Bound by Magic Chapter 15

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CHAPTER 15

Kayla

“We need to leave. Now!”

Disoriented, Kayla stumbled to her feet.

Garrick was on his feet faster than she could comprehend. His hand was at the small of her back as he guided them out of the room.

She could feel her magic working out the kinks, clearing her weariness, and righting her body. There wasn’t time to check Garrick over though, to make sure he’d healed. That would have to come later, when they settled. If they could settle with the wolves at the door of the compound.

Kayla raced with Garrick down the hall. He seemed to have memorized their route as he left Theo a step behind.

The large crack in the ceiling followed them, weaving through the hall as they ran through it. They needed to get up the stairs.

“Not that way,” Theo said.

They bumped into a bubble of Theo’s magic as he blocked their path.

Garrick turned with a vicious snarl. “Let us through. It is this way to the street.”

“That way is no good,” Theo said.

“Why not?”

Boom.

The sudden sound made her duck. Kayla’s gaze found the ceiling in search of any clue that it was ready to cave in on them. Garrick pulled her behind him, looking up at the ceiling as if he could see through it. She stared at Theo with wide eyes.

“What was that?” Garrick leveled him with a look of suspicion, then up at the walls.

“The wolves,” Theo said in one breath. The mage’s sharp gaze tightened. His thin lips opened as if he were going to say something, but he turned on his heel instead. “This way.”

Garrick checked the air, sniffing it.

Kayla tried to look beyond his mop of sandy hair down the hall, but Garrick’s arm kept her from moving forward.

“That way descends.”

“It goes down a level, then leads us to another set of stairs, which we will take to the ground floor.” Theo plucked at the frays of his dark ripped jeans; the look on his face was unreadable and stiff, but his voice held a hint of annoyance.

Boom.

A sinking feeling tightened her stomach into a tiny ball and continued to sink when Theo held out his hand a second time.

“There is something else there.” Garrick’s dark eyes remained on the dark hallway Theo traveled. Her palms grew warm.

Theo’s magic flitted down the hall, then came back to him. “There’s nothing down here. Maybe you’re smelling our protection magic burning out. But we have to get out of here before the ceiling caves in.”

Another loud eerie crack split the ceiling above their heads. Garrick looked up for half a second before his hand was on the small of her back, pressing her forward.

They followed Theo into the hall, and down a winding corridor that led them to a place that smelled moldy and dank.

The lights flickered out as Garrick kept a steady stride behind Theo. Theo twisted down another the hall before coming to an abrupt stop. He knocked once against an empty wall before it gave way to a flight of stairs. That made her breathe easier. They started to climb.

“Ever since you arrived, the wolves have been trying to penetrate our stronghold. So far, our defenses have held, but today, they’ve failed.”

Her thoughts scrambled.

Theo turned another corner and up another flight of stairs, their steps echoing off the walls, just as loud as the booming above their head.

“They’ll be inside in a matter of hours if we’re lucky.”

“How could this be?” Garrick’s broad shoulders held themselves differently than they had in the past few days. This was the legion coming out of him—the soldier readying himself for the battle. “Mages have defenses.”

“We did, yes. Up until a few minutes ago.” Theo’s sideways glance hit her before he turned up another flight of stairs.

She caused them to collapse? Kayla’s heart started a mutiny with her rib cage. “That was an accident.”

“I don’t blame you,” Theo said quickly. “Our barriers have been proving ineffective against the shifters since their arrival. Our defenses have been weakening. It was only a matter of time.”

To be the cause of the expedite made her sick. It was her fault the wolves would hunt them in here. If there weren’t any more barriers, that meant no one upstairs was safe. Not even her father.

“My father… is he okay?” she asked.

“He’s safe for now. He’s being evacuated like the others, but you won’t be if we don’t hurry. Come through here,” Theo said, motioning them to a door that looked much like a vault in a bank.

Theo crossed the room and placed his hands against the walls until it gave way to what looked like a sparsely lit old mining tunnel with thick stone walls chiseled out on either side of them. She could fit through, but Garrick had trouble fitting into the tight space as they squeezed through.

Boom. Boom.

The bangs above them were coming quicker and louder. And she was forced to remember the night they’d been run out of her own home. They knew where her father lived, but how did they find them in a mage safehouse? No one would have known they were there. In fact, according to Carissa, this safehouse has been undiscovered for over a hundred years.

“How did they find us here?” she asked.

Theo’s gaze traveled to Garrick; his eyes heavy with suspicion.

“You think he did this?” Kayla’s thumb pointed back toward Garrick as she dodged a lamp strung across the tunnel. “How? He’s been with me the entire time.”

“He tried to escape on the first night. The wolves showed up shortly after. Maybe he sent out a message before Pellan could intercept him.”

“From the mage basement? Why? When we’ve been on the run.”

“The wolves are not all that he brought with him. Vampires come out at night to flush us out now that they’ve discovered where we live.”

“I have no dealings with the vampires here,” Garrick said firmly, grunting past two larger boulders protruding the walkway. “You can ask your mage friend, Marnie. She’s confirmed it already.”

Theo paused on the landing to the sub-basement and held his hands on a door and listened. Behind it, a dull roar grew louder like a crowd at a restaurant was forming. He opened the door to peek behind it.

Boom. Boom.

The thunderous bang came from directly above them, drowning everything else out. Her pulse thickened in her ear.

Theo swore, then said, “Come on.”

The dull roar, that was behind the door, wasn’t a roar at all.

It was chaos.

Screams raced alongside magic shooting from palms as Theo brought them into what looked like an underground car park. People, en masse, were running—some were gathering children, others trying to find an exit, only a few could use their magic to disappear.

This is what she did. Her inability to control her magic put the lives of all of these people in jeopardy.

Raking a hand through his sandy hair, Theo looked toward where people were running from. At the entrance, the wall of magic flickered like a lightbulb about to blow out.

“They’re almost through,” he said, yanking at her arm as ripples of magic cascaded from the ceiling to the pavement. “This way.”

They weaved through the running bodies, barely making it around the corner without being separated. But she was too busy looking at the terror-filled faces streaking past her. All of this was because she and her father were on the run. She looked for her father’s salt and pepper hair in the crowd, worry contorting her throat like a mangled slinky.

“Where’s my dad?” she asked as a streak of magic whizzed past her face.

“He’s being evacuated. Come on.” Theo grabbed hold of her shoulder. A spark, hot like lightning, shot through her arm.

“Ah!” She snatched her hand back.

“Sorry.” The apology was half-hearted as he led them through another identical cement-clad hallway with a thick yellow line racing down it.

It was much quieter in here, but there weren’t any exits.

Boom. Boom. Glass shattered behind them.

“We have been breached,” a voice boomed throughout the tunnel. “Please evacuate to your nearest holding place. We have been breached—” The screams behind them multiplied. Theo picked up his pace.

“Through here.” He pointed to an air vent just large enough for her to crawl through. She dipped inside, but realized this vent led into a room and not the winding ductwork she was expecting or an exit like she was hoping. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the sudden change in lighting.

She looked around. They were in a small bunker. Thick gray-green cement walls flanked by a fan air circulation vent at the far end of the wall and the vent they’d just crawled through. Dozens of pairs of eyes were on her as Theo climbed through behind her.

“She is safe,” Theo announced. The room murmured their relief.

“Good.” A tall mage with pronounced cheekbones, a flat face, and dark hair breathed a sigh of relief. “Did you check her?”

“I did.”

“And?” the mage leaned in curiously.

“Check me for what?” she asked, searching the room, but there was a more pressing question she need answered first. Outside of Theo, there wasn’t a familiar face in between them.

She looked through the crowd again, catching the sight of Carissa, who flossed through the crowd until she met her brother.

“Theo, what happened? When I heard the south side had been breached, I went to help but you weren’t there.” Carissa paused and her green gaze found Kayla and Garrick. Understanding flashed in them.

“No, I adjusted the plan.”

“Was this your doing?” Carissa looked at her, then her gaze shot fiercely to her brother. Theo’s face turned cold. “Tell me you didn’t do this, Theo. Please tell me you didn’t try to separate her signature, and the blowback caused the barriers to go down.”

“I did what needed to be done.”

Holy foremages.

Everything suddenly made sense. The reason for the excruciating pain like she was being split in half.

The gold magic—she should have noticed the moment his eyes flashed with gold. It was him. He wasn’t helping her. He was using her.

That was the reason her magic seemed to chase the gold mist around and she couldn’t control it. It wasn’t her magic, she realized. She must’ve been too distracted touching Garrick’s marks to notice the moment it slipped into the bathroom.

And when she’d freaked out, she’d lost the ability to tell which magic was hers and what wasn’t. But her instincts did. Her magic chased it around, ready to burn it because she feared it. Because it was there to do her harm.

It was Theo perpetrating her inexperience to trick her into his web. A web she was still caught in.

She was surrounded by faces she’d vaguely recognized from the training arena. Like in that room, she only had one ally—probably the only ally she’d ever had.

When her feet slowly moved back, her back hit Garrick’s front. A low rumble emanated from his chest, but this wasn’t the time to fight. They had to flee.

Except, the path in front of them was just as dangerous as the path they were on. A ferocious growl ripped through the hallway just outside the door.

Carissa and Theo’s spat ceased and the crowd shifted to the sudden sound.

Before any of them could react, Garrick soared backward, out of the vent opening with a grunt. Several electric webs weaved across the opening, blocking him out.

“What are you doing? Let him back in,” Carissa said, half in shock. Theo didn’t move, only kept his focus outside of the barrier.

Garrick tried for the barrier, but when he touched it, a spark forced his hand backward, severely burning his palm in the process. He hissed. His eyes became black glassy orbs. Her magic raced to him, but was stopped by the web of magic and couldn’t get through.

A low growl at the end of the hall caught Garrick’s attention. The wolves were too close.

“Let him in, Theo,” Kayla said.

“Come on, Theo. Not like this,” Carissa repeated.

Theo remained impassive, staring blankly ahead. “I have to do what should have been done a long time ago.”

“Theo, stop this. This is madness.” Carissa stepped forward. Her auburn hair bounced as she looked toward the opening again, then back at her brother.

The shadow of the wolves in the hall grew larger as they prowled toward Garrick. He rammed the forcefield again, but bounced from it. Burns scattered up the side of his body where he met the web of magic.

“Thousands of mage lives,” he said, a statement only Carissa understood.

“Not like this,” she pleaded. “That’s not who we are.”

“It’s the only way.”

There was that look again, the one she’d seen flash across their faces ever since finding them in the alley behind the cathedral. Hope mixed with terrible regret creased his pointed face as he stared at the barrier, and now, she finally understood why. They were going to let him die.

Her magic loosened when Garrick crouched into a defensive position just outside of the vent opening. It didn’t take long before it came barreling from her hands, shooting toward the barrier, but the barrier was too strong. A blinding white light seared through the hall as her magic rebounded.

“Let him back in,” Kayla cried, turning toward Carissa and Theo. “Please. I’ll do whatever you want. You can have my signature. Take whatever you want.”

Kayla eyed Theo’s profile. He shifted from one foot to the other, then raked his hands through his hair, and let his eyes fall blank. He wasn’t going to help her. She looked to Carissa.

“We haven’t done anything wrong.” The words broke as Kayla said them. Carissa faltered. Regret softened her face into one of guilt. She didn’t want to do this. “Please, you don’t have to do this.”

Silently, she nodded. A wave of Carissa’s magic slid across the floor to the barrier, causing sparks of electricity to ignite as she tried to dismantle it.

“What are you doing? You’re going to kill us,” Theo roared, sending a wave of his own magic around his sister’s hands, dampening her power. The sparks on the barrier wall ceased. She tried to fend him off, but his magic bound her limbs and sent her flying across the room. The other mages in the room fortified the opening.

“Theo, stop this.” Carissa struggled against his control.

 “They’re already in, Cissy. There’s nothing we can do now without jeopardizing us all.”

A large gray ball of fur launched at Garrick’s chest, knocking him on his back. It snapped and snarled at his neck.

“Garrick,” Kayla shouted, then raced toward the opening. Except Theo grabbed her and yanked her back. “Let me go.”

When his hold didn’t loosen, her magic erupted. It sparked and pooled at her hands, then cascaded to the floor before a fireball started to form.

“Don’t let it get out of control. Absorb it,” Theo ordered from behind her. Several people rushed to her and gripped her tightly.

“Let me go,” she gritted and tried to kick herself out of their hold, but there were too many.

The fireball she’d been creating started to shrink as another wolf jumped on top of Garrick. She pushed harder, focusing on getting her magic to go to him, but no matter how much force she used, it shrunk.

“It’s working,” Theo said, watching the misty waves of her essence roll back like a wave retreating from the shore until it met her shoes.

“It is. Look.” A taller mage nodded. They looked at each other like they’d just found the cure to every incurable disease known to man all at once. A sprinkle of delighted murmurs went through the people holding her back.

Theo held up his hand and several misty streams traveled across the floor and up onto him. She felt her insides tug as he tried to grab hold of her essence, but it resisted.

She fought harder.

But Theo’s power grew and hers dwindled. His face contorted; his jaw set in determination as he pushed. She felt her magic unravel.

“We have to take it all,” Theo said. “And divert it to our barriers.”

“Don’t. It will kill her.” Carissa struggled, held back by Theo’s hold. “You don’t know if it’s going to work. You’ll kill her for nothing.”

A howl came from the entrance. She looked up to see Garrick was covered in fur. A burst of her magic soared from her, making them all stagger. She fell to the floor and scrambled to her feet. Before she could escape, someone caught her shoe.

“Look at it, it’s growing faster than we can absorb. It’ll be enough.”

“If she gives it to us.”

“She won’t. We have to syphon it,” Theo said. The mob agreed.

“No. That will kill them,” Carissa said fiercely as she attempted to rise from the floor. Theo’s magic pushed her back down.

“What do you think will happen if the wolves get in here? At least this way, their deaths will have meaning,” Theo said, nodding to the shifters behind their wall of protection. Outside of the bunker, Garrick groaned. A wolf had taken a bite out of his arm. Kayla struggled against her cage while the murmuring crowd agreed. Another wave of her magic pushed.

They recovered better this time. Her body dangled in their grasps. In two strides, Theo was in front of her.

“Please don’t do this,” Kayla pleaded, feeling her magic tear from her insides. Her pleas were ignored.

“Hold her tight.”

The crowd held her immobile. Theo grabbed her forearm and the magic he’d been summoning to himself pushed inside of her in a full blast.

Just like with the Syste, her insides tore to pieces. Her vision blurred as pain seared across her belly. Her magic fought against him, but it was futile. Then, like he put a vacuum to her mouth, her essence was sucked from her body, emptying her out. Her limbs became heavy. Her body drooped.

Pain surged through like fire in her veins burning them to a crisp in its wake. She tried to summon her magic back, but that made the pain worse. She stared at her palms and heard the echo of Garrick’s anguish behind her.

They had to get out of there. Her mind raced. Fending them off was pointless, they were much too strong, but maybe she could try to focus on diverting her magic from Theo and force it to Garrick. With enough raw force, it might get the barrier to break.

She just needed to control her emotions. If she could control her emotions, she could control her magic. Her eyes connected with Garrick’s. Fear bubbled up in her chest. Her magic billowed. No, she closed her eyes. She couldn’t focus on how hurt he was. Once she got to him, she could heal him like she had before. She had to focus first on stabilizing her magic.

Then, Garrick’s mantra flitted through her head as if they were linked.

Calmness comes at your will. She closed her eyes and focused on her breath.

It relaxes our shoulders. It stills our arms. She allowed her limbs to go slack, no longer fighting against the mages holding her.

Calmness allows us to stand sturdy and strong. She took a deep breath in, finding the place where her magic was stored.

It is everything we are and everything we want to be. The sounds of exertion around the room faded away. The gnashing of the wolves disappeared.

Calmness is at your call. Something inside of her clicked into place, and she could feel her magic again.

She envisioned it traveling from her hands, then across the floor. When the pain came, she breathed her way through. Hot lava torched her insides as Theo pulled her magic from her at one end and she fought to get to Garrick at the other.

Blood trickled down her nose.

“What is she doing?” someone asked.

“Fighting me. Stop her,” Theo yelled between clenched teeth.

But when they grabbed her wrist, her magic rebounded. It burst from her, blowing everyone back. She hit the ground with a painful thud. Her teeth rattled. It took a moment to realize they hadn’t grabbed her again.

She looked up. The barrier had broken. Her magic raced to Garrick. Disoriented and weary, the wolves backed away from him when it wrapped tightly around him, then followed the trail of it back inside of the bunker. It took a moment for them to recognize the change. The scout of the group turned, sniffing the ground until its nose hit a non-existent barrier.

The mages beside her backed away hesitantly, magic at their palms.

“Put the barrier back,” Theo screamed.

Several hands shot magic to the entrance, but it all flickered out. Nothing latched.

The large gray-white wolf on top of Garrick’s still body stopped and stalked toward them with bared bloody teeth.

“Shit.” Theo’s eyes widened in fear, his voice ghostly quiet.

The pack leader lowered its head, a growl ripped from its throat, and the pack charged inside.