Blake jumped away from me like I was on fire at the sound of Felicity’s voice and my face heated when I realized we had an audience. A huge audience. Everyone at the party was staring at us. I looked at each of them as humiliation burned, but when I saw Jackson standing off to the side, my heart ached. Why did I feel that way?
His face showed nothing of his emotions. He turned and disappeared into the trees and my focus returned to Felicity swearing and yelling at Blake about how quickly he’d forgotten about Emily and the fact that Emily was still missing. And that she was positive I had something to do with Emily’s disappearance.
I rolled my eyes. Here we go again.
I stood and faced her. “I told you before, I don’t know anything about Emily going missing. I haven’t done anything to her. I haven’t seen her since she used magic to throw me up against a wall.”
“Yeah, well, excuse me if I don’t believe you. Especially now you’re making out with her boyfriend. It’s all a bit convenient—”
“Ex-boyfriend. He isn’t going out with her any—”
“Shut up, bitch. You don’t know anything about what’s going on.” She turned to Blake. “I wanna know what your game is.”
“Come on, Liss. You know how it is. You know how it all works.”
What’s that supposed to mean?
“It doesn’t matter. Emily liked you. I mean, really liked you. You guys were a perfect match.”
His eyes glistened in the firelight. Was he crying? “What was I supposed to do?”
“Stick with Emily! Tell your parents to get fucked!”
His face grew serious. “You know I can’t do that.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “As if I’m gonna take advice from you, you stupid, reckless bitch. You’re not even in the game anymore. No one’s gonna marry you with your face all fucked up.”
She slapped him across the face. Hard. “Shut up, you fucking asshole! Don’t make me make you regret that.”
Someone in the crowd chuckled, but sparks danced over her fingers.
I was confused. Her face looked flawless.
Blake looked at my expression and laughed. “You don’t know, do you? She’s using a glamour. She’s using magic to cover her ugly face after the dark magic backfired and made her look older than my great-grandmother.”
As she tried to slap him again, he grabbed her wrist. “I’m warning you, Felicity. Try that again and I don’t care if you’re a girl. I’ll break your arm.”
Would he really do that? My stomach sank. I’d just agreed to be his girlfriend. I looked at his face. He meant it.
My mind was reeling. Why did I even say yes? What was wrong with me?
Then I realized that they were talking about magic in front of Alina and cringed. Would they get into some kind of trouble?
But that was the least of my worries right now.
Felicity pulled her arm free of Blake’s grip and turned her attention back to me. “I want you to confess. I want you to tell everyone here what you did to Emily. Where is she? Did you kill her?”
“No. I told you—”
“And I told you. Confess.”
“I won’t confess to something I didn’t do. You should be trying to find who really did this.”
“I’m looking at the killer right now. Tell me where her body is!”
I could feel the magic building inside me, just dying to be let loose, but I held it back. I didn’t want to get into trouble for fighting and ruin my chances of going home anytime soon. Then there was the fact that she’d wipe the floor with me because all I could do was create a shield and maybe throw some raw, uncontrolled magic at her.
I clenched my fists to try to keep it contained. “Emily is missing. That doesn’t mean she’s dead. Why do you keep saying she is? Maybe you know something about it.”
Before I could say any more, Felicity raised her hands and green magic shot toward me. I panicked, but was able to put up a shield at the last second and silently thanked Tracy for teaching me how to do it. Her magic crashed into the shield and dissipated into colourful sparks, but I kept my eyes on Felicity in case she sent more magic my way.
She made a pushing motion with her hand and I was thrown backwards through the air, flailing in a panic until pain slammed into my head and back and I slid down the trunk of a tree, landing on the ground in a crumpled heap.
I must have lost consciousness because suddenly Felicity was in my face, yelling at me to get up.
How could I get up? I was sure I’d broken something — maybe a rib or two — and the back of my head felt wrong. My mind felt fuzzy.
“Get up, bitch! Fight back. Tell me where Emily is! Come on!”
She kept yelling as I lay there in a daze, but when she reached down to grab a handful of my hair, I caught her arm and twisted it away from me.
Her other hand went for my throat, but before she could make contact, she suddenly jerked back away from me as if she’d been pulled up by invisible puppet strings.
I frowned. Did I do that?
My mind was hazy, but I was pretty sure it wasn’t me. As Felicity’s body was shoved sideways into nearby bushes, I saw Alina standing alone, her chest heaving and her hands glowing purple with magic.
What? She’s… a Descendant?
She rushed over. “Maddie! Are you okay?”
“No… Not okay… Something’s broken. Somewhere. My ribs, maybe. And my head hurts.” And my legs… and… everywhere…
She ran her hands over my body, stopping when she reached my ribs, then placed a hand on each side. I felt the soothing feeling of being healed. My head swam.
“How? How are you doing this?”
She gave a wistful smile. “It’s a long story.” The pain started to fade, but she stopped and looked over her shoulder. “That will have to do for now. She’ll be back.”
Alina gently turned my head to the side and put a hand on the back of it.
“Oh… this is a bad one. Hold this and hold still.”
She put a clear quartz crystal into my hand.
Panic shot through me. How bad was it? I had to trust that she’d be able to help me and I tried to relax into it. I assumed that it would make the healing process easier for her.
My eyes shot open at the sound of rustling leaves. Vines moved toward us from out of the trees above and before I could warn Alina, they had wrapped themselves around her arms and pulled her to her feet. More vines moved along the ground and as they reached my ankles, I recoiled and stumbled to my feet toward Alina.
Dizziness threatened to overwhelm me. “What the hell is going on?”
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdP4QQw3QHJ
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Author's Note: Did you suspect Alina? Or were you totally shocked?
─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIOGi093V2x
