Scorching Secrets (16 page)

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?”

Ryanne’s too good for me, not the other way around. However, I understand where Emma is coming from; I want to keep her safe too. Emma wants to keep Ryanne safe from me though. She is afraid I am going to hurt her. I’m not sure that I won’t end up doing that. I lean back against the wall and think about what Emma just told me.

“Where is Ryanne now?” Liam asks.

“Her room. After…wards, she winced and grabbed her head. She went to lie down because she had a headache.” Emma heads upstairs to go check on her.

“Even Emma is protective of Ryanne. Who knew?” I mumble.

“I did. You should hear how she talks about her.”

“Guys, something’s not right,” Liam says. I turn and look at him. He looks worried.

“With Ryanne?” I ask. Emma runs down the stairs and thrusts Ryanne’s notebook at me.

“Have you seen this door before?”

“Umm….” I look at the drawing. It looks like a normal door—one that could belong to any house. It isn’t as detailed at her other drawing.

“Ryanne’s missing! Have you seen the door?” Emma yells. Liam winces and grabs his leg. Ryanne is hurt somewhere.

“I think it could be Jane’s. I’m not sure though.”

“Larkin!” Emma screams. Larkin appears in the room. Emma throws the notebook at him.

“Go there. Find Ryanne. Colton thinks it’s Jane’s house.”

I finish drawing the door when I feel myself being thrown backwards. I close my eyes because the transportation is always easier when I don’t try and watch. When I keep my eyes open, it feels like my body is being pulled in all different directions, slowly ripping apart. I land on my stomach in the grass. “Ouch.” I wince and jump up, moving toward the bushes, waiting for something to happen. I wouldn’t have been transported here if I wasn’t needed.

I stay down, unnoticed, until the three men get closer to me. I notice the knives two of them are carrying. I glance at my empty hands. Why do I never think to bring a weapon with me? Well, this could get interesting.

I jump out of the bushes and run toward them, calling magic to me. I do a double full twist like I did during training with Liam and visualized lightning striking the man with the larger knife in his hand. All men stop when they see me flipping toward them. When my momentum stops, I hit the man with my magic. He flies backwards and slams into a large tree in the distance. I turn back toward the other two men and instantly start fighting.

I’m not sure how I am doing it or how my body knows exactly what to do, but somehow I haven’t been stabbed yet, which is an accomplishment for me. Despite my lack of a weapon and the fact that it’s two large men against a small girl, it’s a pretty even fight. I can feel the bruises forming on my shoulders and arms from where I am hit, but all things considered, I’ll take a few bruises. I duck as the man with a knife swings it around, attempting to slice me. Instead, he hits the other man. He falls to the ground, grasping at his chest. I bring my leg up and kick the injured man. He falls to the ground, spitting up blood. I turn my attention back to the other man. However, my attention is a little too late. I cry out as he plants the knife into my left thigh. When dark blood starts spilling out of the wound and running down my leg, he jerks the knife out and smiles down at me. I call more magic and thrust it toward the man as I fall to the ground. He staggers backwards but doesn’t fall.

I stand up and balance myself onto my right leg. I gather up more energy and thrust it toward him again as he starts to walk toward me. I am slowly losing energy. When my magic connects with him this time, he is sent flying backwards like the first man. “Larkin,” I try yelling, but my voice isn’t as loud as I want it to be.

I look down at my leg and see the steady stream of blood cascading down the entire length of my leg. “Larkin,” I call again, even quieter than the first.

I fall to the ground and cry out in pain at the movement. I try to crawl away but can’t move my left leg at all. I feel hands wrap around my waist, pulling me into a standing position. I scream and start to fight until I look around and see Liam and Colton staring at me.

“Logan,” Larkin yells. He turns toward Liam and Colton. “I have to go clean up the yard. I’ll be right back.” When Larkin lets go of me, I fall to the ground, no longer able to support my weight. I shriek when my left leg hits the floor. I roll onto my back and grab my leg, trying to hold back the tears that threaten to spill.

“Holy sh...” Colton starts, but Logan runs into the room and interrupts him.

“What’s going on?” His eyes widen when he sees me lying on the floor, blood oozing out of my leg.

He drops to the floor beside me, closes his eyes, and concentrates on healing me. I close my eyes as the room begins to spin around me. I’m seeing doubles of everything, and the lights are too bright. The pain in my leg starts to dissipate, and a dull pain replaces it. “For some reason, I can’t heal it all the way. I’ve stopped the bleeding though.”

I sit up and try to stand but can’t move my left leg very well. Logan helps me stand. I grab onto his arms and let him pull me up. Liam hands me a wet towel. I hop over to the wall and lean against it. Bending over, I clean my leg of the dried blood and avoid everyone’s penetrating gazes.

I am still dizzy and out of breath from fighting, but I manage to speak. “You should see the other guys,” I say when everyone continues to stare at me.

“Guys? There was more than one?” Colton yells. I knew he would be upset when he found out that I wasn’t in my room, but it wasn’t my fault.

“There were three actually. I took care of it.”

Liam slowly walks over to me. “You promised me you’d stop going on these crazy missions of yours alone.”

“I didn’t mean to. I was in Colton’s room when this image flashed across my mind, and I got a really bad headache, so I went back to my room. I had to draw something. I grabbed my notebook, and my hand just drew Jane’s door and the next thing I know I’m sitting in her front yard, hiding in the bushes, waiting for something to happen.” I don’t mean to keep scaring him like this. I can’t control everything that happens to me.

Larkin blinks back into the room. “You destroyed two trees in their front yard. It’s going to be obvious that something happened there.”

“What was I supposed to do?” I try not to grimace as I stand up straight, balancing my weight on my right leg. “I didn’t have a weapon, while two of them had knives. My magic was all I could use.”

Logan turns toward everyone, “Get off her case. She can’t control when that happens. She did pretty well, all things considered.”
Finally
, someone who understands.

“All things considered?” Colton steps forward. “She comes back here screaming and bleeding profusely and you think she did pretty well?”

I push myself off the wall and take a step toward him. “I went against three large men and didn’t get myself killed! I got injured, but that’s nothing new.” He growls at me. I flinch back but stay where I am.

“You shouldn’t be going anywhere that’s going to get you injured!”

“I can’t help it. You said earlier that you need me to help you all get out of this situation. Well I’m doing my best to make sure that nothing happens to you guys! I can’t always control everything.”

He lowers his voice. “You know that’s not what I meant.”

“It doesn’t matter what you meant. You still said it. I’m doing my best here, Colton.” He needs to understand that I am trying really hard not to get myself killed. I’m just doing what has to be done. “I don’t know much about the magic that’s in me, but when I see something, I know I have to do something to help. I can’t always control when or how it happens, but I see this stuff for a reason. I don’t want to be thrown into these dangerous situations anymore than the next guy, but for some reason, I am. For some reason, it has to be me.” I turn around and look at Liam, “For some reason, I’m supposed to go alone.” I take a small breath; I’m starting to feel really tired. “I can’t drag you guys down with me.”

Colton walks the last couple of steps toward me. He places a finger under my chin and tilts my face up, so I’m looking at him. “I can’t handle watching you die again, Ryanne. I won’t survive this time.” He lets go of me and walks upstairs. My eyes follow him as he walks away, but I don’t say anything. There’s nothing to say. Doesn’t he know that I don’t want to get killed either? I flinch at the sound of a door being slammed. Everyone else in the room just stares at me, waiting for my reaction. The throbbing in my left leg pursues and my eye lids start to close again.

“Liam, can you take me to my room? I’m not feeling well.” Liam walks over to me, and I wrap my arms around his neck as he cradles me against his chest. The hall begins to spin as Liam carries me up the stairs. The colors around me blur into a vortex of nothingness, and I lose my battle to stay awake. I close my eyes and am surrounded by darkness again.

Colton

I slam my door. I haven’t done that since I was a kid and my parents yelled at me because I refused to clean the kitchen after I threw food at David. Now that I think about it, David and I always got in trouble for throwing food…why did we do that? I got grounded and thought that everyone hated me, so I ran up to my room and slammed my door. I realize how childish slamming my door just now was, but I couldn’t help it.

I didn’t mean to yell at her, I’m just so tired of her coming back to me covered in blood. I keep seeing her small body crumpled on the kitchen floor, blood pouring out of the large wound in her stomach after Thomas stabbed her. Every time she disappears, that flashes across my mind. I watched as she coughed up blood. I watched as she took her last breath. I watched as her eyes rolled back into her head, and her body went limp. As the life drained out of her eyes, I watched. I can’t watch that happen again.

I just can’t.

Someone starts knocking on my door. Emma’s probably going to start yelling at me again. I don’t mean to be such a jerk to her all the time. It’s just very frustrating that she feels like she has to do all this stuff alone. We all want to help her. We’re all standing here beside her, offering to help her, yet she won’t accept it.

I open the door and instead of Emma, I come face to face with Liam.

“Did you really have to yell at her?” he asks me. “You know that she can’t control that.” I think I’d rather have Emma yell at me. At least I know what to expect with her. Liam’s still a mystery to me.

“I know. I know. It’s just so frustrating knowing that I can’t do anything. That I can’t help her.”

“I understand that. I do. I feel every injury she gets. Obviously not as bad though. My skin just gets really itchy. I’m supposed to protect her, but I can’t.” He pauses briefly before continuing. “That girl that you can’t help just passed out in my arms as I carried her to her room, while you were up here brooding. She needs you, Colton. Don’t push her away right now. You can only push someone so far before they stop coming back. Even Ryanne has a limit.”