Chapter 7
Nix
A shiver ran down my spine, my head pounding, mouth dry as the desert. I rolled to the side, the hard ground I was lying on digging painfully into my hip bones as I fought against a wave of nausea.
Right. That was why using up all your magic was a bad fucking idea.
I pressed my palms into my eye sockets, desperately trying to shake off the pain in my skull. It didn’t work. It never did. The pain wouldn’t go away until my magic had replenished. And my magic wouldn’t recover until I’d rested.
I shivered again, curling in on myself, one hand blindly searching for my cloak to wrap it more tightly around me, but coming up empty. Instead, my fingers hit the hard wood I was apparently lying on.
Where was I?
There’d been an alarm, the barrier screeching in my head. The injured wolf. A gunshot. Another injury.
I’d helped, pushed myself to the limit and beyond.
And in the end… that bright aura reaching out to me. Those dark eyes filled with rage were etched into my memory for all eternity.
Cell.
He’d said something about a cell.
A wave of ice hit my body at the memory, my breath dying in my throat as panic took hold of me.
Oh no.
Oh no, no, no, no.
No!
I screamed internally, but no sound left my lips.
I had to be wrong.
I just had to be.
I tried sitting up, but my muscles wouldn’t cooperate, still too shaky to hold my weight, and everything started spinning even though I hadn’t opened my eyes yet. I didn’t want to open my eyes. Didn’t want to face the reality of my situation.
I was in a cell—and my fated mate had put me there.
Tears sprang to my eyes, and I applied more pressure with my palms, trying to keep them from falling.
I couldn’t be fated to a shifter. What cruel twist had fate planned for me to pair me up with someone from a species that liked to enslave mine?
What had I done to deserve a mate whose first reaction upon seeing me was to throw me in a cell?
A gust of cold air hit me, leaving me shivering even worse as a door was opened somewhere.
I tried opening my eyes again, but my lids might as well have been made of lead.
I needed rest. I needed energy. I’d been running on fumes for too long.
The only thing that’d kept me going was my magic.
I focused on the well inside me, but it was empty aside from the spark that’d remain until the day I died.
There was nothing left to use. I couldn’t even muster the energy to put up a simple protective shield around me.
I definitely didn’t have enough energy to heal myself, even though my body was screaming in agony.
And if I couldn’t heal myself, trying to pick the lock of my cell was a futile attempt.
Fuck.
Footsteps came closer, heavy boots on concrete. Someone was running down a flight of stairs.
“Levi, wait!”
My heart jumped, skipping a beat, and I started fighting again. I had to open my eyes, had to sit up.
“Levi!”
The steps never faltered, but a second pair came running down the same set of stairs—heavier, louder. Probably his mate.
“Nix? Oh my fucking god, Rhett! What is he doing in a cell?” Levi’s voice was filled with concern bordering on panic.
I wanted to reassure him I was okay, but the words wouldn’t leave my mouth.
Hell, I still couldn’t open my eyes to actually see Levi.
But I could feel him, his aura instinctively reaching out, trying to connect with me.
Bars rattled loudly, the steps stopping. Levi was close. I could feel him, his magic desperately trying to get to me, his wish to help me unintentionally fuelling his magic.
Oh no.
No.
“Open that damn cell, Rhett.” Metal bars rattled again, more insistent this time. “Why the fuck is he down here? Nix? Nix, can you hear me?”
Yes, I wanted to say. Stay away. Don’t come closer. It’s not safe for you…
I couldn’t. I was barely clinging to consciousness, the promise of blissful darkness creeping in, trying to get hold of me.
“Levi, wait, you don’t know…”
“What I don’t know is why he’s down here in a cell.
You didn’t even give him a blanket. He’s shivering all over!
” Levi shouted, his voice full-on panicked now.
“He’s my friend, Rhett. I’ve been worrying about him for months.
You’re right that I don’t know what’s going on, but I do know that he’s terrified of shifters, and I promised he didn’t need to be, yet here he is, locked in a cell.
So open that damn door, Rhett. Or I swear, I’m moving back to Mave’s! ”
Keys jingled.
No, I thought. No! I wasn’t strong enough to put up a shield to keep Levi’s magic from touching mine.
A door creaked. A heavy, rusty sound, as if the doors weren’t used often.
Steps.
His aura approached.
Noo…
His hand gripped mine. For a fraction of a second, his touch was warm, comforting. Then his magic crashed into me. The buzz of electricity filled my ears, a white, blinding light sprouting between us as Levi forcefully shoved magic into my body, replenishing what was missing in my core.
He was unguarded, unrestrained, not in control of his actions, going way too fast.
There was a shout, a sound of pure terror, probably coming from his mate.
I tried to stop the flow, but Levi was still holding on to my wrist, his worry shoving more and more magic into me.
The world spun around me, dizziness setting in as I tried to sort away the magic I was receiving and to set up a shield that would stop the flow, but Levi was going too fast.
And then it stopped.
His hand was gone, the connection broken.
I sat up, gasping for air, one hand clutching at my chest as I tried to deal with all the magic now coursing through my body while becoming aware of my surroundings.
Levi!
I frantically turned my head, searching for my friend, and finally found him wrapped up in his mate’s arms, who was keeping his own body between us as if he thought he needed to shield Levi from me.
When he noticed I was sitting up, his face twisted into a menacing snarl, and I quickly raised my hands, trying to convey that I wasn’t a threat.
Which, yeah, didn’t work as well for mages as it did for humans because my hands literally were my weapons. Kinda. I didn’t like to think of them as weapons, but I often used my hands to work my magic.
The snarling intensified.
There were more people coming, more shifters.
“I’m not doing anything, I swear,” I said, my voice still raspy and weak.
“Stay back,” the shifter, Rhett, demanded, signalling me to stop, even though I hadn’t even tried to stand up.
“Nix?” Levi seized the opportunity to wiggle free from his mate’s grasp and immediately rushed to my side, his eyes wide with worry. “Holy shit. Are you okay? What was that? What did I do?”
He grasped my arm again, but this time I was prepared and quickly created a shield on my skin to keep his magic from flowing into me again.
Levi furrowed his brow, his face contorting with confusion. He’d clearly expected a different outcome.
“What are you doing?” he asked, his voice small. “Why does it feel as if… as if you’re repelling me? Wow. That’s a weird feeling.”
Fuck.
I took a deep breath and briefly closed my eyes to focus on the shield I’d created on my skin.
In my hurry, I’d gone a bit overboard and created a barrier that not only kept his magic from reaching into me but also created a shield that was supposed to withstand attacks and repel everyone who tried touching me.
A quick check into my well told me I had a bit less than half my magic back, which was more than I’d had in weeks.
Perfect. Inhaling deeply, I toned down the shield, moulded it into a simple barrier, and directed bits of magic through my body, nudging it to heal faster.
Then, I opened my eyes and gave Levi a tentative smile.
I didn’t feel like smiling at all, but I needed to calm him down because he was obviously freaking out, his eyes wide, swimming with unshed tears, his skin pale.
“Better?” I rasped.
“Yes.” He nodded, then blinked. “Wait. No. What was that? What did you do? Why does it feel like… wait… your skin feels a little like the barrier.”
“That’s because I put up a barrier between us so your magic can’t crash into me again; you already gave me plenty.”
“His… magic?” his mate said, and I flinched.
Fuck.
I shrank back against the wall and shut my mouth.
For just a moment, I’d forgotten all about where I was and who was here aside from me and Levi, and now I’d said too much.
“What do you mean by his magic?” the shifter pressed again, his voice rising in agitation.
My heart started pounding in my chest, my mind screaming at me to flee.
I could probably make it out if I wanted to.
More people filtered into the hall in front of my cell, though, all of them unmistakably shifters.
Could I get past them all?
I wasn’t sure.
My stomach dropped as they eyed me with varying degrees of apprehension, some bordering on hostility.
I shrank back even further, my palms sweating as I scrambled to put more distance between us by moving along the wooden bench until my back hit the corner of the cell, and I let out a small breath of relief.
Yeah, I might be literally backed into a corner, but for a mage fighting against non-magic users, this was a prime spot. I could see everyone approaching, and I only needed to create a shield that went from wall to wall, which meant using up less energy.
Levi shifted with me, his hand around my wrist like a vise.
“Look at me,” he said, his tone gentle, face full of compassion. He then turned his head and glared at his mate. “I know you’re worried, but you’re freaking him out. I’m okay. Use the bond; you can literally feel that I’m fine.”
I swallowed, looking between the two. Levi had a shifter as a mate, and he was okay.
Then again, Levi didn’t know about his magic abilities, or rather, he hadn’t known about them until he’d tried suffocating me with magic in his attempt to help. Now, he definitely knew something was off.
“What’s going on, Nix?” he asked, his thumb stroking the back of my hand.
I shook my head, keeping my lips firmly pressed together.