Page 66 of Unhinged Magic
I was nothing more than a snake. A slimy, deceitful thing dragging through the moments between dusk and dawn. I didn’t deserve to be alive.
Days molded into nights, liquor and cigarettes my faithful friends. Anything to rid me of the guilt crushing my chest. The thoughts contaminating my mind.
I’d left Cutters Cove. There was no other option. I couldn’t stay after kidnapping the woman Ty loved, then handing her straight into the arms of danger. They didn’t deserve that, not at all.
Turned out the woman from the cafe that left the note for me was Morgan’s mother, and somehow, she knew my biggest secret: that, not only could I sense magic, but siphon it. She had done her homework. Asked the right people the right questions, namely an elder. Because it was a given that elders knew of every kind of magic in a bloodline. If you were caught with a stem of magic not disclosed to them, there were harsh penalties.
Information like that wasn’t something an elder would hand out to just anyone though. This woman had been calculated, and I imagined she had resorted to extremes to put her plan into action. I doubted we would ever truly know the extent of it.
I had kept the fact I could siphon magic from my closest friends, more to protect them than anything. Because anyone with my gift was a target for this very reason.
Able to be threatened, just as I had been.
But loves makes people do strange things.
I hadn’t realized the power Morgan held. To be fair, I don’t think she knew herself.
But when I siphoned her magic from her, I felt it all, and fuck if it wasn’t the single most addictive thing in the world, even when my hand was being forced. I could barely contain it, but as it slipped out of my hands and back into her when my concentration was broken, I was thankful for Ty’s perfectly-timed arrival. My out.
The aftereffects, however, would be everlasting.
My friendships. The love of my life.Skye.
I hated not seeing her. Not knowing she was okay. I knew in my heart she wasn’t, and that she wouldn’t understand any of it. But I couldn’t forewarn her of this. It was her own life at stake, and the slightest glitch could have cost us the rest of our lives.
I didn’t expect her forgiveness but hoped one day she could see my actions for what they were. A man caught between a rock and hard place, fighting for love.
I craned my neck as the back door of a seedy bar swung open. A couple stumbled outside into the back lane close to where I sat. The woman’s light laugh echoed into the empty lane as a guy walked her back against the opposite wall. I watched as he pushed himself against her. Something stirred inside me, the desire to hold Skye again making me want to palm my dick and watch. I rested my elbows on my bent knees, taking another drink from the liquor bottle, my gaze traveling back to them.
There was something about watching desire take hold of two people and bend them to its will. You can deny chemistry all you want, but fighting it is like trying to hold off a fucking orgasm.
He was taller than her, but not by much, his build wider than hers by another half. I reached out with my magic and found nothing. Humans. What a joke. They would never experience the touch of a fated mate, and yet still I watched as the light-haired frat boy groped the poor girl’s tits, plastering his face on hers. She didn’t seem to mind as she kissed him back, until his hands travelled south, trying to pull up her dress. She swiped his hand away, a nervous laugh coming from her this time, a few notes higher than before. He tried again, and she told him to stop, but his persistence didn’t wane.
A flare of anger brought me to my feet, my fingers wrapped tightly around the bottle of liquor. “Hey!” I called out. “The woman said stop.”
The piece of scum side-eyed me, his scrutiny moving over my form which I knew looked like shit.
“Fuck off man, we’re having a good time,” frat guy said, turning his attention back to the woman who fumbled with the hem of her dress.
My eyes narrowed. “Doesn’t look like a good time for her.”
“She wouldn’t be out here if she didn’t want it,” the sleaze sneered.
I saw red.
He shouldn’t assume just because she was there he had the green light. He had no right to think that. Her body. Her decision.
Taking the final swig from my empty bottle, I dumped it in the nearby trash, moving toward them. “The woman said stop,” I repeated.
The fucking prick laughed.
An uncomfortable coil wound itself inside me. I wanted to teach this guy a lesson in ways I had taught no one before. I sauntered closer, unsteady confidence filling my alcohol-fueled steps.
“Your vision,” I drawled, pausing to inspect him closer. I cocked my head to the side, my magic preening at the thoughts spilling through my mind. “How much is it worth to you? Because if you don’t leave the woman alone, I’ll leave you blind as a bat.”
“Bats aren’t blind,” the creep retorted.
I cracked my thumb before clenching my hand into a tight fist. “But you will be.”
