Propping myself up, I tell him that Olive is being silly. He smiles and watches Olive for a few seconds. Crossing his arms across his chest, his upturned expression slowly falls and his gaze moves from Olive and focuses on me.
“What?” I whisper to him when he doesn’t say anything.
“You’re scaring me, Ry.” I push myself up and wait for him to continue. I can tell that there is more to that statement. “All this stuff keeps happening to you and it freaks me out every time you go into a vision or get pulled into the dream world. What if I never see you again? I can’t live with that.”
Something going to happen to you?
“No, Olive. I’m fine.” Turning toward Colton, I say, “It’s scaring me too. I want nothing more than to be a normal teenage girl, doing normal teenage stuff, but I’m not. Anything could happen to me, but I’ve accepted that. I’ve told you this before. I need you to promise me that if something does happen to me, you won’t do anything drastic.”
“I can’t promise that.”
“You have to promise me that, Colton!” I demand as I stand up and glare at him. I need him to promise me.
He stands his ground but doesn’t yell back. “Ryanne, I can’t lose you.”
I walk over to him and rest my head against his chest. “If something happened to you, would you want me to react drastically? Because I can’t lose you either.” I pause and let my statement sink in. I already know what the answer to my question is, so I continue, “Please promise me, Colton.”
Colton shakes his head and runs a hand through his hair. His gaze moves over my head and toward the corner of the room, not looking at anything in particular. His green eyes brighten as they gloss over. I’ve upset him. I lean forward and kiss the underside of his jaw. Sighing loudly, he looks down at me and says, “The best I can do is say that I’ll try. But you have to promise me the same.”
“I promise to try as well,” I whisper as I lean into him again. This time, he wraps his arms around me and holds me close.
Colton worried? Olive asks me.
That’s definitely an understatement. “When is he not?”
“When am I not what?” His chest rumbles beneath me as he speaks.
“Worried,” I say as he starts walking us toward the door.
“I’m always worried.”
“That’s what I told her.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Does anyone know how long the enchantment will last? I need to know how often I have to reapply it,” I say as I sit down on the couch. I just put the protective enchantment on myself. That is a weird feeling…it’s like permanently having a shield around me. Everyone turns to look at me, but no one says anything. I don’t know if they just don’t know or they’re just shocked that that is the first thing I ask after basically passing out for over a day from my magic use. “You know like you have to reapply sunscreen? No idea? I don’t have one either. I’m hoping that a little bell goes off that tells me when to redo the enchantment. Do you think that’s too much to ask for? It’d make things way easier. But I guess nothing we’ve been through so far has been easy, so why should this?”
“Ryanne, why are you rambling?” Emma asks me.
I pause and look down at the carpet. How do I go about saying this? Everyone will freak out. Colton starts rubbing my back because he knows that something is wrong. I turn toward Liam. “Valdus was right.”
“Ryanne,” he starts, but I interrupt him again like always.
“How am I supposed to help anyone when I’m only focused on getting away from Dravin? I don’t know what is going on in the world because we’re always running. I can’t run anymore. I can’t hide anymore. Dravin’s already proven that he can find me. I have to put myself out in the open and hope that everything works out. I have to prove that I’m not this ruthless killer that Dravin is telling everyone I am. I need to communicate with other mages. Find out what is going on in the world. Try and help out in any way possible. I was given all this magic for a reason, and it’s about time I start using it for good. I’m not supposed to constantly run. I’m supposed to be helping further mage’s integration into society. We are not meant to control others like Dravin wants. We’re supposed to help everyone. I, we, need a plan. Valdus was right about that. People will listen to those with a plan, and I don’t have any idea what I’m supposed to do right now.”
“You want to go out and find other mages? Is that what you’re saying?” Natalie asks.