Descending Darkness (The Prophesized #3) (4 page)

I walk back downstairs. Hearing voices in the kitchen still, I continue my little tour. The kitchen and dining room are basically one large connected room. Outside of the dining room is the grand living room. It is big enough to hold an entire football team in there. A navy blue couch sits in the middle of the room, and a large fireplace is located to its right. A plasma TV is mounted on the wall directly across the couch. Speakers are discretely placed throughout the room. Surround sound, nice. In the center of the room, beneath a glass coffee table, is a lighter blue rug with soft gold spirals. We’ll have no problems fitting in there. A small bathroom is located just outside the room.

I keep walking and come across a room made up entirely of windows. Two white benches are placed on the left and right side of the room. I’m assuming this is a sun room. I’ve never really understood the point of having a sunroom. In the center of the far wall is a white door leading outside. Opening the door, I am hit with a cool breeze. I love when the weather is like this. When I can wear a sweatshirt and a pair of shorts and be completely comfortable.

With the breeze, I am surrounded by the sounds and the smells of the ocean. I walk out onto the veranda and look around me. The house is built in the sand. Standing on large stilts, the house is raised to protect it in case of storms. The ocean is a little bit away from the house, but it is visible. Large patches of foam line the sandy beaches. Gulls fly around looking for any pieces of food. On the left side, the veranda opens up into a gazebo large enough to fit six people. Lights wrap around the circumference and cascade down all eight posts. This reminds me of the gazebo my mom and I used to go to at home.

Leaning against the railing, I take in the view before me. It appears that we have our own secluded beach. There doesn’t seem to be anyone nearby. I hear the back door open and know who it is before he even speaks. “It’s beautiful out here,” I tell him.

Large arms wrap around my waist from behind. I lean back into his arms, finally letting myself enjoy the security I feel with him. “Yeah, it is. When I was little, my parents and I would take little day vacations to the coast, and we’d just sit along the beach all day, swimming, having a picnic, and playing in the sand. The water was always cold though.” I arch my head up and watch Colton. He smiles as he relives the memories.

“There was one time when my family went out to Ogunquit Beach for a day. David and I swam for a while before we got tired. Boys never tire.” He is staring out at the waves with a small smile on his face. “David fell asleep in the sand, so I went around and collected all the small rocks that I could. I spelled out the word loser on his chest with the rocks. He was asleep for so long that he got sunburned around the words. He was so mad when he woke up. It was hilarious. I got in trouble though, but I know it was just for David’s sake. My dad gave me a high five when he wasn’t looking.”

“I wish I had siblings growing up. Someone to unleash all my inner evil on,” I say.

“Now you’ve got a big family you can unleash it on,” he chuckles.

“Oh, and I plan on doing just that.” I giggle.

Resting his chin on top of my head, we both look out at the ocean, listening as the large waves crash into the shore. As the ocean breeze caresses my skin, I feel myself start to relax. So much has happened lately, it feels nice to just sit back and forget about it all for a moment. Watching the small gulls sweep down and land on the moist sand is soothing. I love being surrounded by nature of any kind.

“Just remember that I’m on your team,” Colton says while tightening his arms around my waist. Because of the fringes on my shirt, I can feel his hands on my skin. His fingers are playfully moving the dangling strings. Thankfully, he has a hold on me, because I’d probably be a puddle on the ground right now.

“I have eighteen years to make up for. There are no teams, buddy.”

Two hours later, we decide that we need to train. Colton is starting to feel better, and I really need to release some magic. Changing into my usual outfit, I skip downstairs with Emma. The guys are already ready. I don’t know where we are going to train. It looks like the backyard is completely covered in trees and sand isn’t stable enough.

“We’ve got to get you some new training outfits,” Colton says when I walk into the living room. I glance down at my black form fitting top and yoga shorts.

“What’s wrong with these? Do I look fat or something?” I hear the guys snicker behind me. “I do look fat, don’t I? You know I was never comfortable wearing these, but that’s all Claire bought me.”

“Ryanne, you don’t look fat,” Colton says while grabbing my hand and following Tom outside. “Just the opposite actually.”

“I’m too skinny? I always thought that I needed to lose a couple of pounds.” I hear Liam start laughing behind me. I turn around and look at him. He looks down at the ground, trying to hide his laugh.

“The outfit is very tight, Ry.”

“Your shirt is very tight too, Colton,” I point out.

“I’m not surrounded by a bunch of girls.”

“Neither am I,” I say. I don’t understand where he is going with this conversation. Liam is having trouble walking because he is laughing so hard. I glance behind me and see Logan and Larkin also laughing. Bragden is shaking his head. Emma is talking quietly to David, oblivious to this conversation.

Colton sighs and shakes his head at me. “Oh, never mind, Ryanne.” Instead of asking him what that was about, I turn and face Tom.

“The owners of this house are also mages. They don’t know who we are, and they don’t know about Ryanne. They just know that we’re using their vacation house for a couple weeks. They needed somewhere to train, so they cleared an area in the forest and built a training center. It’s basically a larger version of the attic.”

I never thought about other mages. I wonder how many there are out there. I know that we’re largely outnumbered, but I never thought about how many there actually were. We stop in front of a small storage barn. This can’t be any longer than a few feet in length and width. There’s no way that we can train in there.

“That’s the large training center?” Emma asks.

“Looks can be deceiving Emma,” Tom says and glances my way. He walks up to the door and pulls it open. I gasp as I see the bright lights. Stepping into the barn, I am overwhelmed by the sight in front of me. This ‘small barn’ is twice the size of the attic. It is built with a similar design. The blue flooring contrasts with the bright red mats lining the walls. A large pile of mats are stacked and pushed up against the far wall. There is a rack on the left wall where the weapons are located. I gasp when I see the equipment pushed against the opposite wall. A gymnastics balance beam, uneven bars and vault are sitting on the floor. They just need to be pulled toward the center of the room to be used. I glance down at the floor and notice the familiar blue material. “This is a spring floor.”

“Yeah, I thought you’d like this. The family who built this have a young daughter who is very interested in gymnastics, but they have an older son who’s into weapons training. So there is equipment here for everyone.” While he talks, I continue to eye the balance beam. “I’m going to stay in here with you guys today, but I think you all know how to train now. I’m basically just going to watch.”

Once Tom is done speaking, we all walk to the middle of the room and start stretching. I sit between Liam and Colton and have just finished stretching my legs when Colton turns toward me. “Go.”

“What?”

His eyes flicker to the area I’ve been staring at since we entered the room. “You’ve been staring at that balance beam since we came in here.
Go
.” I smile at him. I do want to get on the balance beam, just to see if I can still do anything on it. I jump up and jog over there. I stand at the end and assess it. It appears to be the standard four feet tall, four inches wide beam. I glance around until I find the small chalk bucket in the corner. After chalking my hands and feet, I slowly walk over to the balance beam again.

“Do you need help up?” Colton asks.

“No, just keep standing there. I haven’t done this is a very long time. I always preferred to do floor routines,” I tell him. I walk over to the end and place my hands firmly on the suede bar. Jumping, I easily push myself onto it and stand up. Staring down at the beam, I find my center of balance. “I forgot how high these actually were,” I say while looking down at the ground.

Since working with Colton, David, and Liam, I’ve noticed an improvement in my balance…during training. I’m still pretty clumsy, but in training it’s like I’m a whole different person.

Once I am firmly balanced, I take a deep breath. I am just going to do simple moves. I don’t want to push it. Leaning forward, I place my hands on both sides of the beam, making sure I have a tight grip. When my grip is secure, I kick my legs up and do a split handstand. Keeping concentration, I tune out all outside noise. I don’t know if anyone is watching me, and I don’t care. Making sure to keep my body tight, I stay in the handstand for a couple of seconds, before leaning slightly toward my right pinky. My old gymnastics coach warned me that this was a difficult move and not really necessary, but I always wanted to do it. When my balance is steady, I slowly pick up my left hand from the beam and move it outward, supporting all my body weight with one hand. With my arm parallel with the bar, I lean back and finish the move with a walkover.

I walk backward to the end of the beam. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Colton standing there, prepared to catch me if I fall. I don’t look to see if anyone else is watching because I know I will tense up. I lift my arms into the air and take a deep breath. Making sure to keep my balance, I point my right leg forward and jump into an aerial cartwheel. Without stopping, I transition from the cartwheel into a back handspring back layout.

I sway as my feet land on the beam, but I manage to stay on. I smile down at Colton when I hear him laughing beside me. He reaches his arms out to help me off the beam. I jump down and let him catch me. I stumble back into his arms. If he hadn’t been there, I would have landed on my butt. “How is it that you can be that graceful on a four inch beam but can barely walk straight?” David asks me. I look behind Colton. My thoughts are confirmed. Everyone was watching me. I knew it. It’s a good thing I didn’t look while on the beam.

“I’m just that good,” I say.

“Is there anything you can’t do?” Emma asks me.

“Um, I can’t cross my eyes or roll my r’s. I can’t pat my head and rub my stomach at the same time. I end up patting both. See,” I demonstrate. “I can’t rap like you can. I can’t speak Spanish. I can’t go invisible or walk in dreams. I can’t speak with dogs. I can’t grow a couple extra inches. I can’t make the dryer stop eating my socks. I can’t read Chinese or time travel. I can’t make you stop criticizing my wardrobe. I can’t drive a stick-shift. I can’t mmhhh—” Colton places his hand over my mouth stopping my rambling.

“It was a rhetorical question, Ryanne,” he says. Everyone else is laughing at my response. Of course, I knew that it was a rhetorical question, but that’s the fun part—doing things that others wouldn’t.

Taking his hand off my mouth, he pulls me toward the middle of the floor, so I can start sparring. “When someone asks a rhetorical question, they should specify that it is indeed a rhetorical question before they ask it. Like this: the question I’m about to ask doesn’t need to be answered…”

Colton

“I think this might be a form of abuse. I want a divorce,” Ryanne says while lying on her back on the ground breathing heavily. Liam and I are not taking it easy on her because we know her opponents won’t. We push her to her limits, but she is improving. Her hits are starting to hurt me. She is anticipating what we are going to do next. Soon, she’ll need to train with someone else. She is getting too familiar with us.

“I think that’s good for today. Let’s head back,” Tom says. He’s been sparring with Logan and Bragden. “I think Ryanne is dying over there.” She tries laughing, but it comes out very strained. Liam and I stand up and reach down to help her up. She laughs and waves us off. She’s so stubborn.

Slowly, she stands up and glares at Liam and me. “I wonder how difficult it would be to learn voodoo. That sounds like a really good idea right now,” she mumbles as she walks past us. She pulls her hair out of its messed-up bun. It falls down to her mid-back in a curly mess. Running a hand through it, she runs up to talk with Emma and David. My eyes follow her as she starts laughing at something David said.

“She seems to be handling everything well,” Liam says as he matches my stride. We are the last ones to leave the training room.

Closing the door behind me, I reply. “She really is actually. I’m pretty surprised. I was expecting her to freak out, not accept it so easily.”

“Toy Story!” David yells. Ryanne winks at him before she runs up to Bragden. The wind starts picking up, so we know Ryanne is calling magic to her. Bragden jumps and stares at her. When she starts giggling and jogging backward, he begins chasing her. She spins around and runs toward the house. Wow, she actually is fast.

Liam doesn’t ask me any more questions about Ryanne, which is one of the things I like about him. He doesn’t need to know every little aspect of everything. Emma is always asking me questions about Ryanne because she won’t say much. Liam knows what questions to ask and when to ask them. We start jogging to catch up to everyone. When we get to the backyard, we see Ryanne standing on the veranda and Bragden standing at the bottom of the stairs, scowling at her.

Bragden turns toward me. “She shocked me again.”

“She’s got eighteen years of evil to unleash. I wouldn’t mess with her,” I tell him.

“You really should listen to him,” Ryanne says with a muffled voice. She’d put a shield up to keep Bragden from getting to her. Bragden looks back at Ryanne, who isn’t grinning at him anymore. She pursed her lips out and is batting her eyelashes at him, trying to look innocent. It would be hard to stay mad at her when she’s giving you that look. He shakes his head at her, but says with a sigh, “Fine. I give up…for now.”

Ryanne lets go of the shield but jumps out of the way. Bragden walks slowly past her, eyeing her the entire way into the house. When he makes it inside, I reach out and lace my fingers with hers. Pulling her close to me, I lean over and whisper, “You want trouble, don’t you?” 

“Just trying to keep things interesting.”

Thirty minutes later, we are all changed and downstairs in the kitchen. Tom ordered a pizza while we were all changing. Much to my dismay, Ryanne didn’t change back into the fringe top she was wearing earlier. She is now wearing a large t-shirt that she probably stole from one of the guys. I’ll have to talk to her. I don’t like her wearing other guys’ clothing. If she wants to wear something that is too big for her, she can wear something of mine.

Tom brings in four pizzas. We guys could eat all them ourselves. We let Ryanne and Emma grab their pieces before we start eating. Ryanne grabs one, while Emma takes two. “That’s all you want?” I ask her.

She sits down beside me. “Yeah, I’m not really that hungry.”

“Ryanne, you need to eat more than that. You just exercised a lot.” She bites into her piece and rolls her eyes at me. I know she thinks I worry too much. When she finishes that piece, I place another on her plate. She glares at me, but eats the piece anyway.

“You’re trying to make me fat,” she mumbles. “Why do we exercise and then eat fattening food?”

Emma laughs and says, “We exercise
so
we can eat fattening food. Who cares about being fit? I want to eat chocolate and not gain weight.”

“That makes sense. I’ve been looking at it wrong this whole time,” she says while finishing off the second piece. I pick up her plate and put it in the sink. She thanks me before turning back to Emma.

“Ryanne, when did you take gymnastics?” she asks.

“Um, I started when I was seven and was in it for almost ten years. I quit when my mom died because I couldn’t afford to stay in anymore.”

“No offense, but you really don’t look like a gymnast. You’re small and skinny like one, but you’re…”

“I’ve got curves. I know. I didn’t have them when I was in gymnastics,” she laughs. “I was training for hours every day after school and on weekends. You have to sacrifice a lot to be a competitive gymnast which is why I didn’t really miss it when I stopped. I love gymnastics, but I love having a life more.”

“Ryanne in a leotard…hmm…” Larkin says. She reaches over and slaps him in the chest. I’m glad that she hit him. Otherwise I would have had to do it. He doesn’t need to think about her like that. He isn’t her soulmate; I am. However, I understand because I am having trouble keeping the mental image out of my mind.

“You always have to go there, don’t you?” she asks him.

“Yes,” he says, winking at her. I glare at him. When he sees my expression, his smile widens. Ryanne glances over at me and starts laughing. When she sits back down, I reach over and pull her closer to me.

Ryanne leans over and whispers in my ear, “You know he’s just flirty. There’s nothing to be jealous of.” Her lips brush against my ear. I want to pull her closer and kiss her right then, but I know she would be embarrassed by the public display.

“I’m not jealous,” I say through clenched teeth. She laughs and faces the table again. David looks over and shakes his head. He knows what I am going through. Despite not knowing, I’m pretty sure he and Emma are soulmates. They’re perfect for each other.

“Has anyone seen Olive recently?  I don’t think I’ve seen her all day,” Ryanne says. She gets out of the chair and walks out of the room to search for her cat. Before leaving, she pats Bragden on the back. He jumps away from her touch and stares at her as she skips away laughing.

“I don’t know when she’s going to do something. I want to be prepared.” he says.

“You won’t know when she’s going to do it until she does it,” I tell him.

“That girl…” Bragden says while shaking his head. I laugh at him and turn as Olive runs into the room, going straight for her food bowl.

“Emma forgot to take her off the bed this morning. It’s too high for her to jump down.”

Emma cringes and looks down at Olive. “Sorry sweetie.”

“She said it’s okay, but she’ll use your legs as a scratching post next time it happens,” Ryanne tells her.

“Evil kitty,” Emma mumbles. “She reminds me of someone.” Emma whips her head around and glares accusingly at Ryanne.

“I don’t know who you’re talking about,” she says while leaning back against me. A couple seconds later, she gets back up and walks out of the room.

“Now, where is she going?”

“I don’t know,” I tell them. I really don’t. She returns to the room a couple seconds later, holding the sketchbook I bought her. Sitting back down in the chair, she opens to the first page and starts drawing. We are all watching her. She is acting strange and that usually doesn’t turn out well. After a minute, I start to recognize the image she is drawing—another door.

“Ryanne, don’t finish that drawing.”

“I can’t. You don’t understand. I’m not really drawing this. My hand is doing all the work. I can’t stop it.” She looks toward me while her hand continues to draw the door. “There’s something happening right now, and I’m needed where this door is located.”

“Can you follow me there? Just in case I need help?” she asks Larkin. He nods and walks behind me, waiting for her to finish.

“I don’t like this,” I tell her right as her hand stops moving. She doubles over and grunts in pain. Why does it have to cause her pain? A couple seconds later, she disappears. Larkin grabs the notebook and studies it before transporting out of the room, following Ryanne.

I get up and start pacing, waiting for her to safely come back to me.

*****

I don’t recognize the house I am transported to. It looks familiar, though I’m not sure why. Since it’s dark outside, I can’t effectively assess my surroundings. I slowly walk up to the navy door and knock. Tuning out all the environmental sounds around me, I listen for what is on the opposite side of this door. No one answers, but I think I can hear talking inside the house. I twist the golden doorknob, but it’s locked. The sound of glass shattering filters outside and then someone screams. Larkin blinks in behind me. “It’s locked,” I tell him.

“No problem.” He grabs me and pushes me behind him. Larkin takes a step forward and kicks the door down. It slams into the wall with a loud bang. That’s impressive. I try not to jump at the sudden sound, but I do. Larkin smirks when he sees my reaction. I roll my eyes and look back towards the door.

What I see when we enter the house surprises me. The room is a mess. Broken pieces of glass are all over the ground from the fallen lamps. The couch is overturned and pushed against the wall. I feel my eyes widen when I see the three people in the room. Natasha is asphyxiating Conner and Natalie. She’d attack her own family? Her own twin? Without thinking, I run and tackle Natasha while throwing up a shield around Conner, Natalie, and Larkin. I place a small one around myself. “Larkin, get them out of here!” I yell to him.

“I’m not leaving you here,” he tells me.

“Take them now!” I scream as Natasha shoves me off of her. I do a backward roll and stand up. “Now!” Larkin grabs onto Natalie and transports her out of the room. Conner remains on the ground, coughing, trying to catch his breath. I understand what it feels like as I’ve experienced it a few times myself. Natasha runs for me. She is trying to use her magic on me, but because of my shield, it isn’t working.

I duck her attack and swing around, slamming my body weight into her. Knocking her to the ground again, I try to knock her out, but she throws me off of her. I roll to the side, hitting the edge of a display case. It shakes and sways. I roll out of the way as it starts falling. The case hits the ground with a loud thud and glass from the windows on the doors shatter and fly in all directions. I cover my head to keep from being hit with the fragments.

Glass embeds itself into my forearms and legs. Though my arms are covering my face, I feel a shard knick my cheek. Warm, wet blood starts dripping down the right side of my face. Natasha comes toward me again. I jump back up and swing my leg out, knocking her in the head. She falls to the ground but doesn’t stay there for long.

Larkin blinks back into the room and grabs Conner. He glances over at me but leaves again. I drop the shield around the room, since it is no longer necessary. I call magic into my limbs right as Natasha pushes herself off of the ground and faces me again.

“I’m getting really tired of you,” she tells me while trying to punch me.

I duck to avoid her fist, and then swing my leg out, knocking her off balance. “I’m not too fond of you either.” I grunt as she punches me in the stomach when I stand back up. Without pause, she leans back and kicks me in the shoulder, throwing me into the wall. I hiss as my head cracks against its surface and I slump to the ground. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a lamp on a small side table. I blink the dizziness away as she starts stalking toward me again. With my magic, I reach out for the lamp beside me and picture it knocking Natasha out.

I push more magic toward it as she gets closer. “Dravin will love to know that I found you. He’ll be here any minute.” I glance over at the lamp which is now vibrating on the table. Pushing a little more magic toward it, I turn toward Natasha. Since I am focusing so much on the lamp, I drop my shield. Natasha smiles at me as I start to lose my breath. I still concentrate on the lamp. It is shaking more violently now. Why is this taking so long?