I dodge another arm before entering into a cleared area. Colton’s spinning around in a circle, confused. He stops when she sees me and his eyes widen. Instead of waiting for him to come to me, I run forward and jump into his arms. My heart swells when I feel his arms wrap around my back as he catches me. I didn’t realize how bad I was actually feeling until this moment. The aching feeling in my heart dissipates and the empty feeling I’ve been having leaves. I bury my face in his neck and wrap my arms tightly around his neck. “Thank you for not listening to me,” I mumble against his skin.
“Even Jack Sparrow needs help every once in a while.”
Colton sets me down and looks at me. I see and feel the anger that flashes across his eyes as he takes in my appearance. I know that I have a black eye and bruise on my shoulder. Considering the amount of throbbing in my head, I’m sure that there’s an even more obvious bruise there too. “I need Logan to heal me,” I whisper as I look around the small area. Everyone is here except Bragden and Incendia. Logan pushes through everyone and walks over to me.
“Well, I’ve seen you look worse, gorgeous.”
I smile as I step away from Colton and walk over to him. Without wasting a second, Logan wraps his arms around me while simultaneously healing me. I sink into him letting his healing magic work its way through my body. “You sure do like to get yourself into trouble, don’t you?” Logan whispers as he releases me. Leaning forward he kisses my forehead. “We’ve missed ya, little one.”
“Ryanne, did you do this?” Tom asks as he points to a Gadramick on his left.
“Yeah, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to stop Zahtri until I had my full strength, so I needed to find a way to get to Logan. I thought about just fighting my way through, but that would take too long, so I froze them.”
“Amazing,” a man says as he steps around Tom. This is the man I saw fighting beside him earlier.
“Oh, Ryanne, this is Vincent. Vincent this is Ryanne. Vincent helped transport everyone here.”
“It’s nice to meet you. I feel like I know you already from what I’ve heard from Claire and this boy,” Vincent claps Colton on the back. I smile as I listen to his voice. The deep timbre of his voice is raspy yet very soothing to the ears. I can only imagine what Incendia and Emma have said about him.
“It’s nice to meet you, too. Thank you for helping.” My eyes widen. “Wait, Claire contacted you?”
“Yep, she said that a pretty girl needed my help and I better get off my high horse and rejoin the mage world.”
“Sounds like Claire,” I say. Seeing movement to my right, I bring my eyes over there. Bragden is standing there with Incendia. When he sees me he takes two longs strides and engulfs me in a hug. My feet are lifted off the ground, so I wrap my arms around his neck.
“You sure do have a way of scaring those who care for you, missy.”
“I’ve missed you, Bragden.” I say as he sets me back on the ground. “I didn’t realize how much I missed our little pranks on each other until I couldn’t do them anymore.”
“Dude,” Liam says behind me. Bragden looks over my head at his brother and smiles. I turn around right as Liam continues, “We’re blood and you didn’t even say hey, nice to see you again to me.” He shakes his head, but can’t say anything more as Natalie runs across the clearing and jumps into his arms.
“Sorry, man, missed you too.” Bragden mutters, but knows that Liam isn’t listening anymore. When he steps back to Incendia’s side, I see the small flamed pendant around her neck. Bragden finally gave his necklace away.
I turn around and look at Colton again, but he’s not looking at me. He’s glaring at Adam. Liam’s standing off to the side with a large grin on his face as his eyes move between Colton and Adam.
Boys.
“Colton, stop giving him the death glare.”
“Nope,” Colton says without taking his eyes away from Adam.
I walk up to Colton and grab his chin, making him look at me. Colton moves his head down, but his eyes remain fixed on Adam. “Colton, look at me,” I demand. I wait a couple seconds and when he doesn’t move, I stomp on his foot.
“Ouch,” he says as he looks down at me. I can hear the mages around me laughing, but I don’t acknowledge them.
“Leave Adam alone. He’s proven himself to me this week and I trust him. He wants to help.”
“Have you forgotten everything he’s ever done to you?” Colton whispers to me.
“No, but I believe people are capable of change. Look at Lily,” I tell him. Colton looks toward Logan and Lily. I see his expression change. “She used to pick on me in school too, Colton, but I’ve forgiven her. Why is it not possible for Adam to change as well?”