Page 32 of Untraced Magic (Cutters Cove Witches #1)
Morgan
The thuds came in forceful pounds. Solid. Rhythmic. Becoming erratic. Voices came and went, blurred. I couldn’t make out words. Muted behind the thumping. The pounding .
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Each became a part of me, a stamp on my soul.
I willed myself to open my eyes with everything I had. Every part of me ached as I forced them to widen, but my lids held tight, as heavy as my weighted limbs, like an anchor dropped to the ocean floor, buried in the earth.
“Let me out! Somebody, help me!” I shrieked, slamming my fists against the walls that bound me inside myself. “Can anyone hear me?” I screamed, my voice vibrating my skull. “Help!” I tried again, kicking and punching the barrier that held me at ransom.
What felt like minutes could have been hours, terror building to a point where I could fight no longer.
My breathing hollowed.
How could I be trapped inside myself?
Flashes of black and white pushed to the surface. Like old movies, running on a static player .
Memories.
The cave. A beach. A bonfire.
More flashes.
Tyler.
His face forced to the front of my mind, and it was then I understood the thuds. They were his. I could hear his heart, feel his fear scraping my own.
My mate.
A storm formed within me, one light, one dark. Like two worlds colliding, fighting for one universe. Then it slammed into me.
I cried out as an intense heat pummeled my spine, like flesh stripping from my bones piece by piece. My back arched against the pain, to the point where I questioned if my spine had snapped, and I locked into a curl against the force building within me.
Then came the heat . Firing through my veins, it raced its own path into every part of me, filling me with a searing pain so hot I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t scream. Curled so tight, I couldn’t move. At some point, it mellowed, eventually turning into a warm buzz, as if it were speaking to me.
A warmth. A power. A possession.
Magic.
It spoke to me in a voice I couldn’t place.
To keep you safe, it had to be
A power I could not foresee
Magic will be soon unbound
She must be stopped, must be foun d
It no longer burned but hummed through my veins. A newfound presence that had become a part of me.
I felt alive.
Pressure lay on my arm, firm and with purpose.
Wesley’s voice registered in my mind. “It’s her magic,” I heard him say. “It’s here. Betty was right. She’s a very powerful witch.”
“Morgan,” Tyler’s voice tore through my senses, scalding my insides in a good way.
It tugged me from the inside, willing me to open my eyes, and my body responded, his voice my command.
Forced from my stupor, I dragged an arm onto my chest, and it was captured instantly, an immediate calm settling over me at his touch.
“It’s Tyler. Can you hear me? Are you hurt?” Concern flooded his face, his steel grays darkening and seizing my world entirely. His voice was both a comfort and safety net, blanketing around me at once.
I tried to speak, but a breath of barely-there air was all I could take. “Tyler.”
“There she is.” He smiled down at me.
He brushed the hair from my face, his hands settling against the side of my cheek.
“You had us worried there for a minute. Are you okay?”
I glanced up at him, his features surrounded by bursts of light nestled in the ashen sky .
A part of me wouldn’t believe the emotion stirring in his features, a delicate twist of fear and… love?
Muscular arms wrapped around me as he sat me up against his chest.
He whispered in my ear, “Don’t do that to me again, please. I thought I’d lost you.”
I didn’t have the strength to move, only able to snuggle into his arms further, embracing his body heat.
His hand ran the length of my arm, sending a shiver through me, his touch intensified no doubt by this mate bond he had mentioned as it warmed every part of me.
My magic swam in my veins like it had been there the whole time, and it possibly had. But I felt it owning me, claiming me for the first time. It was both liberating and overwhelming all these new things .
I didn’t know if it was a feeling, an emotion or a presence. It just was .
“I can feel my magic,” I breathed into the side of his face.
A caress of his thumb skirted over my jaw. “It’s always been there, Morgan; you were born with it. Now, rest.”
Sinking against his chest, I succumbed to exhaustion.