2. Bram
2
brAM
Ivy’s new power hangs heavy in the air, like a storm gathering on the horizon. I can feel it pulsing beneath her skin, dark and ancient. Something akin to what is flickering through my blood, trying to worm its way into my soul. It calls to the wild magick of hers, a siren song that is hard to ignore. I want to rip her clothes off and rail her in every hole she has while I worship her as a goddess, my goddess, but she is right. We need to see what the time reverse did to the rest of the world.
“So how exactly do we check for time fuckery?” Tate asks, breaking the tense silence.
Ivy’s brow furrows. “I’m not entirely sure. This is all new territory.”
“Maybe we start with the immediate area,” I suggest. “Check the Thornfield campus, see if anything seems off or out of place.”
Ivy nods. “Good idea. Hopefully, we didn’t cause too much shit.”
“Only one way to find out.”
She smiles at me. It’s a secretive smile, like she knows what I do. This isn’t just about physical attraction and craving anymore. She is my destiny. Tate no longer has the monopoly on that, and I think Torin is fully aware of that, which is why he is in a mood. Not that his mood is unusual, but this is different.
“Oh, fuck,” he says when he pulls his buzzing phone out of his pocket and glares at the screen.
“What?” I ask, moving forward as he holds it up for us to see. I raise an eyebrow. “Oh, shit.”
“Oh, shit, indeed,” he snaps and ignores the call. “We really fucked up.”
“Okay, this might not be such a bad thing,” Ivy admits, and I snort at her attempt at diplomacy.
“Are you joking? Torin’s dead dad is back from the dead because of what we did.”
“We don’t know it was his dad calling. It could’ve been anyone with his phone.”
“Something tells me it was my dad.” His deadpan expression makes me stifle a snort of amusement.
“So that means Aspen didn’t kill him. It means your mother, Torin, is going to be out for blood. You’d better warn him.”
“Huge pass,” Torin grits out. “I wanted him dead in the first place, remember?”
I roll my eyes at Torin’s stubbornness. “Look, I get it. Your dad’s a grade-A arsehole. But if he’s back, we need to deal with it. Ignoring the problem won’t make it go away.”
“Watch me,” Torin growls, shoving his phone back in his pocket.
“Torin,” I say sharply. “This isn’t just about you and your family drama. If your dad is back, that means other people could be too. We need to figure out the extent of what we’ve done.”
He glares at me, jaw clenched. For a moment, I think he might argue further, but then he deflates slightly. “Fine. But I’m not talking to him.”
“Fair enough,” I concede. “Tate, can you do a quick magickal scan of the area? See if you can sense any major disturbances or anomalies?”
Tate nods, closing his eyes and extending his hands. I feel the wave of his magick, probing outward. After a few moments, his eyes snap open.
“There are ripples. All over. Creatures who shouldn’t be here, events that didn’t happen before.”
A chill runs down my spine. “How bad?”
Tate shakes his head. “I can’t tell the full extent, but it’s significant. The fabric of reality feels stretched. Like it’s trying to accommodate all these changes at once.”
“Fuck,” Ivy mutters, running a hand through her hair. “We really cocked this up. We need to figure out how to stabilise things before it all unravels.”
The weight of her new role is settling on her shoulders. Part of me wants to comfort her, but I know now isn’t the time. We have bigger problems.
“Okay, first things first,” I say. “We need to get out there and see what the situation is. Ivy, you need to speak to Ramsey and Josh. See what, if anything, is going on inside The Syndicate and The Resistance.”
“Okay, but didn’t Life take over The Syndicate?”
“Maybe, but maybe not. Maybe not all of it, anyway.”
Ivy nods. “Okay, I’m on it. Also, I need to tap into this army of souls bollocks. What if some of those souls are, you know, not souls anymore but back in their bodies?” She chews her lips, as the implications of that are not good, at best.
“Well, we already know Dad is walking around in his meat suit,” Torin snaps. “So probably, yeah, hundreds of others will be too. Don’t be surprised if we walk out the door and see Genghis Khan running towards us.”
“Genghis Khan?” Ivy snorts. “I don’t think Death was collecting souls for his army from that long ago…” But the look on her face says she thinks otherwise.
“I wouldn’t rule it out,” I mutter. “The point is, we have no idea who or what might be out there now, so we need to move quickly. Torin, I hate to say it, man, but you need to at least text your dad. Find out what he knows about coming back, if he knows anything. Does he remember, or what?”
Torin’s eyes flash dangerously. “No fucking way.”
“Torin,” Ivy says softly, reaching out to touch his arm. “I know it sucks. But we need information.”
He glares at her for a long moment before he gives in. “Fine. One text. That’s it.”
“Thank you,” she says, squeezing his arm.
I clear my throat. “I’ll head to the edge of campus, see if I can sense any changes in the wild magick.”
Ivy nods. “Everyone, be careful. We don’t know what’s out there.”
We head out and go our separate ways. I’m not keen on splitting up, but we need intel fast, and this is the most efficient way to get it.
I step out onto the grounds of Thornfield, instantly on high alert. The air feels different. It is charged with an unfamiliar energy that sets my teeth on edge.
As I make my way towards the edge of campus, I notice small things out of place. Trees that weren’t there before. Buildings that look slightly different. Nothing major, but enough to be unsettling.
I reach the boundary where the wild magick begins to bleed through from the forest. Closing my eyes, I extend my senses, feeling for any disturbances.
The burst of power nearly knocks me off my feet.
“Fuck,” I mutter, steadying myself against a tree. The wild magick is roiling and chaotic in a way I’ve never felt before. It’s like someone shook up a soda bottle and popped the cap. All that pent-up energy explodes outwards, making my brain hurt.
I push deeper, trying to get a sense of what’s changed. Flashes of creatures long extinct flicker through my mind. Beasts that haven’t walked the earth in millennia.
And something else. Something dark and ancient stirring in the depths of the forest.
My eyes snap open as I feel a presence behind me. I whirl around, magick crackling at my fingertips, ready to attack.
“Easy there, wildling,” a female voice purrs. “Hand my power back to me, and you won’t get hurt.”