As I part my lips to scream, a puff of air hits me in the chest and the coldness in my body expands, deepens, seeping into my mind and painting horrible memories I’ve never truly let myself fixate on. Of me as a young child, of being left alone all the time, how lonely I felt. The lack of love in my parents’ eyes when they looked at me, as if they wished I hadn’t been born. Of the one time I overheard them whispering about how much they wished they didn’t have to take care of me. That I was a burden.
Tears fill my eyes as the memories shift into images I’ve never seen. Of my parents packing their bags and sneaking out of the house late at night. Of them leaving me behind as they take off to a new life.
A new life without me.
“Leave me alone!” I cry out, throwing my hands over my ears, the blood from my injured lip dripping down my chin.
“Why? Don’t you want to see the truth?” Its cackle echoes around me.
“No!” I scream.
It laughs, the images shifting to all the times I was teased at school. Of when I was humiliated. Of the years I spent keeping my ability a secret. Of the fear I felt, the loneliness, even when I was around my friends.
Over and over again, the images play out until I collapse to my knees and curl up into a ball. Power sparks inside me, but doesn’t lash out into the room. It stays within me, building inside my body, the pain and heat so potent I swear I’m going to die.
“Please make it stop,” I beg, my brain aching from emotional overload. “Please.”
But it only laughs and plays it all over again. “Stop? Why would I ever stop?” But then, contradicting its words, it says, “You’re … Oh, my gods. I need to somehow tell the master of darkness what you are and the condition you’re in.”
I’m unsure how long I lie on the floor, but at some point, I reach a sort of catatonic state.
I should be afraid. Instead, I feel a drop of relief that at least the images have stopped.
“Sky?” a voice cuts through the darkness.
Shit. It’s come back.
“Go away,” I say with my hands still over my ears and my eyes tightly shut. My chest aches, like a deep wound, my eyes hurt from the tears I shed, and my veins are sizzling from the overload of power that was trapped inside my body. “Leave me alone.”
Hands cup my cheeks and warmth douses through my veins, thawing some of the cold but not the agony inside my chest.
I blink my eyes open, fearing who’s found me, but relief hits me at the sight of his eyes.
“Foster,” I croak hoarsely.
Lightning flashes behind the silver in his eyes as he scoops me up in his arms. I’d work up a good protest, but my body feels like lead, heavy and fatigued.
“Who did this to you?” he whispers as he carries me from the darkness room and into the lighted hallway.
People are loitering around, watching us, all their eyes a vibrant shade of either lavender, silver, gold, or green, which means I must be in the elemental’s building.
“It was … It was Brody and a couple of his friends,” I croak out, loathing how feeble I sound. I lower my voice and whisper, “Foster, I think Brody’s still in that room. He tried to kiss me, and I …” I trail off as guilt, fear, and anger rupture through me.
Guilt that I may have hurt someone. Fear that everyone will find out what I am if they discover Brody passed out on the floor. And anger that, deep down, I know what that fucker was going to do to me if kissing me hadn’t knocked him out.
Maybe it makes me sick and twisted, but part of me is glad he’s lying on the floor in the dark, most likely poisoned from the kisses he stole from me.
Foster glances down at me, the lightning in his eyes illuminating behind the grey as he notes my bloody lip.
“Take her,” he bites out, his heart rate thundering like an out of control storm.
I’m shifted into Easton’s arms. He swallows audibly as he stares down at me with a pained expression. I’ve never seen him look so upset.
“Come on; let’s get you out of here,” he utters, then starts down the hallway with me in his arms.
“What about Foster?” I ask, peering behind us.
“Foster will be fine,” he says as he pushes out the door.