BlackMoon Beginnings (21 page)

“There’s no need to thank me.”

She lets go of me and steps away, “Yes, there
is.”

“What do we do with him?” Emma points towards
the unconscious man tied to one of the kitchen chair.

“Well, we’ll need to question him. See why he
was going to kill Claire. We have to wait until he is conscious
though. It shouldn’t take too long for him to wake up.”

“Umm, I knocked him out with magic too. I
knew I wouldn’t be able to knock him out with just the dagger
handle, so I drew some magic into it.” Tom looks surprised.

“I wasn’t aware that you could bring magic
into a non-magical object. I’ve never heard of anyone who was able
to do that.”

I shrug. “I can try to read his mind
though.”

Tom’s eyes widen. “That’s an excellent
idea.”

“Now, wait a second,” says Colton. “We don’t
know what is going to be going through his mind. She’s already seen
and been through enough lately. Is that really the best suggestion
we have?” He places his hand down my on shoulder as he looks at
Tom.

Turning around, I address him myself.
“There’s nothing else we can do, Colton.” I reach out and put my
hand on his arm. He glances down at it, before meeting my eyes
again. “Thank you for thinking about me, but this is the best
option. I’ll be fine.”

He takes a step forward. Why does he have to
do that? I have to crane my neck back to look at him because he’s
so much taller than me. “I’m just tired of seeing you get hurt. Why
does it always have to be you?”

“Because I’m the prophecy girl, remember?” I
give him a sad smile. He opens his mouth like he wants to say
something else, but realizing that everyone is looking at us, he
closes it again. Running his hand through his hair, he clears his
throat and steps back. I feel the heat wash over my cheeks as I
divert my gaze to the ground.

Speaking to no one, I say “I’m going to try
and go into his mind, not just read his thoughts. That way I’ll see
who he is working with and what exactly he was supposed to
accomplish tonight. Claire do you think you can try to strengthen
those enchantments you had up? The person he was with got away. We
don’t need him attacking also.”

Claire nods and walks out of the room. I turn
towards the unconscious man. Taking a deep breath, I close my eyes
and focus on breaking through the barricade in his mind. Someone
spent a lot of time putting it up, so no one could access his
thoughts and memories. I feel my body swaying and a pair of arms
wrap around me to keep me upright, but I don’t let it lessen my
concentration. I search until I find a small crack in its exterior.
I push all my energy into the crevice until it caves in, breaking
down the mental barrier. The second the barrier ruptures, images
and voices swarm around me.

I see him growing up. He hit his growth spurt
before everyone else, so kids picked on him, because he looked
different. He was beaten up at school. He came into his powers when
he was nineteen. He could think of anywhere and travel there. I saw
Dravin approach him one night telling him that he could be
extraordinary if he joined him, which he did. He wanted to feel
like he belonged somewhere.

Those images leave and are replaced with
Dravin standing in front of a large crowd. “There’s a girl who will
be born to non-magical parents who plans on killing us all. She’s
ruthless and determined to put an end to us Gadramicks. She doesn’t
think that we should work with humans and feels that we should
remain hidden. We know that we are superior to those measly humans,
but she wants to let
them
continue to rule. Find out who she
is and bring her to me!”

Next, I see him walking stealthily through a
dilapidated building. He is searching for someone with another man.
Quietly walking up the stairs, he sees old pictures lining the
walls—a family smiling in each one. Walking into a bedroom, he
finds the family from the photographs. The man behind him rushes
forward and stabs the father quickly. The woman and child start
screaming at the violent act. He moves on and stabs the woman.
“Larkin, grab the girl.” The girl is crying when he reaches for
her, but doesn’t fight. She’s too weak. They go back to the
compound and lock her up, thinking she was the girl from the
prophecy. When they found out that she was just a human, they
killed her.

He is sitting on the bed in a small room when
he hears someone knock on the door. Opening it, he finds Thomas
standing there. “We found her,” he says and walks away.

They weren’t supposed to find her so
soon.
Slamming the door, he walks into the middle of the room.
Running his hand through his hair, he starts pacing and muttering
under his breath. He walks over to the desk in the corner and
knocks all of the books onto the floor. Angrily, he picks up a
large stack of papers and throws them across the room, watching as
the papers slowly float to the floor in disarray.

I see him walking down a long cemented
hallway. He stops in front of a door with a frown on his face. He
is standing outside the cell I was being kept in. I am lying
unconscious on the ground with blood running down my face and nose
from their last attempt to get information out of me. Thomas walks
up beside him, smiling at his handiwork. “Is it necessary to
torture her that much? She’s so small.”

Thomas turns to him, “Don’t let that fool
you. She’s stronger than she looks and someone needs to break her.
She’s going to be the end of all of us.”

He’s standing in a darkened room, candles
providing the only source of light. Eerie shadows dance across
every surface. Larkin has his back to Dravin, shoulders hunched and
eyes downcast.

“Do we really have to kill the woman? Can’t I
just find a way to get the girl back?”

“No, Larkin. Killing Claire will make Ryanne
upset. People do stupid things when they are upset. She’ll react
violently towards Gadramicks. Because of that, we’ll finally be
able to convince everyone that she really does need to be stopped.
We can get her back here in no time. Without Claire in the picture,
we’ll be able to find her. She won’t be surrounded by those stupid
spells.”

Larkin is standing outside our house talking
with Thomas. “I don’t need to tell you how important this is. We
need the girl. For some reason, Dravin thinks you are the only one
capable of doing this. However, if you can’t do it, don’t bother
coming back. If you think what we did to her was bad, you’ll be in
for a surprise.”

I’ve seen enough. I push out of his mind and
am thrust back into my own. My body is limp. Colton has his arms
wrapped around my waist, leaning me against him. I straighten my
legs and support my weight, taking a small step away from him.
“Thanks for catching me.

“His name is Larkin. He is working for
Dravin, but I don’t think he wants to be. Dravin got to him right
when he came into his powers, promising that he could help him. He
is telling his followers that I plan on killing all of them. He
says I am ‘ruthless and determined to put an end to us.’” I put air
quotes around what Dravin said.

“He didn’t want them to find me. He seemed
really upset when Thomas told him that they captured me. He even
asked them if it was necessary to torture me as much. Oh, he
was
obeying Dravin’s orders tonight. Dravin told him that
killing Claire would cause me to act out, proving that I needed to
be stopped. He also knows about the enchantments, so killing Claire
would make it easier for them capture me. He didn’t want to do it,
but they threatened him,” I think that’s about it. I hope that I’m
not forgetting anything.

“You’re trying to tell me that he’s a good,
bad guy?” asks Emma.

“I’m saying that he doesn’t like what they
are doing. He didn’t want to kill Claire.”

“But he was going to,” says David. I nod; I
can’t defend Larkin anymore than that. He didn’t want to do what
they were forcing him to, but he didn’t really have a choice. They
would have killed him if he didn’t.

Larkin starts groaning in the chair. “What
are we going to do about him?” asks Colton.

“I don’t know,” says Tom.

He starts moving again. I take a tentative
step towards him, but Colton reaches out and pulls me back. “We
don’t know what he is going to do.”

He opens his eyes and starts struggling for a
second and then stops. His eyes sweep the room before landing on
me. He is younger than I initially thought. He appears to me a
little older than Logan. I start squirming under his gaze and step
back until I hit Colton’s chest. I don’t like how he is looking at
me, like I am some prize possession that he wants to hoard. “How
did you know I was coming?”

“I had a vision.” His gaze never wavers.

“Why are you staring at her?” demands
Logan.

“She’s the girl from the prophecy. The one
that is going to save us all.”

Save us all?

“I thought Dravin said that she was going to
kill everyone.” Logan looks at me questioning my earlier response.
That’s what Dravin is telling them.

“She’s going to save us from Dravin.”

I step towards him, “You don’t believe in
what Dravin is saying?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I discovered who you were long before
Dravin. When I first saw you, you were in the park and a little
girl was lost. She was cold and crying because she was lost and
alone. You gave her your jacket and helped her find her mom. A
killer wouldn’t have done that. I knew you weren’t what Dravin was
telling everyone you were.”

“That happened over Christmas break. I didn’t
even know I had powers then.”

“You hadn’t come into you powers yet, but the
magic was still in you. I could
see
the magic inside of you.
It surrounds your aura.”

“My aura?”

“I can read people, so to say. I see colors,
but mainly I get descriptive words about people. I can tell that
you’re afraid. You don’t want to let everyone down. You’re strong,
but you feel weak. You’re meant to be a leader, but you still need
someone to help lead you. You want to trust me, but you think that
everyone will be disappointed if you do. You look for the good in
people and always end up getting hurt. You love everyone in this
room and would rather put your life in danger than see them harmed.
You’re afraid to open yourself up to others, because everyone that
you have opened yourself up to before is gone. You-”

“That’s enough.” I don’t like that he can
tell so much about me based on my aura.

“He’s going to come back for you. It’s not
safe here. Even with the enchantments, they know you are near.” He
stops looking at me and turns to Claire, “I’m sorry I tried to kill
you. I didn’t want to.”
They would have killed me if I didn’t.
They’re going to kill me now.

“Larkin, why didn’t you ever leave? I’ve seen
your thoughts. You haven’t wanted to be there for a while.”

“I couldn’t. You know what they would have
done to me. I’ve seen so many people die. I’ve been beaten so many
times because I tried to stop them from hurting them. I tried to
make them stop hurting you.”

“I know. I saw your memory.”

“You motivated me to do something. I just
didn’t have a plan on how to do it. You didn’t reveal any
information about these people when you were being beaten. I’ve
never seen anyone who was able to fight a truth serum. It was
amazing. When that boy came in and got you,” he looks towards Liam,
“I knew that I didn’t want to be around Dravin anymore. He doesn’t
know what he’s talking about. He is polluting everyone’s mind. He
thinks that he should rule over humans, not live with them.”

I look to Tom, “I think we should let him go.
He’s not going to harm us.”

“He was going to kill Claire!”

“But he didn’t.”

“Because you tackled him and knocked him
unconscious.”

“Tom, those ropes aren’t containing him. He
could have blinked out of here at any point or killed us, but he
hasn’t.”

“This is the motivation I need. You guys
aren’t safe here. Go somewhere else. Anywhere else. Don’t tell me
where. Don’t tell anyone where. I’ll be able to sense you sooner or
later. You have a lot of magic in you, Ryanne. I can work with you.
I’ll keep Dravin off your trail for a while.”

The room is silent as Tom thinks.

“I think we should let him go,” Claire says
as she continues to look between Larkin and me.

“You do? Even after he tried to kill you?”
asks David.

“Yes, Ryanne trusts him. So, I’m going to
trust him. I know that he could have left at any point since he
woke up. Those ropes wouldn’t be able to hold back anyone with his
ability. He could have harmed us, but he didn’t.” David nods,
seeming to understand what Claire is saying. Tom and David share a
look before both untie him.

Larkin stands up and walks towards me. I want
to let him go free, but something about him makes me a little
uncomfortable. I back up towards Colton again, trusting his
presence more. He continues to walk towards me until he is standing
just inches in front of me. I have to tilt my head up fully to see
him.

“He’ll come after you again. He won’t stop.
You need to find somewhere safe to go. Don’t. Underestimate.
Him.”

“Where are we going to go?” asks David. “We
can’t stay here. If they were able to find us, there’s no telling
how soon someone else will.”

Tom begins pacing the room, mumbling to
himself. I wonder where Tom actually lives. Like Liam, Emma, and I,
he seems to have moved in with Claire. Suddenly, he stops pacing
and grins like the Cheshire Cat. It’s kind of creepy.

“Aha, I have a cabin up north that could fit
all of us.” Nodding his head, he continues, “Yeah, it’s smaller
than this house, but there is enough open space outside that we can
keep training and there’s enough rooms, though some of us may have
to share.”