Page 55 of Magic Claimed

He took my hand in a trembling grip. “Promise?” This was no longer the cool, chill, rebellious teen, but a kid who was terrified to lose the sense of safety we’d worked so hard to build from the wreckage of our lives.

I couldn’t let that happen, so I squeezed his fingers and shut my eyes. “Promise.”

We pulled away from the curb, and Kira proceeded to break every speed limit in existence on her way towards The Assemblage. She weaved through traffic like a racecardriver, somehow managing not to get pulled over or hit anyone. So when she slammed on the brakes—sliding across the asphalt with a screech of protest from her tires—I assumed it was because we had arrived.

But when I opened my eyes…

She’d just made the left turn onto Sheridan and been forced to stop for pedestrians racing towards us down the middle of the street. A railroad bridge crossed over Sheridan only a few yards ahead, and at least twenty or thirty people huddled beneath it, phones out, pointing at the sky. Horns behind us were honking, but there was nowhere to go. Our road ahead was blocked both by people on foot and—beyond the bridge—several abandoned cars skewed across lanes, their doors open, but with no drivers in sight.

“What in the world…” Kira pulled over to the side as far as she could before parking and looking back at me. “I’ll go check this out. You stay put.”

No. We could hear people screaming now, but it wasn’t much farther to Callum. Only a block. I could walk it.

“We stay together,” I whispered, and Logan swiftly agreed.

“I can help,” he said. “I don’t want you to leave us here.”

“Okay, then,” Kira said grimly. “But you’ll have to stay close. Keep up, and watch your back. Be ready to use your earth magic if you have to.”

He nodded, looking so serious and grown up it made my heart hurt.

Somehow, with Logan’s help, I made it out of the car and struggled to stay upright as the world tried to tilt sideways.Inside was still a bizarrely chaotic mish-mash of emotions, but I refused to let the onslaught beat me. I had people to protect. Callum might need me, and I couldn’t leave him like this.

So as I stood there in the midst of chaos, both within and without, I began to build a wall around the power surging wildly at my core. I built it high and firm, envisioning bricks stacking up as I blocked off that part of myself long enough to focus.

Somewhere up ahead, there was a threat to the people I cared about. Everyone around us was running from it, but it currently stood between me and where I needed to go.

Between me and Callum. Between me and The Portal.

So whatever this threat was, I was just going to have to deal with it.

“Uh, Raine?”

Logan still held my arm, but he’d taken a step back and was watching me with something more like uncertainty than concern.

I looked down. My hands were normal. My clothes were fine.

“Your hair,” he said. “And your eyes.”

I reached up to touch my hair and found that it had lifted away from my head. Power crackled between the strands and buzzed against my fingertips. And my eyes? Probably glowing with magic, the same way Idrians’ did when they used their power.

Worrying? Yes, but that was a problem for future me.

“Let’s go see what’s wrong,” I said, and my voice… It sounded deeper, stronger, wilder. As if oceans crashed and roared somewhere within my chest.

I didn’t have time to wonder what it meant. I just stepped forward and pressed through the crowd, brushing past terrified humans huddled together in fear of whatever awaited us.

Kira walked beside me, her own eyes glowing furious amber, and behind us were Logan and Ethan. I distantly recalled Kes’s warning—that she had no idea what Ethan’s magic would do if we were threatened—but it was too late to send him away. Too late to do anything but move forward and deal with the consequences as they came.

Moving together, we reached the edge of the huddled crowd, moved out from under the shadow of the railroad bridge, and looked up…

…and saw the threat plummeting out of the sky directly towards us.

Huge. Dark. Unstoppable. Winged and taloned, with its mouth agape, ready to spew fire.

I froze. Unable to believe what I was seeing.

It couldn’t be.