Descending Darkness (The Prophesized #3) (11 page)

“She’s going to wake up soon,” I say. She groans and opens her eyes. Covering her mouth, she jumps away from me. She pushes past Logan and runs out of the living room. I hear the sound of a door slamming open and then retching sounds. I push past everyone and round the corner, walking into the small bathroom.

Ryanne is sitting on the tiled floor throwing up in the toilet. I crouch behind her and grab her hair, pulling it away from her face. Emma walks in holding a wet washcloth and a bottle of water. When I move her hair from her face, I see a giant bruise under her eye. She is visibly shaking as she gets sick again. I don’t know what to do. I look around for Logan. He pushes past everyone and reaches under her sweatshirt. He grabs her stomach and starts healing her. She leans forward and throws up again. What is going on?

“Ryanne, what’s happening? I’m right here.” I rub her back as she starts dry heaving. There is nothing left in her stomach to throw up. She leans against her arm and starts breathing heavily. I hear the sound of bones popping back into place, and she cries out, arching her back. Logan falls backward and gasps as he finishes healing her.

Ryanne is still breathing heavily, but she isn’t getting sick anymore. She shakily pushes herself away from the toilet and flees out of the room, running up the stairs. I start to go after her, but Logan stops me. He looks toward Emma. She nods and leaves the room. “What happened?” I ask him as I reach down to help him stand up.

He accepts my help and starts shaking his head. He leaves the room and slowly walks back into the living room. “Make her some toast or something. She needs to eat when she comes back down,” he orders. Natalie rushes into the kitchen to make it.

Logan sits down on the couch and exhales loudly. He drops his face into his hands. All of us turn towards him, waiting for his explanation, but he remains silent. Hearing a sound behind me, I look up the stairs and see Emma helping Ryanne walk down. She’s is gripping the hand rails, appearing too weak to move. I walk up the last remaining stairs and pick her up. She doesn’t even protest. I carry her over to the couch and sit down with her in my lap. I’m not going to let her go. I don’t care what she says or how much her stubborn little self tries to fight me on this; I’m not letting her go. Natalie walks back into the living room with the toast and hands it to Ryanne, who just stares at the plate. I take the plate from Natalie and thank her. “Ryanne eat this.”

She shakes her head. “I can’t eat anything.” I try not to outwardly sigh when I hear how weak her voice sounds.

“Ryanne, you just threw up all the food you had in your body. Eat this.” When she glances up at me, I see how scared she is. What did she see? I glance over at Logan again, and he is still sitting with his head resting in his hands. Liam is back in the chair. He doesn’t look much better.

“Will someone please explain what happened?” I ask. I look down at Ryanne, who is shaking her head, nibbling on a piece of toast.

“Dravin found another way to get to her,” Logan says.

“What?” I yell. Ryanne jumps, and I apologize before turning back toward Logan. “How?”

“They have a dream-walker too. I don’t know how, but he was able to knock Ryanne out from inside Dravin’s compound.”

“Can you do that, Liam?” Emma asks.

“I don’t know. Never tried.”

Ryanne is staring down at the plate, no longer trying to eat. She’d only eaten half of the first piece. “Keep eating,” I tell her quietly. She doesn’t look very good. She turns around and looks at Logan. She places the toast on the armrest and crawls off my lap over to him. He’s not looking at her and doesn’t turn toward her when she moves. Reaching forward, Ryanne grabs onto his hands and closes her eyes.

“Ryanne, you don’t you don’t have enough energy for that,” he says as he tries to pull his arms away, but Ryanne keeps a firm grip on him. I watch as the dark circles under his eyes disappear. She is giving him some of her magic to help him heal faster. “You shouldn’t have done that,” he says when she finishes.

She crawls back onto my lap. Instead of grabbing the toast, she curls up and leans back against my chest. “You’re welcome,” she says while yawning. Closing her eyes, she instantly falls asleep. I look back toward Logan; he’ll have to explain everything now.

Emma sits down in the chair with David and asks Logan, “What the heck happened? When I walked upstairs, she was sitting on the floor in the bathroom brushing her teeth because she couldn’t hold herself up, even after you healed her. I had to hold her up because she kept swaying.”

I wrap my arms around her. It is times like this when I realize how small she actually is. Curled up in this position, she fits in my lap perfectly. Despite this tough demeanor she gives herself, she is very breakable, and I am constantly being reminded of it.

“I don’t really know what happened. She was knocked unconscious and suddenly she was standing inside of Dravin’s compound. He ran forward and grabbed her neck, lifting her off the ground. He poured some liquid down her throat, coercing her to swallow. I’m pretty sure it was the truth serum. This time he gave her way too much. Her body couldn’t handle it. She fell to the ground and just started screaming.” Logan’s shaking his head. I know that he doesn’t like seeing this stuff. He especially doesn’t like having to restate everything afterwards.

“He kept asking what her powers were. He still needs to know the extent of her magic. He knows some of it from Natasha but not everything. Ryanne kept…screaming. She couldn’t speak, and when she didn’t answer his questions, he attacked her. I’m glad she was wearing that sweatshirt. One, because it softened some of the blows, and two, because you couldn’t see the extent of her injuries. She eventually passed out from the pain and that’s how she woke up. Her body rejected the truth serum which was why she threw up.”

I don’t realize that I am holding her so hard until she groans and starts to move. I loosen my grip around her, and she settles down and curls closer to me. What am I going to do with her? I can’t be with her 24/7, but I’ll sure as hell try. There’s no way I’m letting her out of my sight from now on. I look around the room. Tom is leaning against the wall; he seems to be lost in his thoughts. David and Emma are both staring at Ryanne. Bragden keeps glancing between Ryanne and Liam. Liam is back in the chair he was in earlier. Now, he is the one with his head resting in his hands. Natalie is sitting on the floor at his feet. She keeps looking up at him, and her eyes tell us that she wants to help. Larkin is pacing in the back of the room.

“Liam, are you alright?” I ask him.

“Yeah, I just don’t feel very good.”

“Like you don’t feel good or Ryanne doesn’t feel good?”

“I think it’s her, but I don’t know for sure. It’s hard to tell sometimes.”

I reach down and feel her forehead. She's burning up. “I’m pretty sure she has a fever.”

“I’ll be right back,” Larkin says as he transports out of the room.

Colton

“Where’s he going?” Emma asks.

“Who knows?” I say. No one really knows what Larkin does. He does what he wants, when he wants, and how he wants. I glance down at Ryanne again. Her usually fair skin looks even paler than usual, but her cheeks are bright red. I sweep her long hair over her shoulder, out of her face. She sighs when my hand grazes her neck. I can get a reaction out of her even when she is sleeping.

“I wonder what she saw in that vision,” Natalie says. Oh yeah, I forgot that she went into a vision when I touched her earlier. Obviously she saw something pleasant for once because she tried really hard to hide her smile. I think that it has something to do with us because when she looked at me, her smile got bigger. Can’t she ever get a break? She goes from being happy one moment to in pain the next. “I bet it had something to do with you, Colton,” Emma says.

I look over at Emma and David. The only time Ryanne had smiled like that was after the vision she had of them getting married. She still hasn’t told me about that vision. Liam mentioned it to me once. I haven’t told anyone, and Ryanne doesn’t know that I know about it. I hope that she saw something like that. I’ll ask her about it when she wakes up, and we are alone.

“I don’t know, but I’m glad she finally saw something good,” I whisper.

“This just means that we have to keep an even closer eye on her,” Tom says. I nod for I had already come to that conclusion. They are able to get to her way too easily. I feel movement on the couch beside me. I look over, and Olive is sitting there, watching.

“She’s going to be okay, Olive,” I tell her, but I can tell my voice isn’t very convincing. I can’t read her mind like Ryanne can, so I don’t know if she is saying anything back to me. Ryanne starts shaking again. I look down at her right as her eyes open. She groans and jumps off of me, running shakily back to the bathroom. I get up and follow her there, pulling her hair back as she empties the contents of her stomach again. I hate that there is nothing I can do to help her. I keep her hair out of the way and rub her back, trying to calm her.

Emma walks into the bathroom and places a bottle of water, Ryanne’s toothbrush and toothpaste, and some mouthwash on the counter. She grimaces at Ryanne and then leaves. None of us like seeing her like this. She starts coughing, but doesn’t get sick again. Resting her head on her arms, she takes a couple deep breathes.

Slowly standing up, she grabs the water and swirls it around her mouth. Spitting the water out, she grabs her toothbrush and starts brushing her teeth again. I walk behind her and let her lean back against me. I can tell that she is very weak. When she starts to sway, I wrap an arm around her waist to steady her. “I’m sorry you keep seeing me like that,” she whispers hoarsely.

“Ryanne, I’ll always be here to help you, no matter what.” She leans back fully against me. I support her weight easily. I know she won’t ask me, so I bend down and pick her up. I can tell that she is still pretty shaky and probably won’t make it back to the living room on her own. Cradling her against me, I walk back into the living room. I would take her upstairs, so she can rest, but I need to stay with her for now, and I still have some questions. “Thank you,” she mumbles. I sit down on the couch and place her back onto my lap.

Bending down, I kiss her forehead and tell her, “You don’t ever have to thank me, Ry.” She sighs and curls back up, leaning against my chest, closing her eyes again. A couple seconds later, she is asleep. I glance over at Logan.

“There’s nothing I can do. I healed everything I could.” I already know that, but I don’t like that she is still sick. I lean back and let Ryanne sleep. No one says anything, but I can tell everyone is worried.

Larkin transports back into the living room, but this time he has someone with him. The man standing next to him looks close to my age, maybe slightly older. Larkin introduces him, “This is Kyril Xavier. I brought Ryanne to meet him earlier. He’s the one that helped us rescue Liam, Colton, and Ryanne from the compound.”

“Holy crap on a cracker, he’s hot,” Emma says. David growls at her. She jumps at his growl. “Shoot, did I just say that out loud?” She looks around. I nod at her, and she turns around and smiles sweetly at David. “Sorry, babe.”

“You must be Emma?” Kyril asks. Emma blushes and nods. Whoa, Emma blushing? I’ve never seen that before. David wraps his arm around Emma’s shoulder, showing Kyril that she is his. Kyril laughs while his eyes scan the room. He winks at Natalie, who is staring at him with her mouth hanging open. “That’s what Ryanne did too.” Natalie giggles and tears her eyes away from him. Liam scowls and looks down at Natalie. Something is definitely going on there.

I didn’t realize it, but I must have made a noise as well because Kyril turns his attention to me. “I’m guessing you’re Colton?” When he sees Ryanne asleep in my lap, he grimaces.

“She doesn’t look too good.” He takes a couple steps toward me. When he reaches out for Ryanne, I move her. “I can heal her,” he tells me.

“Colton, let him heal her,” Larkin demands.

“Logan already tried healing her.”

“He heals physical injuries; I can heal illnesses. Her body is reacting negatively to the truth serum. If I don’t heal her, she’ll only get worse,” he pleads with me. Does he care about Ryanne too? He seems sincere enough, but he is working for Dravin. I look over to Liam and Logan. Neither one of them seems to like the idea, but they both nod. I turn back to Kyril and slowly move Ryanne, so she is facing him. Her head falls limply to the side.

Kyril slowly reaches out and rolls up the sleeves of the sweatshirt. When her arms are exposed, he grabs onto them and closes his eyes. Similar to Logan, a look of concentration mars his features. I don’t notice any immediate changes in her demeanor. Nothing is happening. Can he not heal her? He lets go of her arms, but Ryanne doesn’t move. Kyril takes a small step back but remains close, watching Ryanne.

Ryanne inhales deeply. Her eyes flutter open and land on Kyril. “Do you ever wear a shirt?” Her voice isn’t as hoarse as it was earlier. I reach up and feel her forehead; she doesn’t have a fever anymore.

“Don’t ask him that. He’ll go put one on,” Emma says. Ryanne laughs and slowly moves off of my lap, but doesn’t go far. Instead, she leans into my side, and I wrap an arm around her shoulders.

“Thank you,” she tells him.

“You’re very welcome,” he whispers to her. Patting her knee, he stands up and walks back near Larkin again.

“How was he able to bring her there when she was awake? I know they have a dream-walker, but how?”

“Dravin was able to get a very powerful dream-walker to help him. He doesn’t need physical contact with someone to bring them into the dream world. He can go into your mind and see the person. He saw Ryanne through Dravin’s eyes and was able to bring her through like that.”

“Valdus Hamza?” Bragden asks. Liam’s eyes widen as he stares at his brother.

“He wouldn’t,” Liam says, but Kyril is already nodding.

“It was him, but when he saw what Dravin did to Ryanne, he left. He said that he wouldn’t stand by and let him do that to someone.”

“Who’s Valdus Hamza?” Ryanne asks Liam.

“Our tribe leader. He’s the one that trained me. He’s very powerful. One of the most powerful dream-walkers.”

“But he won’t be helping Dravin anymore,” Kyril says and starts shaking his head. “The amount of truth serum he gave to Ryanne could have killed her. She’s small and that amount was enough to make any man fall in agony, screaming the truth. It would be too much for you.” Kyril points to Bragden.

“He gave her more because the first time she was there, Ryanne was able to fight it,” Larkin says.

“Well, I don’t see how he expected me to tell him anything. It felt like my insides were trying to claw their way out of me—like everything inside me was slowly ripping apart.” She shivers and moves closer to me. “Shoot.” She jumps up and runs back into the bathroom. She isn’t as shaky or weak as before, but she shouldn’t still be getting sick.

“I thought you healed her?” Emma asks as I follow her into the bathroom

“I healed her fever which was making her sick, but she still has the truth serum in her, which she needs to get out because it’s too much for her body to absorb. I can’t do anything with that,” I hear Kyril say. I grab her hair again.

“Go, you don’t need to see this.”

“Ryanne, I’m not leaving you, so stop asking me.” I’m serious, but I keep my voice light. Now is not the time to get angry. She needs me here, and I am going to be here for her. She leans forward and heaves into the toilet again. Emma walks into the bathroom and hands me a hair tie. Ryanne leans back and rests against the wall. She looks stronger, but I can tell that she is still sick. I hand her the hair tie, and she quickly throws her hair into a messy bun.

“Go talk to Kyril. I’ll stay in here with her,” Emma says. I look back at Ryanne, and she nods at me.

“Ryanne, I’m not leaving you. I just told you that.”

“Would you rather stay in here and watch me puke my guts out, or would you rather get information from Kyril? He’s going to have to leave soon because Dravin’s going to get suspicious of his disappearance. We need him, Colton.” What she’s telling me makes sense, but I still don’t want to leave her. With a dramatic sigh, Emma grabs my upper arm and shoves me out of the bathroom. I slowly walk back into the living room. All eyes turn to me as I sit down on the couch.

“How’s she doing?” Logan asks me. I am about to answer when the sound of Ryanne getting sick again fills the room. I grimace and turn to Logan. There’s your answer. Emma must have closed the door because the sound is muffled now.

“What’s going to happen next?” I ask Kyril. “Is Dravin going to come after her again?”

“He’s not going to stop until he finds her. Is there a protective charm on this house? I know Larkin’s been trying to mask her magic, but it’s difficult with the amount she has.” I glance at Larkin. He always tells her that he can’t hide her magic to try to avoid any reckless actions on her part. For just this instance, I’m glad that he’s lying to her.

“No,” Tom answers. “Ryanne’s the only one strong enough to do the enchantment, and she’s a little occupied right now.”

“I could try it,” Natalie suggests.

“No,” Liam gives a firm response. Natalie looks up at him surprised but doesn’t argue with him. I don’t think Natalie’s strong enough. Her presence is calming, but I don’t think she has enough magic to push out like that. “Sorry, I just don’t think it’s a good idea.” Natalie nods and turns around. She bites her lip and tries to hide a slight smile. I look toward Conner and see that he sees it too.

“I’ll do it.” I look to my right and see Ryanne leaning against the wall. She does look better, but I can tell she needs to rest.

“Ryanne, I don’t think—” I stand up and start walking toward her.

“I have it memorized, so I’ll do it even if you guys don’t think it’s a good idea.” She crosses her arms and stares up at me defiantly. Stubborn little girl. Kyril laughs behind me. Her gaze is unwavering and she doesn’t back down. In fact, she takes another step forward and glares at me.

I shake my head but take a step backward. “Fine, but at least get some rest first. You need it.”

“I’ll do the enchantment first and then I’ll rest. I’m fine,” she says, but she steps back, leaning against the wall.

“Ryanne, you’re not fine. You can barely stand on your own.”

“I’m fine. Just let me do this.
Please
,” she pleads with me. When I don’t say anything, she whispers, “I’m scared right now, Colton, and if this enchantment will keep us safe, I’m going to do it.” I know it took a lot for her to admit that she was scared.

“Let her do it, Colton.” I look past Ryanne and see Emma looking at me, nodding. Like me, she understands how important it is to Ryanne to do this. She needs to know that we are protected. I nod and pull Ryanne over to the couch. She’s getting a little unsteady on her feet.