Page 27 of Kingdom of Chaos (Creatures of Chaos #2)

Seventeen

“This is pointless.”

We’ve been trying to tap into my supposed magic for at least an hour, and none of Talon’s directions, suggestions, or instructions have worked.

He explained different techniques to summon it, describing how to reach for the power inside me, but every time I follow his lead, I don’t feel so much as a flicker of magic, and with every passing minute I become more convinced he is wrong about me having powers.

“You’re not trying,” Talon accuses, and I glare at him.

“That’s not true. I’ve done everything you asked. Nothing’s working. I don’t feel anything.”

“It’s because you’re not letting yourself feel it,” Talon says. “You’re scared, so you’re standing in your own way.”

“I’m not scared!” I snap.

Talon presses his lips into a hard line but doesn’t argue. His gaze sharpens, calculating, and the look on his face makes my stomach tighten.

“Close your eyes,” he says.

“Why?”

The way he’s watching me makes me uneasy, and I take a step back.

“I want to try something,” he replies, stepping forward and reclaiming the space between us.

I narrow my eyes at him, suspicion prickling beneath my skin. As much as I want to trust Talon, too many half-truths and buried secrets still hang between us. Some part of me refuses to let my guard down completely.

“Please?” he asks, his voice quiet.

I let out a heavy sigh. “Fine. But if this doesn’t work, I’m going back. I might be able to squeeze in another hour or two of sleep before everyone wakes up.”

Reluctantly, I close my eyes, just like he asked, and wait for whatever it is he plans to do.

Seconds tick by in silence.

He doesn’t speak. Doesn’t move.

I start to shift, about to ask what’s going on, when his deep voice finally washes over me.

“I want you to take it all in,” he says, his voice a smooth rumble just to the side of me. Not close enough for me to feel his breath, but near enough that I could reach out and touch him. It makes me feel exposed in a way I don’t entirely hate, and that’s confusing.

“What do you hear? Feel? Smell?”

I want to roll my eyes and call this stupid, but I tamp down the instinct to push back, and force myself to try.

Drawing in a slow breath of muggy air, I wrinkle my nose at the scent of stagnant swamp water and damp cypress trees. Frogs croak in the distance, and a soft breeze stirs the trees around us.

“Anchor yourself to the ground. Know that it’s solid and will support you. Imagine roots growing from the soles of your feet and tunneling into the soil beneath you, securing you in place.”

I don’t know where he’s going with this or how it could possibly be helping, but I obey him and imagine roots.

“Know that you are safe, and strong.”

The words strike a tender place inside me.

Safe. Strong .

Two things that I’ve struggled to feel my whole life.

“Now look inside yourself,” Talon says, his voice no louder than a whispered murmur. “Picture that inner strength. Where does it live? What does it look like?”

With my eyes still closed, I imagine diving inside my own body, flowing through the different parts of me, finally funneling to my heart, where there’s a pulsating ball of silver and gold threads.

It feels like the strands are knotted in a way they shouldn’t be, so without any more prompting from Talon, I imagine the threads untangling.

Talon gasps softly beside me, but I’m too focused on the unraveling to fully register it.

“That’s it,” he says, voice low and encouraging, like he can somehow see what I’m doing.

It takes several long minutes, but eventually the knots come free. The threads flow outward from the center of me, spreading through my body like veins of light. A soft glow radiates from within, head to toe.

It’s beautiful. At least in my mind’s eye.

Who knew I had such a vivid imagination?

“Open your eyes, Freckles,” Talon says, and my heart stutters at the sound of the nickname he hasn’t used in days.

I let my lids drift open and my breath catches.

We’re wrapped in shadows so dense I can’t see the trees or the sky anymore. The world beyond us has vanished, swallowed in darkness. But we’re not alone in the void. Threads of silver and gold float around between us, glowing softly, pulsing in time with the beat of my heart.

I follow a few of the strands and realize they’re flowing out from me, reaching across the shadows and attaching to Talon, tethering us together.

Just like they did the night of the final Chaos trial.

With a gasp, I step back and swipe my arm through the air between us, trying to sever the threads. The last time we were connected like this, Shadow Striker was transferring its magic from Talon to me, and it nearly killed him. But before I can do anything more, Talon catches my wrist, stopping me.

“It’s okay. You’re not hurting me,” he says.

“What’s happening?” I ask, my voice barely above a whisper.

“This is your magic.”

I trace a golden strand from my fingertip to Talon’s. The glow from the threads between us casts a warm light across him, making his storm-colored eyes look almost silver and softening the bronze of his skin, giving it a luminous, ethereal quality.

The shadows swirl around us like a living current, and I can’t help but get lost in the beauty of the moment. In the magic. My magic.

“How is this even possible?” I whisper, looking up into his eyes, breathless with awe. “I’m human. This shouldn’t be real.”

Somehow, we’ve moved closer without me noticing, like the threads connecting us have drawn us together. We’re not touching, but we’re close. So close I can see the striations in his eyes, starbursts of deep blue radiating from a metallic-gray center.

“With you,” he murmurs, lifting a hand to gently trace the curve of my cheek, “anything is possible.”

I catch my breath as Talon’s fingers glide beneath my chin, gently tipping my head back.

My world narrows to just the two of us as he gently tucks my hair behind my ear.

His fingers trail over the curve of it, lingering for a breath, then slide to the back of my head, where his palm settles with quiet intent.

The magic churning around and through me silences everything, stealing away any thought beyond this moment.

His other hand brushes against my hip before sliding to the small of my back. His touch is steady, grounding, and when he draws me closer, I go without resistance.

The shadows respond to the shift in us. They swirl faster, circling in an unseen breeze that lifts strands of our hair and makes them dance around us.

I’m only dimly aware of it, the edges of the world blurring, because all I can focus on is the warmth of Talon’s body and the way the space between us disappears.

When he lowers his head, a rush of emotion, sharp and consuming, stirs in me. It’s not the same as what I feel for Becks, but it’s just as powerful. In some ways, it’s more intense.

More immediate.

More dangerous.

More—

Becks.

Cold dread shoots through me, and with Talon’s mouth only inches from mine, I shove against him.

My gaze snaps to Talon’s eyes and I see confusion there a second before his features go blank and his arm disappears from around me. I stumble back. The shadows that isolated us dissipate, scattering into the dark night as the threads of magic that connected us shatter and then dissolve like mist.

The space between us is all at once too wide and not wide enough.

Adrenaline rushes through me, leaving my body trembling. What I’d almost given in to—what I’d almost done —would have been unforgivable.

I love Becks. I always have. And he deserves better than this.

But I can’t pretend what just happened with Talon didn’t mean something. That it didn’t shake me.

I open my mouth, fumbling for an explanation I haven’t even formed yet, but Talon lifts a hand to stop me.

“It’s late. Dawn’s coming. We should get back before anyone notices we’re gone.”

I search his face, hoping to read something, anything, but as usual his expression is carefully composed, so neutral it makes me question if the last few minutes even happened at all.

Then, just before he looks away, a trace of emotion slips through.

And I know he felt it too.

He didn’t mean for me to see it, I’m sure of that. But it was there. As skilled as Talon is at hiding his emotions, I caught a glimpse of his truth for the briefest moment. Longing and pain, tangled together.

And I have no idea what to do with it.

I nod, not knowing what else to say, and we start back toward the house, moving silently through the sparse trees and over soggy ground. The quiet between us isn’t easy. It hangs heavy, thick and suffocating like the humid air pressing in around us.

I want to break the tension, but the words won’t come. So instead, I shove thoughts of Talon and Becks into the back of my mind and force myself to focus on the one thing I can’t ignore.

What I learned tonight.

I have magic .

It may be borrowed. Or technically stolen ? I don’t really know. But it’s real. And it’s mine. At least for now.

Now that I know it’s there, I can feel it, buried beneath my rib cage, right where I imagined the raveled ball of silver and gold threads.

I start to experiment reaching for it when Talon stops, going stock still. His head is tilted in a way that makes me think he’s listening for something. There’s a frown on his face and his brows are pinched.

“Talon, what?—?”

When he looks at me, he’s alarmed. He puts a finger up to his lips, gesturing for me to be quiet. Seconds pass and he doesn’t move. He just stands there. Listening. It starts to freak me out.

I’m a heartbeat away from breaking the silence when a low, muffled rumble of an engine reaches my ears.

I tilt my head, straining to catch more.

This place is isolated, and the house is at least a mile from the main road.

It’s too far for us to be hearing just a passing car.

The engine cuts off abruptly, followed by the unmistakable thunk of car doors opening and then slamming shut.