The Violet Awakening (The Elementum Trinity Book 2)

by Lane, Styna

  As the light faded, my body went limp with exhaustion. Barely able to hold my eyelids open, I assumed the arms I had fallen into belonged to Lakin. A new whiteness began to take over as I lost consciousness.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Awakened

  I awoke within the Energy Room, slumped over in my comfortable, blue chair. I felt so much stronger than I had just moments before that the sudden change left me dizzy. I lifted my head, expecting to find Nadia staring at me with inquisitive worry. ‘Everything’s fine,’ I would assure her. ‘Nothing even remotely scary is happening,’ I would promise.

  But I was alone.

  Nadia had not woken from her coma in years, not even for a brief moment. The infinite solitude was terrifying, and the concern I felt was overwhelming. Where was she? All that time she had spent alone in the Room… was this what it felt like? How had she not gone insane? Had she gone insane, and she was just exceptionally skilled at hiding it?

  I rocked in my chair nervously, trying to force myself awake. My body must have been too weak in the physical world. I was stuck, alone, helpless and useless. I jumped from my seat, pacing nervously and gripping at my hair. I was trapped, unable to get to those who needed me, unable to get to those I needed.

  I began running—running into the white nothingness.

  I ran far beyond the distance any of us had ever journeyed in the Room. We’d never needed to travel far from our chairs. We’d never wanted to. And, as I continued running, I realized why we’d never wanted to; the Room didn’t want us to.

  An indistinguishable force tugged at my insides, urging me to turn back. ‘Turn around, Angela Dawson.’ There was no voice, but I felt the words in my veins. ‘You do not belong here.’ But I stayed my course. I ran until our chairs were only flecks in the distance behind me. I ran until they disappeared entirely. I ran until I ran into something. Literally.

  My face smashed against a clear barrier. Not clear like glass, but clear to the point where it didn’t seem to exist at all. Pushing myself to my feet, I placed my hands against the cool, invisible wall. It appeared to be exactly the same on the other side; pure, limitless, white nothing.

  Resting my forehead against the barrier, I slid down to my knees. I hated crying, but that didn’t stop me from sobbing like a lost child in a department store. Hot tears ran rivers down my cheeks, leaving dark stains on my shirt. Where it felt like my screams should have echoed for miles, they were only muffled, as if the Room were denying my cry for help—for anything. I had defied it. It no longer had an obligation to protect me.

  I wondered if whatever I had done in the Eden would be enough to save Lakin, to save everyone. I replayed the scene in my mind. The beautiful, purple streaks in the water; the same bolts that had emitted from the guns of the Destructive Ones, taking down so many of my kind in the vision Lily had shared with me. It must have disabled whatever was causing the water to protect us. They were far more advanced than I’d expected. I had frozen the lake, but how long would that keep William’s men out?

  I dried my face on my sleeves, sniffling loudly as I continued to rest my forehead against the barrier. I had nearly sobbed my tear ducts dry by the time I noticed the shoes in front of me, on the other side of the wall. I fell over in shock, scooting myself backward. As my gaze lifted to the head of the being, my mouth dropped open in awe. I scrambled to my feet, never allowing my eyes to leave the face of the woman in front of me.

  “Mom?” I choked, placing my palms on the barrier once again.

  It was the same woman from all the memories I had recalled, not knowing if they were real. The woman from the picture in the hallway. Long, sunshine-colored locks fell around her face, elegantly framing her delicate features. Her eyes squinted as she smiled, positioning one of her hands against the wall to meet mine.

  More tears fell from my burning eyes as I heard my mother speak for the first time in eighteen years.

  “Angie. My beautiful Angie.” Her voice was a soft, warm coo.

  We cried and smiled together, and I wanted nothing more than to break through the invisible wall between us. Was this my punishment for disobeying the Room? Was she even really there?

  “No... No!” I shouted, as my hands became translucent against hers.

  I was regaining consciousness in the real world. Although I knew the others needed me, I selfishly tried to stay behind, to stay with my mother, even if she wasn’t real.

  “It’s okay,” she whispered calmly, giving me a reassuring nod as I faded. “We’ll see each other again.”

  I gasped in huge breaths as I came-to. My heart was racing, and my limbs still felt heavy and weak. My eyes darted around the Eden, assessing the risk of danger. Everyone had stopped running and screaming, at least. They were all standing around me in a large circle, staring. To my utter surprise, I was not resting in Lakin’s arms, but in Sarah’s. My stomach twisted as her eyes gleamed purple, just for a moment, just long enough…

  “You weren’t breathing,” Lakin said frantically, kneeling at my other side.

  I smiled at his sweetness, as he and Sarah helped me to my feet.

  “I am, now.”

  Lily examined me with a look of curiosity, and then looked to Sarah. Before long, her eyes were glowing their ghostly-white.

  “The Oracles are unsilenced,” the ethereal voice resonated. “The Violets have awakened.”

  I made myself small in Lakin’s arms at the sight of the other Oracles joining her in a disturbing, unsynchronized chant.

  “The Violets have awakened. The Violets have awakened.”

  Gasps and mutters flowed through the crowd in whispers, and they looked as nervous as I felt.

  “Angie, what’s happening?” Bryant questioned, huddled in a little group with Lyla and Joseph.

  “I don’t—” My words ceased as his hand touched my shoulder.

  My mind was transported somewhere different and far away. Fluorescent lights beamed down at my face, and my throat was choked by tubes. Bodies buzzed around me, checking various types of monitors, and mumbling words of wonder.

  ‘Angie?’ a familiar voice whispered in my mind. ‘Angie, is that you? I can feel you… What is this? What’s happening?’

  Somehow, through Bryant’s touch, I had connected with Nadia. I could feel her whereabouts, even across the distance. I could feel the presence of nearly all of my kind. It was magnificent and alarming.

  ‘The Oracles are unsilenced, and the Violets have awakened,’ I thought.

  ‘I don’t know what that means.’

  ‘Neither do I… but we’ll come get you. I promise.’

  In a dizzying flash, I was back in the Eden, very aware of how many eyes were staring at me in silence.

  “What the hell was that?” Lyla asked, gaping at my face as if it had morphed into that of a particularly peculiar platypus.

  “What?” I questioned, grasping at my cheeks and lips to make sure that I, in fact, had not turned into some sort of duck-weasel.

  “Angie, your eyes went white. And your voice…” Lakin whispered, glancing around at the faces that were fixed on me.

  “My voice… I said something?” It was an unsettling feeling, knowing that I was capable of doing and saying things I couldn’t remember doing or saying. I had to wonder, to what extent was I capable of forgetting my actions and words?

  “You said, ‘Be wary of the Violets.’” Lily’s tone was calm and cool, as if it came as no surprise that I was spewing random word-vomit while my eyes lit up like a disco ball. “You don’t remember your vision?”

  “She was talking to… Nadia?” Sarah said, wrinkling her forehead as she seemed to fight for mental clarity.

  I was no longer the most interesting person in the Eden.

  “Did you just… did you just read my mind?” I asked.

  Sarah looked worried and guilty—the same look I had seen on the Violet’s face in New York.

  “You touched her, Angie,” Lily said steadily. “She’s a Vi
olet, now.”

  “You said it happens gradually—”

  “Something has changed. The moment your Oracle was unsilenced, and Nadia’s, the Violets were awakened… completely. We all felt it,” she said, the other Oracles in the crowd nodding alongside her. “Apparently, that will go for all new Violets, as well.”

  “That’s good, right? You said they want to protect us. They can help—”

  “Everyone, please return to your homes,” Lily called, as the other Oracles ushered bodies away from the gathering. “Patrick? Gather your generation.”

  A boy I realized I hadn’t met nodded, and long brown hair flowed out behind him as he ran off to gather Mattie and the others from his age-group.

  “Where are we going?” I asked.

  “We’re going to get Nadia,” she said, staring up at our frozen sky, as if it might come down on us in a million tiny daggers.

  Lyla fidgeted nervously with Joseph’s hand, though she hid behind an angry face. Lakin wrapped his arms around my waist, and rested his head on my shoulder. Bryant stood, awkward and alone, glancing around in a desperate attempt to find a distraction from the fear of what we would find outside the Eden. I was grateful to Sarah for placing a friendly hand on his back, and assuring him that everything would be all right. It was a lie, of course. But it was a soothing lie.

  Fear is like a rope, laced with needles; it binds your insides together and suffocates them. And it causes the smallest of holes in your gut—so small, your body just barely makes up for the blood-loss. It feels like you’re losing a part of yourself… because you are. Sometimes, the wounds leak adrenaline or anger. Sometimes, helplessness. Sometimes, they only seep more fear. But fear, like most feelings, is much easier to handle when someone else feels it with you. The simple thought of knowing you are not alone can inject a shot of courage into your veins; loosen the rope just enough for you to breathe. There is something about empathy that makes terrible things slightly less terrible, something that runs much deeper than humanity, something that courses through all life—something universal.

  Lily, too, felt the fear. The suffocating rope, the stabbing needles… but she felt it alone, and anger gushed from the wounds in her gut like crashing waves in a hurricane.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Clouds

  Kayla didn’t say goodbye to Sarah. She made one last attempt to change her mind, to convince her that the Elementums were unnatural, and that she shouldn’t have anything to do with us. But when Sarah expressed her excitement to be a Violet, to help us and learn from us, Kayla’s eyes went blank, and no further words passed her lips.

  Lily had strongly suggested that Bryant stay in the Eden. At first, he’d put up a fight, and nobody could blame him. He wanted to be there when we found Nadia, to see her for the first time. But Lily said her body might be too weak from being in a coma for so many years, and bonding could be detrimental. Not only that, but there was no way of knowing what obstacles would cross our paths. Taking time for them to bond would only slow us down, and put us in more danger. After Bryant reluctantly agreed to stay in the Eden, Lily had asked Lakin to stay behind ‘in case he was needed.’ It was obvious that she’d only asked him not to join us because he was the weakest, and had the least to offer our mission. But Lakin wouldn’t have it. He refused to leave my side, and Lyla opted to stay in his place, where she and Bryant would keep Sarah company while Reagan helped her to understand her new abilities as a Violet.

  We walked in silence along the dark tunnel. Kayla and Emmy kept their distance at the back of the group, as if all of my kind carried a plague. In reaching the end of the passageway, Lily nodded, signaling that Patrick’s generation was to hide us all from sight. Mattie stood between Lakin and me, taking our hands. Patrick, between Lily and Joseph. But Emmy and Kayla nearly fell over themselves when Jason reached for their hands. Lily sighed and confronted them.

  “Whatever your concerns about us are, you need to suppress them.” Her words were short and sharp. “Slate’s men are going to be out there. As much as I’m sure you’ll want to jump for joy at the sight of the first human you see, these men will take down anyone they think came from the Eden. They’re not going to differentiate between you two and the rest of us. Even if they did, what happened at The Facility should be enough to tell you that they wouldn’t care. Now, take Jason’s hand, and keep quiet.”

  Lakin and I stared at Lily, in shock. We had been getting glimpses of her temper for the last few days, but we’d never seen her go off on someone outside of her generation. Part of me wanted to applaud her, and the rest of me wanted to hide under a rock, where she could never get mad at me for anything.

  When Kayla and Emmy finally gave in, Lily dragged her hand across the stone, checking to see if the coast was clear. And, of course, it wasn’t. Bodies in black suits populated the forest, kneeling to check for tracks, and scanning the area with binoculars.

  A couple of men stood at the bank of the now-frozen stream, which led to the waterfall that concealed our rocky-doorway. They pointed at what looked to be a shoeprint in the mud, then pointed to the other side of the stream. Clumsily, they made their way across the ice, and disappeared into the trees.

  Lily cautiously opened the stone door, and, hand-in-hand, we slowly made our way to the land, heartbeats racing every time someone’s foot slid unintentionally across the frozen surface of the water. Once our feet were firmly and safely on the forest-floor, we treaded as lightly as possible in the direction of Abigail’s house.

  I clapped a hand over my mouth, accidentally letting out a gasp as my eyes fell on the wondrous sight of Freedom Pond, totally iced over. Sunlight beamed off the surface, making the entire pond appear a blinding orangey-yellow. We all stopped in our tracks, glancing around to make sure nobody had heard my gasp. We seemed to be all right, but my jaw fell open. I stood as still and frozen as the pond at our side.

  “Are you getting anything, yet?” a nameless man in a black suit asked, scraping mud from the bottom of his shoes against a tree.

  Dr. Helmsworth stared straight ahead, but it was obvious—to me, at least—that he was not checking out the newest attraction of Freedom. His eyes, filled with a teary regret, were locked on mine. My grandfather was still alive, and he was standing only a few short feet away from me, yet I couldn’t hug him. I couldn’t speak to him. I couldn’t even punch him on the shoulder for never telling me that we were related. I could only stare. I wondered if that was what my life had become; seeing the faces of those I loved from only a distance—in photos and in silence.

  “No,” Dr. Helmsworth whispered, coughing as his voice caught in his throat. “No. Nothing.”

  And, with that, he looked to his feet and kept walking, making certain to lead the guard in a direction other than ours.

  ‘What do they want with him?’ I thought, knowing Lily would be inside my head.

  ‘They think he’s a Violet,’ her voice echoed in my mind, as we continued our trek. ‘They think he’ll be able to help find any of our kind who might be outside the Eden.’

  ‘He could see us…’

  ‘Generational gifts have no effect on the recycled,’ she explained.

  ‘Will I ever see him again?’

  Lily’s silence ran through me, freezing my veins and heart as it went. I was an Oracle, now. I could have figured out how to get inside her head and see what she was thinking. But I didn’t need to. Her silence was my answer.

  We managed to make it the rest of the way to Abigail’s house without incident, though Lakin had come very close to sneezing in front of a guard. Fortunately, I was a quick thinker, and pinched him on the arm. The pain was enough to distract him from the tingly feeling in his nostrils. It was also enough to get me a very angry glare.

  The old porch groaned threateningly beneath our weight, as we all huddled around the front door. Lily knocked, but before anyone could answer, the door creaked open just enough to glimpse the gory scene.

  Kayla choked on a str
ay sob behind me, as the disastrous view of Abigail’s house peeked out at us. The couch lay on its side, torn cushions strewn about the floor, the clouds of fluff clinging to anything they could. Thick dust filled the air, stirred up from the mangled surfaces on which it had previously rested. And at the kitchen table, Abigail’s body sat hunched over, a pool of blood seeping through the blanket of dust that surrounded her face.

  “Oh, Abigail,” Lily whispered as she let go of Patrick’s hand.

  Following Lily’s lead, eight other bodies popped into view for any lingering eyes to see. Emmy comforted a very emotional Kayla, and I wondered if she would have been so sensitive had she known that Abigail was a Violet.

  I wandered selfishly to the wall of photos, wanting to look at anything other than another lifeless body. In the last few days, I had seen far more death than most people would probably see in a lifetime. I didn’t want to see more.

  Lakin joined me, as I picked up the cracked photo of our parents’ generation from the floor. My eyes blurred with tears at their smiling faces. During our first visit to Abigail’s house, I’d paid little attention to the others in the photo. I had noticed only the eyes of the people standing behind our parents. At the sight of a familiar face, my stomach felt as if it were trying to escape through my throat. A much-younger Paula grinned at me, but she was not the only person I knew from the back row. Lily and Patrick gathered around Abigail’s body, the reflection of her glittering, floating ashes gleaming faintly from the cracks of the photo in my hand. I wouldn’t have recognized him, had I not been so focused on Paula’s face at his side. His hair wasn’t the slicked-back salt-and-pepper I had always known. It was dark and fluffy, and tousled by the ocean breeze. His eyes were gray, but lacked the unsettling clarity of the Violets’. They were the kind of gray that glistened like every villain I had ever seen in movies.