Descending Darkness (The Prophesized #3)

by Kaitlyn Hoyt

  “Why are you doing this? You helped us…”

  “I was dragged along. I didn’t do anything in that battle. I don’t see anything special in you. You weren’t even born a mage. How can you be the one to stop all this? Huh?”

  I continue moving backward. I’m not sure if Phillip has a power, but I know that I don’t want to find out. He takes a couple steps toward me. I have to do something, but I don’t want to drop my shield. So, I do the only logical thing. I turn around and start running. Brilliant plan, Ryanne. Run away from the bad guy. That’ll get you far.

  Stupid girl.

  I pick up my speed. I know that I can run long distances, but if this is the same scene from my vision, I need to keep my energy. I glance behind me and see Phillip still chasing after me. Keeping my shield up, I call my magic to me. I can feel the magic building up in my core, coming to the surface. I push myself to run further. I need to create a greater distance between us.

  When there’s a couple feet between us, I stop running and turn around. Dropping my shield, I thrust my magic out. Time stops as I watch it cascade through the air for a couple seconds before hitting Phillip. His eyes widen as my magic connects with him. His forward motion is reversed, and he flies backward through the air—limbs flailing in every direction. He lands on his back on the trail and stays down. I turn around and start to run again.

  Is he dead? I stop running. I slowly turn back around. He is still lying in the center of the trail. I take tentative steps toward him. Why am I worried about Phillip? He just tried to attack me. Standing a foot away from him, I crouch down next to his body. I don’t want to get too close. I stare at his chest until I see its rise and fall from breathing.

  He’s alive.

  With that confirmed, I spin around and run back in the direction I was heading in before. I slow to a steady jog and look around me. I can hear sounds of things moving through the forest, but I don’t know what they are specifically.

  Footsteps.

  I pick up my pace again. I’m going to be discovered soon anyway. “I found her!” someone yells. Shoot. I look back and see a large group of men chasing after me. This is my vision. This is what I had to get to. I open my mind and try to read their thoughts, but there are too many of them. My steps falter as I try to get control of them. I can’t concentrate on anything.

  Pushing their thoughts back, I lock them away and continue running. I enter the clearing and stop. Though I know where I am this time, it still shocks me that I am here. This was where I’ve been attacked by gorgoths before, and now I am about to get attacked by something real. Gadramicks. Valdus intentionally brought all these people into the dream world to search for me when I foiled his attempt to bring me back to the compound.

  I start running again but stop dead in my tracks when I see the man standing in front of me. I take a couple steps back and look to my right: another man. Left? Another. I’m surrounded. I spin in a circle. Yep, definitely surrounded. These don’t look like the same men, but this is the same situation.

  Nine to one. Not fair.

  The man directly across from me starts walking toward me, smiling with each step. Wow, he is cocky. The men in the circle spread out to cover the open area. I take a couple steps backward, but I know that I can’t go too far.

  As he jumps into the air, I throw up my shield. He slams into my magic and stumbles backward. Now it is my turn to be cocky. I take a step toward him and smile. “Did you think I’d go easily? Have you guys not learned anything?” I watch as he picks himself up and narrows his eyes at me. Saying he is mad would be an understatement.

  I run toward him and drop the shield. Doing an aerial cartwheel, I call my magic to my limbs and stop in front of him. Since he is stunned, I easily reach out and kick him in the jaw, knocking him unconscious. He falls limply to the ground. Stepping over him, I spin around and look at each of the guys, arms outstretched. “Who’s next?”

  Instead of individually attacking me, they decide to make it a collaborative effort. As all the guys start running for me, I call my magic to me and push it underneath my body. I’m as light as air, let me fly. When the wind picks up, I jump in the air and fly above everyone. I hover about ten feet in the air and watch as all the men slam into each other, grunting in pain as they realize what I’ve done. I flip a couple times in the air before landing in the grass behind them, crouched down in a defensive position. All the men, minus the unconscious one, push through the pain and get up to face me.

  “Oops.” I smile at them and look down at my nails, feigning boredom. “You really should pay more attention to where you’re going.”

  Barring their teeth, they all growl in annoyance at me. Am I surrounded by werewolves or something? Do werewolves exist? I’ll have to ask Colton that question sometime.

  They all start running for me again. I throw up another shield. Shields are becoming second nature to me. I don’t really have to think about them anymore. When I need one, it appears. As they run into the shield, they cry out and fall back to the ground again. I walk toward them slowly. I am getting pretty good at annoying incredibly large, bad men. Can I put that on a résumé as a skill?

  I walk toward them and stop in front of the largest guy. When he stands up, he growls again. In my mind, I watch as he transforms into a werewolf, hair sprouting out of every part of his body and crawling on all fours, howling at the moon.

  I make sure it is obvious when I look at him thoroughly, my eyes traveling down to his dark clothing. “Tsk, tsk, tsk. Black is definitely not your color. You should try warm colors. They’d compliment your skin tone more.” He grunts and punches my shield. It doesn’t budge.

  I walk along the edge of the shield and stop in front of a different man. “You’d think after all this time Dravin would have trained his men a little better or, here’s an idea, come after me himself. I mean really? Is he that scared of me?” I stare at him. “Do I look scary to you?”

  He doesn’t say anything, but that’s fine. I already knew how he’d react.

  Taking a couple steps backward, I drop the shield. Throwing my arms out, I say, “I’m getting really tired of these pointless confrontations. Come one, boys. Do your best.”

  Two men charge at me. I wait until they get close before I react. The first man swings his arm back to try to punch me. I duck, and he ends up punching the man behind me. He grabs his nose as blood starts to gush. I laugh and stand back up.

  I lean back and kick my leg out, connecting with his chest. Since I am calling my magic to me, the man stumbles backward. I flip around and punch the other man in the gut. When he doubles over, I swing up and kick him in the jaw, knocking him out. I turn around to fight the other man when a fist connects with my shoulder.

  Ouch, that hurt. This only succeeds in making me mad.

  I stop toying with him and jump into the air, flying a couple feet up. I lean down and whack my elbow into the side of his neck. His eyes roll back into his head, and he slumps down. I turn around and face the other men. They are still standing in a line. I quickly count them.

  There are six left.

  Pointing my finger at the short guy on the end, I motion him forward. He looks to the guy on his left for guidance. When the man shrugs his shoulders, he takes a hesitant step toward me. I walk the rest of the way toward him and push my magic back. “Ok, I’ll fight fair now.”

  He runs forward, and I stand my ground until he is right in front of me. I take a step to the right, and he runs past me. Stopping, he turns around and moves in my direction again. I can hear footsteps behind me, but I decide to play dumb. I duck to avoid being punched and step backward, letting the other man grab me. Oh, these guys are dumb.

  “Gotcha,” he whispers in my ear.

  “Oooh, the big bad guy caught the wittle girl. I’m shaking in my boots,” I retort. He starts pulling me back. Does he really think I’ll just let him cart me off like this? Where does Dravin get these guys? “Oh wait, I’m not wearing boots.”

 
I lift my right foot and back kick him in the shins. He hisses in pain and loosens his grip on me. I swing my head back and hit him in the face, causing him to throw me to the ground. Catching myself, I jump back up and thrust my magic at him. When my magic connects with his body, he flies backward and slams into a large tree.

  With a sigh, I turn around and face the rest of the men. The five remaining guys are looking at me warily. I call my magic to me and visualize lightning bolts shooting outward and hitting them. I slowly raise my hands as the magic builds up. Thrusting it out, I watch as bolts flow through the air and hit them; four of them fall to the ground, stunned and unmoving.

  The one that I didn’t hit looks to be the youngest of all of them—no more than twenty years old. As I walk over to him, he stands his ground, but I can see the fear in his eyes. I did just take on eight men on my own. He stares at me as I stop in front of him, eyes widening with each second I don’t do anything.

  Giving him a small smile, I call my magic into my finger and lightly touch him on the chest. “Boo.” Feeling my magic, he quickly turns around and flees out of the clearing. Seriously, where does Dravin get these recruits? Are they even mages? Not a single one tried to use magic on me.

  Bending over, I brush the dirt off my clothes and start walking out of the clearing, smiling as I walk back into the darkness of the forest, prepared for whatever happens next.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Colton

  “They’ve been out for a while…” Emma says. Ryanne and Liam are both lying on the couch. They look like they are sleeping, but we all know better than that. They’re not physically here anymore. Both of them are in the dream world. Ryanne was forced there while Liam went willingly. He let the protector come forth and do what it is meant to do.

  “Do you think that he’s found her?” Natalie asks.

  “I don’t think so. If he did, he’d be able to bring her back. Considering that it’s been over an hour, and they’re both still there, means that he’s still searching for her.” I don’t want to think about other alternatives to that situation.

  “Does time pass differently in the dream world?” Natalie asks. The only one of us that can answer that question is Bragden.

  “I think it’s a little slower there. Liam tried to explain it to me once, but I didn’t really listen…sorry,” he says. “Depending on what’s going on, they could be gone for a while.”

  “This sucks. I don’t like just waiting. I don’t like just standing here, not knowing what’s happening to them. I mean what if she gets captured again…what if they do something. There are too many what ifs…” Emma is starting to lose it. I’ve never seen her react this way before. Natalie reaches over and grabs onto Emma’s arm, calming her. “Thank you.”

  Natalie won’t give me time to freak-out either. Every time my mind starts to wander, she comes over and calms me down. I walk back into the living room and sit down on the coffee table across from Ryanne.

  I reach out and grab her hand. Her skin is very cold to the touch. Natalie reaches forward, touches Ryanne’s arm, and closes her eyes.

  “She’s fine. She seems a little scared but also really proud of herself. She’s a little…confused, I think,” Natalie whispers and opens her eyes.

  “How do you know that? Your power can work on her when she’s not…here…?” I ask her.

  “Her emotions and feelings aren’t as strong, but I can still get a sense of them. Something’s going on, but she doesn’t understand it. She seems very confused.”

  “Is she in any danger?” If she is in danger….Natalie reaches forward and grabs onto my arm again. A calming feeling instantly flows through me, removing all of my negative emotions. “Can’t you just let me worry a little?” I snap.

  “No, because I know how you’ll react, and she wouldn’t want you destroying anything or hurting yourself,” she explains. Sometimes I forget that Natalie was usually there growing up. She knows me and how I’ll react in certain situations. She’s right, but it just feels wrong to feel this calm.

  “She’s right, Colton,” Logan says. “Do you remember how you acted when she was kidnapped?”

  Of course I remember how I acted.

  “Calm down, Colton. We’ll find her,” David told me.

  “How are we going to do that if we stay in here? She’s out there most likely being tortured by Dravin as we speak!”

  “Claire said that she’ll be fine! I trust Claire and so should you.” I continued pacing the room. Why didn’t anyone else understand?

  “Of course I trust Claire, but this was Dravin’s plan all along, and who knows what he’s doing to her. She hasn’t had enough training yet!” She hadn’t been trained like we had.

  “We’ve searched those woods for days now and found nothing. If Claire says that she’s going to be okay, you need to trust that. Calm down before you hurt yourself.”

  I reached out and punched a hole in the wall, tearing through the plaster and hitting the wooden frame beneath. The small bones in my hand broke from the sudden force. I cursed and turned around, looking for something else to take out my anger on. I didn’t know why I couldn’t calm down. Something inside of me wouldn’t stop until I knew that she was safe.

  Logan rushed forward and attempted to heal my broken hand. I pushed him aside and stormed out of the room—angry at myself for not being able to do more and frustrated more than anything at the situation we were in again.

  Snapping back into the present, I look toward Logan, “I had a reason to react that way. You saw how she looked when Liam brought her back…she’s already been through too much.”

  “And it hasn’t affected her. She’s strong, Colton, and she can use her magic there. That makes her way stronger than everyone else. She’ll be fine.”

  That is true. She can use her magic. She found that out in the vision, but will it be enough? We saw her in action at Jane’s house. I know that she’s fully capable of taking care of herself but for how long? She still grows tired from using too much magic. We’ve all seen her pass out from putting a shield up and trying to fight on top of that. None of us know what is going on in the dream world.

  “What if she can’t get out of there? What if Liam can’t find her? Then what?” I ask.

  “You can’t think like that. Liam’s her protector. He’ll find a way to get to her,” Natalie says. I glance towards Natalie and see her watching Liam. When she feels my eyes on her, she looks towards me and then turns away. She and Liam have been acting weird around each other. In fact, she’s acting similar to how I did with Ryanne before I knew she was my soulmate.

  “He has to find her. Because he’s her protector, he has a heightened awareness of her. That’s how he can feel it when she’s hurting. Being separated from her for too long will cause some serious side effects for him. He needs to find her,” Bragden explains while leaning back against the armrest, looking over at his brother.

  “What kind of side effects?” Natalie asks. I can see the worry in her expression. It is clear to Bragden as well.

  “He would eventually go crazy…and could cause harm to himself if he can’t find her…or if she’s in pain and there’s nothing he can do...Look, being a protector is a very serious job, and I know that he feels really bad because he’s already had a difficult time doing it. The need to protect her basically overrides everything, especially when she’s in pain. During sparring, I’ve seen him fighting with himself because he wants to come over and defend her.”

  “Is that why he’s always grimacing when we spar?” she asks him.

  “Yeah, because Ryanne was having a difficult time and the protector inside him wanted to come and help her, but he knows that she needs to do that alone. Now, he’s having,” Bragden trails off as he seems to suddenly become aware of who he is speaking to. “Nevermind.”

  “Having what?” Natalie and Emma both ask. Bragden looks over toward me. I know that he is talking about Liam’s feelings toward Natalie.

  “Noth
ing. He’s just not had it easy.”

  “Are you a protector too?” Emma asks him.

  Bragden reaches up and pulls the necklace from under his shirt. It is similar to Liam’s pendant but on a much smaller chain. “Yeah, I just haven’t found someone to protect yet.”

  “How do you know when you find the person you’re supposed to protect?” Natalie asks curiously. She is still holding onto my arm, keeping me calm, but her attention is completely on Bragden.

  “The pendant will choose who it thinks is worthy of protection. Liam said that it’s just a feeling you get. That when it finally happens, I’ll know.”

  “That sounds kind of romantic,” Emma says.

  “It can be, but not always. In their case it’s not. Liam feels a connection with Ryanne, but Ryanne is destined to be with Colton. However, she feels the connection too. They’re very close, and I know you’ve all witnessed it,” he says. They are extremely close. It’s obvious to everyone. Ryanne looks at Liam like a brother. She also has a need to protect him and does actually love him. I used to be jealous of how she acted with Liam, but I’ve gotten to know Liam better, and I know how he sees her.

  “Does everyone get a protector?” Emma asks.

  “No. Only those that need them, and right now, Ryanne needs one.”

  *****

  I’ve been at this for way too long. Why am I still here? I’ve already experienced the vision, and it played out like I saw. I just went against nine guys and barely got a scratch on me. I’m in the dark right now, both literally and figuratively. The forest seems almost dead around me. The trees and other foliage are thriving, but it is silent. There are no animals—no birds chirping, no owls hooting, no small rodents scurrying across the dead leaves on the forest floor. I can’t hear anything besides my quiet footsteps. The moonlight above casts eerie shadows through the darkness, and the light breeze ruffles the leaves on the trees creating a quiet whisper through the forest.