Silence heavier than any sound that could have been made settled in the alley and the portal hummed louder and louder, darkness that felt more like a veil settling upon the city.“What’s going on?” People muttered as they hurried to leave for their various houses where they knew they would be safe, the ones who had shops, or stores, and restaurants, closed them up to leave.Kai looked around, the air was heavy and not just figuratively, literally. The wind blew so hard that things slammed into each other and without a word, he dropped a heavier, stronger veil, canceling out the one that was settling.“I don’t know what’s going on and quite frankly, right now, I absolutely do not give a flying fuck. I don’t care.” Kai said firmly, his head up as he stared at his own veil.“But after this, there is no way in hell that any of us is going into the portal even though it went rejecting us, and I think you already know what that means.”They all knew, and knew even better than to ask him to

AIDAN NIGHTINGALE.The sound of my name on her lips broke something in me. My throat worked as I slowly closed the gap between us and sat right beside her, keeping an amount of distance that would be considered safe for her.She must have noticed that I was keeping my distance even though the fact that she was so close and yet so out of reach was killing me over and over again.Octavia cleared her throat, it sounded more like she was working up the courage to speak more than a throaty sound as she closed the space between us, curling against me, her cheek pressing into my chest.Fuck, she shouldn’t do things like this. She shouldn’t just put an infinite amount of trust in me like she was doing right now. My restraint is already on the verge of breaking and the last thing I wanted to be to her is a monster.“Are you okay?” I asked and she nodded. There was another silence, the kind that forced me to sit still, scared that she was going to crumble if I as little as moved a limb.I could

As soon as the words came, as soon as that voice finished talking, the portal responded instantly.A column of light shot up from its core, wrapping around Catherine as wind whipped through the ruins, tearing roofs off nearby buildings.Kai grinned, “FUCK YOU!” He yelled as he lunged forward on instinct, desperate to save Catherine, to help her and set her free of whoever had conducted this ritual to force Cyra out.“You’re not taking her anywhere!” Kai yelled, closing the space between him and the portal, his hand already balling into a fist, his mind dead set on giving the portal the hardest punch ever.He had everything clear in his mind, the plan was vivid. He had compressed his punch with magic that made it land hard enough to give Catherine control but not enough to hurt her.He was getting closer and closer and in a blink of an eye, he was face to face with the portal, ready to hit it but then there was a crack.Everything around held its breath as they watched Kai try to save

Despite the anger that gnawed at her inside, she forced herself to let out a smile that made Jake smile back.Jake had always tried to help Kai, he had tried to make friends with Kai even when the sisters had treated Kai like the trash he was, she couldn’t believe his nerve to get Jake involved in all of this.So what if someone was controlling him, was he that much of a doll that he couldn’t set himself free?The thought of it got her so mad that she had to swallow to keep herself from going out of control. “You’re too nice, Jake.” She finally said, breaking the silence and getting a smile out of him.Jake wasn’t nice, in fact, he was far from the word nice but the brotherly love she had for him had made her so blind that she couldn’t see clearly that he was plotting something.“I’m not,” he muttered but Lila disagreed immediately as she recounted all of his good qualities, most of which were just pretentious acts, “nobody is perfect, Lila, and that’s why I’m trying to hope that Kai

Nora opened her eyes in her car, everywhere was dark and when she looked at her phone, it was past ten at night. The street was quiet and there was not a single soul around.Looking around, Nora could feel like something was wrong. It was evident and everything pointed right at it but she was too weak to try and analyze anything.Her mind tried to replay what had happened but she couldn’t remember anything beyond getting to a dead end while following the voice in her head.The sound of her phone ringing jolted her right out of her thoughts, and when she pulled it out, she saw that it was Jake and he had called her like ten times before then already.“Hello?” She groaned into the phone but it was Lila’s excited shriek that greeted her over the phone, it had been so loud that she winced, and moved the phone from her ear for a moment before returning.“Nora! Where have you been? We’ve been trying over and over to get through to you but you weren’t answering and….” Lila’s voice trailed of