by Kaitlyn Hoyt
She grimaces and shakes her head. “I’m good. I think I’ll just stay here.” I start pulling her toward the door, “Colton, you know I can stop you.”
“But you’re not going to,” I tell her as I open the door and pull her into the hallway.
“How do you know that?” she asks as she leans back against the door.
“Why do you do that?” I ask her instead of answering. “Why won’t you just talk to me? Tell me what’s going on instead of leaving like that? I just lost you, Ryanne. You were dead! I can’t watch you just leave like that without knowing where you’re going. Do you know what it does to me?”
Ryanne bites her lip and looks up at me. “Because…” Because? That’s all she can give me. No explanation. No reason. Just because?
“Because why?”
“Because I want to protect you,” she whispers.
This girl. Shaking my head, I step forward and place my hands on her cheeks, framing her face. “I need to be able to protect you too, Ryanne. Claire told me to stay with you because you’re in danger. I have to protect you. Don’t you understand? My mind wanders every time you disappear. I can’t stop the images that flood through my head. I watch you die over and over again. Thousands of different ways. I don’t know if I’ll ever see you again. I’ve watched the life drain from your eyes twice. I’ve seen come close to death countless times.” She bites her lip harder, trying to stop the quivering. I brush my thumb across her bottom lip. She sighs and looks back up at me. “What’s going on, Ry? What are you not telling me?”
Ryanne opens her mouth to speak, but a teenage boy exits his hotel room and walks down the hallway. She watches the guy as he moves past. “Get a room,” he mutters.
“We already have one, but thanks for the suggestion,” Ryanne politely tells him. I lean forward to hide my smile in her neck. When I can’t hear his footsteps anymore, I lean back and look at Ryanne again. “Please Colton, give me some time.”
Her voice shakes at the end. I don’t want to wait, but I know that it’ll be hard to force it out of her. I’ll give her some time, but I can also be pretty persuasive when I need to be.
Standing tall, Ryanne only comes up to my mid-chest. With my arms on either side of the door beside her head, I realize just how small she actually is. Why does it have to be her? I lean down and kiss her forehead, enveloping myself in her warm, floral scent. Sighing, Ryanne steps forward and wraps her arms around my waist, resting her head on my chest.
“Everything is going to get worse before it gets better, Colton. When the time comes, you’re going to be needed somewhere else. I’m not going to be beside you, because I’m needed elsewhere. You just have to trust me. Sometimes, I know what I’m doing. Sometimes, I just make it up as I go—like Jack Sparrow. He usually gets out of sticky situations. Think of me as Captain Jack. Trust I have a plan even when I don’t.”
“You want me to think of you as Johnny Depp dressed as a pirate?” I ask. “I happen to find you much more attractive.”
“I don’t know. Johnny Depp is pretty hot,” she says as she smiles up at me. I lean back and cross my arms. As Ryanne’s eyes slowly move down to my chest, a slight blush rises in her cheeks. What is she thinking about? Clearing her throat, she looks up at me. “Please trust me, Colton.”
“I’ll try to trust your fake winging-it plans, but if you get yourself killed again, I’ll…” she raises her eyebrows, waiting for the end of my threat.
The door she was leaning against opens, and Ryanne falls backward into Travis before I can finish it. He reaches out and catches her as she starts falling. “We’re going to leave here soon. You guys should get ready.” He looks down at Ryanne. “I’ve only known you for a day sunshine yet you keep falling for me. What is it? My incredibly handsome face? Southern charm?” Travis pauses for a moment before saying, “It’s the belt buckle, isn’t it?” Ryanne opens her mouth to reply, but doesn’t say anything. He does manage to get a blush out of her. He laughs at her reaction and steps to the side, letting her pass. Ryanne looks at me and starts giggling as she walks back into the room.
*****
“So tell me about this next family? Who did Dravin kill, and will they want to cause me harm because of it?” I ask.
“No, you won’t have to defend yourself or Colton against these folks. They’re friendly enough, but they are neutral right now. They don’t want to be a part of the battle. Mr. and Mrs. Prowler used to work for Dravin, but they left before he started all of this ‘Stop Ryanne,’ stuff, so you’ll just have to persuade them to come to our side,” James explains.
“Do they know about the prophecy?” I ask.
James nods. I figured as much, but it didn’t hurt to ask. “Ryanne, everyone knows about the prophecy,” Emma says as she finishes packing her suitcase.
“I didn’t know about it,” I retort.
“Because you weren’t born a mage, honey. You were a human for eighteen years.” My eyes follow James as he leaves the room before I turn back to Emma.
“I’m still a human, Emma. It’s not like being a mage makes us aliens or anything. We’re technically still human. We all share the same characteristics. We all have dreams, goals, and drives. We all laugh, fall in love, and experience grief. The only thing that makes us different is that we have magic. We have powers that can be used to help said individuals.”
“Look, sweetie, I love you, but I’m not the one who needs hear the speech. I’m already on your side,” Emma leans forward and kisses me on the cheek and walks out of the room, laughing at my shocked reaction.
“Come on,” Colton says as he throws my duffle bag over his shoulder pulls me out of the room too. I never unpacked, so it didn’t take long to get everything ready.
“I can carry that.” I try to grab my bag from him, but he holds it above my head, laughing. They always have to pull the short card.
“Nope, I got it,” he says as he closes the hotel room and starts walking down the hallway. I run after him and jump onto his back, wrapping my legs around his waist and arms around his neck.
“Well then mister, you can carry me too,” I say as I kiss the back of his neck. Colton laughs, but carries me through the lobby. We get a few strange looks from the concierges, but I don’t care. Tom laughs when he sees us, but no one says anything.
“Hey, what happened to the man with the dagger?” I ask Colton as he puts our bags into the back of the car.
“He’s been taken care of,” he answers cryptically. I catch his glance toward Bragden, but I’m not completely sure what the look means.
“Oh.” I don’t think I really want to know what happened to him. Colton stops outside of the door, “Unless you want me to sit in your lap, this is your stop.”
I jump down and wait for him to get into the car. Before I step in, Tom comes up to me and wraps his arms around me, pulling me to him. “It’s good to have you back, Ryanne. Please be a little more careful though.” His chest rumbles as he speaks. I wrap my arms around his waist and promise him that I’ll try. With that he releases me, and I crawl into the car.
Since we have two more people, Emma and I are back to sitting in laps. Colton pulls me onto his as Tom starts the car. Lily is sitting in the back, between Incendia and Logan. “You okay?” I ask her. She seems a little scared, but hasn’t complained or questioned anything.
“So, that was all real?” she inquires.
I instantly know that she is referring to what happened when we were both dead. “Yeah, that happened.”
“I don’t understand. Why are you helping me now?” She turns toward Logan. “Why did you heal me? How did you heal me?”
“I think we should start from the beginning,” Logan says. For the next few hours, we explain everything to Lily. Like me, Lily had no idea that magic existed, so it took a while to explain everything. We all showed her our powers. I read her mind. Colton went invisible. David made her cell phone levitate and Incendia produced a ball of flames. We then told her about everything
that has happened recently. Tom added in details when Logan forgot something.
“So, you had a vision of me dying again in the hospital?”
“Yeah. I get these visions because I’m supposed to change something. You’re meant for something bigger, and now you’re not stuck recovering in a hospital for the next couple of months.”
“What about my mom?” she asks. I bite my lip. There’s really nothing we can do for her mom. Logan’s magic only works on mages. His magic combines with theirs to increase their naturally fast healing times. Lily’s mother doesn’t have any magic in her. Logan explains to her about how our magic works, telling her that technically there is nothing he can do. She nods, but the sadness is obvious in her expression.
“What now?” she asks me.
“That’s a very good question, Lily. A very good question.”
Chapter Four
“We’re here,” Tom announces as we pull up to a small two story house along the coast. I turn and smile at Colton. I’ve always loved the coastline. The waves are quietly hitting the shore and even though all the car’s windows are up and the doors are shut, I can hear the sound of the ocean outside. Without saying anything, Colton leans forward and kisses me on the cheek, bringing me back to my immediate surroundings. A simple peck increases my heart rate and causes a slight blush to rise. Seeing this, Colton laughs and reaches past me to open the vehicle door. Tom extends a hand to help me up which I gladly accept. As everyone piles out of the car, I get a good look at the house.
Oh my gosh. Colton walks up behind me and wraps his arm around my waist. “Why did you just gasp?”
“Look at the house,” I whisper. He looks at the house, but doesn’t react like I did. I step out of his arms and walk to the back of the car. Opening the back, I search for my duffle. All of our bags look exactly the same. Finding my bag underneath all of them, I reach inside and pull out my old sketchbook.
Closing the back door, I flip through the sketchbook looking for the house I drew when I thought I was going to die the first time. The Prowler’s house is the dream house I drew. A Victorian home with a wraparound porch, peeling white paint, and a wooden swing sitting on the edge of the porch. My drawing is an exact replica of the house before me. The beach in the background looks the same too. There are sea gulls flying around, small shells line the beach, and foam from the ocean is hitting the shoreline. Everything is exactly the same.
I smile up at Colton. “We’re on the right track. We’re supposed to be here. I knew we would somehow end up here.” Tom walks behind Colton and looks down on the drawing.
“Interesting,” he mumbles.
Hearing the front door open, we all turn and see a man standing in the doorway watching us. Oh my goodness, that’s a big man. From where I’m standing, he appears larger than Bragden and more intimidating than James.
“What’s going on here?” he shouts out to us. His voice seems amplified. He’s not in a defensive stance, but his body seems prepared for an impending attack. I flinch as I sense the suspicion rolling off of him. Wait…I can sense his suspicion? Colton takes the sketchbook from my hands and places it back in the car.
“Mr. Prowler, I’m James Stapleton. We’re here to talk to you about the Gadramicks.”
“I don’t want to hear about them. I want nothing to do with the Gadramicks. You’re on your own,” he says as he starts to close the door. I run past Colton and bound up the front stairs to stop him before the door shuts.
“Mr. Prowler, will you please just hear us out.” I flinch again as Colton’s anger hits me. The sound of footsteps on the gravel echoes behind me, and I know that if I look back, Colton will be right there. That’s why I remain looking ahead. Mr. Prowler towers over me as he stares at me from inside the house.
“It’s you. You’re the one.” He didn’t say it as a question, so I just nod. His suspicion starts to disappear as curiosity takes over. I’m not what you would expect for the girl who’s supposed to stop a magical war. He looks over me at all the mages in the driveway. I hear someone walking around the inside of the house.
“Honey, who’s at the door?” a feminine voice yells from inside. A tall brunette woman walks up to the door and looks out, eyes widening as she sees everyone standing in her driveway. “What’s going on?”
“My name is Ryanne Arden, and I need your help.”
“Dan, calm down. Let’s hear what she has to say,” Mrs. Prowler says. When she places her hand on his arm and pulls him back, Mr. Prowler steps away from the door and motions for us to come in. Colton grabs my hand and enters the house first. After assuring that it is safe, he pulls me in after him. He’s still angry with me, but now he’s the suspicious one. He is worried the Prowlers are up to something.
“Not everyone is out to get me, you know,” I whisper to him as we walk into their living room. Colton looks down at me, confused as to how I know about his concern, but doesn’t question me. Mr. Prowler glares at me as we enter into the living room. My steps falter with the anger that is again directed at me. Colton’s grip on my hand tightens, and he pulls me to his side to steady me. Everyone else walks into the room and stops, confused as to what is going on. I grab my chest as it tightens inhibiting any air flow. I can’t breathe. There are too many emotions flowing into me for me to do anything but panic.
“Ryanne, what’s wrong?” Colton asks. I close my eyes and lean into him, trying to coerce oxygen into my lungs. My knees give out and arms wrap around my waist, keeping me upright. Confusion and worry trump the anger as my body starts to shake.
“What’s going on?” Emma asks.
“Everyone calm down. Control your emotions. She’s going to be fine,” Liam says. “Ryanne look at me.” I shake my head vigorously. I can’t. “Trust me,” he pleads with me. His voice sounds very close. The arm around my waist tightens as I try to stand on my own.
Slowly, I open my eyelids and look up at my protector. The waves of emotions increase. I whimper and stumble back again. Liam crouches down like he did earlier and places his hands on either side of my face, forcing me to look at him. “Push them to the back of your mind. Think about how you control the thoughts. Their emotions are no different. Push them into the background and lock them away. I know you can do this.”
Closing my eyes, I look for their emotions. Right now, the feelings are just swirling around my mind. I can’t gather anything. They’re too jumbled. My thought box has cracked open and now those are seeping out as well. I can’t even tell which emotions belong to whom. “I can’t.”
“Think about everything you’re feeling. Compartmentalize all those feeling into similar categories. You can do this, Ryanne. You are so strong and capable of doing this. I’ve seen you do some pretty amazing things. Like I said before, you’re Ryanne freaking Arden.” I can hear the smile in his voice as he speaks.
His encouragement flows through me, giving me the support that I need. The emotions seem to be categorized with colors. Confusion is a blue green. Concern is a dull gray and anger is red. I push everyone’s emotions into groups based on their color and stack the colors onto one another, creating one tall stack of varying color blocks. Mentally, I push the emotions into the back, visualizing them being locked into a box. I hear a single click of a lock being turned and slowly open my eyes now that I’m no longer being bombarded with emotions.
“Thank you, Liam.” I don’t know how he knew about the emotions, but I’m glad he was here.
“Anytime.”
“What just happened?” Emma asks me.
“I think I can sense emotions too. I don’t know. All of the sudden, I started getting all these feelings. I knew Mr. Prowler was very suspicious of us, and then he got very angry at me. Colton was really mad at me for walking away from him, and then he got really suspicious of Mr. Prowler. You guys all got worried and confused at the same time. It became really hard to breathe because I was overwhelmed with all your emotions at one time.”
“You got another power?” Emma
asks.
I wince as her jealously courses through me. When she sees my expression, she tries to hide it, but I felt enough. “I’m so sorry, Emma.”
“It’s not your fault, Ryanne. There’s nothing you can do.” She means it. She doesn’t blame me, but it upsets her that she hasn’t come into her magic yet. If I could give her some of mine, I definitely would.
“Mr. Prowler, could you please direct your anger somewhere else?” Liam asks him. I glance up at Colton, who’s watching me intently, making sure that I’m okay.
“I’m fine now, I promise.”
“What are you doing here?” Mr. Prowler asks us.
Instead of waiting for Tom or James to reply, I step forward. “Mr. Prowler, I’m sorry that we’re intruding on your home, but we need your help. Dravin is getting more and more confident in his abilities. He has a plan that, if put into action, will make humans his slaves. He doesn’t think that we should be able to help each other. He thinks that since we have powers, we should be able to rule over them. According to him, mages should stand above humans and dictate them. He’s already killed so many of those who stood against him while looking for me. I’m not going to run and hide anymore, but I’m not stupid enough to believe I can do this on my own.
“Dravin is building an army. He’s recruiting mages to do his bidding. They are killing off anyone who stands in their way. I’m not going to let him kill anyone else because of me. I can stop him, but I need help. You two were once working for Dravin. You know how he thinks; how he acts. You know him and what he is capable of. Whatever he was capable of when you knew him though, is nothing compared to what he is capable of now. If you don’t want to help me, I understand, but don’t think because you’re not fighting this doesn’t involve you. Whether you like it or not, mages are rising. Power is shifting, and a battle is ensuing. The end is near, and I hope you’re ready for it.” I step backward until Colton wraps his arms around me again. Mr. Prowler and his wife are both watching me. I don’t sense Mr. Prowler’s anger anymore. I’m not sure what I’m sensing right now.