Scorching Secrets

by Kaitlyn Hoyt

  Liam and I start to walk toward her. I stop back a little way and let Liam crouch down beside her, “Ryanne, what did you see?” Placing a hand on her back, Ryanne’s cries quiet a little, but they don’t stop. After a couple seconds, she stands up and looks around the room; her eyes land on Larkin.

  “Take me to Dravin.” Larkin’s eyes widen as her statement sinks in. What did she see that would make her want to go to Dravin? Larkin shakes his head, refusing to listen to her. “I need you to do this for me, Larkin. Take me to Dravin.” Her voice is pleading with him, desperate for someone to take her away from here. Tears are streaming down her face.

  No one says anything. The room is tense and silent. Larkin walks over to Ryanne. He better not be considering her demand. She will not be going back to Dravin’s compound. He slowly shakes his head at her again. She stares up at him for a couple seconds, possibly waiting for him to change his mind. Her bottom lip starts quivering. She turns around to run out of the room, but I block her. She runs straight into me. I wrap my arms around her small frame and hug her to me.

  Her body tenses momentarily, before she hugs me back and starts sobbing again. I look over her head toward Liam, wondering if he has any idea what is going on. He is rubbing his arm again. He follows my eyes down to his arm. A confused look crosses his face before he says, “Colton check her arms and stomach for bruises.”

  Ryanne starts shaking her head and tries to get away from me. I lean down and slowly brush her sleeve back. I hear everyone behind me gasp at the sight. She stops struggling when I see the deep purple bruises on her arm in the outline of a hand. I reach down and slowly lift the bottom hem of her shirt to see her stomach. I hiss when I see the even darker bruises forming against her pale skin.

  I look back into her eyes and see the tears silently running down her face. I step forward and place my hands on either side of her face, wiping off the tears. She closes her eyes and leans into me. “What happened?” I whisper. I want to help end the pain she is experiencing, both physically and emotionally. I need to be able to do something to help her. Her eyes snap open when Logan starts walking toward her. She steps away from me and starts walking backwards.

  “Please don’t. I don’t want you to see that,” she says quietly. Her whole body is shaking. Logan reaches out and gently grabs her small arm and closes his eyes. I watch as Logan’s face transforms from one of concentration, to one of anger, then to sadness. He opens his eyes and looks at her with that same reaction, before turning to me. I am about to ask what he saw, when Ryanne collapses to the ground again, violently shaking.

  “Step back.” Liam says as he runs toward her. “She’s losing control of her magic.”

  She cries out as a loud clap of thunder shakes the house. We all take a step backwards. “How can we help her?” I ask Liam frantically. I’ve never seen her not in control. It upsets me that she has seen something that’s causing her to react like that.

  “I don’t know!” he shouts. I’ve never seen Liam like this either. He is always so collected—never showing any emotions except around Ryanne. He looks down at her and then glances at Bragden. Bragden nods, agreeing to whatever Liam silently told him. “I have to knock her out. I’m going to go into her subconscious.”

  He reaches out and touches her back. He winces as his hand connects, but he doesn’t move away. Closing his eyes, he goes into Ryanne’s mind. I wasn’t aware that he could do that. I watch Ryanne on the ground; she’s still shaking as she tries to regain control. Liam’s face scrunches together, and he places his other hand on her as well. This isn’t going to work. Ryanne’s still whimpering. More thunder rumbles outside. Liam pushes himself onto his knees and applies more pressure to her back. A couple seconds later, she goes limp under his hands. He breathes in deeply before staggering backwards. His hands are red as if he held them under an open flame. “Ouch, she’s stronger than I thought.” Logan walks over to him and heals him.

  None of us move.

  When Logan finishes healing him, Liam bends down and picks Ryanne up off the ground. He sets her down on the couch. I can see the tension in his back as he crouches in front of her. Liam’s just as upset over all of this as the rest of us. Liam and Ryanne have a unique connection, and it bothers him when he’s unable to help her in these situations. Ryanne’s head rolls to the side, and her hair falls across her face. Gently, he reaches forward and brushes it away and turns toward Logan. “Which one of us was it?”

  “What are you talking about,” I ask him.

  “Ryanne wouldn’t act like that unless she saw something happen to one of us. She was shaken up when she saw herself get stabbed, but this…this was different. She saw something happen to someone in this room.” Liam turns back toward Logan, waiting on his response. Logan walks into the living room and sits down in the chair closest to Ryanne’s head. I sit down on the couch near her feet. David and Emma walk over to their chair. Larkin, Bragden, and Liam all remain standing. Waiting.

  “Colton,” he finally says. “She saw Colton die.”

  I just stare at Logan, while everyone turns and looks at me. Me? I look down at Ryanne unconscious on the couch, beside me. “She reacted like that because she saw me die?”

  “Dravin killed you. Right in front of her. You told her not to tell him anything, so she didn’t and you were killed because of it.”

  Emma shakes her head, “Please start from the beginning. What exactly happened?”

  Logan explains everything. He made sure not to leave out any details. “It was horrible,” he shakes his head and looks at me. “I never want to hear her scream like that again. I’ll never be able to get that sound out of my mind.” He leans forward and rests his head in his hands. “She took on five guys, without any magic to try and save you, but it was too late. You were…dead.”

  “What happened after that? After Adam released her?” Emma asks. I tense at his name. I never want that guy near her again. It makes me incredibly mad that he is still able to hurt her when he isn’t around us.

  “Dravin told her that she should have given him the information he wanted. He threatened to find the rest of us if she didn’t tell him soon.”

  “You could tell her now,” Emma suggests to me.

  “No,” Liam, Logan, and I all shoot down Emma’s idea. We aren’t trying to be rude, but I can’t tell her now. This is definitely not the time for that.

  “She would definitely find a way to give herself to Dravin if I told her,” I explain. I can’t believe that she would lose control like that; it frightens me that she will react that violently over something happening to any one of us. I look over at Logan and see him pretty shaken up as well. He keeps running his hand through his short hair, taking deep breaths.

  “I would react similarly if I had the vision. Especially after some of the stuff she’s seen. It’s one thing to be told what happened, but to actually see it…” Logan shakes his head. “I’ve seen almost everything she’s been through but to actually feel it and experience it…I can’t imagine.” He isn’t talking to anyone in particular. Ryanne groans and grabs her head. We all quiet. I know that she’s blocking our thoughts, well blocking everyone else’s thoughts.

  She sits up slowly but doesn’t look at anyone. She leans forward and rests her head on to her knees, letting her hair create a curtain around her.

  “Did I hurt anyone?” she quietly asks.

  “No.”

  She shakes her head again. “I don’t know what happened. All of the sudden, I couldn’t keep it all down anymore. I was trying to fight it, but it wouldn’t go away. I couldn’t control it. I was so afraid that I was going to hurt someone.” She still won’t look at any of us. “Logan told you, didn’t he?”

  “Ryanne, can I talk to you? Alone…” I ask. She doesn’t move. I move over and grab her wrist, gently pulling her off the couch. She complies and follows me out of the room.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Look, I’m sorry I reacted that way. I’m just tired of se
eing everyone get hurt. I’m tired of these visions. I only see death. It’s so hard.” I tell him as we enter his room. He lets go of my wrist and turns around to shut the door.

  “Ryanne, you can’t do that.” I’m not sure what he is referring to. The fact that I lost control of my magic? I didn’t mean for that to happen. I tried really hard to fight it. When I don’t respond, he continues, “You can’t ask Larkin to take you to Dravin. You can’t give yourself to him. No matter what happens from here on out, you can’t surrender yourself to him.”

  “I can’t watch that vision play out, Colton. I can’t watch anyone else die because of me. I can’t.” He’s standing a couple feet away from me, leaning against the closed door. He closes his eyes and leans his head back until he hits the wooden surface.

  Exhaling loudly, he says, “I don’t care if that vision plays out, Ryanne. You can’t tell Dravin anything that he can use to hurt you. Do you know what it would do to us if something were to happen to you?”

  “If something were to happen to me? To me? I don’t have anyone besides you guys. You have a brother, Colton. You have an Uncle. You have a family! They love you and would be mad at me if I didn’t do something, anything, to stop that vision. You have more people that care for you than I do. They’d be more upset if something were to happen to you than to me. People would only be upset because I’m the prophecy girl. If I wasn’t, you wouldn’t even know me! We wouldn’t be in this situation. Everything that has happened is entirely my fault! I need to put an end to all of this.”

  “You don’t need to do anything. No one would be mad at you if something happened to me. You’re our family! You have us. All of us—Liam, David, Emma, Logan, Bragden, Tom, even Larkin—we care about you, Ryanne.”

  “I’d be mad at myself. Don’t you understand that? I don’t care what happens to me!”

  “You need to start caring!” He is yelling now. “You need to care about what happens to yourself. We all need you. You’re the only one that can help us get out of this situation.” I flinch as if he’d slapped me.

  “So that’s all I am? A way out of this situation?” He starts to refute my comment, but I interrupt him. “Because I already know that. I’m just a pawn. The easy way for all of this to end is to remove myself from the equation.”

  Taking a deep breath to calm down, Colton pushes away from the door and steps in my direction. “We can change the vision,” he says softly.

  “What if we can’t?” He stops right in front of me. I look at the collar of his shirt not meeting his eyes. I can’t think straight when I look into his eyes. “What if nothing can change it? What then? I can’t watch that vision play out in real life, Colton. I can’t watch you die.” He wraps his arms around me and pulls me against him.

  “The future can always be changed,” he pauses to collect his thoughts. “The future is affected by the course you are on now and the actions you make while on that course. The past is the only thing set in stone and change is the only thing constant in life. You can’t think about how to change it; just let it happen naturally. Everything will work out in the end.”

  “You can’t ask me to endure watching you die while I do nothing. I couldn’t take it. I’d end up hurting myself.”

  “I watched you die, Ryanne, right in front of me,” he whispers. I finally lean back and look up at him. His green gaze meets mine. “I wanted to walk right out into that fight and hurt every single person I came across because of what happened to you. But I didn’t. I stayed with you.” There is something more to that, and I am going to ask him about it, but I stop when I see the look he is giving me.

  He searches my eyes for something before his eyes land on my mouth. “Colton,” I whisper. My heartbeat starts racing—the racing it does whenever he looks at me, but this is different. Standing so close to him, I can feel his heartbeat increase as well. Does Colton have feelings for me too? His eyes return to mine. He tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. His hand lingers there for a moment before slowly moving to the back of my neck. My legs must have a mind of their own because I find myself moving closer to him. He looks back at me one more time before leaning in. I close my eyes and wait.

  His lips gently brush against mine at first. I’d never been kissed before, but already I feel like jello. With his lips pressed firmly against mine, my knees start to become wobbly. I need to steady myself. I slide my arms up his hard chest and stand up on my tip-toes to wrap them around his neck. His arm tightens around my waist, pulling me closer against him. I tentatively open my mouth and brush my tongue against his lip. It feels like a million tiny volts of electricity are running through me. An unfamiliar heat spreads through me as I press myself closer to him. He groans and moves his hand from my neck and fists it into my hair.

  The kiss becomes more urgent. I push against him harder. The butterflies in my stomach are now fluttering uncontrollably. My feet leave the ground as he lifts me up, so I am closer to his height. Our mouths move in synchronized movements. I gasp when his tongue meets mine. The hand around my waist bunches into my shirt. His hand brushes against the bare skin on my back, sending goosebumps up and down my arms. I run my hand through Colton’s hair, enjoying the way it falls through my fingers. He lowers me back to the ground, slowly kissing me still.

  He pulls back; his lips lingering in front of mine. He kisses me once more before pulling away again. I keep my eyes closed, waiting for my mind to process what just happened. Colton just kissed me…? When I no longer feel his breath hitting my cheek, I open my eyes and find a green pair watching me. Colton is trying to hide a smile. I bite my lip, trying to savor the taste of him, and smile up at him. He takes a small step back and runs a hand through his hair, taming the mess I made.

  “I-I…” he starts.

  “Colton,” I begin but stop when something flashes before my eyes. It appeared and left so quickly that I’m not sure what I actually saw. I try to start the sentence a second time, but a blinding pain shoots through my head. I wince and gently place a hand on my temple.

  Colton moves toward me again. “Are you ok? What’s wrong?”

  I shake my head. I’m pretty sure this is nothing to worry about. “Nothing. I’m sorry, I just got a headache. I think I’m going to go lay down.”

  Colton

  I watch as Ryanne brushes past me and walks into her room, closing the door behind her. If she didn’t wince and grab her head, I would have thought that was an excuse to get away from me. I can still taste her against my lips; feel her pressed against me. Is there anything I can do to help? She probably just needs to rest. A lot has happened to her recently. I hear Emma laughing downstairs, so I slowly turn away and walk back to the living room.

  The room gets quiet when I enter it. All conversations stop. I sit down on the couch. Everyone is watching me. Thankfully the only people in the room are David, Emma, Liam, and Logan. My brain finally catches up with me. What did I just do? I groan and cover my face.

  “Ooooh, now you have to tell me. I was going to wait until you were ready to talk, but after that reaction I need to know what happened right now,” Emma says excitedly. “Did she yell at you? Hit you? Did she call you some inappropriate name? I’ve never heard her cuss before…tell me what happened or my thoughts will not be as PG rated as they are right now. Do you want me to say everything else that I think could have happened?”

  “I kissed her.” Why the hell did I kiss her? What is wrong with me? When Ryanne said that I wouldn’t know her if she wasn’t the prophecy girl…I wanted to tell her everything. I wanted to tell her how wrong she was—to show her.

  “You kissed the kissing virgin?” asks Emma. I glare at her, while David laughs. I glance toward the window. The sky is darkening. Is Ryanne doing that? “Was she any good?”

  If she didn’t tell us that she’d never kissed anyone before, I wouldn’t have believed it. Ryanne could kiss. There is no denying that.

  I push away from the couch and start pacing behind it. “I shouldn’t
have done that. I just couldn’t help myself. The way she looked at me….Ugh, I’m supposed to be distancing myself from her, trying to make it easier in case something were to happen to me, but no. I just had to kiss her!” I punch the wall. I don’t want to bring myself closer to her. I’m already too close. I need to protect her, not complicate things. She will already do reckless things in order to save everyone else.

  Emma walks in front of me and puts a hand out to stop me. I stop pacing and give her my attention. She is a lot taller than Ryanne, so I don’t have to look down. “Don’t regret what you did, Colton.” She moves so that she is standing directly in front of me. “Ryanne would have acted out whether or not you kissed her. You remember what she did for you when you were fighting Adam. It’s just who she is. She’s always had feelings for you, Colton. At least, since I’ve met her. I promised her I wouldn’t tell you that, but you’re too stupid to realize it on your own.”

  “What?” Ryanne has feelings for me? I thought back…I make her blush easily, but she blushes for everyone.

  “Yeah, she told me about how she met you in the bookstore. About the gazebo. About the times you tried to kiss her before. You should have seen her when she caught you kissing Natasha…I wanted to hit you for doing that to her.” Emma takes a step toward me. I didn’t realize how close Emma and Ryanne were. I didn’t know that Ryanne would tell her everything. Wait…

  “She saw that?”

  “Yeah, she did. Liam knows.” I look over at Liam and find him nodding.

  “She was crushed,” he says.

  “I was so mad at you for not realizing it then, and then your stupid girlfriend kept telling Ryanne all this crap about how she’d never be good enough for you, so she gave you space. Ever since Natasha, Ryanne’s been trying to move on from you because she thought she wasn’t good enough. She compared herself to Natasha and thought that you’d never be interested in her after that. But I see how she looks at you when you aren’t looking, and I see how you look at her. Don’t you dare go and break her heart again, Colton. If you do, you’ll have a very mad best friend to deal with, got it?”