by Kaitlyn Hoyt
Ryanne’s in the hands of the Gadramicks again. I let go of Logan and start pacing. I can smell the smoke coming from the car. “We’ve got to move now. The car is going to blow!” I say as I start moving back. Larkin transports into the car, grabs Kyril’s shoulder and transports him out of the vehicle.
I run past David and grab Emma and Natalie and start running in the opposite direction. Everyone runs after me. Adrenaline pumping, I pull the girls away from the smoking vehicle. They stumble but keep up. Ten seconds later, I hear the explosion behind me. It sends shocks over the ground, knocking us all down. Landing on my stomach, I push myself up and look over my shoulder. The car is completely engulfed in flames; metal shards are falling from the sky.
I turn and look at David, who’s still supporting Logan. Logan’s wound is slowly starting to heal, but it’s going to take a while. In order to heal everyone else, we’ll need Ryanne here to help him.
I jump up and grab the back of my neck. What am I supposed to do now? I need to get to the compound. I need to get to her. I need to find my soulmate. I won’t be able to relax until she’s back in my arms. “How do we get her back?” I ask Tom.
*****
Darkness is slowly unleashing me from its strong grip. I open my heavy lidded eyes and try to push the hazy stupor back. It’s like asking the fog on an early summer’s morning to fade. It doesn’t listen; you just have to let it do its own thing. A loud high pitch noise is screeching in my ears, cancelling out any sounds around me. The left side of my body feels like something hard slammed into it. My left shoulder and arm are throbbing, and a cool liquid is sliding down my leg. “Colton?” I groan. My voice is barely audible, but the desperation in it is obvious. “Liam?
As the daze starts to dissipate, my blurred surrounding starts to become clear. Dang, it’s bright in here. I slam my eyes shut and slowly open them this time, letting them adjust to the intense lighting. My eyes connect with a pair of brown eyes standing over me. Instantly, I scream and cower back in the chair. Are you freaking kidding me?
Dravin’s mouth is moving, but I can’t hear anything through the ringing in my ears. I narrow my eyes at him and try to read his lips. Nope, apparently I’m horrible at lip-reading. Dravin stops talking and stares down at me. When the ringing in my ears subsides enough, I ask him what he said.
“Glad to see you awake,” Dravin says. Now we can start. “How are you feeling? Actually, don’t answer that. I don’t care.”
“How did I get here?” My voice comes out all wrong. Instead of sounding strong and confident, I sound weak and broken. A sharp pain shoots through my stomach with each movement, making it difficult to breathe.
“You don’t remember the car accident?” Dravin says with a smile when he sees my discomfort. Maybe she has some brain damage. She is bleeding from the head. He reaches forward and lightly touches the side of my forehead. I wince and flinch away from him. When he draws his hand back, his fingertips are covered in blood.
“Car accident?”
“Yep, my clever little rouse to get you away from that little posse of yours. It was a lot easier than expected considering the collision knocked you unconscious.”
The scene starts coming back to me. I was sitting beside Bragden…with James driving. I was talking. What was I saying? I remember waking up from sleeping against Bragden after hearing his voice. He was…on the phone. He was talking to…Colton. He was talking to Colton and handed me the phone. I was on the phone with Colton when the accident happened, and he heard everything. Is everyone else okay? Are they hurt?
“So what’s your plan now?” I ask Dravin. Dravin pulls up a chair and sits down next to me. I’m strapped to what looks like a dentist’s chair. Dravin stares down at me for a couple seconds before he opens his mouth to reply.
“I’ve learned that I shouldn’t reveal my evil plan to you anymore. Someone always comes to thwart it,” he says right as the cell door opens.
A tall man with dark brown curly hair walks over to Dravin. He looks to be in his mid-to-upper forties, and he’s dressed in a long white lab coat. “I need a small sample of her blood before I can try anything. I need to see if I can separate anything from it,” he says while looking down at me. Something about him seems off. My stomach begins to turn the longer he looks at me. I’m not going to be sick, but my instincts are trying to tell me something.
“That’s fine,” Dravin says as he pushes a button on a machine next to me. A wire is attached to the bottom of it. My eyes follow it up the machine and around the chair to my arm, where it’s firmly attached by a needle embedded in my skin.
“What’s that?” I whisper as my eyelids start to feel extremely heavy, and the pain in my body recedes.
I’m floating.
“Dormirako. It’s the only way we can allow you to have your magic without the risk of attack,” the mysterious doctor explains. My head rolls across the back of the chair as sleep beckons me again.
Dravin won.
Chapter Thirty
Colton
“I say we go on with the plan,” Tom says.
“Are you insane?” I shout. “Dravin has her again! I’m not leaving her there.”
“Colton, we need to go on with the plan. If we don’t have anyone to help us, we won’t be able to get her back at all. Magic or no magic,” Tom explains.
“Tom, Ryanne is the unifying factor. None of this would be happening if it weren’t for her!” The car is still on fire in the background, but I don’t care. I care about Ryanne, and I want her back. “And right now she’s in the hands of the man who has harmed her more times than I can count, and if you think that I’m just going to go to someone’s house and ask them to help, without trying to find her first myself, you’ve got another thing coming.”
Liam, who is standing between Conner and Bragden to my left, suddenly gasps. We all turn our attention to him. He’s the only connection we have to Ryanne. His eyes roll into the back of his head as he falls to the ground. Natalie runs over to him and falls to the ground beside him. She turns his head toward her, but nothing happens. Resting her ear against his chest, she checks for a heartbeat.
“He’s in a dream, Natalie,” I say. “Hopefully seeing Ryanne.”
“So, what do we do now?” Emma asks. “There’s too many of us to fit into one car. I don’t think any of you guys want to sit in another guy’s lap, and half of us are in no position to walk long distances. Logan can’t heal, and Larkin shouldn’t be transporting, so…what now?”
“I guess we could call the Howicks since we’re not far from their house and see if they can bring us to the hotel,” Tom says. “I know you want to find Ryanne, Colton, but Larkin’s the only one that can get you there, and he’s injured. So right now, you’ll have to wait.”
I can’t wait. That’s the problem. I feel my magic calling me as I suddenly become invisible. Tom frowns but doesn’t say anything as he takes out his phone and calls the Howicks. I don’t bother trying to calm myself. “If they hurt her…” I mumble as Emma walks over to my general vicinity.
“Colton, we’ll find her. We’ll get her back,” she says as she sits down next to me; she’s pretty close for me being invisible. “You know it’s kind of hard to help when I can’t see you.”
My soulmate needs me, and I won’t be able to accomplish anything if I’m in this state. I think about how proud I was earlier when Ryanne defended me. I think about the way her eyes light up when she smiles, and how the left dimple on her cheek is more pronounced than the right. My whole body starts to vibrate. I think about how she looks when she first wakes up in the morning. She’s too beautiful for her own good with her hair going everywhere and her sleep laden eyes. I think about the goofy grin she gets on her face when she watches any comic book movie. She’s unaware she does that.
“Much better,” she says. “Look, Ryanne’s strong. She’ll be fine. She’s good at stalling; you know that. We need to regroup and formulate a plan. We may need more people, and we need t
o know what Liam is seeing.”
I guess that’s true. Taking a deep breath, I try to keep my magic down. I won’t be of any help if I can’t keep myself visible. Tom walks over to us. “The Howicks are coming to get us. I’ll drive everyone who’s injured, and the rest of you can go with them. We’re going to need to get everyone cleaned up since Logan’s in no shape to heal anyone at the moment.”
“Another reason why we need to get to Ryanne,” I mumble. Tom turns and glares at me. I know that he wants to find Ryanne as much as I do. We all know what Dravin is capable of, and we know what he wants with her.
Ten minutes later, the Howicks pull over to the side of the road. “What happened?” Mr. Howick asks; his eyes landing on Liam who is still in the dream.
“I’ll explain everything at the hotel,” Tom says as we reach down and lift Liam into the car. Natalie hops into the back seat beside him.
“Is he going to be okay?” Mrs. Howick inquires. Natalie brushes Liam’s hair away from his face.
“Liam’s a dream-walker. He’ll be fine. We don’t know what he’s seeing right now,” Tom explains as he moves over to help Bragden stand. David walks over and wraps Bragden’s other arm around his shoulder while I move to help Logan get into the car. I’m pretty sure Logan’s leg is broken. His magic is trying to heal him but due to the extent of the damage, it’ll take some time. When he’s finally healed, he won’t be able to heal anyone else for a while. His body will need to recuperate.
“Where are you headed?” Mr. Howick asks once everyone is situated. Tom gives him directions and then turns to me.
“Don’t worry, Colton. We’ll get her back,” he states as he walks away and gets into his car. I keep my mouth shut as I hop into the other car and close the door, watching as the burning sedan recedes into the distance.
*****
“Ryanne?”
I whirl around and come face to face with my protector. I run and barrel into him, wrapping my arms around his neck. He returns the hug. “I’m so glad to see you, Liam.”
“Where are you?” Liam asks as he puts me back on the ground. I don’t step away from him though. I need to make sure that this is real.
“Dravin’s compound.”
“Have they hurt you?”
“I don’t think so. I think all of my injuries are from the car accident. My heads bleeding, but I don’t know how bad it is. They’re keeping me under with dormirako, so I can’t tell. I can use my magic, but they won’t let me stay awake long enough to do anything. Some man just took some of my blood to see if he can separate my magic from it,” I explain. “It’s too late. If they can extract my magic, they’ll kill me, Liam. They won’t need me anymore.”
“Ryanne, don’t say that.”
“Why? It’s the truth,” I shout.
“Ryanne, we’re going to find you. Don’t think like that.”
“The only way you’ll be able to find me is if I’m awake long enough to call for Larkin, and they won’t allow for that to happen.” Liam winces when I mention Larkin. “Is Larkin okay? Did anyone get hurt in the accident?”
“Everyone got hurt in the accident, but nothing too serious. Bragden and Logan are the worst since they were sitting on the side that got hit. Bragden took most of the blows when he covered your body with his. Logan’s too injured to heal anyone, so we have to wait for him to recover before he can heal everyone else.”
“Oh my gosh,” I say.
Liam runs a hand through his hair. “We’ll find a way to get you, okay? Don’t do anything that’ll get you hurt.”
“Liam, I’m being kept unconscious. There’s not a whole lot I can do right now. They have me strapped to a chair, hooked up to an IV. I’ll be out for a while…at least until they find out whether or not they can take my magic.” I cross my arms and look off into the distance. This place has become so familiar to me. In a way, I wish I could stay here. If Colton was with me, I’d never want to leave. “Please keep your promise, Liam.”
“Ryanne.”
“No, I don’t see a way out of this situation right now. Maybe this is how it’s supposed to happen. We’re nearing the end, and you know it. Keep an eye on Colton for me, please. Claire told me that you and Colton were the ones that end the war and that I am elsewhere. Maybe this is where I’m supposed to be. Maybe this is the end for me.”
“Stop saying that!” Liam yells. I flinch away from him but shake my head.
“You can’t keep denying what’s right in front of you. I love you, Liam; I do. You’re like the brother I never had, but you can’t keep rejecting the fact that something could happen to me. I’m in Dravin’s compound, unconscious, while some man runs tests on my blood. Everyone that has the capability to come rescue me is injured. Dravin thought of everything!”
“There’s always a way, Ryanne. You just have to believe.”
“You can be the optimist, Liam. I’m going to be realistic.”
“Don’t give up just yet,” Liam says as he hugs me to him. “The night is darkest just before the dawn, and I promise you, the dawn is coming.”
I rest my head against his chest. “The Dark Knight.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Colton
Tom leaves the vehicle to check into the hotel while the rest of us wait in the car. This situation couldn’t get much worse. I hear a gasp behind me, and Liam cussing. Natalie scoots closer to him. “Are you okay? Are you hurt? What did you see?” she starts shooting off questions. Liam looks around and then leans back in his seat.
“I was with Ryanne.”
I fly around in my seat and stare at him. “And?”
Tom comes back to the car. “Come on. We need to walk through the lobby, and then get everyone else in through a side door. We don’t want to draw too much attention.”
“I’ll tell you in a minute,” Liam says. A minute? Emma pushes me out of the car, silently telling me not to argue with him right now. I start to turn around to question him again, but she pulls me forward and through the entrance. Emma grabs the hotel keys from Tom and guides me toward the elevator. Now I know how Ryanne feels when everyone else pulls her everywhere. I don’t struggle against Emma, though I know that I could easily move away from her.
Scanning the key card, Emma pulls me into a room and pushes me toward one of the beds. I sit down and wait for everyone else to join us. “Don’t you dare go invisible, Colton!” She points at me as she next to me. Tom comes into the room, supporting Bragden. David is helping Logan hop into the room. Conner, James, Larkin, and Kyril are all able walk on their own, but they are obviously hurting. I can’t imagine how Ryanne looks. She’s so much smaller than these guys. I know that Bragden shielded her from the flying debris, but what physical injuries does she have?
Mr. and Mrs. Howick enter the room after everyone. “Liam, please tell me what you know,” I say as he sits down on the floor. This hotel room is big, but there are too many of us in here. Everyone quiets and waits for his answer.
“Ok, she is back at Dravin’s compound, but it’s not that simple. She’s being kept unconscious with dormirako, and because of that, she doesn’t know how bad her injuries are. She mentioned that her head was bleeding. I don’t think she wanted me to worry about her injuries. She’s scared. Apparently a doctor came in and took some of her blood to see if they can extract her magic, so we have a little bit of time while they run tests but not nearly as much as we need. Dravin thought of everything. We can’t go there without Larkin’s help. He can’t travel long distances until he’s healed and Logan’s too injured to heal anyone.”
We’re so screwed. Liam runs a hand through his hair and looks at me. There’s more, and he knows that I’m not going to like it. “Ryanne thinks that this was supposed to happen.”
“What?”
“Claire told her that we were the ones to bring about an end to the war while she was needed elsewhere. Ryanne thinks that her death will drive us to succeed in this.”
“If she dies, I’m done. I
’m fighting for what happens afterwards. I’m fighting because I want a life with my soulmate. I’m fighting for her! I’m not going to let her stay in that compound with Dravin.”
“She can use her magic,” Liam says.
“What?”
“If she can wake up long enough, she can call for Larkin,” Liam says, “but that doesn’t mean that Larkin will be able to transport there and back. You know she won’t call if there’s a chance he’ll be harmed.”
“So, she can use her magic but can’t stay awake long enough to do anything?” I ask.
“Correct.”
I groan and go invisible again. “Colton, we’ll figure something out,” Tom says.
“Claire told me to keep Ryanne with me at all times, and I didn’t do that! I let her walk away from me. She said that Ryanne was in more danger than we knew about. What if letting her away from me changed everything? She wasn’t supposed to be in that car. How did they even know she was in the car? I let her out of my sight, and she was kidnapped again, and now they have their hands on her magic. She’s unconscious and injured, and there’s nothing we can do. They could kill her while we’re stuck here. She could…die,” I choke, “while we’re stuck here.” I’m glad I’m invisible. I’ve barely cried. The only person capable of getting that sort of emotion out of me is Ryanne. I can feel my eyes start to water at the thought of losing her.
“Larkin, do you have any idea where Dravin’s compound is?” Emma asks.
Larkin shakes his head. “Dravin wouldn’t tell anyone. There’s an enchantment on the compound, so you can’t find it. Since I’ve been there before, I can transport there, but I don’t know where it is specifically. It’d be easier to find if Ryanne called me. Right now, I’m sure that I could manage to go there, but I don’t think I’d be able to make it back with a second person.”
“I might know someone who can help…” Mrs. Howick suggests. The surge of elation that spreads through me is enough to bring me visible again.
“Who?”