Alex Armstrong: Awakening by Hayes Farley

Release date: May 11, 2015

Subgenre: YA science fiction

About Alex Armstrong: Awakening: 

Alex Armstrong is definitely not telekinetic.

But he will be. And all it takes is a little red pill.

Welcome to Pal Tech, the top-secret school for kids with latent telekinetic powers. Like the other freshmen, Alex was recruited sixteen years ago, when neonatal scans revealed his capacity for telekinesis. Now that he’s of age and his powers are ripe for unlocking, he can begin his training.

Alex excels. Whether he’s navigating a mock Star Wars Trench Run in lab class, crushing his friends in a game of no-hands basketball, or dodging a paintball-shooting helicopter drone during his Simtest, Alex makes telekinesis look easy.

Pal Tech’s president takes notice, moving Alex out of the simulation rooms and into field work with the upperclassmen. His first assignment: join the juniors as they oversee the school’s latest diamond shipment.

But somebody talks, and what should have been a routine delivery gets intercepted by a rogue telekin—a rogue telekin who’s already murdered two senators in his quest to kill Pal Tech’s founders.

With the other students scrambling to survive, Alex must stop the telekin before he causes any more destruction. There’s just one problem: The bad guy can fly.

Excerpt:

 

“Quit showing off and watch where you’re going.”

“What? I’m just excited that you’re talking to me again.” A breeze whispered through the trees and played with her hair. “Burrr. The air’s starting to get cold again.” Eva turned back around and as she did a spider web that was riding the wind enveloped her like some nightmarish pie to the face.

She screamed. A loud, piercing scream. She started clawing at her cheeks and her neck and her hair and her arms in a frantic effort to chase away a hundred phantom spiders, and in her blind panic she twisted in place and her right foot slipped and her leg kicked forward and her body reeled backward in a contorted attempt at balancing that only served to send her over the edge, her arms extended helplessly toward Alex. 

Eva caught one last glimpse of him before there was nothing left to see but blue sky. Blue like his eyes. She covered her face and closed her eyes and braced for the first of the branches that would go tearing through her clothes and raking across her skin, and as her head dropped below her feet and her body continued its sickening inversion, the only thought that raced through her mind was regret, regret that she had yet to tell Alex—and now could never tell Alex—how she really felt.

And then everything stopped.

For a moment, Eva just hung there with her eyes closed. She didn’t dare move. She didn’t even breathe. She just waited, her mind rushing back into this new reality after already accepting death. It was Alex. It had to be Alex.

Her body began to reverse course. She felt impossibly strong hands cradling her neck and lower back, lifting her forward as if she’d just been baptized. She stretched her leg, her foot groping for solid ground. She wanted to see him, ached to see him, but was afraid that if she opened her eyes this would all be exposed as some beautiful dream playing out in her mind as her body lay bleeding and dying at the bottom of the mountain.

But it wasn’t. This was real. Because in the next breath, she could smell him. His cologne. His sweat. His breath. She was so close. He was so close. The support shifted from her neck and lower back to her waist. Real hands. His hands. He pulled her to safety and she opened her eyes.

“Hold still,” Alex said.

She felt a tickle across her face as Alex removed the web. Now he looked at her shoulder and narrowed his eyes and a plump little spider floated into the air and hovered a few feet beyond her face, its legs twitching. Alex made like he was flicking an ant and the spider went tumbling into the trees.

They both stood there. Silent. Numb with the awareness of what might have been.

“Are you alri—”

Eva rushed into his arms and pulled tight. She felt the scruff of his cheek against her skin. She felt his hands slide up and down her sides. And then, she kissed him. A peck at first. A little harder the next time. She kissed and kissed until she felt him stir into action and take over, his mouth pressing hard against hers.

 

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About Hayes Farley:

Hayes Farley lives in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, with his wife Dawn and daughter Mackenzie. When he’s not reading or writing or changing diapers, he can be found at the golf course, hoping that with enough practice he might one day hit a fade.

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