Chapter 21: Awakened
1725 Words
I gasped like it was my first breath.
Not just of the night.
Of life.
The air clawed into my lungs, sharp and clean. My eyes flew open—then glowed.
I didn’t see the room first. I saw light.
It pulsed from my chest, rippling under my skin like waves over still water. My arms tingled. My back burned—no, radiated—with warmth, not pain. The markings from the Grove shimmered in soft gold, winding down my forearms and curling behind my hands like roots in bloom.
Silence swallowed the room.
Then someone whispered, “Oh… my god.”
Monica.
I blinked slowly, adjusting. The ceiling came into focus, then the beams, then faces.
Justin was hovering beside me, eyes wide, lips parted like he couldn’t breathe. His hand still gripped mine—but now it was trembling. Beside him, Lily and Nyla leaned in, frozen.
Granny didn’t move. She just stood over me with that slow, satisfied nod like she’d been waiting her whole life to see this moment.
“You back, baby girl?” she asked, voice low and deep.
I swallowed hard. “Yeah,” I rasped. “I think… I’m me again.”
But I wasn’t the same.
My body hummed—no, sang. Every cell vibrated like it remembered something it had forgotten since birth. The Grove hadn’t just changed me. It had uncovered me. The fire from that place was still burning under my skin, steady and alive.
Nyla stepped back slowly. “Her eyes are glowing,” she muttered. “Like—actually glowing.”
“Did she always have those tattoos?” Lily asked, pointing at my arms.
“They ain’t tattoos,” Granny said. “Not like y’all think. They marks.”
“Marks of what?” Monica asked, peeking out from behind the kitchen door again.
“Power,” Granny said simply. “And inheritance.”
Justin’s thumb brushed across my knuckles. “Waiya,” he said, voice hoarse. “You—what happened?”
I sat up slowly, dizzy but grounded. My muscles ached, but I welcomed it. I was here. Still me.
But more.
“I saw her,” I whispered. “The one from the fire. She showed me what I was afraid to be.”
“And what’s that?” Lily asked, quieter now.
I looked around at all of them—family, found and blood—and for the first time, I didn’t flinch from the answer.
“Myself.”
Granny let out a breath that sounded like a prayer and pride wrapped in one. She crouched beside me and touched my face with those calloused fingers, her thumb brushing a tear from my cheek I hadn’t noticed had fallen.
“You ready now,” she said.
I nodded. “Teach me.”
Her smile was small but fierce. “Been waitin’ for you to ask.”
Granny’s hand lingered at my cheek a second longer before she stood. “You gone need steady ground now. No more runnin’. No more hidin’. The way you carry power—it gotta be fed with discipline or it’ll burn you from the inside out.”
I nodded slowly, though I felt the weight of those words settle on my spine. The pain in my scar was gone—but not the responsibility.
Lily stepped forward, eyes still wide but her voice teasing. “Guess you not the baby no more, huh?”
Nyla grinned faintly. “She still my little sister. Glowing or not.”
Granny gave them both a look. “Y’all hush. You both gon’ be useful in this next stretch. One of you can help with her lessons, the other help me prepare the house for the deeper rites. We ain’t got time to be playin’. Something old woke up in her… and that mean it’s stirrin’ out there too.”
I turned toward Justin. His eyes hadn’t left me once. But I could feel it—the shift in him. The way he studied me like he wanted to hold me but wasn’t sure he still could. Like maybe I’d crossed into something he couldn’t follow just yet.
“I’m okay,” I said quietly, reaching out.
He took my hand, but his grip was slower this time. More careful.
“I know,” he murmured. “That’s why I need to go for a bit.”
My breath caught.
“Go?”
He gave me a small nod. “I need to head back to New Orleans. Ain’t just the past callin’ me—it’s the roots. I need to strengthen mine before I can really stand beside you in this.” His thumb rubbed slow circles on my skin. “I can’t protect you if I don’t get myself straight first.”
I didn’t want to let him go. Not after everything. But something inside me—something wiser now—understood.
“This ain’t goodbye,” I whispered.
“Never that.” He leaned in and kissed my forehead. “You gon’ be fire when I get back. Real fire.”
“I already am,” I smirked, though it wobbled at the edges.
He chuckled low. “There she go.”
Granny cleared her throat. “He right to go. Power like hers don’t just attract light. Shadows gone try and stick to it. Y’all both gon’ need to be strong.”
Justin stood, reluctantly letting my hand go. “I’ll be back soon. And when I come back… we’ll be ready.”
Lily clapped her hands once. “Well damn. Ain’t this somethin’. Baby sis leveling up, dude takin’ a soul journey, and I’m just tryna make sure we got coffee in the house.”
“I’ll help train her while you’re gone,” Nyla said, a little more serious now. “Granny can handle the hard stuff. I’ll help her with the mental, the grounding. Keep her balanced.”
Granny nodded. “Good. That’s settled.”
Justin bent and kissed the top of my head, soft and slow. Then he turned and walked out, no drama, no looking back.
But I felt the ache.
“Rest tonight,” Granny said, her hand on my shoulder. “Tomorrow, we begin.”
And I believed her.
Because something had begun.
And I wasn’t running from it anymore.
Justin’s P.O.V.
The night air hit different after you seen someone you love glow like she was born from stardust and prophecy.
I didn’t go far. Just outside, where the porch creaked under my weight and the sky stretched wide above me—cloudless, black, heavy with silence. I leaned against the railing, trying to breathe. Not just the air. I needed to feel my bones again. My center.
The door behind me opened soft.
“I figured I’d find you out here,” Monica said, easing down beside me. “You always disappear after something heavy.”
I didn’t look at her right away. Just kept my eyes on the moon. “Didn’t disappear. Just… needed space.”
She sat, quiet for a moment. Then, “She strong. I mean—damn, Justin. She lit up like an ancestor stepped into her skin.”
“I know.”
“You okay?”
I finally turned toward her. Her face was calm, but not untouched. She’d seen what I’d seen. And she felt it too—that shift in the air. That unspoken warning humming low under the night like a war drum starting its first beat.
“I’m proud of her,” I said. “More than I can even put words to.”
“But?”
I sighed. “But I don’t know if I belong beside her yet.”
Monica nodded slowly. “You’ve always been the type to carry the weight for others. But now you seeing what it’s like when someone else carries fire. That got you twisted up inside?”
“It ain’t pride,” I muttered. “It’s clarity. Watching her wake up like that—it reminded me of what I’ve been running from.”
She gave a soft snort. “New Orleans.”
“Yeah.”
“Your shadow’s still walkin’ around down there, huh?”
“Still whisperin’, too.” I paused. “I left before I finished what I started. Took some of that power with me, but not all of it. Not the right way.”
Monica glanced sideways. “You left because if you stayed, you’d be buried. That place tried to drown you. I remember.”
“I let it twist me for a while. You know I did. And I still feel it. That ache under the ribs. The pull. Like something down there ain’t done with me.”
Monica’s voice softened. “So go finish it. Go claim what’s yours.”
I nodded slowly. “Granny was right. Power without discipline eats you alive. I felt it when I touched that cursed charm. Felt it when Waiya’s scar screamed under my palm. And now that she’s stepping into herself…”
“You gotta do the same,” Monica finished for me.
Silence settled between us again, but it wasn’t heavy this time. Just… familiar.
“You think it’s still there?” I asked her after a moment. “The altar?”
“If it is, it’s waiting for you.”
“And if it’s not?”
She looked me dead in the eye. “Then you build a new one.”
I smiled faintly. “You always was better with endings than me.”
She leaned back, arms crossed. “You never liked closing doors. You just… walk out slow and hope they don’t creak shut behind you.”
“Well,” I murmured, standing to my feet, “this time, I’m locking it behind me.”
Monica tilted her head. “When you come back, what are you bringing with you?”
I met her gaze. “The version of me that ain’t afraid anymore.”
She nodded once. “Then go find him.”
I turned, stepping off the porch and into the quiet of the night. My boots hit the dirt like drumbeats. Not running. Not escaping. Just walking forward.
For the first time in a long time, I wasn’t just leaving.
I was returning.
- Writer
