Reaching Retribution (The Prophesized Series) (9 page)

“I’m sharing my magic with you,” I tell him. “I created a bridge between us and now you can understand Olive. Essentially, we’re sharing my magic right now.”

“That’s amazing.” His breath brushes against my neck and he watches Olive. He doesn’t say anything though; he just stares at her.

What?
I can see Olive is slightly uncomfortable with the attention he’s giving her.

“I don’t know what to say to her now that I can understand her. It’s all so strange,” he admits.

“Speak to her like you usually would,” I say. “Don’t do anything differently. Now, you’ll just know how she responds instead of me telling you.”

“Hey
Olive,” he starts.

Hi Colton.
She jumps up and walks over to and steps onto my lap. Placing her paws on my chest, she looks at Colton over my shoulder.

“How are you this morning?” I love that
he’s talking to her like she is just another person.

Hungry.

“Well, we’ll have to go get you something to eat,” he tells her. Olive’s ears perk up at the mention of food.

Now?

“Do you want the food now?” he asks. Olive stares at him for a few moments and then hops off my lap and prepares to jump off the bed. “I’ll take that as a yes,” he whispers. Releasing his hands, I pick Olive up and head toward the door with Colton following after me.

“How did you know that would work?” Colton says as he opens out bedroom door and holds it open for me.

“I didn’t know that it would work, but I thought about when I transferred that vision to you before. If I was able to do that, we have to have some sort of magical connection, and since I was able to do that, I must be able to share some of my other powers with you.”

Wrapping his arm across my shoulder, Colton pulls me into his side and places a small kiss on my temple. “Thank you,” he whispers into my ear and guides us downstairs.

Olive leans her head back and glances up at me.

Thank you too.

Pulling my hair into a high ponytail, I follow Colin to the training room. Everyone else is already in there. I apparently slept in a little longer than the rest. “May I ask why you have
such a big house? Not that I don’t like it, but if it’s only you and your son…”

“Why live in something
so large?” he finishes. “Back in my heyday, I would let mages come into my house seeking refuge. Tom and I trained together back then and we helped train others. Because of his power, he was the best trainer I’d ever seen.”

“Tom has a power?” I ask. I don’t know why I sound so surprised. He is a mage
; of course he has magic. I’ve just never seen him use any before.

“He’s never told you?”

“No…”

“I don’t think his power
has a specific name, but I would call Tom a fast-teacher. If you’re learning something for the first time and you’re around him, you’ll pick it up without a problem. That’s why he’s always around when new mages need training. He’s able to push them past the beginning stages within a few hours and get them up to the level they need to be at quickly.”

“How come he never told us?” How come I never questioned that before?

“Maybe because he doesn’t want you to doubt your abilities. He can’t teach you something if you’re incapable of learning it. He may not have even used his magic on you. That’s something only he knows. He can turn that power on and off with ease.”

“Hmm…” I’m not sure if I want to know whether or not Tom used his magic on me when I first starte
d training.

“Back to the story,” Colin says as he turns down another hallway. “
We would help out troubled mages. Give them somewhere to sleep. Feed them. Help them get back on their feet. Despite what you think, there aren’t many mages out there, and we needed to make sure that our numbers didn’t dwindle. I built this large house to help those who needed it. However, no one has come by in the last couple years because you’re either a Gadramick or you’re in hiding.”

“Do mages who oppose Dravin have a name? Why are they called the Gadramick?” I ask as we start walking upstairs.

“Not that I know of. We’re just mages. Dravin took the name Gadramick because he started using dark magic. For a little while, he would use witches for their magic, but somehow his power strengthened and he no longer needed them, so witches are now in hiding too.”

“Witches exist?”

“Yeah, they have magic, but only those who dabble in dark magic are considered powerful. They don’t usually have enough magic to do any serious damage. They’re a peaceful species, so unless provoked, they’ll leave you alone. I’ve never had any problems with one before.”

“Do mages have a handbook I can read?” I ask. “There’s so much stuff that I don’t know. I feel so stupid when I ask everyone these questions, because apparently
everyone already knows the answer.”

Colin stops walking and looks at me. “Ryanne, you weren’t born in
to this life. It was chosen for you. There’s no way you could know any of this information without asking questions. Don’t feel stupid for that. No one is going to judge you.” He points to the large wooden door in front of us. “Those people in that room care about you. A lot. That much is obvious every time one of them looks at you. Even those ex-Gadramicks. I’d never heard of a Gadramick switching sides before. I’ve heard of some leaving, but no one who knows Dravin would oppose him like that. They believe in you, Ryanne, otherwise they wouldn’t be here. You need to start believing in yourself if you want to accomplish anything here.”

“How did
that transition from a you’re not stupid speech to a believe in yourself speech?”

“
It was subtle, I know,” he says as he opens the door. I chuckle and follow him in the training room.

“O
h my goodness,” I say when my eyes adjust to the bright lights. Colin calls everyone to gather in the middle of the room. Colton, who is standing on the far side of the room talking to an unfamiliar man, turns in my direction and smiles at me. “Colin, do you think it’s possible for Dravin to be stopped?”

“I think it depends on what you
believe. Dravin is very confident in his abilities. From what I’ve heard, you’re very strong. You need to use all those emotions swirling around in that pretty head of yours and let it strengthen your magic. That’s why you were given that new power. It’ll make you stronger if you use it in the right way. Yes, I do think it’s possible for Dravin to be stopped, but it doesn’t matter what I think. What you think is going to happen is all that matters,” Colin says as everyone crowds around us.

“T
hat’s why you think I got this extra power? To strengthen my existing magic?”

“You’re powers are emotion based
, Ryanne,” Tom says as he places a hand on my shoulder.

“
Now, you have a ton of extra emotions coursing through you. If you can harness those, you could be unstoppable,” Colin tells me. “When I instigate you, I can feel your magic moving through the air. You’re powerful, but you don’t know how to use all your magic yet. You put too much effort in pushing your magic back. If you would let your magic move freely around you, I think you’d be able to train much easier.”

“I could hurt someone,” I
whisper. Since everyone is around us, I know that they are listening, but Colin is only talking to me.

“You won’t hurt anyone,”
he confidently states.

“And how do you know that?”

“Call it intuition,” Colin says as he winks at me. My mouth falls open. He’s talked to Claire recently.

“So what’s the plan for today?” the unfamiliar man asks.

“I was thinking that you could help Logan train Lily, Chris. Natalie and I can work with Ryanne in controlling these emotions.” Colin says. I turn and look at Chris. He must be Colin’s son. I can see some of the resemblance. They have the same dark wavy hair and light almost gold eyes. “Oh, Ryanne, this is my son Chris. Chris, this is Ryanne.”

Chris smiles at me, and
I can’t help but smile back. He looks to be the same age as Bragden and Conner, which would put him in his early-mid twenties. That means that Colin is older than he looks. Standing over six feet tall, he towers over me like all other mages. His golden eyes watch me with curiosity. I realize I don’t look like a mage; he doesn’t have to be so obvious about it.

“I’
m not what you expected, I know.”

“No, it’s not t
hat. You look very familiar,” Chris says as he continues to watch me. Hmm, he actually does look familiar. Lights keep flashing before my eyes. Darkness. Sirens. I rack my brain for where I had seen him before.

“Oh my gosh,” I gasp and cover my mouth. “You’re the paramedic.”

“I helped you before?” he asks me.

I bite my lip and look down. Colton walks over to me and wraps his arm around my shoulder. “
You helped me after a car accident last year.”

“Oh, yeah, I remember that now,” he says, “I’m so sorry.” His pity flows into me. I step back into Colton as I try to bury that emotion away. I don’t want to feel that.

“Don’t pity me, Chris. I can’t handle any more of that.” Chris nods and the pity instantly stops. He’s much better at controlling his emotions than everyone else.

Colin claps his hands, scaring everyone. “Everyone else can train together. I trust that you guys can split yourself up into groups on your own,”
he says.

Tom pats Colton on the back as he stops beside him. “Yeah, they know who to train with. We’ve been do
ing this for a while now.”

Even though everyone starts splitting up, Colton
lingers beside me. “Trust Colin,” he whispers to me. “He knows what he’s doing. He and Tom used to work together training other mages.”

“I know. He told me.” Colton looks surprised, but doesn’t comment on that. He nods and looks over my head and laughs. “You’re being summoned.”

“Come on little Hobbit. We don’t want you to end up in Mordor without any training!” Colin yells from across the training room. I shake my head and stand on my tip toes to kiss Colton on the cheek. Turning around, I skip over to Colin and Natalie, trying to act more optimistic than I feel.

“Okay, little one, unleash your magic,” Colin says. Natalie turns and stares at him with wide eyes.

“What?”

“You hear
d me. Unplug the stopper. Turn the lock. Rip off the band-aid. Whatever it is you have to do. Unleash your magic. You can keep it all down easily, but we’re going to work backward.”

“Liam has had to knock me out before because I can’t control the magic when I let it all out.”

“Trust me.”

I stare at him. “Everything? The thoughts? Emotions? Weather elements? All the magic?”

“Everything.”

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing? I could hurt everyone in here.” I start shaking my head. “No, I can’t do that.”

“Ryanne, you’re not going to hurt anyone. You’re magic will only hurt people if that is your intention. You don’t want to hurt anyone in this room, so you won’t. Don’t worry about that.”

“
How can you be so sure of that? What if I do?” I whisper as I step closer to him.

“Are you angry? Mad? Upset? Frustrated?”

“No.”

“Then stop worrying. You’re magic is emotion based, so unless you’re feeling any of those, you won’t hurt anyone. Now quit stalling. Unleash. The. Kraken.” Colin starts laughing. I can’t help but join in. “Joking aside. Unleash your magic, Ryanne. All of it.”

I glance around the room as I take a couple steps back. I don’t know what’s going to happen when I pull back the veil around all my magic. I push my magic out often, but never all of it at once. I’m always worried it is going to cause more damage than good. Everyone is training. Well, attempting to make it look like they are. Colton and Liam keep glancing over at me. I’m hit with their worry when I meet their gazes.