Page 60 of Untraced Magic
I wasn’t one for swearing. Not f-bombs anyway, butthis?This was worthy of every fucking f-bomb ever invented.
Tyler shifted beside me. “Okay, so we have less than a week to get Morgan as ready as possible for twenty-five years of suppressed magic to come at her in a day.”
“And for whatever else may come for her,” added Skye grimly.
The room fell into a deafening silence.
I needed to throw up.
Tyler
Myfeetmovedbeforemy brain could register, bolting out the front door after Morgan, but she was fast and had a head start, already halfway down the street.
Her frame disappeared as she rounded the corner ahead of me, and I pushed harder to close the gap between us. Rounding the same corner, my feet faltered, and I whipped on my heel, throwing my head in every direction to find her. The track was straight from here, but she was nowhere in sight.
I slowed to a stop, searching my surroundings when movement caught my eye, spotting her as she ducked behind a large rock on a rise I knew well.
Veering off the road, I followed the narrow trail that became barely visible, long grass brushing my knees as the wind whipped a path through it. The trail soon turned to rocks, and I placed one foot after the other, carefully judging my next steps.
As I got closer, my body froze, feet nailed in place. Air sucked from my lungs, my chest tightening as I stared at the place that held some of my darkest memories.
Morgan stood at the top of an overhang, a gust of wind trailing her long hair in billows behind her. She was close to the edge. Too close.
“Morgan!” I yelled, and her neck craned to the side, spilling her hair wildly over her face.
Through wisps of hair, even from a distance, I saw the stains of red in her eyes. A life of lies and unanswered questions pooling beneath thick lashes, slowly cascading down her cheeks.
She lowered to the ground, tucking her knees into her chest, staring off into the distance. I needed to get to her.
Letting go of a long breath, my feet clambered up the track as if I were in a dream watching from above, my body lagging like an afterthought. I climbed my way up, settling beside her in silence, a torrent of my own memories rushing at me like a storm’s rogue wave, unexpected and forcefully strong.
Visions of Ava’s funeral forced their way into my thoughts, remembering how the rain had muddied the ground beneath my boots as I’d stood alongside her casket sheltered underneath a black umbrella.
Fuck. I clenched my hands into fists, the urge to paint the sky with fire so strong, it took every inch of my control to contain it.
“Morgan, talk to me,” I choked out, trying to stall my own demons pushing to the surface.
When she spoke, it was to the mountains in the distance, a whisper.
“I just… I just needed to breathe.” Her voice broke. “It’s just, too much. I killed my parents, Ty, and now this? Suddenly I’m a witch… andI have a grandmother. And somewhere out there are mybirthparents. I was barely holding it together, each day molding into the next. But this?… I never thought I would find them.”
I let her soak up the information, breathe it into her lungs. Her new life, that in one week would change, whether she liked it or not.
I focused my breathing. The panic attacks that usually hit in the night, now taking control of me in the worst possible moment. Tear-stained eyes found mine, and I threw my gaze into the distance before they spoke of the storm brewing inside, threatening to break me.
Another vision of Ava’s pale face flashed before me, blood matting her hair from the two puncture holes in her neck. She didn’t deserve to leave this world in such brutality.
“Tyler…?” Morgan said softly, drawing closer.
I slammed my eyes shut.
“Tyler, what is it? What’s wrong?”
One. Breathe in. Two. Breathe out. Three. Breathe in. Four. Breathe out.
No. Not here. Not now. Not like this.
Five. Breathe in. Six. Breathe out.
