Read Online Empyreal: Awaken - Book One by Christal M. Mosley - Free Book Online

making plans of some sort. After a few
minutes of conversation, the three of them parted ways with an
agreeing nod and a hand shake.
    She watched as her parents walked up
the front steps and she wondered what sort of words may have been
exchanged between them.
    Say hello to the family ... nice to
see you again ... nice weather we're having ... sort of small
talk. Or was it something else? Something secretive? Something
more?
    But what would her parents, or Court
for that matter, feel the need to hide from her?
    Coralie shifted her view to Court, who
was now crawling back onto his bike and cranking the engine. He
looked up to the window where she was standing. Coralie froze. He
smiled, and then put his helmet on. She could tell the smile was
still there. She smiled too, but quickly slid away from the window
when she heard her parents enter the front door.
    “Coralie, honey?” the both of her
parents called out.
    “In here ... in the kitchen...” she
said, quickly grabbing a glass from the middle shelf of the
cabinet, and starting to fill it with water from the filter
tap.
    “Coralie...” they both
started.
    She turned to face her parents with a
smile, “Yes?” But her smile started to fade as she looked at the
faces of both her parents. “Something's wrong ... isn't
there?”
    Katelyn and Cal stood close to one
another and were eyeing each other as if to question who would go
first.
    Katelyn broke the silent stares.
“Honey, your father and I would like to talk to you...would you
like to have a seat...”
    “Sure,” she said as she sat her glass
of water down on the countertop. She walked over to the kitchen bar
and slowly slid onto one of the barstools. “What's going on? Is
everything okay?”
    “Well, honey, we wanted to talk about
tonight...”
    “What about it?”
    “Well, besides the blackout at the
benefit,” Katelyn started, “... did anything out of the ordinary
happen tonight?”
    “Out of the ordinary like
how?”
    “Like, I don’t know, did you maybe ...
hear anything or see anything different ... did you feel like anything was different? Or even –”
    Cal abruptly interrupted. “Did Court
happen to say anything to you...”
    Coralie, caught by surprise, answered
questioning, “About what?”
    “About anything ... what did you guys
talk about?”
    “Dad ... We just talked...” Coralie
let a smile escape her lips. Not noticing that her parents noticed.
“... He's nice...” Coralie was suddenly lost in remembering every
detail of his most perfect face.
    “So, nothing ... no particular topic
of interest...” Cal probed.
    “Dad,” Coralie shrugged her Dad's
words off. “But, Mom, to answer your question, ... yeah, I felt
like something was off tonight...”
    “Off?”
    “Yeah … so I guess my own questioning
would be about the blackout itself. What happened?”
    Her parents looked to each other as if
looking for an answer from the other.
    “Forget it. Don't worry about it. It
was still a great night, guys. Great teamwork. I would love to stay
up and chat but...” she paused for a yawn, “I am beat ... I have
had quite an...” she paused remembering Court’s word usage, “...
eventful night...” she said, with smiling lips.
    When she heard no rebuttal from her
parents, she pushed her stool away from the bar, resting her bare
feet on the cold kitchen floor. She leaned over to her mother, gave
her a kiss on the cheek, and then walked over to her dad, who was
standing at the sink. She reached up, doing the same, and then
walked to the door leading out of the kitchen.
    “Coralie...” Cal started, causing
Coralie to turn to face them again. “You forgot your glass of
water...”
    “Oh, right ... thanks, Dad...” she
said as she took the glass and walked out of the door. “Next time,
go a little easier on the lighting...” she called out, letting out
a quirky giggle on her way up the staircase.
    The two sat in silence for a few
moments until Katelyn spoke aloud. “I froze