The Awakening (Emerge #1)
Release Date: April 1st 2015
Summary from Goodreads:
2015 Dante Rossetti Awards Finalist
2015 International Book Awards Finalist
2015 USA Best Book Award Finalist
Allie Carmichael has always believed life is simple.
You’re born.
You live.
You die.
She has no cause to believe that equation works differently for her, but there has to be a reason the world treats her like a pariah.
When an unexpected move to Kelleys Island brings Aidan McBrien crashing into her life, Allie is thrown by his reaction. He doesn’t shrink from her touch. He doesn’t stutter or make a quick exit. He smiles and welcomes her into his circle of friends, who aren’t exactly comfortable with Allie, but they seem to get her in a way most people don’t.
Finally, Allie has a real shot at normal and rides that high right up to her sixteenth birthday when she wakes in agony—an experience Aidan insists they have all faced. She struggles in ignorance, uncertain of what is real and what isn’t. When she emerges, Allie is different. She has always been different, but even among her extraordinary friends, she and Aidan are special.
As Allie struggles to maintain her tenuous grasp on the power that threatens to overwhelm her, she worries she will lose herself in this strange new world. A dangerous world where she will have to fight tooth and nail to defend the power and freedom that is her birthright.
…only Allie hates to fight.
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Excerpt from Chapter Thirty-Two
“Allie, I swear, you will get past this aversion to fighting if I have to bloody beat it out of you!” Gregg’s patience with her was obviously slipping.
“She’s perfectly willing to spar with Aidan,” Jin said.
“He’s my EQUAL!” Allie didn’t understand how they couldn’t see the huge difference that made.
“Aye, and I know you feel more comfortable bouting with Aidan, but you hold back with everyone else. It has to stop,” he said. “Sasha isn’t a delicate little flower. I’m her father—I give you permission to wipe the floor with her. She’ll only respect you for it!”
“She’s my friend, Gregg. I just can’t.”
“Two thousand years and I’ve never met anyone so stubborn.” He raked his hands through his hair in frustration.
“How am I supposed to be okay with this? I don’t care if you heal fast, it just isn’t fair when I’m so … whatever.”
“Aye, you’re a powerful girl, Allie. You have something most Immortals would kill for, and make no mistake, they will come for you, sweetheart. Sooner than you might think and you have to be ready. I need to know you can protect what is rightfully yours. I’ve no doubt you would pull it together to defend those you love, but I’m not so sure you’d defend yourself.”
“I don’t know. I guess I still don’t see this power as mine. If someone wanted to take it from me, I don’t know if I wouldn’t just let them,” she said truthfully.
“Allie, no,” Gregg said. “Your gifts are who you are. It isn’t some luck of the draw. You were meant for this because you have the inner strength to control it. You need to own it. It doesn’t just belong to you, it is you, and no one has the right to take it from you. You and Aidan are so unwilling to own your power. Perhaps it’s your youth, but one day you’ll take pride in your strength—in what sets you apart, and you’ll fight to protect it.”
“I know your power must confuse you,” Jin said, “but imagine what it could do in the wrong hands?”
“I never really thought about it like that,” she said. “I know I have to do better.”
“This is a problem, Allie,” Gregg said in his best, ‘listen-to-me-because-I’m-old’ voice. “Your mental blocks could destroy you if you don’t learn to overcome them.”
“Blocks? I wasn’t aware I had multiple issues.” All things considered, Allie thought she was killing it in her training.
“I’m afraid we might need to take more drastic measures to get through that bloody thick skull of yours. I don’t expect you to become a ruthless fighter overnight, but I do expect you to be aware that this is a problem. And there’s something I have to know before I leave.” He paced across the room. It happened so quickly, she barely saw the sword in his hands.
“No!” she screamed in horror as blood spattered across her face and Jin’s head rolled across the floor. His body slumped forward in a boneless heap.
She fell to her knees beside him, not sure what to do. “There’s so much blood! What have you done? Help him, Gregg, please!” she sobbed.
He carefully returned Jin’s blank staring head back to his lifeless corpse.
“I’m so sorry, Red.” He pulled her into his arms. “You know we cannot die, but you’ve reacted as if you still don’t believe it. You need to see this. Watch and witness the miracle that is your life.”
About the Author
Melissa A. Craven (the "A" stands for Ann—in case you were wondering) was born near Atlanta, Georgia, but moved to Cleveland, Ohio at the age of seventeen. She still thinks of Cleveland as home, so it was only natural for Emerge to take place there.
Today, she is back in Atlanta—for some reason she can't seem to stay away from the ungodly heat that makes her long for things like "lake effect snow" and wind that will knock you flat.
Melissa decided a long time ago that the “life checklist” everyone else was clutching so tightly in their fists, just wasn’t for her. She does everything backwards because she is weird like that, but then, she is an artist and artists are notoriously "unique" and "quirky."
She is an avid student of art and design, and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of West Georgia in 2009. She worked as an interior designer for several years, but she's always thought she might like to be a writer when she grows up.
In her spare time, if she has any, she enjoys shopping for derelict furniture she refinishes to exercise the interior design part of her brain.
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