Descending Darkness (The Prophesized #3) (33 page)

“If you wanted to hold my hands, you didn’t need the enchantment excuse,” Travis tells her with a wink.

“I bet you’re a real ladies man, aren’t you?”

“Not in front of my momma,” he chides but smiles. Ryanne laughs…no, she giggles. I glare at Travis. I know that he sees me because his smile widens.

“Give me your hands,” Ryanne says.

Travis holds his hands in the air, high enough so she can’t reach them. She stomps her foot like a child throwing a tantrum and stares up at him. I bite my tongue to keep from laughing. “Travis Howick, you give me your hands right now or I will make it rain all up in here,” she threatens.

“She’ll do it too,” Emma says, “believe me.”

“Wet t-shirt contest?” he says with an even wider smile. Ryanne puts her hands on her hips. Even though she’s standing with her back to me, I can imagine that she’s staring up at him with narrowed eyes, a straight mouth, and a slightly scrunched nose. Her magic cracks around us, and I can hear her mutter something about a stupid southern gentleman. Uh oh, Travis better listen to her. “All right, all right, little missy. I’m done.” He gives her his hands.

Ryanne’s demeanor instantly changes. Her body relaxes, and she says in her most innocent voice, “Thank you.” Bragden is trying not to laugh in the corner of the room. Liam reaches out and punches his shoulder.

“If you want to remain dry, I wouldn’t laugh at her,” he tells his brother. I can hear the smile in his voice though. Bragden rubs his shoulder and nods, quieting his laughter.

“I’d listen to your brother, Bragden,” Ryanne calls over her shoulder. I see everyone else cover their mouths to keep from laughing. I even see Incendia smile. The room fills with Ryanne’s magic again as she puts the enchantment on Travis.

Travis’s eyes widen as he feels the magic enter him. He looks down at her surprised. It is a strange feeling. Being a mage, we can already feel the magic coursing through our body. Adding someone else’s magic to the mix, well…it’s an odd combination. When Ryanne’s magic first touches the skin, it feels like thousands of tiny pin-pricks, but when it enters the body, it turns to silk. It can be felt moving through the bloodstream, but it’s pleasant. It’s...comforting. It feels natural, like it’s meant to be there.

“Well isn’t that just stranger than finding a polka-dot pig in the middle of a crop circle,” Travis says. Ryanne turns around and looks at the room.

“Am I the only one who has no idea what he just said?” She faces Travis again. “I can’t speak southern.”

“He means that it felt weird,” Mrs. Howick simply explains.

“Then why didn’t you just say that?” Ryanne asks Travis.

“Because then I wouldn’t have gotten to see that cute confused look on your face, now would I?”

“You could have just waited. I get confused often.” I look at Ryanne, who’s slightly blushing. Suddenly she stills. I recognize that expression on her.

“Travis, catch her!” I yell as I jump off the bed. I won’t get to her soon enough. Travis looks at me confused, but when Ryanne starts falling, he reaches out and catches her.

Folding her in his arms, he asks the room, “What happened? What’s going on?”

“She’s in a vision,” Tom explains.

Something glass shatters in the hallway. We all quiet and turn toward the door. What’s going on? Ryanne stirs right as the hotel room door is kicked open, and a man barrels into the room. He brings his arm up, flashing a dagger. Before any of us can react, he throws the dagger across the room.

Everything seems to move in slow motion. Ryanne pushes away from Travis and jumps across the bed. Tom swings out and punches the man in the jaw, knocking him into the wall beside him. Ryanne flies through the air and tackles Incendia, sending both girls flying to the ground. They scream as they crash onto the floor. Incendia rolls and hits the desk, knocking the lamp off of it, but Bragden catches it before it hits either one of them.

Groaning, Incendia pushes herself up and crawls over to Ryanne, who is curled onto her side, and rolls her onto her back. Metal gleams from her stomach as blood starts to soak through her shirt. I push through everyone and run over to her. Gasping, Ryanne reaches down and grasps the hilt of the embedded dagger. She cries out as she slides the metal out. “Logan!” I say as Ryanne starts shaking. For such a small wound, there’s so much blood.

“She-she…saved me,” Incendia stutters as Bragden reaches down to help her stand. Ryanne looks up at me and tries to smile.

“I forgot about putting up a shield,” she whispers.

“It’s okay, Ry. You’re going to be okay, babe. Logan’s going to heal you.”

“He-he w-w-on’t be able to.” Her body starts shaking more rigorously. I squeeze her hand. “It’s inf-f-used with magic.” Logan puts his hands over the wound and starts to heal her. Ryanne reaches out and places her hand on my cheek, “I love you, Colton.”

I cover her hand with mine, keeping her cold hand on my cheek. Her image is blurring as I try to fight the tears that threaten to fall. “Nothing’s going to happen to you, Ry.”

I look over at Logan, who’s now shaking his head. “She’s right, Colton. This dagger was infused with some sort of dark magic. I can’t heal her.”

Ryanne gasps. Her eyes roll into the back of her head as her body stops shaking. “Ry?” The hand on my cheek goes slack. A small dribble of blood flows out of her mouth. Resting my ear against her chest, I listen for a heartbeat.

Silence.

I place my hands over her wound. I healed her once…

The tears that I tried to keep hidden start falling down my cheeks. She can’t be gone. I already lost her once. I won’t lose her again. I can heal her. I can heal her again.

Nothing. The vibrating doesn’t come. My magic won’t come to me. There’s nothing I can do. The last words I spoke to her were a lie…I lied to my soulmate. This can’t be. I turn and look toward the door. The man who threw the dagger is starting to stir. I step away from Ryanne and start to move toward him. Bragden jumps forward and grabs me. I fight against his grip, so another set of arms grabs my shoulder.

“You killed her!” I shout at him. “She’s dead because of you!”

The pain is gone. The shocks that racked my body stop, and I can breathe again. Sitting up, I pull my shirt up, looking for the wound from being stabbed, but my torso is bare. What the heck? My eyes scan the room looking for any clues as to what happened. The room is spotless. The two beds are freshly made, all the other furniture has a clean shine to it, and the light is turned off as if no one has been in this room for a while.

I push myself off the ground and spin around. Seriously, there’s nothing in here. Where did everyone go? Why am I alone? There’s not even a bloodstain on the floor. Maybe I never got stabbed…maybe I wasn’t even saved from Dravin’s compound. Am I still at Dravin’s compound? Was that all a dream?

“Colton? Liam?” I call out. There’s no response. I walk to the door of the hotel room and open it. Peeking out, I look for anything to tell me what is going on. Like the room, the hall is completely empty. Closing the door, I walk over to the bed and sit down, racking my brain. I don’t understand. Would they all just leave me here alone? Did I somehow transport myself here?

“You didn’t transport yourself here, dear.”

Jumping off the bed, I whip around and come face to face with Claire. “What happened to me, Claire? What’s going on here? How are you here?”

“I’m dead,” she states. Does that mean…?

“Am I?” I ask. I know that the dagger I pulled out of my body, if that actually happened, was infused with dark magic. Logan’s magic can’t heal dark magic, but maybe he found a way around it.

“You weren’t healed, Ryanne.”

“So I am dead?”

“Not exactly,” she starts. “Do you remember when I told you that not everything is as it seems in the bookstore that first day?” When I nod, she continues, “Well this is one of those situations. Come on, dear. I have much to tell you.”

She starts walking out of the room. I’m not exactly dead? What does that even mean? Claire opens the door and motions for me to follow after her. I stall in the room. Do I want to follow her? “Ryanne,” she calls after me once she’s out of sight.

With a sigh, I decide to follow her. Though I’m slightly afraid, she’s the only one with the answers. Right now, I need those answers.

Kaitlyn Hoyt is the name. Currently a student at Ball State University, she’s aspiring to be a self-published author, while continuing her dream of becoming a wildlife biologist. She loves weird and random moments in life. They keep things interesting. Vegetarian. Proud tree-hugger. Lover of comic book movies. Avid reader. She has an unhealthy love for the soothing music of Josh Groban. Give her anything with pretzels, peanut butter and/or chocolate and she’ll be your best friend.

She currently has four books planned in The Prophesized Series and a possible companion novel. In addition to The Prophesized Series, she’s working on the untitled first book in the Guardians of the Chosen series and two standalone contemporary romance novels.

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