Scorching Secrets

by Kaitlyn Hoyt

  Ryanne’s too good for me, not the other way around. However, I understand where Emma is coming from; I want to keep her safe too. Emma wants to keep Ryanne safe from me though. She is afraid I am going to hurt her. I’m not sure that I won’t end up doing that. I lean back against the wall and think about what Emma just told me.

  “Where is Ryanne now?” Liam asks.

  “Her room. After…wards, she winced and grabbed her head. She went to lie down because she had a headache.” Emma heads upstairs to go check on her.

  “Even Emma is protective of Ryanne. Who knew?” I mumble.

  “I did. You should hear how she talks about her.”

  “Guys, something’s not right,” Liam says. I turn and look at him. He looks worried.

  “With Ryanne?” I ask. Emma runs down the stairs and thrusts Ryanne’s notebook at me.

  “Have you seen this door before?”

  “Umm….” I look at the drawing. It looks like a normal door—one that could belong to any house. It isn’t as detailed at her other drawing.

  “Ryanne’s missing! Have you seen the door?” Emma yells. Liam winces and grabs his leg. Ryanne is hurt somewhere.

  “I think it could be Jane’s. I’m not sure though.”

  “Larkin!” Emma screams. Larkin appears in the room. Emma throws the notebook at him.

  “Go there. Find Ryanne. Colton thinks it’s Jane’s house.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  I finish drawing the door when I feel myself being thrown backwards. I close my eyes because the transportation is always easier when I don’t try and watch. When I keep my eyes open, it feels like my body is being pulled in all different directions, slowly ripping apart. I land on my stomach in the grass. “Ouch.” I wince and jump up, moving toward the bushes, waiting for something to happen. I wouldn’t have been transported here if I wasn’t needed.

  I stay down, unnoticed, until the three men get closer to me. I notice the knives two of them are carrying. I glance at my empty hands. Why do I never think to bring a weapon with me? Well, this could get interesting.

  I jump out of the bushes and run toward them, calling magic to me. I do a double full twist like I did during training with Liam and visualized lightning striking the man with the larger knife in his hand. All men stop when they see me flipping toward them. When my momentum stops, I hit the man with my magic. He flies backwards and slams into a large tree in the distance. I turn back toward the other two men and instantly start fighting.

  I’m not sure how I am doing it or how my body knows exactly what to do, but somehow I haven’t been stabbed yet, which is an accomplishment for me. Despite my lack of a weapon and the fact that it’s two large men against a small girl, it’s a pretty even fight. I can feel the bruises forming on my shoulders and arms from where I am hit, but all things considered, I’ll take a few bruises. I duck as the man with a knife swings it around, attempting to slice me. Instead, he hits the other man. He falls to the ground, grasping at his chest. I bring my leg up and kick the injured man. He falls to the ground, spitting up blood. I turn my attention back to the other man. However, my attention is a little too late. I cry out as he plants the knife into my left thigh. When dark blood starts spilling out of the wound and running down my leg, he jerks the knife out and smiles down at me. I call more magic and thrust it toward the man as I fall to the ground. He staggers backwards but doesn’t fall.

  I stand up and balance myself onto my right leg. I gather up more energy and thrust it toward him again as he starts to walk toward me. I am slowly losing energy. When my magic connects with him this time, he is sent flying backwards like the first man. “Larkin,” I try yelling, but my voice isn’t as loud as I want it to be.

  I look down at my leg and see the steady stream of blood cascading down the entire length of my leg. “Larkin,” I call again, even quieter than the first.

  I fall to the ground and cry out in pain at the movement. I try to crawl away but can’t move my left leg at all. I feel hands wrap around my waist, pulling me into a standing position. I scream and start to fight until I look around and see Liam and Colton staring at me.

  “Logan,” Larkin yells. He turns toward Liam and Colton. “I have to go clean up the yard. I’ll be right back.” When Larkin lets go of me, I fall to the ground, no longer able to support my weight. I shriek when my left leg hits the floor. I roll onto my back and grab my leg, trying to hold back the tears that threaten to spill.

  “Holy sh...” Colton starts, but Logan runs into the room and interrupts him.

  “What’s going on?” His eyes widen when he sees me lying on the floor, blood oozing out of my leg.

  He drops to the floor beside me, closes his eyes, and concentrates on healing me. I close my eyes as the room begins to spin around me. I’m seeing doubles of everything, and the lights are too bright. The pain in my leg starts to dissipate, and a dull pain replaces it. “For some reason, I can’t heal it all the way. I’ve stopped the bleeding though.”

  I sit up and try to stand but can’t move my left leg very well. Logan helps me stand. I grab onto his arms and let him pull me up. Liam hands me a wet towel. I hop over to the wall and lean against it. Bending over, I clean my leg of the dried blood and avoid everyone’s penetrating gazes.

  I am still dizzy and out of breath from fighting, but I manage to speak. “You should see the other guys,” I say when everyone continues to stare at me.

  “Guys? There was more than one?” Colton yells. I knew he would be upset when he found out that I wasn’t in my room, but it wasn’t my fault.

  “There were three actually. I took care of it.”

  Liam slowly walks over to me. “You promised me you’d stop going on these crazy missions of yours alone.”

  “I didn’t mean to. I was in Colton’s room when this image flashed across my mind, and I got a really bad headache, so I went back to my room. I had to draw something. I grabbed my notebook, and my hand just drew Jane’s door and the next thing I know I’m sitting in her front yard, hiding in the bushes, waiting for something to happen.” I don’t mean to keep scaring him like this. I can’t control everything that happens to me.

  Larkin blinks back into the room. “You destroyed two trees in their front yard. It’s going to be obvious that something happened there.”

  “What was I supposed to do?” I try not to grimace as I stand up straight, balancing my weight on my right leg. “I didn’t have a weapon, while two of them had knives. My magic was all I could use.”

  Logan turns toward everyone, “Get off her case. She can’t control when that happens. She did pretty well, all things considered.” Finally, someone who understands.

  “All things considered?” Colton steps forward. “She comes back here screaming and bleeding profusely and you think she did pretty well?”

  I push myself off the wall and take a step toward him. “I went against three large men and didn’t get myself killed! I got injured, but that’s nothing new.” He growls at me. I flinch back but stay where I am.

  “You shouldn’t be going anywhere that’s going to get you injured!”

  “I can’t help it. You said earlier that you need me to help you all get out of this situation. Well I’m doing my best to make sure that nothing happens to you guys! I can’t always control everything.”

  He lowers his voice. “You know that’s not what I meant.”

  “It doesn’t matter what you meant. You still said it. I’m doing my best here, Colton.” He needs to understand that I am trying really hard not to get myself killed. I’m just doing what has to be done. “I don’t know much about the magic that’s in me, but when I see something, I know I have to do something to help. I can’t always control when or how it happens, but I see this stuff for a reason. I don’t want to be thrown into these dangerous situations anymore than the next guy, but for some reason, I am. For some reason, it has to be me.” I turn around and look at Liam, “For some reason, I’m supposed to go alone.” I take a sma
ll breath; I’m starting to feel really tired. “I can’t drag you guys down with me.”

  Colton walks the last couple of steps toward me. He places a finger under my chin and tilts my face up, so I’m looking at him. “I can’t handle watching you die again, Ryanne. I won’t survive this time.” He lets go of me and walks upstairs. My eyes follow him as he walks away, but I don’t say anything. There’s nothing to say. Doesn’t he know that I don’t want to get killed either? I flinch at the sound of a door being slammed. Everyone else in the room just stares at me, waiting for my reaction. The throbbing in my left leg pursues and my eye lids start to close again.

  “Liam, can you take me to my room? I’m not feeling well.” Liam walks over to me, and I wrap my arms around his neck as he cradles me against his chest. The hall begins to spin as Liam carries me up the stairs. The colors around me blur into a vortex of nothingness, and I lose my battle to stay awake. I close my eyes and am surrounded by darkness again.

  Colton

  I slam my door. I haven’t done that since I was a kid and my parents yelled at me because I refused to clean the kitchen after I threw food at David. Now that I think about it, David and I always got in trouble for throwing food…why did we do that? I got grounded and thought that everyone hated me, so I ran up to my room and slammed my door. I realize how childish slamming my door just now was, but I couldn’t help it.

  I didn’t mean to yell at her, I’m just so tired of her coming back to me covered in blood. I keep seeing her small body crumpled on the kitchen floor, blood pouring out of the large wound in her stomach after Thomas stabbed her. Every time she disappears, that flashes across my mind. I watched as she coughed up blood. I watched as she took her last breath. I watched as her eyes rolled back into her head, and her body went limp. As the life drained out of her eyes, I watched. I can’t watch that happen again.

  I just can’t.

  Someone starts knocking on my door. Emma’s probably going to start yelling at me again. I don’t mean to be such a jerk to her all the time. It’s just very frustrating that she feels like she has to do all this stuff alone. We all want to help her. We’re all standing here beside her, offering to help her, yet she won’t accept it.

  I open the door and instead of Emma, I come face to face with Liam.

  “Did you really have to yell at her?” he asks me. “You know that she can’t control that.” I think I’d rather have Emma yell at me. At least I know what to expect with her. Liam’s still a mystery to me.

  “I know. I know. It’s just so frustrating knowing that I can’t do anything. That I can’t help her.”

  “I understand that. I do. I feel every injury she gets. Obviously not as bad though. My skin just gets really itchy. I’m supposed to protect her, but I can’t.” He pauses briefly before continuing. “That girl that you can’t help just passed out in my arms as I carried her to her room, while you were up here brooding. She needs you, Colton. Don’t push her away right now. You can only push someone so far before they stop coming back. Even Ryanne has a limit.”

  “I’m not pushing her away. It’s just that every time I see her come back with another injury, I picture what she looked like after Thomas stabbed her. The image is ingrained in my mind.” I grab the back of my neck and look toward the ceiling. “It freaks me out that it could happen again. I won’t be able to do anything the next time.”

  “You can’t think like that. She needs someone to help her. She needs that to be you.”

  “She won’t let me.” My anger is slowly building. “I’ve tried to help her, but she won’t let me.”

  “You’re not trying hard enough, Colton. You just get mad at her when she does something wrong. When she wakes up, you need to go talk to her.”

  Liam walks out of the room, leaving me alone with my thoughts. How can I help Ryanne when she is always doing things on her own? How am I supposed to help her when she won’t accept any? The only thing I am good at is fighting. It’s what I’ve been trained to do my whole life. Tom worked with us every day when David and I were younger. As we got older, he stopped coming around as often, and David and I started training together.

  I remember the day when David came into his power. We were training in the attic at Aunt Claire’s house, when we went to grab our swords. David’s came to him, while I had to walk over to get mine from the wall. David was so excited, and even though that was only two years ago, he started jumping around like a kid who got his favorite toy for Christmas. He’d just turned eighteen and was as giddy as a child. Eighteen is the age that most mages get their powers, but some don’t get theirs until their mid-twenties. That is the situation for Bragden, Emma, and me.

  Bragden is the oldest one of us. Being twenty-two, he should be coming into his powers soon. With Emma, at nineteen, and me, at eighteen, we still have time. Granted, I am going to be nineteen in a week but still. Who knows when it is going to happen for either of us? It could be tomorrow. It could be in a few months. We could still have years to go.

  I walk out of my room and cross the hall. Ryanne and Emma’s room is directly across from mine. Emma is sitting on her bed, flipping through a magazine while Ryanne is asleep in her bed with the white comforter pulled up to her chin. Her long curly hair is fanned across her pillow. I briefly wonder what it would look like against my green pillowcase. Shoot, Colton. Distance. Now, is not the time for that.

  “Is she alright?” I ask Emma as I lean against the bed post at the end of Ryanne’s bed.

  “For now. When she wakes up? I’m not sure. She’s been through a lot in the past couple of hours.” Emma’s also mad at me...not the loud anger she usually displays. I’ve never seen Emma like this before. Ryanne soundlessly rolls onto her side and places her hands under her cheek. She looks so serene. “Logan said she’d probably fall asleep from exhaustion.”

  “Emma, I’m not trying to hurt her. I’m trying to protect her. It’s just sometimes the two correlate.”

  “I know you’re not purposely trying to.” Emma turns and looks at Ryanne too. She sighs loudly and looks back at me. Her blue eyes are more open than I’ve seen before. “Ryanne’s not as strong as she wants everyone to believe. She’s tough, but she’s not indestructible. She does have limits, and she has been pushed toward them a lot lately. She’s straddling the line right now, and she needs us to help pull her back.”

  I glance back over at her bed. Ryanne is on her side still with lips slightly apart, breathing quietly. Her hair is slowly sweeping forward, sliding across her shoulders. The covers have fallen, so I can see her t-shirt covered shoulder. She looks so peaceful now, but I know that when she wakes up, that countenance will change. She’ll be the strong, determined girl she feels she needs to be.

  “Look, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Ryanne’s changing. She used to wake up in the morning and come downstairs and join everyone, smiling, happy, and slightly overwhelmed. Now, she wakes up first, goes downstairs and does the dishes. The first thing she does in the morning is the dishes, Colton. Then, she finds her iPod. She listens to music and draws. Barely talking to anyone. She’s stopped watching movies with us. She trains, Colton. That’s the only time I see her act like she used to. Training makes her feel like she’s doing something right. Besides the wedding, I haven’t seen her actually smile in a while; the smile never reaches her eyes. She does what she has to to make sure that we don’t notice anything. Liam and I have noticed little changes in her. Nothing major yet, but it’s coming. She’s freaking out about what is going on with her, and everyone keeps getting upset with her over things she can’t control.”

  Why am I the one that’s getting this speech all the time?

  Chapter Sixteen

  Running through the darkened forest, I try not to trip on the uneven ground. Small, low-lying branches of the trees move and try to grab me as I rush past them; their leaves sway in the wind creating eerie whispers that echo from all directions. My skin is scarred from tree limbs jagged ends, but I push forwar
d. I can’t stop running. I can’t slow down. I can’t be caught.

  Not again.

  The footsteps behind me get louder as the man chasing me starts to close the distance between us. The darkness of the night mirrors the atmosphere of the forest. Everything in here is against me. I can’t think, breathe, or move without someone or something trying to kill me.

  A root of a large tree in front of me rises, trying to trip me or at the very least slow my momentum. I jump over the raised root and make a sharp turn to the left. Not sticking in one direction may help me lose the man following me.

  I glance over my shoulder and watch as he also makes a sharp turn. Ducking another moving branch, I cry out as its sharpened edge slices through my arm. Deep red bloods start flowing down my skin, but there’s nothing I can do right now. I have to keep moving.

  “You can’t keep running from me,” Dravin’s voice echoes through the dark forest. I can’t tell where the voice is coming from, but my fear causes me to run faster. Jumping over another root, I turn to the right. I can hear water flowing in a nearby river ahead.

  “I’ll always find you,” his voice rides the wind to my right. Suppressing my feared cry, I run in the opposite direction of the sound. The footsteps behind me are still following my every movement. My chances of losing him are slim to none. I know that the man chasing me isn’t Dravin, but he is near—watching everything play out like a sick game.

  “No one is safe.” I feel his breath on the back of my neck. I scream and seeing the water in front of me, I run toward it. Maybe the man behind me can’t swim. It’s worth a shot. Trying to keep my momentum, I run into the river. The rapid water pushes against my side, trying to pull me under. Again, everything is against me.