by Kaitlyn Hoyt
I turn toward him. He is staring at me but doesn’t say anything. He just stares. Oh gosh, he doesn’t love me back. He doesn’t feel the same way. I thought that he did, but maybe he wanted to tell me that he only wanted to be friends with me. Maybe he thought that the kiss was a mistake, and he was going to tell me that he wasn’t waiting anymore; that he was moving on.
I bite my lip and continue to watch him. I feel so vulnerable right now, and I don’t like it. I fidget nervously as I wait. I don’t like having my heart completely open and in someone else’s hand. This boy is going to break my heart. He is going to crush it and walk away without giving it a second glance. He reaches up and grabs the back of his neck and exhales loudly.
“Colton, please say something.”
He turns toward me and takes small steps in my direction. He stops right in front of me. There are so many emotions in his expression, in his green eyes; I can’t tell what he is thinking yet again. Slowly, he places his hands on either side of my face, using his thumbs to brush away my tears. I look up at him and wait until his emerald eyes meet mine. He swallows audibly as he stares back at me. I take a small step toward him, closing the gap between us. When I stop biting my lip, his gaze flickers down to my mouth.
I tilt my head up and wait. I wait on what he will say—what he will do. He leans forward and brushes his lips against mine. “I love you too, Ryanne.”
He wraps an arm around my waist and pulls me closer to him, firmly placing his lips on mine. I place my hands on his chest as I stand up on my tip toes, tilting my head back more. I can feel the rhythmic beating of his heart under my fingers. His lips are gentle as they part, deepening the kiss. I slide my arms up his chest and behind his neck, tightening my grip on him and pressing myself closer to his body. His hand bunches into the sweatshirt fabric at the small of my back.
I flick my tongue out and brush it against his bottom lip. He groans and lifts me up, supporting all my weight against him. Goosebumps spread on my skin as I hear his groan.
I don’t want this to end. I want to be with Colton. I can’t push him away anymore. My heart won’t let me. I need him to be near me. I’m not complete without him. I felt that earlier as I leaned against his unmoving body begging him to come back to me. His presence makes everything right. I’d always hated those girls that always needed a man, but right now I want nothing more than to be one of them. I don’t want to let life pass me by alone. I realize now that I erected those walls, not to keep everyone out, but to see who would try to tear them down. I need someone here to keep me grounded. To stand by me when everything gets tough. Right now, I want somebody to want me, and I want Colton to be that somebody.
He sets me back on my feet but doesn’t break away from the kiss. I moan against his lips, and he chuckles at my response. I twirl my finger into the long strands of hair at the base of his neck, holding him to me. Colton flexes his hands on my hips and pulls away but doesn’t step away. He leans down and rests his forehead against mine, his warm breath hitting mine.
“I’m sorry, Colton,” my voice is barely audible. He pulls back a little and looks down at me.
“You have nothing to be sorry for, Ryanne.”
I lean my head against his chest and wrap my arms around his waist. I can hear his heart pounding. It is racing, mimicking mine. “If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have been at Dravin’s compound. It was all my fault,” I tell him. “You were stabbed. I tried to stop him, but I couldn’t.”
Colton rests his chin on top of my head and sighs. “I would have ended up at that compound sooner or later, Ryanne. It was inevitable. There’s nothing for you to apologize about.”
“But—” I try to counter his statement by reminding him that Dravin attacked him because I angered him, but he cuts me off.
“Ryanne, you’re my soulmate.” I tense against him but don’t move away. I feel like all the air is sucked out of the room. His what? Are soulmates even real? I don’t think my brain is fully able to process what he said. “Breathe, Ry.”
I inhale deeply and exhale loudly. I didn’t realize that I had been holding my breath. “Your what?” He pulls me to the bed and sits down. I crawl up and sit across from him, waiting for him to explain. He just said I was his soulmate. His soulmate…
“Everyone has that one special person that they’re supposed to end up with in life. Sometimes they find them and other times they settle with someone else. But everyone has one person specifically for them. As mages, we’re more likely to find our soulmates than non-mages. There’s a pull toward another person, a strong attraction. Unless you’re told magically, the only way to know for sure if that person is a soulmate is to heal them. You only get one chance at healing though, so it better be for something good.”
Colton stops talking and glances over to me. “Ryanne, you died in that battle. Your heart stopped beating. I watched the life leave your eyes. I cried. I yelled at Logan. I was so angry that Thomas was able to take you from me so soon,” he pauses. “When my hands neared your stomach, it felt like they were vibrating. I knew what was happening right then.”
Colton reaches forward and takes my hand in his. “You can only heal someone if you accept them for who they are. If you accept them as yours. I’ve known for so long that you were my soulmate, and I’ve wanted to tell you every day, but something was off. It wasn’t the right time. When I died, you must have accepted me too, otherwise I wouldn’t be here right now.”
I look up into his eyes and see the honesty in them. He is telling me the truth. I knew there was something between us. I’ve felt the connection for a while now, but I’ve tried to ignore it. I wanted to protect him. I wanted him to be kept safe. But even when I wasn’t with him, he was still in danger.
“So, if I didn’t accept you as my soulmate…” I start.
“You wouldn’t have been able to heal me,” he finishes for me. “I would have died. For good.”
Chapter Three
Colton
She’s taking everything pretty well. I thought I’d have to really convince her that she was my soulmate. We’re meant to be together. If anything, I thought she’d get mad at me for not telling her sooner considering how long I’ve known. I’m still waiting for the hysterics—for her to run away screaming, saying that everything is happening too fast or that she can’t handle this on top of everything else.
As she thinks about everything I told her, she starts biting her lip again. She always does that when she is nervous or thinking. This just draws my attention back to her mouth, which makes me want to kiss her again.
She starts nodding. She believes me? “You believe me?” I really need to stop doubting her. She has a way of surprising us all.
“I don’t see a reason why you would lie about something like that. And, I’ve known there was something different about you for a while now. I just didn’t want to accept it. I didn’t want you to be put in any more danger because of me.” She crawls over to me and lies down at my side, resting her head on my chest. “I’m just scared of bringing more danger to you all. I’m afraid all the time. Not for myself. I’m scared that something is going to happen to you guys.”
“Ryanne, you need to stop worrying about everyone else so much and start thinking about yourself. It’s okay to be a little scared yourself.”
“I need to worry about others. If I’m only thinking about myself, I’ll start doing reckless things.” I scoff. Start? “Ok, more reckless. I’d be dead already if I wasn’t thinking about others.”
“Ry, can you promise me you’ll start caring about yourself a little more?” Wrapping my arm around her, I pull her closer to me. She rests her left hand on my chest and starts tracing circles into my skin.
“My promises aren’t very valid anymore. I promised Liam that I wouldn’t go on any hero missions alone…and we’ve seen how well I’ve kept that promise.”
“Ryanne.”
“I’ll try. I promise that I’ll try,” she says with a yawn. The circles
she’d been drawing start to become slower and slower until her hand stops moving all together. I glance down and find her soundlessly asleep beside me.
I don’t want to bring her to her room. Lately, whenever she slept alone, Dravin or Adam would contact her in her dreams and try to get information out of her. They are getting desperate. These dreams always end up with her getting hurt. The past two nights I’d been in Logan’s room, talking with him and Liam about anything and everything, when there’d be a small knock on the door. Logan would open it and Ryanne would be there, needing to be healed.
I hear a light knock on the door, bringing me out of my thoughts. “Come in,” I loudly whisper, trying not to wake Ryanne. She needs to sleep. The bedroom door opens slowly, and Emma peeks her head in. She walks over to the edge of the bed and sits down.
“Did you tell her?”
“Yeah. She took it well.”
“Really?” She sounds surprised.
“Well she didn’t soak me and start running in the opposite direction.”
“I’m guessing you want to keep her in here for tonight?” I nod. I want to see if she stays with me at night, if they can still contact her. And, I like having her here. It feels right having her beside me.
She reaches down and grabs the comforter and pulls it up for me. I thank her. “Don’t you dare break her heart, Colton. She can only handle so much.” Turning off the light, she leaves the room and quietly closes the door. Honestly, I’m more worried about her breaking mine. I pull the comforter up higher and close my eyes, effortlessly falling asleep for the first time in a long time.
Throwing my arm over my eyes, I try to block out the sunlight. It’s too early to be awake. My mind goes through the previous day’s events. I died. I actually died…and Ryanne saved me. Though she didn’t know it, she accepted me as her soulmate and healed me. I slam my arm down and hit the mattress. Tensing, I turn my head to the left and find the bed next to me empty. If Ryanne were here, I would have just slapped her in the face. Where is she?
Sitting up, I rub my eyes and stretch. I get out of bed and open the bedroom door. Stepping into the hallway, I listen to the noises around me. It sounds like almost everyone is awake. I can hear Ryanne talking to Emma in the room across the hall.
After getting dressed, I walk downstairs. Passing Emma’s room, I hear the girls in a heated discussion. Emma is probably trying to get Ryanne to change into something different. I smile and walk past their room. You have to pick your battles. I round the corner and head down the stairs.
In the kitchen, I grab an apple and lean against the counter. Liam, David, and Logan are sitting at the kitchen table eating cereal. “How’d it go last night?” David asks between bites.
“I told her.” I wipe a bit of juice that dripped onto my chin from the apple off and continue, “She knows.”
Liam turns around and stares at me, eyes narrowing slightly. “Did she freak out?”
“Surprisingly, no. She said she kind of knew, but she didn’t want to accept it. She’s still worried about putting us in danger.”
A girl’s scream echoes through the hall. David and I tense. The scream could have only come from Ryanne or Emma. I can hear a deep laugh. It doesn’t sound bad, so I relax and lean back into the counter. “Put me down!” Ryanne yells as someone starts coming down the stairs.
“I don’t think so.” Bragden casually walks into the room carrying Ryanne over his shoulder. He is holding onto her legs while her head hangs over his shoulder and down his back. She is struggling to get free. She’s hitting Bragden’s back, but we can tell that she’s not doing any damage. “Morning. Say good morning to Ryanne.” He turns around, so we can see her. Lifting her head up, she pushes her long hair back and looks around the room. She scowls at us as we laugh.
“It’s not funny.” She hits Bragden on the back again. “Bragden, you put me down right now. I don’t like being this high!” He just chuckles at her but doesn’t put her down. “You know I’m afraid of heights.”
She stops struggling. I can tell that she is calling her magic to her. All of the sudden, Bragden yelps and places Ryanne on the ground. “Did you just pinch my butt?”
She runs a hand through her hair, effectively creating more disarray for her curls. Placing her hands on her hips, she looks up at him. “No, I electrocuted it with lightning!”
Bragden looks incredulously down at her and then over her head to the rest of us. “She electrocuted me.” Only Ryanne would think of something like that.
Emma casually walks into the room and walks over to David. “I told you she would do something like that.”
“Bragden, honey, you can’t do that to a short person. We’re close to the ground for a reason. I don’t do well with heights.” He looks down at her with a fake scowl. I can see the amusement behind his eyes. “I mean you’re like what, 6’4”?”
“Six six actually, but you’re close.”
“So that puts you at a total of…a foot and three inches taller than me. Come here,” she says and motions for him to come closer. He narrows his eyes. I would be afraid to step closer to her too after that. “I’m not going to do anything to you.” She steps forward and pulls his shirt, making him bend down toward her.
When he is level with her, she says, “When this is what you see every day, it kind of freaks you out when you’re suddenly a lot higher than that.”
“Man, you’re really short.”
“Man, you’re really tall,” she mumbles back, trying to mimic his tone. However, her voice can’t get that deep, so it just sounds southern. He laughs and steps around her to sit down at the table. Ryanne turns around and rolls her eyes and walks over to me. I smile at her as she gets closer to me. She bites her lip the closer to me she gets.
While she is walking toward me, I get a better look at the outfit she has on. She is wearing fraying jean shorts with white paint splatters on them and a black shirt with a faded British flag in the middle. That wasn’t what caught my eye. The end of the shirt has little fringes hanging down, exposing an inch of skin on her stomach—her very tight and toned stomach. She elbows me in the ribs when I continue staring at her stomach. Tearing my eyes from her showing skin, I glance up at her. She is blushing but rolls her eyes. “Emma.”
“Doesn’t she look hot? She tried to walk out of the room with a shirt that hung down to her thighs. So I brought out the scissors and got to work. I think it looks good,” says Emma.
“I think I feel really uncomfortable,” Ryanne mumbles.
“Girl, quit being so self-conscious. You’re hot. If I looked like you, I’d flaunt it a little more.”
“No flaunting,” I say. Ryanne giggles and wraps her arms around my waist. None of us are blind. It doesn’t matter if everyone knows Ryanne’s mine, they’ll still look. I put my arm across her shoulder and pull her into my side. I can smell the floral scent she has on as she moves closer to me.
“Wait, did you tell her?” Bragden asks when he sees us together. I nod a reply and tighten my grip around her shoulders. “Finally.”
Ryanne glances up at me. “Wait, literally everyone knew but me?” I mumble an affirmative. “For how long?”
“Since I let it slip while you and Larkin were fighting those men outside of Jane’s house.”
“Are you serious? You’ve all known for that long?” She scans the room, but her eyes land on Liam. “So you knew at the wedding? That’s why you told me all that don’t give up, you never know what’s going to happen stuff?”
Liam smiles and nods at her. Ryanne is the only person that can really elicit an emotion out of him. I’ve never seen him smile or laugh when she isn’t involved somehow. She looks over at Emma and says, “How the heck were you able to keep that a secret for that long? You’re always blurting out the stuff I tell you.”
“Oh believe me, it wasn’t easy.”
“Hmm, well I’m so sorry it was so hard on you. Keeping secrets can be very difficult.” She sounds sarcastic, but the wink sh
e gives Emma throws me off. She smiles up at me before skipping out the room.
“What the heck does that mean?” Emma says.
Liam turns to me. “Good luck.”
“Thanks. I think I’ll need it.”
*****
Laughing to myself, I skip out of the room. I know that they’re in there talking about me right now, wondering what I was referring to. In actuality, I wasn’t really referring to anything, but since they all knew about the soulmate secret, I might as well pretend that I know something too.
I haven’t really gotten a good look at the house yet. I was asleep when we arrived here yesterday and then I fell asleep again shortly after waking. I’ve only seen the living room, kitchen, and Colton’s room. Walking up the stairs, the first couple of rooms are all guest bedrooms. Colton, David, and Tom get their own rooms, while everyone else shares with one other person. Peeking in, it looks like all the bedrooms are furnished similarly. One or two large beds are located in the center of the room with a white duvet cover and a multitude of pillows. A nightstand with a lamp is located to either side and a mahogany armoire is seated in the far corner, to the left of the bathroom doors.
After the bedrooms, there are three more rooms. The first one is a game room. In the center of the room is a large pool table. Two small pinball machines are located in the corner. An air hockey table is pushed up against the right wall, waiting to be played. The low lying ceilings create a very friendly atmosphere.
Exiting the game room, I walk across the hall to what looks like a fitness room. I don’t recognize any of the machines except for the treadmill in the corner. The last room upstairs is the music room. Similar to the house we were just at, a large piano sits in the middle of the room. Granted, this one is not as expensive. It is still a decent piano. A couple guitars hang on the dark red walls. A drum set and a keyboard are propped against the walls in the back. Man, the people who own this home must be rich.
