Awakening

by Rebel Miller

  Da approached Uncle Paol. “How did this happen?” he asked, but Uncle Paol was inaccessible to us, sobbing now with complete abandon. Da turned to look at the stranger. “Tell us.”

  The man walked farther into the room, his brown eyes sliding around it. He had kept a respectable distance up until that point. “As you know, there’ve been numerous skirmishes in response to the attack on Realm Council,” he said, his accent reminding me of someone I couldn’t quite place. “A fight broke out. It quickly escalated into a shoot-out. Marah and Paol were caught in the battle. Marah didn’t survive.”

  “She was shot?” Rhoan asked hoarsely.

  The man nodded.

  Khelan wiped a hand across his eyes, pinning the man with a stare even as tears continued to fall freely down his cheeks. “Where was Adria in all this?”

  “With Maxim’s sister,” Uncle Paol answered. We all looked to him. He seemed to have gained a stronger hold of his emotions.

  Khelan looked as puzzled as the rest of us. “Who’s Maxim?”

  I remembered Tai mentioning that Maxim was the name of Uncle Paol’s contact in Tholos.

  Uncle Paol struggled off his chair and went to kneel in front of his daughter. Adria’s blue eyes were wide as she peeked out from Rhoan’s hold. Even though she had stopped crying, her eyes were glassy with unshed tears.

  Uncle Paol tilted his head in the stranger’s direction, his eyes still on his daughter. “He’s Maxim.”

  Everyone’s gaze returned to the man. I had to admire the fact that he didn’t cower in the face of our unified distrust.

  Khelan came to a stand, eyeing him. “Are you with the factions?” he asked. I stepped forward, interested in his response.

  “Does it matter? I’m on the run, hiding from the Realm. According to our governance and law, I’m a dissident equal to any rebel group,” he said, meeting the eye of everyone in the room.

  “You haven’t answered his question,” I said, searching his face. His eyes dropped to mine.

  Now that the anxiety in the room had lessened, I had a clear enough mind to take him in. Despite the dark energy that surrounded him, he was actually strikingly handsome, with light brown hair, deep brown eyes and high cheekbones. He held his chin high, his bearing proud and unyielding.

  “If I wasn’t before, I am now,” he said.

  All of a sudden, I knew why his accent was so familiar to me. I knew who he was by the way his words rolled loosely over his tongue, how he tilted his chin and looked down his nose at me … like Liandra.

  He was an elite.

  I stepped back, feeling an immediate urge to contact Gannon and Tai.

  “Tell me what you need and I’ll give it to you,” Khelan said, a haunted cast to his eyes.

  Maxim gave him an assessing look.

  “It’s because of the Realm and their fucking expulsion of our dominion that my sister is dead,” Khelan said. His lip curled. “How can I help?”

  Rhoan and I looked at each other, alarm jolting me.

  “What are you doing, Uncle?” Rhoan said warily. He shifted Adria to Ma and stood up to look Khelan directly in the eye.

  Uncle Paol , however, gripped Khelan’s shoulders, a wealth of profound emotion in his eyes. “I knew I could count on you,” he said, his eyes fierce.

  I glanced anxiously between Ma and Da, wondering at their silence. They looked oddly calm and unsurprised by what was happening — resigned.

  “Don’t do this,” Rhoan said, stepping toward Khelan.

  “My sister, your aunt, is dead. My niece is now motherless,” he said, his eyes locked on Adria, now sleeping in Ma’s embrace. “This cannot go unchecked.”

  Uncle Paol sighed in deep relief. “I brought Adria here knowing you would watch over her. I can’t do what I need to and care for at the same time,” he rushed out. He wrung his hands. “She misses her Ma. She doesn’t know what happened. I couldn’t tell her. I — I don’t know h-how …” He held a tight fist to his mouth and turned away to face the fireplace, his shoulders slumped, still shaking as he struggled with his emotions.

  Maxim approached Khelan. “I understand you work at the Judiciary. We need information. Are you willing to provide it?”

  Khelan hesitated for only a second. “Yes,” he replied.

  “Then we’ll be in touch,” Maxim said. He strode passed Khelan. With a firm hand to Uncle Paol’s shoulder, he urged the man toward the door.

  Uncle Paol stopped at the threshold to look at his daughter. “Please tell her I love her and … I’ll … I’ll see her soon,” he said before throwing on the hood of his cloak and walking out the door.

  I leapt up from my position on the floor, ran to the door before it could slide shut and held it open to peer outside. I watched as the two shrouded figures were swallowed up by the darkness of the night.

  Khelan came up silently beside me.

  “What’s he going to do?” I whispered, fearing I knew the answer but needing confirmation all the same.

  He sighed deeply. “He’s going to try to take down the Realm.”

  * * *

  During the entire trip back to our apartment, Rhoan and I had been silently lost in our own thoughts. The light snow that had started to fall shortly after we left our parents’ house only added to the somberness that surrounded us. As we walked into our living space, I ran my hands up and down my arms, trying to rid myself of the cold that had followed me in, having seeped its way to my skin despite my thick clothing. Rhoan shrugged out of his jacket then turned toward the small closet by the door only to stop abruptly midway.

  “Kira,” he began, still facing away from me, “this … thing you have going on with that senator — it has to stop.”

  I stared at his back for a long moment before tugging roughly at my sleeves, wrenching off my wool coat and shoving passed him to the closet. Rhoan eyed me as I hung the garment and stalked to the kitchen.

  “You can ignore me all you want,” he said behind me. “It won’t change the fact that our family is now more than just dissident. We’re shit deep in with rebels, enemies of the Realm.”

  I spun to face him. “Uncl —” I clenched my fists, remembering the truth. “Khelan won’t do it. He’s just angry. There’s no way he would put himself or us in danger.”

  Rhoan tossed his jacket on the bench to the side. “Were you looking at the same man I was? He’s not going to let this go. His sister died, was killed, in fact,” he said. “And Uncle Paol … You’re fooling yourself if you think he’s coming to his senses any time soon.”

  I swallowed, dropping my eyes to the floor. “There must be something we can do.”

  “Have you heard a word I’ve said?”

  I gritted my teeth, looking up at him. “What do you want from me?”

  Rhoan strode toward me, eyes boring into mine. “I want you to understand that your senator is a fucking threat to our family.”

  “He won’t hurt us. He won’t,” I pressed when Rhoan scowled. “He helped us, Rhoan. If he gave me information about Aunt Marah, why would he turn around and use it against us?”

  Rhoan considered me then shrugged, his expression dubious. “I’m not saying he would do it intentionally. But he’s a government official, Kira. He’s monitored, and he’s obligated to the Realm’s highest authorities. He could inadvertently leak information.”

  I turned away, hearing his words but refusing to see the logic in what he was saying. The truth was that during the trip to our apartment my mind had been plagued with same thoughts. No matter which way I spun it, I was confronted with the same conclusion as Rhoan. Distancing myself from Gannon would protect my family as well as him. But it was out of the question.

  I thrust my hands into my hair, shoving it behind my ears as I turned to face my brother. “Then I won’t tell him,” I said.

  Rhoan cursed. “Kira,” he said, “do you really thi —”

  “I’ll keep this to myself,” I cut in, lowering my arms. “He can’t leak what he doesn’t k
now.”

  Rhoan must have seen something in my expression, because he simply shook his head, his shoulders slumping as disappointment darkened his eyes.

  “And we shouldn’t tell Tai either,” I said quickly, eyeing him. Tai was just as vulnerable to falling victim to my family’s pervasive unlawfulness as Gannon.

  Rhoan hesitated a few moments then nodded curtly. With a frown, he grabbed a drink from the cooler and turned to go to his room. “I’m not even going to begin to talk about this thing you have with Tai,” he mumbled sullenly over his shoulder.

  I watched as he ambled off then made my way over to the couch to curl up in one of its corners. I tugged a throw from under my head and wound it tightly around my body. That was when I saw the flashing light on my comm.

  Gannon had messaged me much earlier that night, checking in as he had done so frequently since Septima. I’d promised to call him back but hadn’t found the chance between reeling from my family’s latest transgression and helping Ma determine what Adria would need to settle her into her new home.

  I tapped the comm and noted with a grimace that this time the message was from Tai.

  After unlatching the device, I placed it on the table in front of me before resting my head against the arm of the couch. I sunk deep into its cushions.

  I couldn’t speak with either of them now, not when I felt like I was becoming more of a threat to their well-being with each passing day. Even Tai, a protector, seemed to require protection from me.

  I closed my eyes and laced my fingers through my hair, trying to dispel the feeling of despair Rhoan had left me with. An ache spread within my chest as realization sunk in that one way or the other, my family’s actions would hurt someone. I had almost managed to wrestle my mind into a quiet space when the first of my tears slid down my cheeks.

  ~

  BONUS SCENE

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  “There was beauty and then there was Kira Metallurgist.”

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  COMING SOON

  Book Two of Kira’s Story

  Faced with diverging loyalties — between those she loves and her responsibility to the Realm — Kira has to make heartrending and strategic decisions that threaten to jeopardize her future.

  As her connection to Tai deepens and turmoil in the Realm builds, so does Gannon’s frustration at being unable to call Kira his own.

  The Realm Series

  Coming-of-age stories about strong female characters living in a futuristic society called the Realm.

  ~

  Follow Kira Metallurgist between books at @TheRealm_Kira.

  Visit www.rebelmillerbooks.com and subscribe for news on upcoming book releases.

  ABOUT REBEL MILLER

  Rebel Miller is a romance author who writes gripping stories about charismatic characters facing circumstances in settings that often turn social conventions on their head.

  She earned a graduate degree in Communications and Culture from Ryerson University and an undergraduate degree from the University of the West Indies.

  While overindulging in Pinot Grigio and caramel popcorn, she binges on an eclectic mix of movies, music and, of course, angst-filled romance novels.

  Rebel lives in the outskirts of Toronto, Canada, with her husband and two sons.

  Awakening is her first novel.

  Follow Rebel on Twitter @RebelMillerBoox and on Facebook.com/RebelMillerBoox