Page 12
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KAIDEN
I remove my fingers from Emberlynn’s temples, my hands noticeably trembling. “Whatever it is, it’s gone now,” I tell Nico while keeping my attention on Emberlynn.
She’s lying on the elevator floor, her dark, wavy locks spread out like a halo around her head.
Nico is crouched beside us, holding her hand. “Are you sure?”
“I’m positive.” Not a drop of doubt is in me that whatever dark entity was inside her mind is gone now, because I felt it when it appeared and the coldness it swept in the air is no longer present. “We should get off the elevator and take the stairs.”
We had pushed the emergency button when Emberlynn had first collapsed to avoid any humans getting on. If they’d seen what was happening, we would’ve had to have erased their minds, and we’ve already used too much magic on this journey as it is.
“Good idea.” Nico begins to slip his arms underneath her to scoop her up.
“I can get her,” I insist and, surprisingly, he easily allows me.
Maybe he can sense the hitch in my voice connected to the fear over the fact that I had to use my darkness on our heart . The voice that was inside her head was darkness, and in order to get rid of it, I needed to match it.
I loathe using my powers. One wrong move, and I could’ve sent Emberlynn’s mind into a nightmare she couldn’t get out of. Or worse—I could’ve ruined her soul. But letting the entity consume her mind would’ve been worse. Darkness is the best way to fight darkness. Still, I don’t ever want to do it again.
“We need to figure out what that was,” I say as I gently pick up Emberlynn. My chest constricts as she curls against me, as if I’m the safest thing in the world.
I’m not.
Not even close.
But I want to be for her.
Still, closeness, the warmth of another, isn’t something I’m used to, and I feel unnervingly out of my element as I carry her out of the elevator. We’re on the sixth floor, so it takes us a few minutes to walk downstairs. If we were back home, we’d use magic to teleport.
I really don’t understand how humans live without magic. Everything is so complicated, and it makes me wonder how exhausting my heart’s life has been for the last seventeen years or so.
Nico texted Wylder and Phoenix while we headed down to tell them to pull the SUV up to the stairway entrance. I assume they’re panicking, and my assumption is confirmed when we push out of the metal doors and step into the icy breeze plaguing the outdoors. Leaves are fluttering through the air like birds, and gray clouds billow around the sky.
“What the hell happened?” Phoenix shouts as he jogs toward us.
Wylder is hopping out of the driver’s side of the SUV, and his eyes widen in horror as he takes sight of Emberlynn, passed out in my arms.
“I’ll explain in the car.” I swing around Phoenix and stride toward our vehicle, wanting to get the hell out of here.
“Is she doing this?” Nico calls out over the howling wind as he chases after me.
“I think so,” I say as Wylder opens the back door for me. I maneuver her inside and lay her down in the back seat. Then I turn to Wylder. “Use your power to comfort her and maybe lull her mind to sleep a bit”—my gaze strays to the sky as lights swirl with the clouds— “before the storm gets out of hand.”
Nodding, he jumps into the back seat and carefully lifts Emberlynn’s head so he can rest it on his lap. Once he’s situated, he smooths his fingers across her forehead and whispers something. And just like that, the wind fizzles down, the sun peeks out from the clouds and leaves flutter to the ground.
The four of us trade a look, all our expressions revealing the same worry. Our heart is powerful. More powerful than she might even realize. I worry I may be right about her being an insania . It could put her in danger if the wrong witch or warlock finds out. They could use it to make her do awful things.
It makes me question if perhaps that’s why we were told she was dead.
Maybe someone was trying to make it so she wouldn’t be found.