Scorching Secrets (26 page)

We all gasp. That looks like it hurt. I beat against the shield harder. I can’t stand watching her get hurt like this knowing that I can help. Jumping up, she closes her eyes. Natasha starts to move toward her. Liam and I start pounding against the shield even harder. Someone behind me is yelling, but I’m not listening. My eyes are fixed on the stubborn girl in front of me.

The atmosphere in the room starts to change. I can tell that Ryanne is calling magic to her. Her hair starts flying around her like she’s surrounded by fans. She thrusts her arms forward, and her magic connects with Natasha, sending her flying into the back wall. Hitting Tom’s dresser, she knocks off all the belongings on top and falls to the ground where she remains. She groans but doesn’t get back up.

Ryanne falls to the ground and finally the shield falls down. Larkin runs over to Natasha and places a hand on her unconscious body and transports her out of the room. I rush over to Ryanne, who is panting on the ground. “She was…she was…going to kill…Tom. I had to…to stop her.” She slumps back into me. Logan crouches down and tries to heal her before she passes out. Ryanne sighs as the magic heals her physical injuries from the fighting, but a couple seconds later her head falls to the side as she starts losing her battle to stay awake. Logan can’t do anything about the exhaustion from using too much magic at once.

I bend down and push the hair out of her face. She arches her chin up and looks at me, “I’m sorry about the shield.” Any words that I intended to say get stuck in my throat when I see the dark circles under her hazel eyes. Going limp in my arms, Ryanne passes out. Yet again.

Ten minutes later, we’re all sitting in the living room in silence. No one really knows what to say. I just put Ryanne in her bed. She’s still out and probably will be for a while. Tom seems to be in shock. He hasn’t said anything since Ryanne tackled Natasha. He just keeps opening and closing his mouth.

“She saved me.” We turn our attention to Tom. “She attacked Natasha…to save me.” He starts shaking his head and pushes his fingers through his hair as he stares down at the floor. “She put a shield up and tried to fight on top of that.”

“No matter how stupid it is, we’ve kind of stopped questioning what she does. She does what she thinks is right,” explains Liam.

Logan speaks next. “I’m sorry for saying this Colton, but she seems to be doing a pretty good job. I mean, she’s able to deflect these attacks with little to no help.”

“Just think about how many of her injuries could have been prevented if she had help,” I rebut. I’m starting to understand why she does what she does and why she feels like she needs to do it, but that still doesn’t mean I like it.

Tom is still shaking his head. “I just can’t believe that Natasha would try to kill me. I’ve known her since she was child.”

“Natasha’s just following Dravin’s orders, and like Claire, Dravin knows that your death will cause Ryanne pain and she’ll act out.”

“I don’t ever want to experience that again. I don’t know how Ryanne has gone through it twice. It was horrible. It felt like the life was being drained out of me. I could see everything in color and then all the color faded away; I only saw black and white. Life and death.”

“Like everyone keeps saying, she’s tough. There’s no other explanation,” Larkin says.

“She saved me,” Tom whispers again. I don’t think his mind has fully processed what happened tonight.

“She’s saving us all.”

“Liam.” I look around waiting. Nothing. “Liam.” I can do this all day…or night. I’m not sure what it is right now. “Liam. Liam. Liam.” Come on, I’m starting to annoy myself. “Liam. Liam. Liam. Liam.”

“Quit saying my name.” I look behind me and see Liam walking into the clearing, dressed in all black with a smile on his face. My eyes follow him as he sits down beside me. “You called?”

“Took you long enough.” He doesn’t respond to me, just continues staring. “Ugh, fine. I don’t really know why I called you here. I passed out, didn’t I?”

“Yes.”

That’s it? That’s all he can give me? Some company he is.

“How mad is everyone?” I bite my lip and anticipate his response. If they are mad, I have a lot of apologizing to do when I wake up.

“They’re not mad. Well not very mad.”

“What? That’s not possible. They’re always mad when I do something by myself.
You
are usually mad.”

With a sigh, Liam lies down on his back. Turning his head toward me, he says, “Speaking for myself, I understand why you did it. It would have been more difficult to take on Natasha if you were trying to keep a shield around everyone while they were moving. We just don’t like seeing you get hurt. Having to just watch and not be able to do anything is really hard.”

“I didn’t want her to use her power on anyone. Believe me, it’s not a fun experience.”

“I get it. You don’t have to explain yourself to me.” I lie down on my back and look at the sky too. “Colton may be another story.”

I grimace and ask, “Is he really mad?”

“He’s trying not to be. He keeps going invisible,” Liam chuckles and continues. “Negative emotions make his magic stronger.”

“So, do you think that when I wake up he’ll be fine? He won’t start yelling at me again? That’s really annoying.”

“No, I think you’ll be fine.” That’s a good thing. I hate when he is upset with me. “He doesn’t like being mad at you any more than you do. You just know the right buttons to push to elicit that response.”

“It’s one of my powers. I should come with a warning. Warning: May Push Buttons,” I laugh. “I should get that made into a t-shirt.”

“You’re going to be a handful for someone. You know that, right?”

“Of course I am, and I take pride in that.” We descend into a comfortable silence. I glance over at Liam once. He’s staring up at the sky watching the clouds. How is this place so real if it is only a dream? “Liam, how do we always end up in this field?”

“Your subconscious picks it. It’s probably because you feel safe here.” That makes sense. I do feel safer here. I’ve never been attacked by gorgoths or any weird dragon things.

“Why don’t gorgoths appear here?”

“I’m not sure why you get attacked by so many gorgoths. They only appear in mage’s dreams, but it usually only happens once. Twice at most. In a way, they’re sort of a training exercise for dream-walkers. I think that maybe being around me has caused you to see them more often; I’m not really sure.”

“But why do they always try to kill me?”

“I don’t know, Ryanne. I don’t know.” I start to feel the pull. Consciousness is trying to capture me again.

“I think I’m starting to wake up. I feel like I’m being pulled in another direction.”

“I don’t think you’re waking up. You’re probably moving onto another stage of sleep.”

“How long do you think I’ll be out?”

“For a couple more hours at least. I’ll see you in the morning, Ryanne.”

With a yawn and a stretch, I slowly open my eyes and look around. Considering the amount of light streaming in from the window, it is probably mid-morning or early afternoon. Olive is sitting on the bed next to me. “Morning Olive.”

Morning. Feeling better?

Rubbing my eyes, trying to get rid of any evidence of sleep, I mumble, “Yeah. I feel better.” And I do feel better; I’m just a little tired still. Hopefully, a shower can fix that.

When the water turns cold, I turn the handle all the way over and step out of the shower. I don’t feel much more awake than I did earlier, but that’s going to have to be good enough for now. As quickly as I can, I get dressed and head back into the bedroom.

“You didn’t have to stay with me. I’m sure you’re pretty hungry right now.” I pick Olive up off of the bed.

Wanted to stay.

I hug Olive to me and walk downstairs. Everyone stops to look at me as I pass them on my way into the kitchen. Filling up Olive’s bowls, I put her down on the floor and walk back into the living room. Stepping over Colton and Liam’s legs, I plop down on the end of the couch. “Sup.” I make a popping sound on the “p” at the end of the word.

Colton laughs and shakes his head in amusement. Everyone else just smiles at me. “How are you feeling?” asks Liam.

“I feel fine.”

“You look tired,” Logan says. I turn and glare at him. Of course he has to mention that.

“I’m not. However, if I close my eyes for an extended period of time, I’m just blinking
very
slowly—not sleeping.”

“I’ll make sure to not scare you while you are blinking…slowly,” Colton says. He has that mischievous smile again, and I instantly push taking a nap out of my mind. I don’t trust him when he smiles like that.

“That would just be mean.”

“Who said I was nice?” His grin widens. I continue to watch him. His smile falters a little when I don’t look away. I forget that we are in a room full of people until I hear Emma start laughing.

“Good point,” I lean back in my chair but not before I throw a secretive smile toward him. His smile falters more when he sees my expression.

Try to decipher that, Colton.

“What are you thinking about, Ryanne?” I stop staring out the window and look at the person who sat down next to me. I meet a pair of brown eyes watching me with curiosity. David has a seriousness in his expression that I don’t see too often with him. He tries to keep everything on the comedic side which, in most of the situations we’re in, helps a lot. I glance behind us and see everyone else laughing, sitting around the kitchen table.

“I was thinking about how I miss hiking through the woods.” Pulling my knees under me, I turn toward him. “Do you guys ever regret helping me that day?”

“Not one bit,” he says without even thinking about my question. “Why?”

“I don’t know. I just feel like you guys have all had to give up so much in order to help me. Don’t you miss being able to go out and not worry about being attacked? You all have basically left your previous lives to be here.”

“Ryanne, you’ve brought us all together. We’re all here because we want to be, not because we’re being forced. And the worrying about an attack does kind of suck, but we’ve all been trained and knew what we were getting into beforehand. You couldn’t get rid of us even if you wanted to.” David leans over and bumps me with his shoulder. “Keep your chin up. Someday there will be happiness again.”

“Thanks,” I stand up and start walking toward the kitchen to join everyone, “and that’s from Robin Hood.”

“Dang it. I thought I made that up,” David says following me into the kitchen.

“You may be good, but you’re not that good, David.”

Colton

Sitting at the kitchen table, I turn and look at everyone. We’re an odd bunch. For the circumstances we’re in, I can’t imagine myself being surrounded by anyone else. These mages have become my family these past few weeks. I glance into the living room and see David sitting beside Ryanne on the couch. Based on their expressions, it seems like they are having a serious conversation which is weird for David. David usually resorts to comedy in serious situations.

“Larkin, do you think you can take me to the store later?” I ask.

“For what?”

When I see Ryanne stand up, I just shake my head at him. “Just can you?”

“Sure, I guess,” he says while giving me a strange look. Larkin knows that I’m not his biggest fan, so I understand the expression.

“You may be good, but you’re not that good, David,” Ryanne teases. David just glares at her, but I can see the amusement and challenge hidden beneath.

“You’re telling me,” Emma mumbles and then smiles innocently at David. Ryanne sits down in the chair across from me and laughs at Emma’s comment. David sits down in the chair next to Emma and playfully pushes her.

Laughing, Emma gets up and grabs the iPod docking station and brings it to the table. “Ryanne, do you have your iPod with you?”

“It’s on the coffee table. I’ll go get it.” Ryanne pushes her chair back from the table and walks into the living room. Coming back into the room, she hands it to Emma. Emma starts scrolling through Ryanne’s playlists, looking for something to play. She keeps looking over the iPod and giving Ryanne these weird looks.

“Do you know the words for “Grow Up” by Cher Lloyd?” Emma asks her.

“Yeah, she’s a little more pop than I usually sing, but I know the words. Why?”

“You’re going to sing it with me. I’ll do the rap-like parts.”

Ryanne’s eyes bulge. “You want me to sing right here?”

“Yes, you’ve sung in front of us before so don’t try to get out of this.” Emma plugs in the iPod and turns the volume up. A pop song starts playing, and Ryanne sings along with it. She isn’t singing as loudly as we know she can. Judging by the red tint to her cheeks, it’s obvious that she is embarrassed. When the rap section starts, Emma jumps straight into it. Holy crap, Emma can rap. We all stare at Emma while the music continues. Ryanne is supposed to be singing, but she is staring at Emma as well. Even David is surprised.

“You can rap? Since when?” Ryanne demands.

“Since forever. Now, sing,” Emma says, but the song is almost over. “Ugh, fine, we’ll do this one. Same situation. You sing. I’ll do the rap parts.” Ryanne participates this time. Both girls get into the song. This is the most animated I’ve seen Ryanne recently. Emma is always happy, so we are used to seeing her like this. Emma jumps up during the middle of the song and pulls Ryanne up. Ryanne refuses to at first but then starts dancing along with the song. She runs over and pulls Liam out of his chair. Singing, she starts dancing in front of him. He laughs and shakes his head but dances with her. Emma does the same with David. Bragden, Logan, Larkin, and I just watch the scene play out.

I totally understand the wedding dance situation now. Acting care-free makes her beauty shine through. It’s taking all my will-power not to jump up and make her stop dancing. I don’t like all the other guys watching her like that. When the song ends, she starts laughing but stops dancing. She walks back to the chair across from me and sits down. I smile at her. She bites her lip but smiles back. A couple seconds later, she diverts her gaze.