Page 250 of Midnights
It’s him. I know it’s him.
“No!...” The whisper slips from my lips as my body surrenders. But a wild force flares inside me, fighting back. And it’s furious.
Fight.
I feel it snap like a whip. A last, desperate pulse of resistance and lightning strikes. So close I feel the heat in the air between us. The deafening BOOM rattles through me, and the tree beside us explodes into splinters.
My knees buckle and I can feel the fire inside me sputter while his magic presses in harder. It wraps around me like a weighted blanket I can’t shake off.
“I’ve got you.”
The words sink into me, pulling me deeper. Dragging me under.
The storm, the pain, the fire. All of it fades.
The darkness closes in, and his voice is the last thing I hear before everything goes quiet.
Chapter 42
Flashback
Raven
The sunlight dances on the surface of the lake, sparkling like a thousand tiny diamonds, casting patterns across the rippling water. The frigid waves lap against my skin that are sharp and biting at first, but their rhythm pulls me into a strange, focused calm.
I’ve done this enough times now, that the initial shock of the cold barely lingers.
The faster I steady my breathing, the quicker I can cross the lake and back. And then I can get out.
The freezing water claws at my skin, but I push through it. My legs kick harder, propelling me forward as the cold steals what little strength I have. Every inhale burns in my chest, and every exhale hangs in the crisp morning air around me.
On the shore, I can see my grandfather standing with his eyes locked on me. He's staring at me with that same intensity that somehow feels both comforting and demanding. “Come on, Raven!” His voice rips through the cold. “You’re stronger than this.”
My muscles scream in protest and my body's begging me to stop, but I don’t. I can’t. He always said he’d teach me about control, though I'm still not sure how that translates to hypothermia drills, but here we are.
My hand finally brushes against the icy gravel on the shore, and I slowly drag myself out of the water. My body trembles violently as the cold burrows deeper into my bones. My teeth chatter so hard I’m sure they’ll crack.
My grandfather's right there, wrapping a thick blanket around my shoulders, pulling me close. His warmth is immediate, and I can't help but relax into him. “Good job, Bird,” he murmurs. His voice carries that familiar warmth that somehow makes everything feel okay.
I nod, too breathless and frozen to respond. Thank God that's over.
“See? You’re stronger than you think.” The edge fades from his voice as his hand settles firm against my shoulder. “It’s about control. You must keep trying.”
The walk back home is quiet, and the only sound is the crunch of gravel under our boots. When he finally speaks, his tone is thoughtful.
“You know, sometimes we have to face the things we fear most to figure out who we really are.”
I drift in and out of consciousness, and time loses all meaning. Minutes? Hours? It all bleeds together into something strange and surreal.
Voices hum in the background, but they're muffled and I can't make out anything specific. It's like I’m hearing them through water or a thick wall. My head's heavy, my body's worse, and reality? Well, that’s nowhere to be found.
Cam’s voice cuts through the haze, slicing through my sluggish thoughts. I force myself to grab them, but the words are slippery and disjointed. “... dangerous... no… I don't know… witch…”
I don’t know how much time passes before I hear voices again. They're clearer now, but still warped, like a radio stuck between stations. “Stronger… he wouldn't… it has to be.”
It has to be what?
The words lodge in my chest, dragging something to the surface that I can’t quite name. My gut twists in protest, and my body refuses to cooperate. My eyes stay stubbornly shut, no matter how much I fight to open them.
