Chapter 40 Hawk
Hawk
She was laughing with three young girls. The sound of it had my heart racing in a way I couldn’t understand. There was light in her eyes. A warmth that she reserved for those she cared about. It was a warmth shared briefly with me.
I couldn’t tear my eyes from her as I hid in the shadows.
She held one girl in her lap while another danced around the room with a large bow around her waist. There was a third resting her head on the woman’s shoulder, a little older than the other two, but still young enough to seek that warmth and comfort.
Forget, a voice whispered. It isn’t real.
The woman looked at me without really seeing me. The smile on her face faltered.
And then the image bled, the colours running like water on ink.
I tried to reach for it. Tried to stop the image from disappearing. I didn’t want it to end. I needed it to stay.
She is not real, the same voice said, pushing the memory further away. The laughing turned to static. The colours became hazy, shifting from bright to something dark and grey.
I grasped uselessly at the remnants of the memory. Nothing but the colour of her eyes remained. The warmth they’d brought me turned cold, like ice water had been thrown over me.
Everything felt cold without her.
In the distance, there was a crash. “What the fuck is going on?” the voice from my mind shouted, the sound ringing in my ears.
I felt something snap within me. The fog disappeared, leaving an emptiness in my mind where…I wasn’t sure. I knew there was something missing. My heart told me there was a missing piece. And my magic…
My magic burned with the desire for vengeance. It wanted to take back what was stolen.
That wasn’t my Fae side talking. It wasn’t Fae magic that swept through me.
It was demonic.
It was beyond my House or bloodline.
I forced my eyes open to take in the stark white room. My breaths came heavy as I tried to turn my head to search the area, but something was clamped around my skull, keeping me trapped to a chair. Even my hands were strapped down with metal cuffs.
There were two other presences nearby that I could sense. Magic I’d hidden so well for so fucking long built within me, seeking out the unfamiliar essences.
One was a mind mage. Unknown. Male.
The other was a healer witch. Known. Female.
My chest rose and fell with harsh breaths as I took in the wall of metal either side of me.
Ahead was a mirror, the reflection giving me all I needed: the male stood by the door, hair dark and peppered with silver streaks.
He wore glasses with dark frames that were charmed, and in his hand was a comms device.
I doubted he realised his control over me had disappeared. He was too preoccupied with the device and whatever was going on outside our door to care about me.
The witch, though, was in the corner of the reflection. She tried to hide herself but failed at it miserably.
It didn’t really matter, anyway. I could still feel their magic regardless.
Could steal it if I wanted to.
And the urge to eat their power made me strain against the cuffs. I gritted my teeth, back bowing off the chair as the power continued to build.
All the work I’d done to lock this ability away, gone.
Gone because he’d stolen something from me. Something I needed to get back.
“Ivor,” the female snapped, sounding older than the last time I saw her. “He’s awake, you fool.”
The mage looked up from the device, eyes wide behind the dark rims of his glasses. “Fuck,” he hissed, pocketing the device.
When I kill him, I thought, I will need that.
He didn’t have any other weapons on him that I could see.
As I shifted in my chair, legs strapped down and arms useless, I realised I’d been stripped of anything useful, too.
All my weapons were gone, including the blades I usually strapped to my ankles, the gun normally at my hip.
I couldn’t remember when they’d done that. But I also couldn’t remember them dragging me here. Why was I here?
Because they wanted to take something from me, I told myself. And I want it back.
If the mind mage was here, then they’d taken memories.
But why the witch? I knew her, but not her name. She was oddly familiar, and the longer I tried to seek her out, to take in the lines of her face, maybe even look into her eyes, the more her presence tickled at something in the back of my mind.
Somehow, she was tied to the stolen memories.
So, why have her here? She could trigger a memory, recovered despite being stolen. I wasn’t even sure why I knew that. When had I taken the time to learn that about the mind witches and mages?
Something else locked within the stolen memories.
I blinked hard, and within the darkness of my own mind, I remembered something. It had my heart fluttering, belly warming with an emotion I couldn’t remember feeling for anyone else.
It was only a flash. So brief.
Brown eyes lightened by the sun.
And for a moment, just seeing that, just remembering how it felt to have those eyes on me, brought me a sense of peace.
But when my eyes opened again, the image disappeared, as did the emotions it brought up. I struggled to grasp at the memory, at the feeling, but soon enough, I was dragged back to the present.
The mind mage approached my chair, brows furrowed. “I don’t understand…”
The female scoffed. “You weren’t strong enough to break the bond, that’s what happened.”
Bond? What bond? I wanted to scream, but couldn’t get my mouth to move. Power licked at my insides, a raging inferno.
Beyond the closed door, there was another crash, one that sent the room trembling. It had the mind mage stopping before he could touch me, even had the older female backing away.
Something hit the door, making it rattle. The two imprisoning me froze completely.
“She’s here,” the male seethed, grabbing his comms device. “What the hell?”
He pressed a button and a noise came through the speakers. It wasn’t a strong enough connection to the cameras outside, but I knew immediately he was watching whatever was going on beyond the closed door.
When the door bowed beneath the force of the next crash, the mage backed away from me. His gaze flickered from mine towards the witch. “They’re all dead.”
If I could see her, I had a feeling I would be witnessing the colour drain from her face. “What?” she snapped, though there was no heat in her voice.
“She’s got that beast from…from the Old World. And he’s tearing apart the hallway. And there’s a Winter Fae guard. And one of the shifters from the cages. They’ve killed our guys. For her.” The mage looked up from the device, fear glinting in his dark eyes. “We’re dead next.”
“They want him,” she said, voice trembling. “We use him.”
Although the mage was scared, she was terrified. Finally, the witch moved into my line of sight. Her face was colourless, but it was her eyes that gave everything away.
He was scared for his life.
She was scared of something else.
The mage nodded once and pulled a gun from the back of his pants. The next time the door cracked, he clicked off the safety and held it to my head.
So close, I thought, feeling my power fill my bloodstream. It needed him to come closer.
My gaze strayed to the reflection of the door as it caved in.
Standing in the doorway was a bear that wouldn’t fit through it. As soon as the way was cleared, he roared, the sound deafening. I watched through the reflection as he took several steps back, allowing for the others to enter.
First came the terrible beast. His presence tickled at another memory, this one stronger. At the sight of him, I swore I could smell the ocean. When I blinked, I didn’t see eyes. But I thought I saw a flash of violet, like lightning striking the sky.
I felt the mage move in closer. He was almost touching me. His fear perfumed the air.
The second to enter the room was the Fae male. Winter Court. I didn’t recognise him, and he didn’t dredge up anything. He wasn’t tied to the stolen memories.
But he moved in, and from the doorway, the final person appeared.
My breath caught in my throat at the sight of her. Dark hair, messy and untamed, tumbled down her back. She wore a night gown that revealed her arms, which were splattered with blood. When she glanced into the reflection, I caught the dark colour of her eyes.
They were just as I remembered them.
The nozzle of the gun bit into the flesh of my temple, bringing the mage into my grasp. “Move any closer, and I shoot him,” he said, voice hardening with the threat. “You can’t save him from a bullet to the head.”
The dark-eyed female stopped, hand trembling as she held her own gun. But her eyes drifted from the male to the witch who moved to stand near my feet.
I could steal the mage’s power now. He wouldn’t have a chance to shoot me.
The witch, on the other hand, wasn’t close enough yet.
“You,” the female said, her voice breaking. She took an unintentional step forward, one that had the mage digging the barrel of the gun further into my skull.
“Not another step,” the mage warned, a slight waver entering his voice when the bear stepped into the doorway again. “He will die.”
I wanted to look into the female’s eyes. I knew that if I could just see them, I might be able to take back what the mind mage stole. I might be able to remember why I loved her.
“No one is going to die,” the female said, her voice tight. “No one else needs to die. Just let him go, and we’ll walk away.”
The male scoffed, the tremble in his hand intensifying. “You aren’t my Queen.”
“You’ve chosen your side, and that’s fine. I will respect that,” she replied. “But are you a killer?”
That had the mage blinking hard, looking down at me. I could read it in his eyes, see him considering it.
He might not have been a killer. But I had enough blood on my hands to not care anymore.
With him so close, I felt the tendrils of his power. I let my own magic slip out of me, a darkness I’d held onto for so long. It was almost a relief to allow it out. To let it feed on him.
There was no way to stop it once it touched his skin. From the corner of my eye, I watched it snake up his hand from where it brushed my own. At first, he didn’t even notice the shadows, not as he said something to the female, and tried pressing the gun further into my flesh.
But when he choked on his next words, it had the witch moving towards him.
A spear of ice shot up from the ground, stopping her from reaching the mage as he stumbled back, the gun tumbling from his hand. It hit the ground with a sharp clank that had the female behind me flinching, her hands covering her stomach.
Shock played in her eyes as the mage fell to his knees. With each laboured breath he took, I felt myself get stronger. With each slow beat of his heart, I felt my magic grow as I sucked the power from his body and into my own.
Unfortunately, it wouldn’t kill him. It would leave him immobilised for several days, weakened and useless. And for those days, I would be able to access what was his. I would be able to enter the minds of others. I would be able to steal their memories.
And maybe, I might be able to recover my own.
I’d never borrowed the power of a mind mage or witch. Never tried, never gotten close enough to catch a whiff. I could sometimes steal small fractions of another’s power. Just enough for a few minutes of using their ability. So small they never even noticed the magic went missing.
For him, though, he felt it. He knew I was consuming his power.
And I wouldn’t release him until I had it all.