Chapter 6
Skully
“Thanks for the reminder, Becky. I hope everyone gets that chance to see the meteor shower. Now in other news…”
The drive up the coast is peaceful, the ocean on one side with the sun sinking down, and my favorite road trip playlist playing softly.
Previously, the weather reports had been devoid of rain, and there was still none forecasted.
It is going to be the perfect night for stargazing.
A few hours later, I park my car and hike my way along the forest trail until I find the clearing.
The area itself isn’t huge, but what I love about it is that it is surrounded by trees and filled with wildflowers and soft grass.
The sky above me is deep blue, and the stars shine so brightly that they look closer to earth than they are.
I set up my tent and roll out my sleeping bag before grabbing my chair and camera.
I set the bag of snacks nearby and use my phone to play music while I wait, keeping my eyes on the sky.
The time ticks on, and as it does, I snap picture after picture of nature’s beauty around me.
Some of the sky, some of the shadows and trees, and some of the quiet forest animals that dare to peek out.
When the air shifts, they scamper away quickly and suddenly, Azriel is next to me.
“You’re almost late,” I tell him with a playful smile on my lips. “Lucky for you, I brought the spicy dill chips that you like and haven’t opened them yet.”
“Skully, we need to talk.” His eyes are on me, but it’s almost as if it’s painful for him to look at me. I can read the concern and confusion in his eyes, and the rigid way he’s holding himself instantly has me on edge. Slowly, I get up from the chair and drop my blanket on it.
“What’s going on?” I reach out my hand to touch him, and he flinches. It’s small, barely noticeable, but enough to make my heart lurch painfully. “Az.”
“I don’t know how to tell you this.”
I shake my head, feeling tears prick my eyes, my nose burning. “How about we wait until after. Let’s just enjoy tonight, this, the meteor shower, and then you can unload on me tomorrow.”
Azriel’s head tilts back, and his gaze moves to the stars. “It’s already starting.”
“What?” I glance up, scanning the sky, looking for the shooting stars trailing across the sky. “I don’t see them.”
“You will soon.” I feel his focus shift to me, but I keep staring at the sky.
I’ve never been scared around Azriel since we met, but something about the way he’s acting is terrifying me. Somehow, I know that whatever he’s going to say will wreck me.
“Skully, there’s been talk for a long time about the Nexa.”
I hold up my hand to stop him, trying to smile through the tears that are clouding my vision. “I don’t want to talk about it right now, Az. Can’t we just enjoy the show?”
This time, when I glance up, the meteors are falling in tandem, looking like flashes of light, shooting stars. I reach for my camera and start snapping pictures before I can’t see them anymore.
“S.” Azriel follows me, and I feel his chest against my shoulder. “We need to talk about this.”
“Tomorrow, Az. Please don’t ruin this for me,” I plead, tears spilling over my cheeks even though I’m trying to smile and make light of the situation. On the inside, my heart is painfully thudding against my rib cage, and my stomach twists.
“I know. But this can’t wait. It’s already been too long.” He shakes his head.
My eyes slide closed, and the camera in my hand suddenly feels heavy and drops to my side. “Az, I don’t—”
My words trail off when I see it. Amongst the falling meteors is a subtle flash of white that starts to glisten purple. “Wait. Do you see that?” Raising my camera, I try to take a picture.
Azriel’s head tilts back, his eyes scanning the sky where I can’t stop staring. “See what?”
My blood rushes frantically in my veins. “Seriously. Don’t you see that? I think it’s getting closer.” I snap more pictures, watching the moving, gliding sphere get closer and closer. The purple is slowly fading to a deep violet, then plum, and finally black.
“We should leave, Skully.” Azriel’s voice has a hard edge, and he’s glancing around the clearing like we’re going to be attacked.
“What is that?” I murmur mostly to myself now. Azriel is frantically holding my hand, trying to get my attention.
My body refuses to move. Refuses to let anything in my consciousness besides the black, sparkling star that is heading right toward me.
Time slows. The air turns thick, and everything quiets.
There’s no breeze rustling the trees, no crickets singing, no leaves and sticks crunching on the ground under the weight of the forest animals.
Even Azriel seems to pause, freeze, suspended away from me.
My eyes widen, right as the black and purple swirls flash in front of my eyes.
There’s a blinding white light, and I feel my body suspended in the air before crashing back down to the ground.
“Skully!” Azriel’s voice is loud, panicked. My ears are ringing. I can taste blood in the back of my throat, and my body feels like an inferno.
“Help me,” I plead, feeling his hands roam over my shoulders, my neck, my arms.
Fear lights up his violet eyes when he looks at me. “It’s going to be okay.”
I want to believe him, but it feels like my insides are being ravaged, like sludge is moving through my veins, sparks dance on my fingertips, making more tears leak from my eyes.
And then I hear it. A loud crash that echoes before an even louder bang.
The earth beneath me shudders and groans in response.
Azriel flies backwards from the impact right as everything inside of me settles.
“What the hell,” he murmurs before scrambling back to me. “Skully, are you okay?”
I’m breathing hard, gasping and panting, the residual ghost pains making my limbs twitch. My eyes pop open. The meteor shower is over, and the world around me goes back to normal. My heart slows as Azriel helps me sit up.
“I’m–”
I want to say fine, but one look down at my hands tells a different story.
My finger tips are covered in black soot.
Dirt and grass are mashed between my fingers from how hard I was holding onto the ground.
But it’s the mark on my arm that is cause for worry.
Over the scar that was once pale pink from healing is now a shimmery silver with black patterns woven around it, holding it. They look like they’re protecting it.
“We need Loreli,” Azriel mutters, before sliding his hands underneath me and lifting me off the ground. “I’ll bring you home, and then I need to find out what happened. I can hear the chatter going on; it was something big.”
“What about my stuff?” I croak out, my voice sounding like I’ve been sing-screaming all night at my favorite concert.
“I’ll come back and get it,” Azriel promises.
He squeezes me tightly as I feel the ground slip away, and the air is sucked from my lungs.
My body feels weightless despite the swoop of my stomach, similar to a roller coaster ride.
My eyes slam shut to avoid the dizzying effect of the fast motion around us.
It lasts a millisecond, yet feels like it goes on and on.
Suddenly, we’re standing in my kitchen at the apartment.
“Skully!” Loreli grabs for me, helping Azriel usher me to a chair. My legs still feel weak and heavy at the same time.
“Why aren’t you at work?” I question, watching as she almost rolls her eyes.
“I left after that huge bang. What happened? Did you guys feel it?”
“Oh, we felt it,” Azriel scoffs, his face hardening. “But that was after this one started seeing things I couldn’t, and then flames passed through her body.”
“Flames?” Loreli practically screeches while she starts looking me over. I hold my hands up in front of my face and watch as all the blood drains from her face. “Your fingers.”
“It didn’t look like fire to me,” I reply, my shoulders half-heartedly shrugging.
Loreli tilts her head, her eyes taking me in. “What did it look like?”
“A falling star. It was purple in the sky, then as it got closer, it turned black. There was a white light, then I was on the ground, with this one freaking out over me.” I side-glance at my best friend and give him a teasing smirk.
“This all happened before the boom,” Azriel finishes.
“Is there chatter?” Loreli asks him, and he nods his head. “Skully, how are you feeling?”
My brow furrows. Everything happened so fast, and now that my body and my adrenaline have calmed, I’m starting to feel the effects. “I’m tired. My arm…”
I hold up my arm with the new decoration. Loreli gasps; her fingers feel cold when they touch my skin to look at it. “These marks.”
“She’s definitely part reaper,” Azriel finishes. “They’ll form and bend as her magic continues developing.”
I snort and roll my eyes. “My magic hates me.” Right as the words tumble out, my fingers spark that neon purple I’m used to.
“Skully.” My aunt is watching my hands, her eyes shooting between them and the new mark. “Try a simple spell. One that you usually struggle with.”
“So all of them.” I chuckle, but it’s humorless. They both know I’m embarrassed and hate talking about the way I can’t control what should be mine.
“Just try,” she encourages. “Close your eyes, picture what you want to happen. Feel the magic flow through you.”
So I do. My eyes close, and the same spell that always pops into my mind forms. I take a deep breath, feeling for my magic.
This time, there’s a warm, fuzzy feeling that brushes against my mind.
Friendly, communicative. I picture the cupboard opening and my favorite mug flying into my hand. “Heluxes.”
A solid object hits my palm, and I barely have time to grip the handle on the mug before it drops and shatters. There’s a collective gasp from all of us. For once, my magic listened. We connected and worked together.