by Kaitlyn Hoyt
Pushing herself into a seated position, she runs her hand through her curly hair, trying to tame it. I yearn to reach out and wrap one of the spirals around my finger. She glances over her shoulder and smiles at me. Wow, she is beautiful. This is the girl I’m meant to spend the rest of my life with. I can’t believe that it’s her. “Morning,” she says lightly.
“Good morning.” I laugh as she starts blinking slowly. Sleep is trying to call her back. Rubbing her eyes, she arches her back and stretches.
“Sorry, Olive,” she says after she slams her hands onto the mattress, scaring her. Getting out of the bed, she attempts to smooth her wrinkled clothing. She is still wearing what she wore yesterday. The side of the shirt still has a bloodstain on it. The vision.
“Ryanne, what happened in your vision last night?” I ask her. She looks around the room. I point to the corner, near the armoire where her suitcase is located. She thanks me and walks over to it. Unzipping the suitcase, she starts to elaborate.
“I don’t know exactly. I was just thrown into the middle of this field. I was scared, but I kept thinking it’s working. I don’t know…I just got attacked.”
“Ryanne, you were attacked by Adam and Dravin.” Why is she so calm?
“Yeah, I think that was part of the plan,” she says. “Look, I don’t know much about the vision except for that it doesn’t happen anytime in the near future. It was just a vision. We have a small chance of changing it if that’s any consolation. I’d rather just focus on the present though,” she pauses and looks toward the bathroom. “Can I take a shower in here? I feel gross.”
“Of course, this is your room now,” I tell her. A surprised look crosses her face, but she quickly recovers and walks into the bathroom. I know that the whole soulmate thing still frightens her, but I know over time she’ll come to accept it whole-heartedly. When I hear the shower start, I pick up Olive and leave the room, giving Ryanne some privacy to get ready.
In the kitchen, everyone is seated at the table. Conner is sitting beside Bragden, talking. The two are similar in age, so they’ll get along well. They met previously when Conner helped us fight, but they don’t really know each other. I put food and water in Olive’s bowls.
“Is she okay?” Liam inquires.
I sit down at the table. Everyone turns and looks at me, waiting for my response. “Yeah. She doesn’t want to talk about the vision, but she doesn’t think it’ll happen for a while. She says that it’s part of some sort of plan.”
“One of her crazy plans or a group plan?” David asks.
“I don’t know. I know that I’d never let her go into a situation where her plan was to get attacked by Adam and Dravin, but I really don’t know much at this point,” I tell him. I don’t really want to think about it right now. “Where are Emma and Natalie?”
“Upstairs. Getting ready, or whatever it is girls do,” David says.
“Conner, does Natalie care about fashion and clothing…stuff?” I ask.
“Not really. She’s more of a t-shirt kind of girl. She’s not super girly when it comes to clothing.” I start laughing. David groans. “What?” Conner looks between us obviously confused by our reactions.
“Emma’s always trying to get Ryanne to wear something other than t-shirts all the time, but Ryanne’s stubborn. Now, she has Natalie to criticize.”
“Well Natalie can be pretty stubborn when she needs to be,” Conner says.
“Great. Now, we’ve got two Ryanne’s on our hands.”
*****
For some reason, it is planned for me to get attacked by Dravin and Adam. I don’t know what is supposed to happen exactly. There has to be a reason why I saw that vision, but what was it? In the vision, I was waiting in the middle of a field. I knew what was going on. I knew that I was in the dream world, and I knew whom I was waiting for. So, when Dravin and Adam rushed out of the woods and came toward me, I pretended to defend myself. I wasn’t really fighting, but I was giving them the pretense that I was fighting back. Why?
I reach down and turn the shower off. There is no way I’ll find the answer right now. Wrapping a towel around myself, I peek into the room. It is empty. Colton and Olive aren’t in here. The clothes I’d grabbed had somehow gotten wet while I was showering, so I need a new outfit.
I dress in my black James Dean shirt and white shorts. It isn’t that bad, so Emma shouldn’t have anything too negative to say about it. I walk across the hall to her room and open the door without knocking. “You know, throwing on a nice outfit wouldn’t kill anyone around here. I seem to be the only one who cares about what she looks like,” Emma says from the bathroom.
“You are,” I say as I walk toward her.
“Look, Ryanne, Natalie’s just like you.” I look over and see Natalie sitting on the bed wearing a black t-shirt with Snoopy on it and jean shorts.
“Nice.” I smile at her. It is nice knowing that there is someone else who doesn’t really care about appearances. It doesn’t look like she is wearing much make-up either. “How’d you get the outfit though?”
“Larkin took Conner back to the house, and they grabbed some clothing for me.”
“Well, if you ever need to borrow anything, you can ask me. I can’t guarantee that it will fit you though. You’re a little taller than me,” I tell her. Every single mage is taller than me.
“Or you can just do what Ryanne does and steal from the guys,” Emma says as she walks out the bathroom.
“I do do that.”
“I do it too sometimes. Guys clothing is just more comfortable. It’s not as tight,” Natalie says while hopping off the bed.
“See!” I whip toward Emma.
As we walk out of the room, Emma asks Natalie, “So, can you sing, dance, play piano, and do gymnastics as well?”
“Well, everything except play the piano. I took gymnastics when I was younger; trained for five or six years.”
“Of course.”
I start laughing. I think I am going to like Natalie. We just entered the kitchen when Emma turns to everyone. “Meet Ryanne the second,” she grumbles as she points to Natalie and walks over to David.
I walk over to Colton and lean against the back of his chair. He smiles up at me before turning back to Liam. Though they were in the middle of a conversation before I walked into the room, Liam’s attention has moved elsewhere. I follow his line of sight and watch as his eyes follow Natalie as she goes and sits down beside her brother. Hmm, I’ll have to watch them. I don’t like meddling, but sometimes a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.
“So Ryanne, you’re trained in gymnastics too?” Natalie asks me.
“Yeah, I started it when I was seven and trained for ten years. I quit last year. I was nationally ranked, but it started to get too costly,” I tell her. I leave out the part about quitting after my mom died and the injuries I sustained because of the accident.
“You were nationally ranked?” Colton asks me. I glance down at him. The impressed look on his face sends happiness and slight embarrassment surging through me.
“Hey, that means that there are probably pictures on the Internet,” Larkin says as he takes out his phone. I run over to him and try to grab the phone out of his hands, but he is already searching my name. I lean over him, but he moves his phone out of the way. The first picture he pulls up is one of me doing a forward walkover in a silver and black leotard on the beam. He whistles and clicks the next picture which is one of me doing a split leap in a red leotard during a floor routine.
“Ok, I think that is enough.” I try to take his phone from him again. Liam and Colton stand behind him looking at the pictures. “Guys,” I whine and glare at them. Colton grabs my hand and pulls me away from Larkin. Liam laughs and sits back down. Larkin continues to flip through pictures. He laughs and shows me a picture of myself upside down on the balance beam. “I won’t hesitate to drown your phone.”
He rolls his eyes but puts his phone away. “Happy?”
“Super,”
I say. “Thank you.”
“That totally explains why you hate dressing up,” Emma says. “I’d hate it too if I had to wear all that glitter and tie my hair back that tight all the time.”
“I loved gymnastics, but it did take a lot to get ready for it,” I agree with her.
Colton wraps his arms around my waist. I am getting so used to him doing this. It feels so comfortable. I lean back against him, resting against his muscled chest. “I liked the leotard,” he whispers in my ear, quietly enough that no one else can hear. I feel a blush rise. Emma quirks an eyebrow at my reaction.
“You’re lucky I like you,” I mumble to him. His arms tighten around my waist, and I bite my lip to keep from sighing at his deep chuckle.
“Conner, did you sleep okay last night? You look tired,” I ask him trying to ignore Colton behind me.
“As well as I could considering…I mean I just found out that my little sister is working with Dravin.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Has she ever attacked you guys before?” he asks us. I tense against Colton. “She has, hasn’t she?”
“She almost killed Ryanne,” Emma says. Conner blanches.
“She stopped breathing. I had to do mouth-to-mouth resuscitation before I could heal her,” Logan replies. Natalie gasps and turns toward me.
“It doesn’t matter. That happened a while ago. I’ve had worse, and I’m still alive.” I really don’t need any more people worrying about me. They are still looking at me with sadness. I know that their sister is the one that attacked me, but there is no reason to be sad. It happened a while ago, and I am fine. Logan was able to heal me…eventually. “I’m serious. Everything’s fine. Stop looking at me like that.” Natalie looks away, but Conner starts shaking his head.
I step away from Colton and walk over to Conner. I stand on my tiptoes in front of him, so I can whisper in his ear. “Your sister is still in there somewhere. Don’t give up on her just yet, but be wary, okay?” I look up at him. He searches my eyes before nodding. He must have seen that I believed that Natasha was only doing this stuff because she was upset. I do believe that there is a chance she could realize the error of her ways and turn around.
However, I know that there is an even greater chance that the Natasha they knew could be gone forever.
Chapter Six
Colton
Natalie is flipping through Ryanne’s old sketchbook while sitting on the couch. She stops at the picture of Liam and glances between the page and Liam. “Wow, she’s really good."
“Yep, Ryanne’s good at everything,” Emma says.
“Emma…” I start.
“No, I didn’t mean that in a bad way. I’m just saying that she’s good at like everything.” Right as Emma finishes talking, we hear the sounds of a piano being played from upstairs. “Exhibit A.” The soft melodic notes echo throughout the house. I lean back and close my eyes, picturing Ryanne as she plays. I can see her sitting at the piano bench—her hands rhythmically moving over the piano keys. She feels the music around her. Playing with her eyes closed, she lets the music communicate through her. When she does something, she doesn’t do it halfway. She puts everything into it and loses herself in the art.
“Wow, you really love her,” Natalie says. I open my eyes and look over at her. She is watching me, but I know that she’s using her magic to feel my emotions. I look toward the stairs as I nod. I do. I know that Ryanne said that she loved me, but I know that she is still worried about hurting everyone. She still won’t let herself get too close to me. I haven’t even kissed her since the night I told her that she’s my soulmate. “What’s it like knowing?”
Emma and Natalie both lean a little closer to me, anticipating my response. They’re such girls… “It’s amazing. Scary. I don’t even know. I’ve known about it a lot longer than Ryanne has and have been able to come to terms with it, but knowing that she accepted me…” I shake my head. I can feel everyone watching. “It’s hard to put into words. It’s like standing atop of a large cliff. You realize that staying on the ground would be the safest option, but you want the thrill of the fall. When you are on the ground you don’t have to worry about getting hurt, which is what I was going through before. Now, I’m falling, and it’s an amazing feeling, but I don’t know the outcome yet. I could crash land at the bottom or sprout wings and fly. Amazing and scary.”
The girls both sigh and lean back. “Great, look what you did,” David says to me. “Fill their heads with all that metaphoric romantic stuff.” I laugh and turn away from him, listening for Ryanne’s playing, but it has stopped. Why did she stop playing?
“I’ll be right back,” I say as I walk up the stairs. Why did she stop playing? I walk down the end of the hallway and into the music room. Empty. She isn’t in here, so where would she go? I walk out and go into our room. Also empty. Before I even enter Emma and Natalie’s room, I know it is also empty.
I check all the remaining rooms upstairs before going back downstairs again. “Is Ryanne down here?” I ask.
They all shake their heads at me. I glance around the room. Someone is missing. Tom’s already in his room, so it’s not him. I scan the room again.
Larkin.
I curse and look up toward the ceiling. “Where’s Larkin?”
“He’s right...” Emma starts but stops. Larkin isn’t sitting where he was earlier. I don’t know when he left, but he’s gone and so is Ryanne.
“Ryanne’s missing, and Larkin’s gone.” I sit down and try to control my anger. Just when I am starting to trust Larkin, he does something like this. Every time Ryanne disappears, she ends up hurt. Now, she’s missing, and we have no idea where she is, no idea what’s happening to her, and no idea if she needs help. Natalie scoots over to me and puts a hand on my arm. I don’t know what she is doing, but I start to calm down. I don’t want to kill Larkin anymore, just strangle him. My anger slowly subsides until worry is all that remains. I thank Natalie. I wonder if her power could help calm Ryanne if she ever loses control again…
“Where do you think they are?” Emma asks.
“I have absolutely no idea.”
*****
Taking my hands off the piano keys, I slowly open my eyes and look down at the piano. I do love playing music. Hearing a squeak behind me, I jump backward and face whoever is there. Larkin? I take a deep breath to steady my rapidly beating heart and get out of my defensive stance. “What are you doing here?”
“I need you to come with me,” he says as he starts closing the distance between us.
“Go where?” Without answering, he grabs my arm and blinks us out of the room. When we land, I am pulled to the ground. Lying flat on my stomach on the damp earth, I peek between a couple of bushes and see the all too familiar building in front of me.
“Are you freaking serious? Dravin’s compound? Why did I need to come here?” I whisper hoarsely at him. He knows what has happened to me every single time I’ve been here. “We already know that Natasha is working for Dravin.”
“You need information, and I have a way to get it, but I need you to meet someone first.”
“Who?”
“Kyril Xavier. He’s been giving me little pieces of information here and there. Nothing has been too helpful so far, but he wanted to meet you.” At the sound of the metal door opening, I shift to see if I can see who is coming, but Larkin puts a hand out to stop me.
“Stay down. When Kyril gets over here, put a shield up.”
“You know Colton’s going to be very angry when we get back.”
“Oh, I know.”
“I bet he’s going to hit you.”
“I bet he won’t. He doesn’t like me much, but he knows that you do. So he won’t do it because it’ll anger you.”
“Oh, I don’t think it would anger me right now. In fact, I might enjoy it.” I know that I wouldn’t, but Larkin doesn’t need to know that. Coming back to this compound brings back too many memories. I have to really focus to keep my mind fro
m traveling back to that time.
Larkin rolls his eyes at me, but says, “Well then, we’ll see what he does when we get back.”
“Just making sure you know what you’re doing,” I tell him as I wait for Kyril to come over here. Larkin gets up on his knees and peeks over the bush.
“Psst, over here,” he whispers. I start calling my magic to me, that way I’ll be ready when he is here.
A tall man crouches down behind the bushes and reaches out to greet Larkin. “Hey, man. How’ve you been?” I throw up the shield around us.
“Not bad. You?” he asks him.
While Larkin is talking to this man, I get a good look at him. If Emma was here, she’d be drooling or already in a large puddle on the ground. I’m on the verge of that. Kyril has about the same height and build as Colton. With warm, tan skin that appears to glisten in the sunlight and dark wavy hair that meets his shoulders, it takes a lot of will power to keep a girly sigh in. I follow his broad shoulders down and….meet a bare chest. A very muscular bare chest. He is shirtless. Why is he shirtless?
“Ryanne,” I look away from his shirtless body and look over at Larkin, who’s shaking his head at me. I quickly snap my mouth shut. I was obviously caught staring at this man’s chest. I glance over at Kyril and find a pair of brown eyes staring back at me in amusement.
“Sorry,” I mumble and look down at the ground, suddenly becoming interested in pulling random blades of grass. I can feel a blush rising on my cheeks. Kyril and Larkin laugh at my reaction. Awkward.
“Ryanne, this is Kyril. Kyril, this is Ryanne. Kyril’s been giving me little pieces of information about what Dravin is doing. He’s the reason that we were able to get into the compound to rescue you, Colton, and Liam.”
