Chapter 63
CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE
Cypress
Not good. Not good at all.
“No, no, no, no, no,” Cypress whispered. The noise had stopped. All of it. Her ears rang with the silence of the room. Even the energy crackling from the ceiling had quit its incessant, low-level popping. There was nothing but silence.
She’d felt a surge of energy—of heat—coursing through her sweat-drenched body. The room was stifling. Bodies hit the floor before she’d known what was happening. She’d just wanted it all to stop. But not like this. Never like this.
She didn’t want to open her eyes. To look at the destruction she’d caused. The death.
This was why her mom wanted her dead. She knew that, but she hadn’t thought Cedar had known too. She’d heard her—one voice louder in her ears than the rest. Cedar begging her to stop.
How long had she known?
Cypress took several deep breaths, trying to focus on the hard ground beneath her feet, the slickness in the air around her.
She’d never learned to control her power.
No Dampener ever did. Fear or loss of control took their lives before they made it that far.
She was lucky to have been pulled away from her parents when she was.
Lucky that she’d been able to hide it from everyone. Until now.
“It usually doesn’t take this long,” her mother had said years ago.
“But with my power, with your father’s power, there’s no way you’re magickless.
Just dormant. For now.” Her mother had spit the word “magickless” like it was a stain, tarnished and tainting the world.
Cypress had been six at the time, well beyond when magic should have manifested.
She was supposed to be an herbalist. This never would have happened if she had just been what she was supposed to be.
She’d tried, in her lessons, to think of the magic growing through her, to feel the soil beneath her bare feet, to imagine the grass growing faster.
Cedar had told her it would feel like vines pulsing through her veins.
It wouldn’t hurt, she’d said. It would just feel right. Calming.
But her mom’s lessons hurt. When Cedar wasn’t there, it felt like thorns growing under her skin.
Like her mom was ripping the magic out of her veins.
It never stopped—not even when she’d cry and beg.
Not until her mom would get a headache, an unexplainable migraine.
Cypress hadn’t understood until much later that she caused those.
Her power slowly leeched her mom’s magic away, causing physical symptoms.
But this didn’t feel like that had. It didn’t feel like Cedar described. It never had.
Dampening didn’t feel like vines. It felt like an overwhelming power surge coursing through her blood and into the marrow of her bones like molten lava.
She’d been electrocuted once, as a child, around when she turned twelve—one of her mom’s new “lesson” methods.
To bring forward the magic. That’s when they found out.
Black drops like rainwater had shot out of her body, cocooning her in a protective ball, sucking Energy from wherever it could find it—darkening the entire kitchen.
Her whole body swam with it until she thought she was going to explode. Her dad managed to knock her out before she did any real damage, but it took them hours to recover from her sucking their magic dry.
That had been the day she’d been locked up. Just weeks before Vesper saved her. Vesper…
Cypress cracked one eye open, dreading the carnage she’d wrought. She stopped herself this time, but Dampener's explosions are lethal to Energy wielders… Cypress took another deep, steadying breath, swallowing the lump in her throat, and peered at Vesper, face down on the concrete in front of her.
There. A breath! She was alive. Cypress almost laughed in giddy relief. Tension eased out of her body. She sagged, dropping to her knees beside Vesper, and a tear slid hot down her cheek. She’d almost killed her. If she hadn’t been able to stop herself, she would have.
Cypress sniffed, wiping her face with her fist and dared a look around the rest of the room.
She hadn’t known where they were until her dad fell and the Illusion dropped.
Her parents had brought them to this place once when she and Cedar were young.
It was a safe place, in case anything ever happened.
Her parents used to talk about bad things happening, about magickless coming and taking everything, killing everyone with their crude poisons and archaic weapons.
She’d had nightmares about it for years—it was why they’d shown her this place, called it a safe house.
The room, previously empty, was now stacked with crates.
Shelves lined the walls, which were filled with jars.
She’d never known what was inside any of them, but she could guess—weapons, hoarded magic collected in glass orbs, food.
She stared blankly at Cedar on a chair in the corner.
Cedar was breathing, groaning. She wouldn’t be out for long. Neither would her parents.
It was a miracle Vesper hadn’t died. A blast powerful enough to knock out everyone else in the room should have killed an Energy wielder, especially one so close to her. She’d need someone to protect her now more than ever.
But… Would Vesper still keep her safe? Knowing what she was? Or would she turn that rage onto Cypress and finally do what she’d been sent to do nine years ago and end this?
She wouldn’t.
Vesper loved her. She’d told her that. She wouldn’t kill her.
With a choked sob, Cypress looked over to where Bellamy had fallen to the ground.
The chains around her wrists had been cut through and still burned orange from the heat of her Energy.
Vesper loved her too. Cypress saw it. She didn’t want to, but she did.
She always saw more than they thought. Just because she didn’t prefer eye contact didn’t mean she missed the things they tried to hide.
She should leave. Escape while she could. Vesper wouldn’t want her anymore, and Cypress couldn’t bear to be there when she put it all together. It would be heartbreaking to witness the anger replacing her usual tender softness.
A thought struck her like a bolt to the chest—she’d never been on her own before.
Cypress wasn’t just giving up Vesper. She was giving up Mazz and Meila too, all the girls.
She’d never see them again. It wouldn’t be wise to go back.
They’d know where to find her now, and then everyone would be at risk.
Cypress was a Dampener. As much as she’d tried to hide that fact, it was who she was.
What she was. There was no going back—not if she wanted to live.
She’d have to figure out how to survive.
But… She couldn’t just leave them here. Her gaze darted back to Vesper’s unconscious form, to Cedar slumped in her chair.
Cedar had known. She’d known and still tried to protect her.
There wasn’t anything she could do about Cedar being chained, but she could hope that if she woke up Vesper, that Vesper would protect Cedar. Cypress exhaled a slow, controlled breath, releasing her hold on the energy coursing through her veins.
She’d never tried to return the magic she drained before, she didn’t even know if it was possible, but as long as her blood was on fire, she knew she held some of the Energy.