Awakened by the Giant: Brides of the Kindred Read online

  A mischievous grin lit up Tabby’s freckled face. “As a matter of fact, yes. There was this one time…”

  “I hope you don’t mind me springing this on you,” Liv murmured to Maddy as Calden and Tabby continued to talk. “I just kind of thought it was too good to pass up—a sister already here aboard the Mother Ship.”

  “You thought right,” Maddy assured her. “Thank you for bringing her. But…did you, uh, tell her my secret?” she asked in a much lower voice.

  Liv shook her head. “That’s not my secret to tell, though I really think it’s nothing to be ashamed of. You can tell your sister—or not—when you feel ready.”

  “Thank you.” Maddy felt a rush of relief. She thought that someday—maybe even someday soon—she’d be ready to tell Tabby and the rest of her family that she was a clone…but not yet. For now she wanted to enjoy the reunion with her sister and hopefully everyone else too.

  “I still can’t believe you’re here,” Tabby said, turning back to her. “Wait until I tell Mom and everyone else! She’s going to want to have a huge party to celebrate! And she’s going to want to meet your new hubby. Uh…” She cleared her throat. “What happened to Pierce?”

  “It’s kind of a long story and I promise I’ll tell you later,” Maddy murmured. “For right now, though, I’m just happy to see you again, little Sis.”

  “I’m happy too. Give me another hug!”

  As Tabby pulled her into another bone-crunching embrace, Maddy’s eyes met Calden’s topaz ones and they exchanged a small, secret smile. She knew she had him to thank for all of this. For she never would have come back home or had this happy reunion if he hadn’t brought her back and she never would have found love again if she hadn’t been Awakened by the Giant.

  The End

  If you have enjoyed Awakened by the Giant, please take a minute to leave a review HERE. Reviews are the author's lifeblood in an era when the e-book market is incredibly crowded. They let a new reader it's okay to take a chance on an author they have never heard of before. Plus, they give me the warm fuzzies. : ) Thanks for being an awesome reader!

  Hugs, Evangeline

  PS--read on for a Sneak Peek at Hitting the Target, my next Kindred Tales book releasing in March.

  Hitting the Target

  A girl sent to kill the one she is dreaming of

  Her target? A Kindred warrior with a beast inside

  Can Mia complete her mission?

  Or is Trey Hitting the Target when he aims for her heart?

  Chapter One

  The recording device in the toe of Mia’s right shoe was malfunctioning again. When she checked its output on the tiny handheld device she had been issued by the Commandant, she saw only wavy, blurred lines and heard only static. Damn.

  A worried frown creased her forehead as she toed off the clunky, uncomfortable shoes and slipped into a pair of soft-toed clogs instead. Of course it was nice to have an excuse to wear her more comfortable shoes to the Care Center. As a healer’s aide, she worked long shifts and was on her feet for ten to twelve hours at a time.

  But the comfort she gained was more than offset by the distress and anxiety she felt when she thought how she would be unable to offer the Commandant the full range of surveillance she was responsible for.

  Well, she still had the tiny camera shaped like a Mercy Star that she wore on the lapel of her pale blue uniform, Mia comforted herself. And the images it took were really much more valuable because the angle was so much better for faces than the recording device in the toe of her shoe. The Commandant would understand. She would just explain during their next scheduled meeting that she needed a new device—or more likely a new pair of shoes with a device implanted in them. He would issue them and that would be that.

  “Mia, child—are you in there? Could you make me a cup of nettle steep?” a whispery voice called.

  “Of course, Neemah.” Quickly, Mia slipped the handheld output checker into an antique sweetener bowl and, standing on tiptoes, pushed it to the back of the top shelf where her grandmother would never find it. If Neemah ever found out she was working for The EYE, especially after what had happened to Mia’s parents…

  But the thought didn’t bear thinking about. Instead, Mia turned to the ancient stove. Switching it from electric to fuel, she threw a chunk of fire rock which stained her fingertips dirty orange into the grate and pressed the ignite button. The stove had been modified to burn fuel because the electric current wasn’t exactly stable. At least twice a day—sometimes more often—there were energy flickers and rolling outages which lasted sometimes just a few seconds, but often up to several hours.

  Mia had heard it whispered that the Republic caused the power outages on purpose to keep people in line or to catch dissenters trying to sneak across the Great Barrier. But the SSCC—the State Sponsored Communications Channel—blamed Bountiful, the country to the south of the People’s Republic. According to the SSCC, the Republic was full of spies and saboteurs from the decadent South—one could never be too careful because they were everywhere.

  Mia had never been to Bountiful herself—and had never wanted to go. Not that she could have gotten to the sprawling country which took up the southern half of the single continent on her little world, even if she wanted to. Making any attempt to leave the People’s Republic and cross the Great Barrier to get south was a crime punishable by death and Mia had no intention of dying anytime soon.

  The stove top was red-hot now so she half-filled a chipped ceramic steep-pot from the faucet, which was little more than a pipe sticking out of the wall over the sink, and sat it on the glowing coil. Her grandmother’s spice rack was hanging on one wall, hiding a spot where the grayish-yellow paint was peeling. It was arranged, as always, exactly to Neemah’s specifications with the sweet spices on the top shelf and the savory ones at the bottom. Their kitchen might not be much to look at, with its pealing walls, exposed fixtures and half-broken appliances but Mia’s grandmother insisted on keeping it neat as a pin.

  Mia took the jar of ground sweet nettles from the top of the spice rack and carefully measured out exactly one spoonful of the fine pale purple powder into a pretty old cup. It had tall, fluted sides and a picture of a lady with a pink head scarf drinking steep under a blue and white uanna tree on one side.

  The cup had been part of her Neemah’s inheritance and it had been made before the Great Revolution, Mia was fairly certain of that. When the People’s Republic came into power in the North and granted equality to all and erected the Great Barrier to keep the undesirables out, they had stopped the production of such frivolous items. Nowadays everything had to have a practical purpose—and everything was utilitarian and plain.

  Mia had always liked the cup because Neemah said her eyes were the exact same color as the pale blue flowers on the uanna tree. People said they were striking, her eyes—they set off the creamy brown of her skin dramatically. They made her face almost pretty enough to balance out the fact that she was too plump to be what the Republic considered an “ideal female.”

  Sighing, she looked up at the cloudy pane of plasti-glass that covered the window over the sink. She didn’t look particularly striking now—just tired. She’d been working double shifts for the past three days ever since Jania, the other healer’s aide who worked on her floor, had gone missing.

  Mia wondered if Jania was being held somewhere, perhaps in the basement of The EYE’s headquarters. That was where the police arm of the Republic took dissenters, mostly. She wondered if Jania would ever come back and if she did, would the other girl retain enough of her mind to continue working at the Care Center. But most of all, she wondered if any of the surveillance she herself supplied had been instrumental in Jania’s detainment.

  Oh please, no. I hope not. I really hope not!

  After all, it wasn’t like she wanted to be an informant and a VAR—volunteer agent of the Republic. Despite the title, there was nothing voluntary about it. Mia had been dragged into the Commandant’s