I forced my eyes open to take in the stark white room. My breaths came heavy as I tried to turn my head to search the area, but something was clamped around my skull, keeping me trapped to a chair. Even my hands were strapped down with metal cuffs.
There were two other presences nearby that I could sense. Magic I’d hidden so well for so fucking long built within me, seeking out the unfamiliar essences.
One was a mind mage. Unknown. Male.
The other was a healer witch. Known. Female.
My chest rose and fell with harsh breaths as I took in the wall of metal either side of me. Ahead was a mirror, the reflection giving me all I needed: the male stood by the door, hair dark and peppered with silver streaks. He wore glasses with dark frames that were charmed, and in his hand was a comms device.
I doubted he realised his control over me had disappeared. He was too preoccupied with the device and whatever was going on outside our door to care about me.
The witch, though, was in the corner of the reflection. She tried to hide herself but failed at itmiserably.
It didn’t really matter, anyway. I could still feel their magic regardless.
Could steal it if I wanted to.
And the urge to eat their power made me strain against the cuffs. I gritted my teeth, back bowing off the chair as the power continued to build.
All the work I’d done to lock this ability away, gone.
Gone because he’d stolen something from me. Something I needed to get back.
“Ivor,” the female snapped, sounding older than the last time I saw her. “He’s awake, you fool.”
The mage looked up from the device, eyes wide behind the dark rims of his glasses. “Fuck,” he hissed, pocketing the device.
When I kill him, I thought,I will need that. He didn’t have any other weapons on him that I could see. As I shifted in my chair, legs strapped down and arms useless, I realised I’d been stripped of anything useful, too. All my weapons were gone, including the blades I usually strapped to my ankles, the gun normally at my hip.
I couldn’t remember when they’d done that. But I also couldn’t remember them dragging me here. Why was I here?
Because they wanted to take something from me, I told myself.And I want it back.
If the mind mage was here, then they’d taken memories.
But why the witch? I knew her, but not her name. She was oddly familiar, and the longer I tried to seek her out, to take in the lines of her face, maybe even look into her eyes, the more her presence tickled at something in the back of my mind.
Somehow, she was tied to the stolen memories.
So, why have her here?She could trigger a memory, recovered despite being stolen. I wasn’t even sure why I knew that. When had I taken the time to learn that about the mind witches and mages?
Something else locked within the stolen memories.
I blinked hard, and within the darkness of my own mind, I remembered something. It had my heart fluttering,belly warming with an emotion I couldn’t remember feeling for anyone else.
It was only a flash. So brief.
Brown eyes lightened by the sun.
And for a moment, just seeing that, just remembering how it felt to have those eyes on me, brought me a sense of peace.
But when my eyes opened again, the image disappeared, as did the emotions it brought up. I struggled to grasp at the memory, at the feeling, but soon enough, I was dragged back to the present.
The mind mage approached my chair, brows furrowed. “I don’t understand…”
The female scoffed. “You weren’t strong enough to break the bond, that’s what happened.”
Bond? What bond?I wanted to scream, but couldn’t get my mouth to move. Power licked at my insides, a raging inferno.
