Scorching Secrets

by Kaitlyn Hoyt

  “No…I don’t think so,” I say.

  Ryanne stretches her legs out and rolls over so she is lying on her back. “Why is my pillow moving?” she mumbles and glares at me.

  “Sorry,” I say, while trying to hide my smile. She reaches up to push her hair off her face, but the sleeve of my jacket hits her face first. She screams and then starts laughing.

  Rolling off my stomach, she lays on her side as she tries to calm her laughter. I can’t help but join in on the laughter. “The sleeve scared me. I thought a spider fell on my face or something. Why are your arms so long anyway?” She pushes the sleeves up and sits up, still laughing. “I don’t think my brain works properly when I’m tired.”

  She pulls her knees up and leans her head against them. I sit up and look over at Logan and Emma. They are still laughing. I see a small cloud forming over them, and little droplets of water start to fall. It shuts Emma up pretty quickly. Ryanne giggles but remains sitting with her head on her knees.

  “What happened to the sweet little morning girl?” Emma asks. Ryanne doesn’t reply to her. She’s gotten pretty quiet. Emma crawls over to her and pokes her in the side. She gasps and jumps backwards into me.

  “Goodness gracious. You almost gave me a heart attack.” She scoots forward a little and shakes her head at everyone. “You’re all impossible. I’m going to go take a shower.” She gets up and jumps over Logan, who is sitting in the doorway, and leaves the room.

  Emma turns to me, “I don’t think you’ll get your jacket back any time soon.”

  “That’s fine. It looks better on her anyway.”

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  After getting dressed in my Team Edward…Scissorhands t-shirt and a pair of black shorts, I mosey on downstairs. For some reason, I’m still incredibly tired. Fighting off Adam and Dravin at night is starting to take a toll on me. I feed Olive and sit down at the table with everyone else.

  I scoot my chair really close to Liam and rest my head on his shoulder. “You ok?”

  “Peachy,” I say with a yawn.

  “You know there’s a thing called sleep…maybe you should try to get some,” Larkin suggests.

  “Wow, I never thought of that. Thank you, Captain Obvious,” I say with my eyes closed. If I don’t move, I’ll probably fall asleep right here.

  “You’re welcome. It’s what I’m here for,” I glance over at Larkin. He’s giving me his arrogant smile. I’ve noticed that Larkin has about three different smiles. One, his I’m awesome and I know it smile. The second one being the you’re crazy, and I don’t know you smile. The last one being a genuine smile that was reserved for a select few people. He doesn’t use that last smile often. He has an image to uphold after all.

  “You know what?” I tell him.

  “What?” He flashes the you’re crazy smile.

  “You—” I start but stop when my head starts pounding. I gasp and grab my head as the pain intensifies.

  “Ryanne, what’s wrong?” Colton asks standing up.

  “Not again. Not again,” I start crying and fall out of my chair. I scream as the pain intensifies even more. I can’t focus on anything. I can’t hear anyone talking to me, though I know that they are freaking out. The image of my mother’s death starts flashing through my mind again.

  This time, when the images go away, it doesn’t stop. New images start to form. Dravin is standing over me while Gadramicks hold onto Colton, Liam, Emma, and David. We are standing in the backyard. He smiles down at me and says, “You could have stopped this.” Men walk up to all of them and simultaneously slit their throats. They all fall to the ground, blood gurgling out of their mouths as they slowly die. I scream and try to run over to them, but Dravin grabs me and makes me watch.

  Deep red blood slides down their throats and pools into the fabric of their shirts. Emma is the first one to stop moving. Tears are streaming down my face as I watch my family die in the yard. The men holding Liam, Colton, and David let go of their bodies so all three of them drop to the ground. Colton’s eyes remain open as he stares in my direction and takes his last breath. The last thing I see are his green eyes piercing mine as blood continues to flow onto the grass beneath him.

  The images dissipate into darkness, and the pain starts to fade. I whimper as someone tries to help me up. I push away from them and scoot myself into the corner. I curl my knees up and put my head on them. I start sobbing. Dravin knows where I am and wants to show me what he will do if I don’t bring myself to him. I’ve received the message loud and clear. Someone reaches out and tries to comfort me. I flinch away from their touch. I need to get away. I jump up and try to run out of the room, when someone grabs me and pulls me into their embrace. I tense until I get a whiff of the familiar cologne. Leaning into his chest, I let out the rest of my tears. This can’t be happening. I can’t let that happen. I push away from Colton and look for Larkin.

  “Please.”

  Without elaborating, he knows what I’m asking. He shakes his head, refusing my plea. I bite my lip to try and stop the tears that threaten to fall again. “Dravin?” Colton asks me.

  “He doesn’t know where we are exactly, but he knows I’m close. He…he…” I hiccup. I can’t think about that. I need to do something. I need…I don’t even know. Everyone is still watching me. My eyes land on Liam. His breathing is labored. I slowly walk over to him and hug him.

  “I’m sorry you had to experience that,” I tell him. He wraps his arms around me and rests his chin on my head. “Did you see the images too?” I quietly ask him.

  “No, I just felt the pain. Though, I’m sure it wasn’t as bad as what you felt.”

  “Ryanne, what images did you see?” Larkin asks me. I tense and turn toward him, shaking my head. I can’t tell anyone.

  “Just the car crash,” I lie.

  “There’s more to it than that,” Larkin says and takes a step toward me.

  “How would you know?”

  “Your aura. It darkens when you lie.” It’s like I have a light up sign above me alerting him to my every move.

  “Ryanne,” he repeats my name again.

  “It was just a warning. I’ll figure everything out,” I try to walk out of the room, but Larkin grabs my upper arm and pulls me back.

  “You’re not going to give yourself to Dravin. No matter what, you can’t do that.” He is scared that I’m going do something stupid. I yank my arm out of his grip and walk out of the room. I can’t promise that I won’t do that. I don’t know what I am going to do at this moment; I just know I have to do something. I’m not giving up until I can at least say that I tried.

  Colton

  I am trying really hard to not let myself go invisible. Negative thoughts keep swarming through my mind. I keep seeing her crying on the floor, holding her head. Think positive. “If I ever see that freaking as—”

  That’s positive.

  “Colton, we’re all angry about what happened.” Liam says. “That pain was excruciating, and I didn’t even feel it to the same degree as she did. I just want to know what she saw…” He loudly exhales and looks at me, shaking his head. I can see the anger clearly in his eyes.

  “You know it had something to do with us,” David says. “She’d only try to go to Dravin if we were threatened.”

  “It’s getting worse. Dravin’s getting more persistent. I mean she can’t even go to sleep without being attacked,” Logan says. “Her body’s not going to be able to handle much more of this.” On cue, we all look toward the stairs as we see Ryanne stumble down them. On the last stair, she has to grab onto the banister to keep from falling.

  “Liam…I’m,” her body shudders, “losing control.” We all stop. I can feel her magic floating in the air around me. It feels like tiny little shocks are hitting my skin—the feeling you get when a part of your body falls asleep and then you move, waking it up. She collapses to the ground. Liam runs over to her and tries calming her.

  “Ryanne, look at me.” She shakes her head an
d starts whimpering. “Ryanne, you need to calm yourself down. Take a deep breath. Concentrate.”

  “I can’t.” Her body starts visibly shaking. She cries out. Liam looks back at us. The magic shocks are becoming stronger, so he doesn’t have any other choice. He places both of his hands on her back and closes his eyes; his face furrowing in concentration. A couple seconds later, Ryanne stops. Liam lets out the breath he was holding and removes his hands from her back. The magic in the air fades away, leaving in its absence a tension-filled room.

  He bends down and picks up Ryanne’s limp body and carries her over to the couch. “We need to keep an eye on her.”

  “Can Adam get to her while she’s unconscious?” Emma asks.

  “I don’t know.” Liam says quietly. We don’t know anything. This is so frustrating. How are we supposed to help her if we are just as clueless? Tom comes downstairs and looks at Ryanne on the couch. He curses and turns to me, “Adam again?”

  I shake my head, “No, Adam attacked her last night. Dravin’s the one that attacked her this morning.”

  “She lost control of her magic again. Liam had to knock her out,” Emma says. “It was worse than last time. I could literally feel the magic around me. It felt like I was being shocked…”

  “Dravin doesn’t know where we are, does he?” Tom asks. “I was pretty sure the enchantment worked.”

  “Not yet, but he obviously knows that we’re close.”

  “He’s not going to stop,” Tom says.

  “Not until he gets what he wants,” I whisper, “or is stopped.” I look over toward Ryanne on the couch. I’ve seen her unconscious or hurt too many times recently. He has to be stopped, and I want to be the one that ends him.

  It’s been over an hour, and Ryanne still hasn’t woken up. However, we know that she’s not unconscious anymore. She’s been moving and making little noises letting us know that she’s asleep—which I’m thankful for. I just hope that Adam doesn’t try to pull her into another dream.

  I sit down on the couch and wait for her to wake up. Right now, this whole situation is a waiting game: waiting for Ryanne to wake up, waiting for Dravin to find us, waiting. Waiting. Waiting. It frustrates me to no end to think that Dravin’s out there looking for her, and there’s nothing that I can do.

  Liam and Larkin are pacing in the back. Emma keeps glancing out the windows at the woods behind the house. Tom is sitting at the kitchen table, tapping his fingers along the hard surface. David is sitting in the armchair staring off into space. Bragden is flipping through Ryanne’s sketchbook, and Logan is sitting in the other chair, keeping an eye on her. We’re a very worried bunch.

  “Do you think it’s possible that there’s a limited number to the amount of headaches you can magically get before you acquire permanent brain damage?” Ryanne mumbles. She rolls over onto her back but has yet to open her eyes. “Because I think I’m pushing that number.” When she sits up and looks around, everyone stops what they are doing.

  “Oh, stop looking at me like that. It’s not the first time I’ve lost control before, and it probably won’t be the last,” she says while rubbing her eyes.

  “Ry, did anyone attack you while you were sleeping?” I ask.

  “No.” I watch as she walks into the kitchen and opens the fridge. Coming back into the living room with a bottle of water, she continues, “Though I kind of wish someone did. I really want to hit something right now.” She looks over at me and smiles.

  “Last time I checked, I wasn’t a punching bag,” I tell her.

  “We could always change that,” she says but sits back against the couch. That’s it? She’s not going to explain anything? She’s just going to pretend like nothing happened? She reaches forward and grabs the sketchbook I bought her from the coffee table. She asks for the pencil that is tucked inside the spiral of the notebook from Bragden. He hands it to her without looking away from the drawing. Pulling her knees up, she leans against the back of the couch and rests the sketchbook on her legs. Opening to the first page, she begins drawing.

  “Just so I’m clear…contacting Dravin is a big fat NO right now, correct?” Everyone yells a yes at her. “Esh, inside voices, por favor.” She mumbles and continues to draw.

  “What are you drawing?” I ask her and lean over a little, trying to see her drawing.

  “The bench in the forest,” she looks over at me and blushes slightly. Thirty minutes later, she sighs and holds the book out in front of her, looking at the drawing from further away. She captured its likeness perfectly. She drew the path in front of it, the small flowers that grew against its legs, and the trees surrounding it.

  I open my mouth to compliment her on it when she drops the sketchbook to the ground. Groaning, she grabs her stomach and doubles over. I recognize what is going on. I jump up to grab her, but she has already disappeared.

  “Larkin!” I shout. He runs over to me, already understanding what he needs to do.

  Liam joins me. “I’m going with you.”

  Larkin glances down at the sketchbook for a second and grabs both of our shoulders. He closes his eyes in concentration. It’s harder to transport more than one person, but I know that he’ll be able to do it. A second later, we are standing in the forest surrounded.

  Dravin and Adam are sitting on the bench. “Well this is better than expected,” Dravin says, smiling at us. Ryanne is lying on the ground at their feet, a dart sticking out of her arm. Dormirako.

  “Move!” I yell. Liam and I jump to the side, while Larkin flies to the other one. Two men come toward Liam and me. We jump up and prepare for their attack. One comes toward Larkin. A dart comes out of nowhere and hits Liam in the shoulder. He falls to the ground.

  I turn toward Larkin, “Go back. Warn the others.” I feel something prick me in the arm. “GO!” I say as I fall, succumbing to the darkness.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  I am sore all over. From head to toe, I feel like a giant bruise—like someone deliberately used my body as a shield against a physical attack. I open my eyes and look around the room. Shoot. Before even assessing my surroundings, I know what’s happened. I’ve been captured again. I wanted to do something but this definitely is not it. Right now, I’m sprawled on a hard cold floor; my body lying at a hard angle. Looking around, I find that I am in a cell similar to the first one. I push myself into a seated position and continue to survey the room. It’s completely empty. There’s a door in the corner, but there aren’t any windows on this one. There looks to be a mirror on one side of the room. That’s useless. It’s not like I have any reason to make myself look good in here.

  I close my eyes and open my mind, trying to hear any thoughts. Like last time, there is nothing. I get static when I try to read anyone’s mind. Of course, I don’t know if there is anyone near me to even read. I can feel my magic inside me, but it won’t come to the surface. Is this what everyone else feels like? I can sense the magic in me, but it’s stuck.

  With a frustrated groan, I start pacing the room. I wonder if everyone else is ok. I hope no one went into the forest to look for me. I don’t know how Dravin knew that I was going to be there…I didn’t even know that that was going to happen if I drew that, and I’m the psychic one.

  I run a hand through my long hair. I never have a hair tie on me when I need one. Hey, they let me keep my shoes this time. I am still wearing my dirty black converse tennis shoes. I wonder how long I’ve been here. I continue pacing the perimeter of the room, waiting for something to happen. Sooner or later, Dravin or Adam will come in. It is inevitable.

  I continue pacing the room for what feels like hours though I know it hasn’t really been that long. Hearing the sound of a door opening, I glance across the cell at the doorway. I try to keep a neutral expression as I watch Dravin saunter into the room. Another man comes in behind him and guards the door. Dravin walks into the center of the room.

  “Nice to see you awake,” he says.

  “Well, it’s not nice to see you.�
� I lean back against the far wall. Crossing my arms, I wait for his reaction. I’m not going to be afraid of him. I’m trying a different approach here.

  “Ha, just as feisty as ever. Is there any situation you’re in where you’re polite?”

  “Not when you’re involved.”

  “You should probably try and get on my good side. It’s not very pleasant on the other.”

  “Do you even have a good side? I find that very hard to believe.”

  “Believe it or not, I can be very good.” He takes a step closer and grins down at me. He reaches out and grabs the end of my hair and runs his hand through it. I reach over and slap his hand away. He laughs and leans forward and whispers into my ear. “You know, we could be very good together.” With a disgusted grunt, I push him away from me and walk so I am leaning with my back against the mirror. I want to get away from him, but of course, he starts to walk over here.

  “Sooner or later, you’ll realize I only want what’s best for you.”

  “And keeping me locked up in this cell is what is best for me?” Is this guy serious? I really want to reach out and punch him in the gut, but I need to keep up this charade for a little longer.

  “Of course not. This cell is a precaution.”

  “A precaution? Against a small helpless little girl?” I purse my lips and bat my eyelashes at him. I try to make myself look as innocent and damsel-in-distress like as I can muster.

  Dravin starts laughing, “Small, yes. Helpless, no. I can see through this façade you’re putting on. You may not be able to use your magic here, but a helpless little girl wouldn’t have been able to beat Adam in his own dream.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Sure you don’t.” Dravin takes another step forward until he is standing right in front of me again. “If this magic thing doesn’t work out for you, you should go into acting. If I didn’t know any better, I might actually believe you. You’re good.” He smiles at me.