Page 45 of Overwhelmed By Magic

I grab at my neck, horrified that my necklace is gone—the one thing helping me keep my essence in control.

Without it, it’s going to demand to be satisfied by taking whatever it thinks it needs.

Unfortunately, it believes it needs answers.

Well, just one answer.

The truth about what’s in those books that Mother Nature keeps hidden from the rest of the world.

The problem is that there’s only one person that has any semblance of an answer and I am not in control.

Harlow is going to kill me.

29

SKYE

Harlow still hasn’t returned. I think I really scared him. He’s never been this out of control before and not being able to do anything has shaken him. Last night, I was safe and taken care of. But this morning, I think he’s beginning to realize the future we have set in front of us. I don’t see it being a pretty one.

Ambrose hasn’t returned with breakfast, although the others have already eaten. Stellan slipped me a few bites but I’m not as hungry as I thought I’d be, content to wait by the door. Rumi keeps shooting me glances, wondering what the fuck I’m doing but I can’t explain it.

Something is just… wrong.

And when my favorite mage pops up, immediately dragging me down the hall into a corridor I’ve somehow missed, I realize what it is. His rough grip on my skin has me wincing but Ambrose doesn’t register the sound. He chucks me against the wall, crowding my space as his essence flares around me.

I’m caged in by green flames and a mage whose eyes have turned black, looking through me rather than at me. A hand wraps around my throat as his thumb digs into my chin and angles it up so that I can’t look away from him.

“What is going on?” I rasp, clawing at his hand while placing my free one against his chest. In a fight for dominance, I’ll lose but maybe the pressure will bring Ambrose back from whatever hell he’s in right now. It’s very obvious that he’s not currently here with me, that something is keeping him from understanding what he’s doing. “Ambrose… can’t breathe.”

I scratch at the hand, trying to pry it off but his fingers only dig in tighter. “Tell me about the fucking book, little human.” Ambrose snarls in my face, his hair falling around his shoulders so that I can just make the dark glow of his eyes. I thought Harlow was terrifying sometimes. This is a thousand times worse.

“I don’t know anything about it! There weren’t words last time I checked. Why—why are you-” I change my course of action and furiously rub my claim mark, hoping that one of the others will drag Ambrose off of me. It’s becoming hard to breathe as his nose brushes mine but there’s no hope.

The feeling I usually get when I touch that mark isn’t there. I’m just in this little hallway with Ambrose and nothing else.

“Please, Ambrose, please,” I whisper, my voice now hoarse. A few more moments of this and I’m going to pass out. Pure unadulterated essence is just flowing through this space. Ambrose mentioned he was as old as Mother Nature’s gift and I’m wondering if he’s been locked away here since all of this started, before Dmitri. Nothing is grabbing Ambrose’s attention as he starts chanting ‘tell me’ over and over again.

He's long gone, pulling me forward and then roughly thrusting me against the wall. My head lobs back and forth until I’m just a limp mess of pain.

My mind jumps back to those first few moments in my office and what I asked of him. It’s a stupid idea but it might just work. It’s also all I have. “Behave,” I whisper.

Nothing happens at first and then that beautiful pink essence pulls from my wrists, two butterflies fluttering around, lightly touching Ambrose’ unruly dark green cloud. With each point that they connect, Ambrose’s essence lessens a little and his eyes clear until they’re the vibrant dark green I know him for.

“Shit.” Ambrose releases my throat and drops to his knees when I crumple to the ground, struggling to breathe. “Deep breaths, little human. Fuck, I’m so sorry.” He drags me into his lap, holding me close, and as terrified as I am of him in this moment, I need his touch. I also need an explanation. “One of the Magila stole my amulet. I’m not even sure how but without it, controlling my essence is nearly impossible. I’m so sorry.” He runs his nose along my temple, the warmth of his touch soothing the panic as I draw in a ragged breath.

I start hacking at the sweet relief of cold air as it reaches my lungs, Ambrose rocking me against his chest as he whispers his apologies. “Why didn’t my mark work? It should have called them,” I say when I can speak again.

“I know some things but that isn’t one I understand. All I know is that word you said brought me back. I’m not sure it will hold so we can’t stay.” Ambrose presses another kiss to my forehead and I sit up straighter, my eyes falling on the journal a few feet away. I must have dropped it in the commotion but it’s the ink bleeding from the open pages that has me crawling toward it.

“There’s words here. Ambrose—”

“Not here.” I’m dragged down the hall and into Ambrose’s room, a few doors away from Stellan. “As much as I would love to waltz back into that room and hand you over for the relief you need, I can’t be anywhere without that amulet. In here, my essence can’t run wild and I won’t leave you alone even though I’m probably the biggest threat to you.” He runs a hand through his hair as he sits on his mattress while I clutch the open journal to my chest. “Rumi should be here shortly and Harlow. I can feel them but can’t quite reach them. You can stand by the door if you feel safer.”

“This is probably stupid but I don’t feel unsafe around you. The thing that keeps you together was taken from you. I am a little pissed that you tried to suffocate me for answers but not so mad that it overrides my curiosity. It’s a curse and it’ll kill me one day. The only reason I’m not yelling at you is because I want to know what the book says just as much as you do.”

I cough again as I pull the book from my chest and stare at symbols that make no sense to me. Ambrose is staring at my neck, his fingers reaching forward. He did the same thing when that vampire bit me which means there’s a mark. Another one. I hate this.

“Harlow’s classmate, the girl, mentioned that not all of us are rejects. That some of them are here for an agenda, that they don’t belong here but they’re here for some reason. It would explain a few things.”

---