Scorching Secrets (31 page)

Tom crouches down until he’s eyelevel with her. “I’m not sure exactly. Claire was the only one that was able to do this enchantment. I just know that while you’re reading it, you have to push your magic outward. You’ll know if the enchantment is complete. Claire said it felt like everything snapped together.”

“So just read and push. Got it.”

Why is it always Ryanne? Why does she always have to do this stuff? The rest of us can’t control our magic like that. I can feel the magic running through me, but I can’t grasp it and control it like Ryanne can. It is a part of me, firmly connected to my inner being. I understand that in this instance, she’s literally the only one of us that can do this, but I still don’t like it.

“Do I have to read it more than once?” she asks.

“I don’t know. You’ll be able to tell.”

She bites her lip and looks back down at the paper. Standing up, she says, “Ok, let’s do this.”

We all stand up, “Right now?” I ask her. I knew that she would want to do this soon, but I didn’t think it would be tonight.

“There’s no better time than the present,” she says while walking into the living room. She stops and stands in the open area beside the couch. She turns and looks at Emma, “I feel like I’m in an episode of Charmed. Blessed be.”

“We just need another girl around her, and we could be the Charmed ones,” she replies.

“Can I be Piper?” Ryanne asks. “She can blow stuff up and I like making things magically explode. I wonder if I can freeze things…”

“Only if I get to be Paige. She married Henry and he was just adorable,” Emma says.

I’m not the only one glancing between Emma and Ryanne, confused at their Charmed conversation. “Don’t you want to sit down on something?” I ask, while stopping beside her.

Shaking her head, she replies, “No, it’s easier to call my magic to me if I’m standing…I think. I really haven’t experimented yet, but I feel like I should be standing.” She glances back at me, “Just stand behind me in case this takes too much magic.” She’s asking me to catch her if she passes out from exhaustion. Because she could pass out from exhaustion. Again. Seeing the determination in her eyes though, I can’t say no. Agreeing to her, I move so that I’m standing behind her.

“If anything goes wrong and I can’t control the magic, please knock me out, ok?” she asks Liam. He instantly shakes his head, refusing to do that. I know that he doesn’t like having to do that to anyone, especially her. “
Please
.” He looks away, but slowly nods. Like me, he can’t say no to something like that. If it comes to it, he knows that he’ll have to do it.

Everyone takes a step back, except for me. Ryanne takes a deep breath and starts reading from the paper. I can feel her magic filling the air around us.

Magic come forth, I call you to me,

Protect our home from danger so evil cannot see

Hide the lines through an invisible veil

So those who happen upon will believe they failed

Protect our home from those with eyes

Who only seek for our demise.

I call you to me during this time of need

To protect those within from anger and greed

Protect our home from danger so evil cannot see.

Ryanne’s voice quiets as she starts to repeat the enchantment. The more she reads, the more her magic fills the air. I look over her and see everyone watching in wonder. We can feel the magic emanating from her. It feels like electrified silk skimming over our skin as it moves through the house. I look up toward the ceiling and gasp. Floating lights are twinkling above us. It looks like thousands of tiny fireflies have swarmed our home.

The tiny lights are floating down the halls and up the stairs, filling in every available location. Hovering near the doors and windows, they brighten. I never saw any lights when Claire performed the enchantment. I tear my eyes away from the lights and back to Ryanne. She is still saying the enchantment over and over again, her body slightly swaying. I wrap my arms around her as she falls back into me. Her eyes are closed, but her mouth is moving. Though she isn’t saying it out loud, she is still thinking of the enchantment. I look up over at Tom to see if he knows what to do. It feels like she is vibrating in my arms because she’s still pushing magic out. Tom shakes his head, silently telling me that she isn’t done yet.

She goes through the enchantment one more time. When she finishes with the last line, she falls limp in my arms. The magic stops pouring out of her. I catch her as she starts falling, but a second later, she gasps and is able to support herself. Taking a step away from me, she looks around. “Did it work?” I want to reach forward and pull her back to me, but I refrain.

“You’re awake?” Logan asks.

“Yeah. Did the enchantment work?” She gives him a confused look out of the corner of her eyes as she walks over to the window and looks out. “How do I know if it worked?”

Tom is still staring at her in awe. “I’m pretty sure it worked.” She smiles and hands him back the paper with the enchantment on it. Sitting down on the couch, she leans back and closes her eyes. Despite not passing out, she looks pretty tired. She sighs loudly and says, “Stop looking at me like that.”

“Do you know what you just did?” Liam asks.

“The enchantment?”

“You just did one of the most difficult ones there is…and you didn’t pass out like you usually do when you use too much magic. You had complete control of your magic.”

“Isn’t that a good thing?” she asks.

“Yes.”

“Then why are you guys looking at me like I just told you I was leaving the shire and taking an afternoon stroll to Mordor?” Leave it to Ryanne to throw in a movie reference. “Do I need to make it rain all up in here to snap you all out of it?”

Emma snorts and sits down in the chair. “Heck no. I hate it when you do that.”

*****

I don’t understand the big deal. Claire used to put this enchantment up. Why was it different when I do it? After I soaked Larkin, everyone realized that I was serious and quickly sat down and pretended like everything was hunky-dory. I can feel them all watching me. I don’t know how they were expecting me to react, but this apparently wasn’t it. Olive, who is sitting on my lap, meows.
They’re watching.
“I know.”

“Stop,” I mumble. “Please stop.”

“Stop what?” Bragden asks innocently.

“You’re all watching me like you expect me to sprout claws and scratch your faces off. I’m not Wolverine. What’s going on?”

“How are you awake? Even Claire had to rest afterwards and she’d been using magic for much longer than you have,” David says.

Oh, I get it.

“I don’t know. This was different. When I make a shield, I have to use a lot of magic and energy to make sure it stays in place. The larger the shield, the more magic I have to use, which is why I tend to pass out from using too much. For that enchantment, I wasn’t the one using the magic. I was pushing the magic out of me and making sure it extended across the house. I wasn’t using it, and I think that is why I don’t feel very tired now. The extra magic that I pushed out flew back into me once I was done, which was why I fell backwards.” I glance over at Colton and nod to him, thanking him for catching me…again. “I wasn’t using the same type of magic that I use when I tend to pass out.”

“I think the thing that shocks us the most is that you have enough magic to push out like that. We don’t have that,” Tom speaks up. “We can’t push our magic out. At least for me, my magic is connected to me. It’s imbedded inside me. It’s extremely rare to be able to push it out like that, especially to that magnitude.”

“Oh.” Pushing out magic is easier for me than actually using it.

“The fact that you can easily push that much out is amazing. We could actually see your magic around you. We watched it move throughout the house. I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

“You should have seen your aura,” Larkin says.

“My aura?” What is he talking about?

“Yeah, I can see auras. You knew that,” Larkin smiles at me.
Light bulb moment.

“Oh, I totally forgot about that. You don’t talk about it much.”

“No, I don’t really. It’s only useful when I first meet people. I get a sense on whether they’re good, bad, truthful, lying, you know—the general information. When you were saying that enchantment, your aura literally started glowing. That’s why I kept staring at you. Like Tom said, I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

I nod and bite my lip. “I think I liked it better when you guys were trying to discretely watch me. I don’t like hearing about how different I am from everyone else.”

“Ryanne—” Colton starts, but I don’t really want to hear any more. I’m not trying to be rude, but it’s still a lot to take in. Everyone is always saying how different I am from all the other mages. I’m just Ryanne. Not some amazing mage they keep saying I am.

“I’m actually starting to get tired; I think I’ll go to bed. Good night.” I walk around the couch and up the stairs as quickly as I can before anyone can say anything else.

I’m just me.

Why don’t they understand that?

I crawl into bed without changing out of my clothes. I don’t have the energy to do that. I’m not tired from using magic like everyone thinks. I am tired of always being afraid. Afraid of what the future may bring. I am afraid that one of these mornings I am going to wake up and find everything changed for the worse. That everything I’ve done has been for nothing. I am afraid of Dravin and Adam and what they’re capable of doing to me.

Olive didn’t come upstairs with me. I hope Emma remembers to bring her in. Closing my eyes, I feel the pull again. Crap. I try to open my eyes, to fight back, but it doesn’t work. I go under.

“You’re not just a beauty, are ya? You’ve got some brains in that pretty little head of yours.” I groan and turn around.

“What do you want, Adam?”

“You were in the woods today. I know it.”

“What woods are you talking about?” I fake confusion.

“I could feel your magic. It wasn’t as strong as it usually is, but I could still feel it around me. You’re close.”

Leaning back against the wall, I cross my arms. “That depends on where you are, doesn’t it?”

“Don’t play games with me, Ryanne. Where are you?”

“Why the
heck
would I tell you that? So Dravin won’t be mad at you? So you can get back on his good side? I don’t think so, Buster. You’ll have to do better than that.”

“Oh, believe me, you won’t like my better,” Adam says while taking a step toward me.

“Does Natasha know you keep bringing me here?”

“Why? Are you jealous of Natasha?”

“Ha. Ha. That’s really funny. You’re a real jokester.”

“Wouldn’t Colton be a little jealous of you meeting me here?” Adam walks over to me. His hand brushes against my thigh as he grabs the bottom of Colton’s jacket that I happen to still be wearing and glances down at me.

“I’m not meeting you anywhere. You’re forcing me to be here.”

“Good point. Let’s stop this meaningless conversation and get back to the important issue: your location.” Adam takes another step closer. I keep my arms crossed. I don’t want to end up in the same predicament I was in last time. “You can either tell me or we can do this the hard way.”

“What’s the hard way? I like a challenge.” I smirk at him, “I see you fixed your nose.” Taking a final step, he stops directly in front of me. I have to arch my chin up to see him. What’s up with all mages being so freaking tall?

“You won’t like this one.” Instead of waiting for him to do something, I bring my knee up and hit him in the stomach. Turning around, I gain momentum and kick him again in the chest. He staggers backwards. A look of shock crosses his face before he quickly recovers. Gaining his footing, he hisses at me and charges.

I duck away from his punch and swing my left leg out and hit him in the shins. He howls but brings his foot out and kicks me in the stomach. This movement is so forceful that I lose my balance and fall to the ground. I scoot backwards and do a back somersault and jump back, despite the pain. He reaches forward and punches me on the shoulder, knocking me into the wall behind me. I cry out when I collide with the hard cement surface. Moving to the left, I try to catch my breath before I face Adam again. He’s hurt as well, so he’s not moving as quickly as he usually does.

I regain my footing and glare at him. I’m in pain, but this isn’t over yet. I recover and prepare for another attack. Adam runs for me again, so I jump forward and perform a Karate Kid worthy move. Twisting mid-air, I extend my leg and kick him in the chest. He flies backwards but doesn’t stay down nearly long enough. Getting back up, he rushes forward and slams me into the wall. He isn’t even trying to do any specific moves; he just wants me to stop fighting. Hitting my head, I fall to the ground as the room spins around me. While stuck on the ground, Adam straddles me and pins my arms above my head again. “I thought you liked a challenge?”

I close my eyes and wait for the room to stop spinning. When I finally open my eyes, I come face to face with him. “You call that a challenge?” With a smile, I bring my knee up and hit him in the crotch. He groans. Twisting so he is beneath me, I say, “Don’t underestimate me.” I punch him in the jaw with enough strength to knock him out.

“Aaaahhh.” Ouch, that hurt my hand. I start shaking my hand trying to make the pain go away. I get off of Adam and look around. I thought knocking him out would wake me up.

I close my eyes and concentrate on going back. I feel a pull similar to transporting with Larkin and then I open my eyes.

It’s pitch black.

Yes! I’m back in my room. I look over toward Emma and find her asleep in her bed again. Without waking Olive, who’s curled into a small ball at the end of my bed, I push myself up into a seated position trying to ignore the pain radiating from my body. Pushing back the jacket, I look down at my shoulder. A large blackish blue bruise the size of Adam’s fist has formed there. I lift the hem of my shirt and see another bruise forming there. My head starts pounding from being pushed into the wall; I definitely need Logan to heal me.