When I finish the spell, I open my eyes back up and look around the room. Everyone is watching me curiously. Mixtures of awe and confusion flood into me. I mix the emotions with my magic and push them out. If I keep everything in my body, I’ll start to tire out again.
Colton walks up to me. “Are you okay? Are you tired?”
“I’m fine, Colton. You worry too much,” I tell him. I turn toward everyone else. “Do you feel any different? Did it work?”
“Yeah, I could feel your magic surrounding me,” Chris answers. “It was amazing.”
“Good, now that that’s settled…what’s new?” I say as I sit down on the edge of the bed.
“Ryanne…” Colton starts.
“Ugh, fine,” I say as I turn and look at him. “I don’t see why you want to know everything. Nothing really happened.”
“Humor me.”
“I was thrown into another cell in Dravin’s compound. I really need to work on my entrances. They’re not as smooth as I would like them to be. We talked. I insulted. You know how it goes with him. He tried to use his voodoo mind thing on me, but I threw a shield up around me. Oh, I could use my magic there. He didn’t know that I could use my magic. Apparently, there was a spell on that room to stop magic use, but I broke through it. He…um, he told me about how his parents were murdered in front of him by humans. His parents were good mages, but their death caused Dravin to oppose the idea of humans and mages working together. He wants revenge, so he basically formed the Gadramicks to get it.”
“How is that any different from what he’s doing now?” Colton asks.
“Well, when I asked him that, he choked me, so it’s not any different. He just doesn’t want to think of it like that.” Colton clenches his fist, and his appearance starts to fade. I jump up off the bed and walk over to him. “Hey, hey, hey. Listen to me.” I grab his chin and force him to look down at me. “When he let go of me, I hit him with a ball of energy. He fell to the ground injured, and I came back. I hurt him worse than he hurt me. It wasn’t that bad. I’m okay now.” I hate watching Colton struggle with his power. I know that he goes invisible whenever he gets upset or angry. I don’t know what specifically causes it, but it takes him a while to come back. He flickers once more and then sighs loudly. Hugging me to him, he buries his face in my neck.
“I’m going to kill him if I see him again,” he whispers to me.
I pull back and look up at him. “Then, I think we better train.”
Chapter Ten
“Okay, here’s another question. In an epic battle of magic, which wizard would come out victorious: Gandalf or Dumbledore?” Logan asks.
“Gandalf,” I say without giving it a second thought.
“Dumbledore,” Chris replies. We both turn and glare at each other. We’ve been arguing like this all night.
“How can you think that Dumbledore would win in a battle against Gandalf?” I ask.
“How can you think that Gandalf would win against Dumbledore?”
“There would be no competition. Gandalf is a beast. Dumbledore would run away scared at the sight of the Gandalf. When Gandalf died, he found a way to come back. Can Dumbledore say the same thing?”
“How about we say that it’s a tie. Both wizards are equally as awesome as the other,” Logan says. We stare at Logan for a couple of seconds before turning back to glare at each other. Honestly, I like both of them, but arguing with Chris is pretty fun. “Okay, how about this one, Smeagol vs. Yoda?”
“Yoda,” I say at the same time as Chris says Smeagol.
“Guys, this could go on all night. Ryanne’s the prophecy girl, so her picks win,” Incendia says. “Sorry Chris.” I stick my tongue out at Chris and high five Incendia.
“Just because she’s the prophecy girl doesn’t mean that she should win all the time. I’m just as awesome on a less magical level,” Chris retorts.
“You’ll have to do a whole lot more to reach my level of awesomeness, Chris,” I tell him. I lean against the back of the couch. Colton leans over and wraps his arm around my shoulder. I smile up at him before turning back to Chris. Colton’s amusement briefly hits me before I push it back out.
“You must have to brush your teeth a lot to clean your mouth of all the crap you’re spewing,” Chris says.
“Ouch, Chris. That hurt,” I tell him.
Colin, Tom, and Mr. and Mrs. Howick walk into the entertainment room. Tom turns toward Colton and nods. What’s going on? Colton turns and tightens his grip around me, but returns his attention to the TV. “What was that about?” I whisper to him.