Absorb: Book One of the Forgotten Affinities Series

by Analeigh Ford

  And then Amelia clears her throat and all the mages surrounding me take a step closer.

  I look down at the book and begin carefully and precisely reading the incantation aloud.

  I have never felt power like this, not even before, with the strength of four other mages channeling through me. It feels different. It pulls at parts of me that I didn’t know existed. It’s as if every tiny particle of magic in me is being scraped out, trying to draw out enough to perform this ritual.

  A sudden wind pulls at the stale air. My lips falter over one of the words, but I glance towards Wednesday and concentrate harder. It doesn’t help that the Salamander Brandy is now wearing off. One second I can see the words clearly, the next they go soft around the edges.

  The first band of the summoning circle alights with a blue glow. At the same time, so does the brand on my arm for Earth Magic.

  I begin the second line of text. The light from the outermost circle spreads like fire writhing one band closer. My Psychic Brand sears to life, fresh and bright as the day it was made on my forearm. Those mages at the furthest ends of the room suddenly grow restless. I can see them speak, but they make no sound.

  I am about to move on to the second to last line of text when I hear it; the only noise that can rise above the tide of rushing wind. A dull thud against one of the walls.

  I pause. Was I followed after all? Could it be that we are about to be rescued?

  A spasm strikes Wednesday’s body once again.

  “Faster!”

  I can’t stall any longer. I have to do it. I have to finish this. My own voice sounds foreign and hollow, even to me. The words of the spell swim in and out before me as my mouth forms the next part of the incantation. It is like I am between two worlds.

  It takes everything in me to stay planted in the center of the circle and keep the book from being ripped from my hands. Whatever is reaching inside me for magic has found its end. It begins to scrape at what is left of me instead. I choke in pain. The very fiber of my being is beginning to tear apart. Every part of me screams in agony.

  But I take one last glance at my best friend, and I know I cannot stop. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t even know I am a mage. I would have lived my whole life without Sight, without magic, without Kendall, Cedric, Draven, or Flynn. I’d never have met them, never gotten the chance to know them.

  And so, I persist.

  The final line of text is near impossible to read. The letters move around the page, only rearranging themselves into something resembling words when I force them to. All around me there is commotion, but I cannot see it anymore. There is only me, the ritual, and the pain.

  And then suddenly, there is nothing.

  35

  Octavia

  If this is death, I wish I had died sooner. I am consumed by darkness, but it is so soft that I’m not even afraid. Every part of me that ached and burned and was being torn apart in life no longer throbs with pain. Instead, intense heat washes over me like waves in an ocean. There is no one place where I end and the darkness begins. We are one and the same.

  And then suddenly, we are not.

  I feel a sharp pressure. It rattles through me like a single word shouted over and over.

  Octavia.

  And then it is actually being shouted. It is not all around me, it is coming from somewhere in particular. I am separating from the darkness. My other senses arouse before my body. First touch and with it, agony. I gasp and air rushes into my lungs like wildfire. They burn and make me splutter. And then my eyes open so suddenly that for a moment I think I am blind—only able to see an all-encompassing white light.

  But I have a body again, and the pupils of my eyes dilate and contract until several faces swim into view. Faces I never thought I would see again. First Draven, with his ruddy curls a mess and his face unshaven. Then Cedric, his eyes still so bright I can barely look into them. Flynn, his full lips parted as he repeats some healing spell so fast his mouth is a blur. And then Kendall, his hand soft and warm covering my own at my side.

  No this, this is life. And I am so happy to be alive.

  And I am in so much pain.

  I gasp a second time and all my senses return to me in full. I remember where I am, and what happened. And most importantly, I remember what I have just done.

  “Oh god, I ruined everything.” I try to sit up, but that terrible pain returns in my head and I have to stop. Four sets of arms reach out to me. Kendall scoots behind me and gently places my head in his lap.

  “No, you didn’t, darling.” Draven grabs my other hand. “But I almost did. If it weren’t for the Salamander Brandy, you never would have been left alone. I...I...” He looks away, and I realize he’s been crying. Tear marks trail down the side of his face and his voice is thick with emotion.

  Cedric jumps in before he can say anything more. “The important thing is that you are alive.”

  I try to sit up again, and all four of them gently push back, keeping me down. “But, Wednesday. What happened to Wednesday?” I ask.

  “She’ll be fine.” Cedric pats my hand reassuringly.

  I stop resisting and fall back into Kendall’s lap. He brushes the hair from my face.

  “But the ritual...”

  Kendall grins, really grins. “Your dyslexia does always rear its head at the most opportune moments.”

  “Wait, what?”

  Draven has gotten his act together enough to speak to me again. “Rituals are fickle things. One misspoken word and the whole thing collapses. And that’s just what you did. You wonderful, beautiful creature—you accidentally switched the order of the last two words.” He picks up a shred of a book from the ground. It contains the last lines of the ritual, the ones I apparently misread.

  That’s when it dawns on me.

  “You found me because of the book.” I remember the sign from the library.

  “It was Flynn’s idea,” Cedric says. “My father hadn’t thought to track the book down before, because he didn’t know it had been stolen. Once we realized that the uproar from the Brandy was a distraction and that you were missing, we figured out what must be really going on.”

  “How...how am I...”

  “Not dead?” Draven’s voice catches again as he says it. “We have no idea.”

  Flynn makes a small sound, something between anger and relief.

  He is usually the first to speak, but he has been silent this whole time. He doesn’t look at me when I turn my head to make him out better. It takes all of my strength to do it. He sees my struggle and quickly reaches out, but his hand stops short of actually touching me. Guilt is plain on his face.

  “What is it?”

  He glances at the other three, then steels himself up and lifts my one free hand to his lips. His touch is gentle, but it sends a quiver down my spine.

  “I was so consumed with the ritual, with figuring out why we have extra affinities, with school and books and...” he stops to clear his throat. “No. That isn’t true. It isn’t the real reason I pushed you away. I was sure you were going to hurt me, like my other paired did. But the two of you are not alike.”

  He waits a second before continuing. “What I am trying to say is, I never expressed to you my true thoughts or feelings because I was afraid. The realization that you might have died before I got the chance...it is unbearable.”

  I feel the muscle that is my own heart tighten. He’s right. Flynn is not sweet like Kendall, or physical like Draven. He does not use emotions to share with me the way that Cedric has. But he has, in a way, given himself to me with his work.

  “Well,” I say, my own voice coming out in a croak. “Kiss me then already.”

  And now, he gives himself to me in a new way.

  His full lips press against mine so gently that at first I barely feel it. I want him to kiss me harder, to show me the depth of these new feelings. But even the gentlest touch brings with it small bursts of pain.

  I suck in a breath of air as
we part. He looks to the other three, embarrassed, but I’m surprised to see that even Draven does not look away.

  “What, did the whole world turn upside down while I was unconscious?”

  “In a way, it did,” Cedric says.

  We hear more voices coming our way. I recognize some of them, first and foremost, Cedric’s father. Right. The board, the ceremony, our demonstration that all ended in the fiasco of my doing something crazy with Time Magic.

  Flynn seems to read what I am thinking, and I realize that in this state probably any Psychic around me can clearly hear all my thoughts. My face blushes as both Cedric and Flynn confirm this with a sly glance between them.

  My arm is still in Flynn’s hands. He turns it over gently so I can see my fourth brand. Where once it resembled a shapeless scar, it now forms into something else. The face of a clock.

  “Looks like we have figured out what happens when you can cross the boundaries between affinities.”

  That is too much to take in right now. Instead, I focus on the more pressing matter.

  I look between my four beautiful, thoughtful, kind boys, and I prepare for the worst. “They aren’t going to let us stay together, are they?”

  One by one, each of them looks at all the rest. There is a moment of unspoken agreement between them before they look to me. It is Draven who speaks.

  “I’d like to see them try to tear us apart. We are yours, Octavia Hadley, in whatever way you will have us.”

  From the Author

  Thank you for taking the time to read my debut novel, Absorb, Book One of the Forgotten Affinities Series. Book two, Adapt, is available November 16, 2018 on Amazon!

  If you enjoyed Absorb, please consider leaving a review on Amazon!

  You may subscribe to my newsletter here.

  This book couldn’t have been made possible without the support and encouragement of my friends, family, and readers like you.

  With love,

  Analeigh