur, I was staying still while the world spun by, faster and faster until I couldn’t see clearly anymore. Colors twisted by – bright and light, mingling with the dull and dark, like dancers whirling across a stage.

  I felt something tugging at my insides as if a part of me was being wrenched away, and suddenly I was floating. The world stopped spinning, and I could see again, but the picture was wrong.

  Objects that were usually immobile were snaking across my view. I could see the air, a swirling mass of blues and whites, moving at a higher speed, and covering every space between heavier materials.

  I looked down at my hands, trying to find something stationary to fix the dizziness, and gasped - the sound echoing in my ears, the ringing gone.

  I was made of jade smoke – if I focused too intensely on my hands, the flesh and bones would drift apart, coming back together when I looked away. What was going on? Had I died – was this what it was like to be dead? Why was I green?

  I saw my real body sink down in the chair, the glass falling from my hand and smashing as it hit the ground. I saw Fallon leaping towards me, face full of alarm. Colte was standing behind her, fear written all over his body. Ari, moving quickly to stand behind me, looking out into the night, eyes blazing an inexplicable luminous azure as she scanned the street.

  I looked too, not sure what it was that I was looking for, but hoping for something that made sense in all of this.

  Voices came back to me from a million miles away, muffled by the void.

  “Sapphira, can you hear me? Can you speak?”

  I looked back at my body from where I hovered in the air above it.

  “Sapphira, fight it if you can…Just hold on,” Fallon said frantically, her hands holding my face as she looked into my eyes.

  I could see every minuscule detail around me– every strand of hair, the breath being released from her lips; the colors were so vivid it was almost as if they were animated. Fallon’s red lipstick seemed to swim across her lips as she spoke.

  “Oh God, help us…” Colte was pacing anxiously, hands behind his head in distress.

  “How did they find us?” Ari whispered to herself in disbelief then, glancing back at Fallon from where she stood, said firmly, “We need help.”

  Fallon shook her head. “No! She isn’t ready. If she sees…”

  Someone was screaming - a long tormented sound. It was me – the one slumped in the chair.

  Her eyes were glazed, the green in them muted, like the last bit of excess paint rinsed off a brush and washed down the drain.

  “If we don’t call for help, she will be dead.” Ari snarled.

  I watched as she pulled out her phone and started dialing.

  I felt a sharp pressure building within my ethereal body, I tried to focus on it, feeling it expand to cover me completely. What I thought of as my soul gave another jolt, sending a wave of excruciating pain through my core, and I heard myself scream again.

  “Find them, Sapphira, find the ones that are doing this…… break the connection before it’s too late!” Fallon’s lips were moving, but her voice came from miles away, barely registering in my mind through the pain I felt. What was she talking about, what connection was I supposed to break?

  Then, I felt it.

  Something was attaching itself to a part of me, wrapping a fluorescently shimmering thin russet cable around my soul and trying to pull it out. I followed it out from my body and into the night.

  It sizzled, as if electrified, the sound getting louder the further away from my body it went.

  There! Hidden in the darkness, I saw them.

  Three figures in what looked like cloaks standing on the corner, the cable coursing off and ending within their palms.

  I couldn’t see their faces, they were hidden under hoods, and I felt my fear rise.

  Darkness and despair… Something whispered inside my head.

  In unison, they jerked their hands back. I screamed in agony. They were tearing away my soul.

  I had to stop them; I had to stop the excruciating pain.

  My hands reached towards the cable, becoming denser as they touched it. It let out a sizzling crackle, and I could feel an electrified pulse running up my arms.

  “Break the line… Save yourself.” A soft voice murmured through the air around me.

  I focused my energy towards where the russet cable was curled around me, and I began to disentangle it.

  The three dark figures hissed in disgust, pulling harder. “You cannot defeat us, we WILL have you.”

  They spoke as one, their voice cold, an impenetrable hatred, and old.

  I tried to ignore them as my body shivered; I kept unwinding the cable – but quicker. I had to get it off, I had to get away. I was whimpering, a small feeble sound escaping from my lips as the pain inside me increased again.

  I almost had it; I could see the line coming away from my body in long slack coils. Just a little more, and I would be free.

  The figures hissed again, taking a step closer, a bright russet light exploded from their palms, and the cable that still connected us came alive. It snaked its way towards me, beginning to wrap itself around my core again, constricting me.

  “Help!” I screamed as the figures laughed, the sound grating against my flesh.

  Hopelessness washed over me as the voice in my head started talking again. What was the point in fighting? I had no idea what I was doing, no sense of anything. I should just let them take my soul. They would have better use of it anyway. I should just be a good little girl and let them have it…

  I was about to give up completely, to stop fighting, and to stop breathing –to just stop being - when another light exploded around me.

  This one wasn’t coming from the figures, it was almost as if it were coming from behind me. And it seemed to be getting brighter – as if whoever it belonged to was coming closer. I marveled in the intensity of the crimson light as it enveloped me. It was beautiful, calming, and I felt myself smile faintly.

  The figures hissed yet again, retreating a little. The link between us faltering for an instant.

  And abruptly, someone was standing beside me.

  I looked over and gasped. It was a woman. I could feel the Power flowing through her, so much Power. The cable sizzled again, trying to escape the touch of her crimson energy.

&nbs
p; She was looking at me, her bright blue eyes shining. Her long dark hair was being fanned by a breeze that I couldn’t feel. She wore a long flowing pallid cherry dress, and she had dark tribal tattoos up her arms. They seemed to dance across her skin as I watched.

  “Fight this Sapphira; do not let these creatures take you.” Her voice was like little bells in my head, waking me and dragging me back into myself – my floating self anyway.

  I no longer felt the urge to give in. I wanted to fight. Had it been my voice telling me to give up – or was it the figures trying to gain influence?

  She turned to face the dark figures, eyes glowing, as one moved forward. “You cannot have this one, Soul Eater.”

  “This does not concern you, Sidhe Queen,” One of them said. All of the three figures lifted their hoods, revealing their faces.

  They were men, but horrific scars dominated their features. The one closest to me saw me staring and smiled grotesquely, his left eye was gone, and on the left side of his mouth was a gaping hole. I could make out the bones of his jaw and what was left of the rotting muscles there. I made a whimpering sound, and the cable tightened around me.

  “No Hadrian, this does not concern you.” The woman said calmly, taking another step forward. The light around us burned brighter, and the figures shrunk back. “This one is marked for a different end.”

  “We were not informed of this…” He said slowly, suspiciously. “What end do you speak of?”

  The woman shook her head, and I heard a laugh like a tinkling of tiny bells. “One that does not need your talents. I would suggest that you release her and go before the others arrive.”

  She moved between the men and me, causing the link between us to falter again.

  “What others?” The closest one – Hadrian asked.

  “The Guardians called for help. I heard the call and arrived first, but there are others on the way that will not be as lenient as I.”

  Hadrian’s companions looked at each other with anxiety. Who were they afraid of? What could be worse than these creatures – what had the woman called them – Soul Eaters?