by KT Webb
Awakening
The Last Coven Series
Other Titles:
The New Era Saga (Young Adult Superhero)
The Evolved (book one)
Growing Hope (book two)
Choosing Eternity (book three)
Chicago Love Stories (Adult Contemporary Novellas)
Hard Habit to Break
Stay the Night
Anthologies
From Now On: The Last Words Anthology (Dystopian)
Side Effects of Progress
Coming Soon:
YA Fantasy
Knights of Riona
Chicago Love Stories (Adult Contemporary Novellas)
You’re the Inspiration
Cover Design by:
Desiree DeOrto Design and Cover
Copyright–2017 by Kathleen Webb
Story Editor: Debbie Richardson
Copy Editor: Andrea Hintz, The Manuscript Detective
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, folklore, mythology, people, or places are used fictitiously. All other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, and any similarities to actual events, locations, or persons, living or dead, are entirely coincidental.
All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any way without the express written consent of the author.
Thank You:
I want to thank my family for being supportive of my writing, even when it means I’m crazy focused on the story. I love you and can’t imagine life without you!
Desi, you created this cover as a “premade” and I fell in love. I had no idea what the story would be until after I owned the cover; now you get to design three more for the series!
Lichelle and Tara, thank you for helping me work through the plot and getting me going on paths I wouldn’t have taken without our brainstorming conversations.
Andrea, thank you for being honest with me and suggesting that I rework certain areas of the story.
Mom, as always, you’re behind me and cheering me on with every project I take on. Thank you for loving what I do and telling me when you don’t.
Sutton
Chapter One
Winter Solstice
The girl in front of Sutton looked over her shoulder. Her long muddy hair flew into her face as the wind picked up in front of them. She had never seen this girl before, but the brilliant green eyes that seemed to look through her matched her own. She tried to talk to the girl but Sutton was just an observer.
Despite not knowing her, she was certain of the girl’s name. Lucy. She felt the connection between them. She couldn’t figure out why, but she knew Lucy would play an important role in her life.
The blaring alarm on her cell phone alerted her to the start of the day. She sat up in bed and stretched. Her golden tresses fell around her shoulders in a messy array. Lucy. Whoever Lucy was, she kept showing up in Sutton’s unconscious mind. She pulled her hair up into a quickly looped bun on top of her head then made her way downstairs to grab a bowl of cereal.
In the kitchen, she found her mom drinking a protein shake at the breakfast table. Her dad was away on business again. She grabbed a bowl from the cupboard and the box of Honey Nut Cheerios. When she took her seat at the table across from her mom, she poured the milk in the bowl.
“Morning, sweetheart!”
“Morning, mom,” she said right before she put a spoonful of cereal in her mouth.
“Did you sleep well?”
She briefly considered telling her mom about her dream but knew her mother would laugh at her for dwelling on something so ridiculous. Her parents were very realistic people; they didn’t believe in anything as ridiculous as dreams having meaning. She ate her cereal in silence, waiting for her mother to remember what day it was.
It was the first day of winter break for Kensington Preparatory School. It also happened to be Sutton’s sixteenth birthday. She knew her mom wouldn’t have anything planned, but she intended to use that to her advantage and possibly get out of her piano lesson scheduled that afternoon.
“Mom?”
“Yeah, honey?”
“Do I have to go to my piano lessons today?”
“Of course you do, sweetheart.”
“I don’t even get a free pass on a special day?”
“A specia—Oh happy birthday, Sutton! I don’t know where my head is today. How does sixteen suit you so far?”
She could have predicted word for word what her mother had just said, it was the same every year. She knew her parents could be much worse, which was why she rarely felt sorry for herself. But, it would have been nice to be raised by parents who were more concerned with making her feel loved and cared for than they were with themselves.
“Sixteen is just like fifteen, only now I can legally drive.”
“That’s right! Well honey, you know how it works, with your birthday so close to Christmas you won’t get any presents until Christmas day.”
She sighed, it was always the same. Her parents had never gotten her a birthday present. Every year they told her she was their Christmas gift, so she would celebrate her birthday on Christmas. She had never had a birthday party like her classmates. Sutton’s life centered around preparing to attend an Ivy League school. No time for such frivolous activities as birthday parties. Her schedule was full of piano lessons, ballet, Latin lessons, French lessons, and tutors for every subject she had less than perfect scores in. She’d given up caring long ago, or at least that’s what she told herself.
“So, can I borrow the car today?”
“I don’t see why not. Just make sure you’re not late for your lessons. You know how Arlys gets.”
Sutton had no intention of going to her lessons, but she nodded her head and agreed. She went upstairs and got ready for the day. She decided to go to the mall. It wasn’t very often that she got a whole day to herself. Once she was dressed in her favorite leggings, sweater dress and boots, she put her make-up on and curled the ends of her thick blonde hair. She grabbed her purse, took the car keys from the hook on the wall and climbed behind the wheel of the silver BMW in the garage.
When she arrived at the mall, she parked outside her favorite entrance. She was ready for a day of shopping and mall food. As she wandered the stores, she wondered what it would be like to be one of those girls with her giggling girlfriends around her. She never really had any friends. Sutton was the best at everything in her school; there’s a certain stigma that goes along with that. She found that other girls either avoided her or treated her with outright disdain.
In her favorite store she found jeans that fit her perfectly, and an armful of sweaters and cotton shirts. After making her purchases, she wandered to the food court. The aroma of freshly baked pretzels filled the air, and she couldn’t resist getting one for lunch. While she sat eating her warm salted pretzel, she heard a familiar cackle behind her.
Dee Olson. Dee was one of those girls who gathered followers, not friends. Sutton had been going to school with Dee since kindergarten and they’d been rivals the entire time. The main difference between them was that Dee depended on other people to validate her self-worth, and Sutton didn’t need anyone to tell her she was smart or pretty. Despite not caring what other people thought of her, she wasn’t interested in having Dee and the Deebots ruin her birthday. She started to get up quietly to avoid drawing attention to herself, but Dee had already zeroed in on her location.
“Well if it isn’t Sutton Stone.”
Sutton sighed before turning to face her least favorite person, “Hi, Dee.”
“Isn’t today your birthday? When’s your party? Oh wait, you’d have to ha
ve friends to have a party.”
“That’s so original, I almost forgot you said the same thing last year... and the year before that,” Sutton narrowed her eyes as she spoke.
“What’s really sad is that it isn’t any less true after all these years. You are a loser.”
“As usual, your assessment of my life has left me in awe of your wit. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go.”
“No need to rush off. I’d ask if you wanted to hang with us, but I already know you wouldn’t be able to keep up.”
The Deebots laughed in unison–it was creepy. Sutton had determined long ago that Dee was a robotic genius and must have implanted some sort of mind-control chip into the mindless drones that followed her around. Sutton had never heard any of them deliver an original thought. She decided it wasn’t worth it to continue the banter Dee insisted on, though she wondered what would happen if she could get the other girls to see the truth about their leader.
“Dee, it’s nice of you to offer, but I would much rather be alone than spend my day surrounded by your weird cult. Unlike you, I don’t need people to fawn all over me to make me feel good about myself. If only they could see your true face, they’d realize your perfect make-up is just a mask to cover the hideous witch underneath.”
Dee looked stunned and a little green. Sutton smiled sweetly before turning on her heel and making her way out of the food court. She didn’t make it far before a horrified scream caused her to turn around—she half expected to find Dee throwing a temper tantrum in the middle of the mall. Instead, she turned to find something she couldn’t possibly explain.
Dee was trying desperately to cover her face, and the Deebots were shrinking away from her in disgust. Sutton watched in wide-eyed astonishment as Dee removed her hands to expose a horrific site. She was covered in massive pimples and her normally perfect eyebrows had grown together in the middle. Her nose had curved and hooked, accentuated by a large hairy wart on the tip.
Sutton was in shock. She watched the revolting girl continue to transform until her hair was ratty and uneven, her teeth were rotting, and her perfectly manicured hands were dry and cracked. It was almost as though the ugliness from the inside was manifesting on the outside. Dee pushed past her former followers and hurried to the exit. The Deebots turned as one to face Sutton.
“What did you do to her?” one of them asked.
“Me? How could I have done anything to her? I didn’t even touch her.”
“You must have done something. She was fine before you came along,” one of the other girls chimed in.
“I’m not even going to dignify that with a response.” She couldn’t believe how stupid those girls were.
Despite vehemently denying her involvement in the transformation her enemy had undergone, she couldn’t shake the strange feeling that her last words to Dee had somehow come true. That was impossible! How could she have possibly done that to her?
By the time she was ready to leave the mall, her mother had tried to call her fifteen times. Sutton knew she would have to listen to a speech about the importance of keeping commitments and how her piano lessons were necessary for her to get into Sarah Lawrence, but she just didn’t care. It was her birthday and if she wanted to spend the day doing absolutely nothing, she would. The truth was, while Sutton loved learning, she wasn’t the one with the lofty goals for her future. Her parents had decided long ago who she would be and what she would do with her life. Until she turned eighteen, she would just have to put on a fake smile and go along with it.
When she walked in the house, her mom was ready. She launched into her tirade while Sutton did her best to at least look apologetic. She was certain she failed miserably, but her mother didn’t seem to notice.
“Sutton Marie Stone, you are a bright young woman. You are the top of your class. But, you won’t get into Sarah Lawrence if you continue to shirk your responsibilities. Your father and I have. . .”
She tuned her mother out. It was the same speech she got every time she got a wild hair up her butt and decided to be a teenager. Her mom continued to drone on about how hard her parents had to work to get her into the best schools. Sutton knew that wasn’t true. Her dad came from a long line of very wealthy men. They were shrewd businessman who also knew how to invest their money to make it grow. Her mother wasn’t poor, but she had definitely married up.
Her mother had never worked a day in her life, so whenever Sutton heard the speech about hard work and dedication from her, she always wanted to puke. If only she could make her stop talking long enough to realize where she was coming from.
While she sat at the dining room table lost in thought, she realized her mother had indeed stopped talking. Sutton instantly snapped out of her own mind in case she was supposed to be responding to something. But her mother hadn’t stopped speaking because she was waiting for a response, she had stopped speaking because no sound was coming out of her mouth.
Sutton watched in disbelief as her mother tried desperately to make a sound but couldn’t. The look of panic on her mom’s face was real, so she knew it wasn’t a joke; not that her parents would recognize a joke if it slapped them in the face.
“Mom, are you okay?”
“NO!” her mom mouthed in frustration, as she clutched at her throat.
“Well, since you’re done talking, can I go to my room since that’s how this is going to end anyway?”
Her mother nodded, but she looked close to tears. When Sutton reached the bottom of the stairs, she looked at her mom over her shoulder.
“Look, mom, I don’t mean to frustrate you. I just wish you guys would spend as much time getting to know who I am as you do planning out who you want me to be.”
When she arrived in her room she changed into comfy clothes as quickly as she could. She ordered a pizza and turned on the television. When her pizza arrived, her mother was nowhere to be found, so she brought it up to her room and ate alone.
“Happy birthday to me,” she whispered as she turned off the light and closed her eyes, waiting for sleep to claim her.
Sutton
Chapter Two
Things Get Weirder
By the time February rolled around, the strange events at her birthday had begun to fade into distant memories. Sutton had returned to school to discover that Dee was out sick for an indeterminate length of time. She heard rumors swirl about plastic surgery or joining the circus, but Sutton knew something had to be seriously wrong if Dee wasn’t at school. She could remember a time in the fifth grade when Dee came down with a wicked flu; she kept a barf bucket next to her desk and got half the class sick, but she was in school every day.
In other news, Sutton’s mother had been seeing throat specialists. She still couldn’t talk, and had taken to texting everything. It was much quieter around the house, even with her father home from his trip. Her mother seemed to have taken what she had said to heart and was starting to try to get to know her daughter. They’d gone to a movie, one she had picked, and they went to the mall together and spent hours trying on outfits. It was strange, and it would be a long time before she believed her mom truly had a desire to understand her, but she was making an effort.
Every night since her birthday, Sutton had dreams featuring the same girl. She had never met anyone named Lucy, but this girl had become as real to her as the students that surrounded her in school every day. She had even caught herself sketching the girl in art class, and completed a disturbing painting that showed her running through a dark void. She knew it was crazy, but she was starting to wonder if she had some kind of psychic connection with this strange girl.
She wrote about her dreams in a journal. They weren’t the same every time, but Lucy was always there. Strangely enough, she and Lucy seemed to share more than just the exact same eye color. In her dreams, they both had magical powers. It had to be stress. Midterms were right around the corner, and Sutton hadn’t been as focused as she normally was. She decided to start spending every evening studyi
ng to get caught up on the coursework.
Her mom breezed in with Boston Market for dinner. The delicious smell of rotisserie chicken and cornbread made Sutton’s stomach growl. She smiled at her mom as her dad entered the room, undoubtedly drawn by the intoxicating aroma of his favorite meal.
“I see your culinary skills are as wonderful as ever, dear,” he teased as he planted a quick kiss on his silent wife’s head.
“Hey, mom knows what to get her starving daughter on long nights of studying.”
“Yes, speaking of which, I got a call from the school today.”
Sutton felt a knot form in her stomach. She’d been very careful to keep her grades up and hadn’t missed any assignments. What could they have called about?
“The headmaster says you’ve been disengaged lately. He said someone beat you in fencing. I’m not really sure what to think of that. Are you feeling ill?”