– Chapter 31

The driver seat is empty and the passenger door open.

I create my fire and hold it in my hand.

‘You better listen to me, Ryan!’ I call out, fiercely searching the bushes and trees that surround me, looking for any sign of him. ‘I’m not the same girl I was yesterday. I’m not going to back down and you’re not going to beat me. Not today. Not ever again. I’ve got powers you can’t comprehend and a mastery over fire so brilliant I will turn you into a walking slab of overcooked meat in a heartbeat.’ I let out a slow and steady stream of my flames, letting them swirl and twist into a most familiar and welcomed form.

My wolf.

My strength is waning and the effort it takes to create my wolf is draining my already weakened state. My magic is tied directly to my physical state and I have no idea how long I will be able to keep this beast by my side before it fades away into smoke.

But Ryan doesn’t know that.

‘This wolf will tear you apart, Ryan. So will the other fifty I can create in the blink of an eye,’ I lie. No way I keep this wolf up for longer than a minute, let alone create another one. God, I miss my Physical realm of power. The limitless energy and strength. Good times. ‘And I will watch it do so with nothing but joy. So, I suggest you stay the fuck away from me and let me leave here!’

I wait, straining my ears for any sounds that can give a hint to where he might be lurking. I know he’s there. I know it!

I start backing away from the car. I don’t have time to waste here. I look down at my wolf.

‘Find him,’ I order. ‘Hold him off if you can’t kill him.’

She gives a small nod and the burning brow over her eyes narrow as she searches for him. I continue backing away, further and further, not wanting to get a bullet in the back of my head. My flaming wolf of vibrant red stands firm in the middle of the road. When I reach the bend, I turn and run as fast as I can.

It must be thirty minutes later when I see a sign pointing left, indicating a train station. I follow it, finally finding some form of civilisation. A few cottages start to appear. Then a post office. A pub. A bank. It’s a cute little village. A single road lined with chocolate-box cottages surrounded by picturesque gardens and fields filled with ponies and sheep. I keep running, systematically glancing over my shoulder to ensure I’m not being followed. I pass a couple of dog walkers who stare in stunned silence at the sight of me passing through. When I pass a shop, I pull off a dark blue raincoat hanging on the rail outside and swiftly slide it on, pulling the hood up and covering the blood on my skin and clothes. Before the shop keeper sees, I carry on, keeping to the walls with my head down. But I’m really struggling. I can barely breathe. My muscles are stiff and my feet are covered in cuts and scrapes. They sting like crazy and my hand! Christ. My hand!

I spot an alleyway and duck into it, taking a moment to try and catch my breath and get some semblance of a plan together. I don’t even know where the hell I am, never mind how to get to where I need to go.

I’ll find another phone box. Try to call Gabriel again. See if I can get him to help me.

The grinding and screeching of steel on steel draws my attention. I carry on down the alleyway, following the sound, and see a field up ahead. At the very far end is a narrow country road leading to a tiny train station. Luckily, a train is slowly pulling in.

‘All aboard,’ I mutter, wrapping my stolen coat tighter around my body and taking a deep breath.

I’ll cut across the field and get to the station. I’ll board that train and get some distance between me, Ryan, the wreck of a house I’ve left behind and Toby. I’ll find a phone and call Gabriel again.

‘LILLY! WHERE ARE YOU?’

Toby’s voice echoes off the walls behind me and an icy shiver of fear ripples down my spine. I stand as still as a statue, looking at the far end of the alley so avidly I daren’t even blink. He calls out my name again, closer this time. I slam my back against the wall and lower myself down, shielding myself a little behind the black wheelie bins lining the wall and I watch as he runs past the alleyway, still calling my name. I let out a sigh of relief when he doesn’t see me and start to run to the train still slowly pulling up to the station platform ahead. I run and I run. The train pulls in and stops. I reach the white fence and indelicately clamber over it, landing in the station’s empty car park with as much grace as a drunk rhino. As I return to my feet, I hear my name being yelled again. At the far end of the road, Toby has seen me and started heading this way.

I can barely hear him, but there is no way, none, that I’m up to facing off with him. I turn my focus to the small platform with nothing except a disused ticket office and a rotted wooden canopy. Three passengers are getting off and not a single one getting on. The doors are open and the noticeboard flashes red, informing me that the train is about to leave the station. I throw myself inside the carriage just before the doors start to close. Quickly, I turn around and watch as Toby collides with the barely sealed doors. Our eyes meet and I don’t know how, I can’t even begin to understand how, but the eyes that look back at me are not Toby Smith’s.

He lowers his hood, revealing a mop of dark brown hair and chocolate brown eyes, before pressing the button again and again.

‘Lilly, open the door! I’m not going to hurt you. I’m here to help!’ But the train is already pulling out. I crawl to the door and rise to my feet, pressing my hand on the glass.

‘Tobias?’ I ask, hope and wonder filling my heart. ‘Is that you?’

‘It’s me. I remember, Lilly!’ he says breathlessly. ‘I remember you. I remember everything!’ He starts jogging as the train moves along the platform. ‘I’m not Broken, you see?’ He widens his eyes and gestures to his hair. ‘I remember everything!’

‘You… you betrayed us.’

‘I had to do what I did. I had to get you here and that was the only way.’

I try to open the door, slamming my palm onto the button, but it’s too late.

‘How? How are you… SHIT! How do I stop the train?’ I call to him, looking around the carriage in desperation. ‘How do I…’ My words fade as I see blue flashing lights pulling up by the station. Three police cars screech to a halt and officers pour out of the vehicles.

Tobias looks from them to me and matches the fretful look which must be on my face.

‘They can’t get you,’ he says. ‘Too much is at stake. We can’t fail, not after going through all this. Stay on the train. Go to the next station, get off and hide. I’ll hold them off,’ he calls through the glass. ‘We’ll meet you there!’

‘We?’ I call back. ‘Tobias? What will you do to hold them off? They have guns, Tobias?!’ I continue trying the button.

‘Stay on the train!’ he orders once more. ‘Get out of here. We’ll meet you at the next station!’

‘Who’s we?’

He steps back from the speeding up train but still jogs to keep up with me.

‘I’m sorry. I am so sorry for what happened, but I had to. My visions were clear. It all had to happen to give you the power to save all we had lost.’ I hear his phone ringing and he quickly pulls it out to place on his ear.

The platform starts to shrink, turning into bushes and brambles instead. Tobias stops and watches me leave, but still calls out his promise that I will be safe when I pull into the next station. He then starts talking to whoever just phoned him, before fleeing the incoming officers. But not before setting fire to the abandoned ticket office and using the commotion, fire and smoke to disappear from their sights.

The train continues on and disappears through a tunnel, the driver seemingly unaware of the blaze we have just left behind. I slide to the floor of the carriage and sit.

How? How is Tobias Unbroken? Today is supposed to be the day we meet. He watched me try to hang myself and cut me down at the very last minute. He was far from human at that point in his life and had dark and cruel plans for me. And the spell, it was only supposed to affect me. Only my memories of the days yet to come should be in my head, but he knew me. Perhaps, because he and I have had a Break, it means we can remember?

And then I wonder… What if Gabriel can remember?

That thought makes me smile.

I glance up at the board above my head and see the next station, Baystock, is another fourteen minutes away.

Fourteen minutes.

Now I’m sitting, gently being rocked side to side as the train takes me to safety, I feel the weight of what’s happened start to weigh down my body. The heat of my throbbing feet. The aching of my legs from running countless miles. The marks on my arms from Simmons’s belt and the thumps I took from Ryan after I tried to kill him. And sadly, failed. But nothing, absolutely nothing, compares to the pain in my wrist. I only realise now just how much I’m trembling. How much sweat slides out from my pores and trickles down my neck. My heart is hammering inside my chest and the thudding sensation in my head is making me nauseous. The more I feel it all, no longer preoccupied with my escape, the worse it all becomes. My stomach flips and I quickly move so I don’t throw up all over myself. I retch and expel the limited contents of my stomach into the corner of the carriage, groaning loudly as my body protests even more violence. I slump back onto my arse and close my eyes.

Fourteen minutes.

Fourteen… minutes.

I feel my hair sticking to my face as I continue to sweat. My mouth grows drier with every passing second and the high pitched ringing in my ears grows in volume. Then my head starts to loll, dropping suddenly as my body tries to steal a few moments of sleep. Each time my head drops, I force my eyes open and lift my head, but I’m so spent.

Fourteen minutes.

I can rest… for fourteen… minutes…

I have no idea how long I’ve been out when I get jolted back to consciousness by the sound of a slamming door. I blink open my dry eyes and raise my unbelievably heavy head.

Everything is a blur. I keep blinking and each time I do the world shifts a little more into focus. There’s someone in the carriage with me, standing at the far end by the door that connects to the next car. I shake my head, hoping that I can realign my cluttered brain and see more clearly.

Above my head, the electronic board tells me that Baystock is ten minutes away. I’ve been out a matter of minutes. Feels like hours. I return my dazed sights to the figure at the far end of the car and watch as he slowly makes his way towards me. My senses are still a discombobulated mess, but I recognise that he’s talking. It takes a second to realise that’s it’s not to me.

He’s on a mobile phone.

It sounds like we’re both underwater, but as he gets closer, I hear what he says.

‘Yes, sir. That’s right,’ he announces. ‘A witch. A dangerous witch too.’

Closer and closer he gets. I blink to clear my vision and the blurs slowly start to sharpen.

‘I have my sights on her. She’s injured but still very dangerous. Yes, that’s right. I saw her use magic. She destroyed a house in Dartmoor. The Hooper residence. Mr and Mrs Hooper survived. Their son and the staff sadly didn’t.’

The words should be spoken with seriousness or at least with a hint of melancholy, but they’re spoken with borderline amusement. My hearing gets clearer and less muffled.

‘She’s on a train, sir. Heading to Baystock station.’ He stops beside me and looks down. My vision becomes clear.

Ryan smirks down at me. His ear, or rather what’s left of his ear, is still bleeding profusely. There’s a large gash across his cheek and several cuts and burns on his hands and arms from my eruption at the house. He’s found a plain black t-shirt somewhere along the line, probably from the back of his father’s car before he ploughed it into the phonebox, considering how it hangs off him four times larger than necessary. ‘Yes. She certainly has magic, sir. Saw it myself. Yes. Yes, I understand.’ He looks over his shoulder, to the board above us. ‘Nine minutes away. I look forward to meeting you.’

Ryan hangs up and tucks his phone into his trouser pocket before crouching beside me and resting his elbows on his knees.

‘Your little wolf was impressive,’ he tells me, reaching out and brushing my sodden hair from my face. I whimper as he touches me, an involuntary reaction to his unwanted affection. ‘But it only lasted a minute. If that. And then… poof… it faded from existence. Just as you will very soon.’

I create my fire on my remaining hand and he moves quick, wrapping his hand around my throat and slamming my head hard into the door I’m leaning against. It’s one knock too many and everything spins wildly around me.

My fire flickers out.

‘None of that, . You know I like it when you fight back but using your disgusting abomination against me is something I will not stand for.’

‘I’m going to kill you,’ I warn him through his grip, even though I can barely move.

He laughs hatefully and leans into my face.

‘No. You’re not. But you are the reason I died, right?’ Ryan raises his brow. ‘You see, I suddenly have these images in my head. Like memories, but of things that haven’t happened yet.’ He absentmindedly waves his hand by his head and looks into the distance, recalling them to mind. ‘There I was, chopping wood and planning what I was going to do to your sweet little arse later tonight, when I get slammed with the headache of all headaches. BAM!’ he bellows, giving my head another whack. He leans in close, his nose on mine and his angry breath on my lips as he looks me in the eye. ‘I see you. And I see a man. A man with white hair and lilac eyes. I’m fucking you. I mean, I am really ploughing myself into you. Giving you everything I got.’ He’s furious. Spit flies from his mouth as he says his vulgar words, only meant to cause me even more hurt. ‘And then, he’s there. The freak. He pulls me off and rests a blade on my throat. He cuts me. He pulls my head back and you watch me die and I see you… I see you laugh! You spat at me as I took my last breath you fucking bitch. Shall I do that to you? HUH?’

‘How do you remember that? You shouldn’t be able to-’

‘Who is your husband, huh?’ He sneers at me, and I actually see jealousy in his eyes. ‘Your husband, the man you said taught you how to bite off my fucking ear, who is he? Did you marry the white-haired freak? The one who murdered me? In your future, after I die, you go off and marry him?’ His forehead rests on mine as he snarls his words. ‘Well, that future is gone now and I ain’t going nowhere. In eight minutes, when we pull into the next station, it ain’t gonna be your psycho future hubby that will greet you. It will be the Hunters. I’ve just phoned and informed them that a witch by the name of Lilly Hooper has just murdered half her family and fled.’

Shit!

If my name was mentioned, no way Theo doesn’t hear of it straight away.

No way.

He’s coming.

Ryan scoffs as he sees the panic build in my eyes.

‘Now, the only problem is, I’ve told them that you killed Harry Ryan Junior. If they know I’m related to you; they’ll cart me off into the Hunters’ prison cells right along with you. So, I think it best to silence you so you can’t tell them who I am. Maybe I’ll join up as a Hunter. I could help with your torture. Keep you company during the long cold nights they keep you locked up before they eventually burn you alive.’ He grabs my chin and forces me to look at him as he pulls out a small switchblade from his jeans pocket and with a , the blade springs free. ‘I have a knife. Do you see it, ? I could cut it out. That tongue of yours. But instead, I’m going to show you a move a filthy witch bitch taught me when she bit off my fucking ear. Open wide, . I’m gonna bite your pretty little tongue clean out of your dirty fucking mouth!’

His lips slam violently onto mine as his fingers move from my chin, into my mouth, prising open my jaw. He bites my tongue. The more I resist, the more firmly he grips my throat.

I may be battered, beaten, and tired beyond comprehension, but I am not spent. I am not done. I have a reason far more significant than myself to carry on. If it were just me, perhaps I would give in. The fight seems far too big for someone so small to even stand a chance at winning.

But fuck that!

Yeah, I only have two realms of power and I’m trapped in a body of an underfed and overbeaten teenager, but with my determination and stubbornness to never let a piece of shit like this best me ever again, it doesn’t matter. I reach out and grab his precious dick, making him yell and let go of my tongue just as I start to taste blood.

‘Fuck you, Junior. You disgusting, pedophilic, rapist piece of shit.’ I create my fire in my palm and he screams the highest pitched scream I’ve heard. He quickly lets me go and desperately tries to get away as I burn through his jeans and feel his flesh. And I feel it burn. I smell it sear. I hear it crackle and I see the torment of it all in his sickening face.

Above our heads, another minute has ticked down. Another minute closer to the Hunters waiting for us at the next station. He takes my wrist and twists, forcing me to let go. Before he can bring down the fist he has clenched, a Telekinetic burst explodes from within me, like a supersonic wave of raw power. He’s hurled backwards. The windows shatter. The metal sides of the carriage warp outwards and the seats explode into fragments.

With a thud, the carriage separates from the one it was attached to in front and begins to slow. The rest of the train carries on, leaving us behind. Ryan is already trying to get to his feet, clasping his crotch and swearing murder and vengeance. He throws his gaze my way. He’s gone beyond reason. Beyond logic or self-preservation. He doesn’t care I have magic, magic I just all but spent on that little stunt. He wants me to pay and pay hard.

He lets out a roar and launches himself at me, ping-ponging off the remainders of the chairs and rails, as he stumbles and staggers through his injuries. I feel that my magic has weakened drastically in exhaustion, so I hurl myself out of the car and run for my fucking life.

The sun is going down, sinking into the horizon, and I put every last bit of my failing energies into my escape. The train continues to roll slowly down the tracks behind me. I look back over my shoulder to see Ryan gracelessly give chase. He trips and falls, clearly struggling to overcome the pain. Unlike me, who has lived with it as a constant companion my whole life. I charge through the field, aiming for the safety of a body of trees ahead, at the base of a large hill. My swollen and butchered feet hammer into the grass. My lungs scream for oxygen, my body for rest. Only my mind and my heart urge me on.

Too much is at stake if I fail.

Too many lives depend on me.

My family need me not to die!

So for them, I push past every boundary I have. Pain. Energy. Strength. For them, I’ll run till my heart gives out and my legs break. Even then, I’d still try. And apparently, Ryan’s desperate need to kill me is enough to push him through his boundaries too. He’s still giving chase, calling me whore. Bitch. Slut. Dead girl walking.

Far to the left, in the direction of the train station the train has headed in, helicopters start littering the sky. They’re miles away. Hopefully far enough so the Hunters don’t sense me.

‘YOU’RE GONNA DIE TONIGHT!’

I keep running. Screaming as I push my body harder and harder and sobbing through the pain. I reach the trees. I don’t stop or slow as I duck under branches and leap over roots. I’m scratched and whipped by the foliage. My feet stabbed and stubbed by the rocks and twigs.

I look behind me.

Ryan is right there. He reaches out to grab me. I yelp and pull my hand away so he misses.

‘GODDAMMIT!’ he shouts in frustration as he falls. But he’s back up again in an instant and hot on my heels. ‘YOU BETTER FUCKING RUN! WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU, YOU’LL BEG FOR ME TO END YOUR MISERABLE EXISTENCE!’

I take another look back, terrified at how close he just was. I’ve gained a couple of metres.

My feet suddenly hit tarmac. I hear the bellow of a car horn. The screech of tyres. And feel a sudden thud as a car bumper collides with my legs. I fall onto the hood of the car and roll off before tumbling onto the road. I land on my back, sprawled out and looking up at the sky with no strength to move and no cognitive ability to say a word.

Fucking… perfect.

A cold and calculating laugh echoes around the tree-lined country lane as I lay sprawled out in the middle of the road. I look to the verge, groaning painfully as I move my neck, to see Ryan strolling towards me. He’s panting and dragging his left leg behind him, but does that stop him from enjoying this moment? His victory?

Like hell does it.

I’m fucked.

Closer he saunters until he’s standing over me.

‘Again,’ he laughs, pointing a finger at me and chuckling away to himself through his murderous anger. ‘Good try. And again, a spectacular failure. Very…

.’

The sound of the car door opening draws his gaze up. He puts on his butter wouldn’t melt, country-boy friendly face. The one with the big eyes and the sweet smile.

‘Alright, mate? No need to worry. I’ve got her. You can be on your way.’ I can tell by the look on his face that the driver isn’t so sure. ‘Truth is, she’s a dangerous little thing. I mean…’ He scoffs and gestures to himself. ‘She’s a wanted girl. Got authorities coming to collect her as we speak.’ He puffs out his chest. ‘Hunters. You know… Witch Hunters? They’re coming for her. Probably best you’re not here when they arrive. Honestly. You should just-’

The second door opens and Ryan flinches, showing a flicker of uncertainty. One on one, yeah, he’s a big guy made of muscle. He could probably take one. But the driver isn’t alone.

The smile on his face may be less confident, but he does his best to keep it in place.

‘As I said, the authorities are coming to collect her. HEY!’ Ryan steps over me, placing himself between the people from the car and me as the sound of feet walking closer reach my ears. ‘I said I got this. She’s mine, alright?’ Ryan’s dark sneer rests on the driver and their companion as he pulls out the knife from his pocket and shows it in warning, rolling it back and forth between his fingers. They stop their approach. ‘Just leave,’ he states coldly. ‘This doesn’t concern you. Get back in your expensive Merc and fuck off. Forget you saw anything and I won’t slit your fucking throats. Got it?’

Ryan’s distracted and I’m out of his line of sight. I don’t even bother to turn to the newcomers for help. Part of me thinks they can distract him while I get away. All that matters to me now is getting away from Ryan, from Theo, from the Hunters. And getting to the Bloodstone. I take my brief moment of opportunity and roll onto my belly to start dragging myself away, towards the woodland on the other side of the road and to the slim prospect of freedom. The pain I’m in cannot be contained and I wail as I move. I’m face down now and the effort it takes to reach out my hand to start pulling my limp and broken body across the ground would be laughable if it weren’t so heartbreaking. Ryan probably sees my attempts to flee but doesn’t take them seriously. I don’t blame him. It will take a miracle to get away. Won’t stop me trying though. Cut off my arms and legs and I’ll roll to that stone if I must.

‘I said this doesn’t concern you,’ Ryan growls. ‘Fuck off, or I’ll tell everyone who will listen that you just hit my cousin with your fucking car.‘

‘Cousin…’ someone whispers. ‘Cousin…’ they growl.

Someone charges forwards causing Ryan to stagger back so suddenly he falls over my legs and lands on his back beside me. His face is a mixture of fear and wrath as the driver storms up to him. I watch as he’s lifted by his collar. Ryan manages to stick his blade into the arm dressed in a black leather coat before getting a hell of a punch. Blood explodes over his face and he lets go of the knife, leaving it stuck in the man’s arm. Another punch. And another. And another. Ryan’s nose is a broken mess. His teeth tumble from his mouth. The driver pulls back his fist again and carries on.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Panic sets in at a whole new level. These guys aren’t fucking about!

Oh shit, are they Hunters?

I turn away, and with all my might, I try to get away. With my one hand, I claw at the tarmac and heave my uncooperative body along after me, sobbing in agony as I slam my injured arm down and terrified of getting caught.

Not for me. But for those who are depending on me!

I scream as someone grabs my shoulders. Pathetic flames flicker to life on my hand and I lash out at them like a wounded animal.

‘GET AWAY!’ I shriek. ‘DON’T TOUCH ME! I’LL KILL YOU!’ I WILL KILL YOU!’

‘It’s okay! Hey… hey!’

I keep lashing out with a dwindling fire on my palm. My hair covers my face, clinging to my sweat-soaked skin in knotted and damp clumps and what minuscule energy I have is swiftly fading.

‘GET OFF ME!’ I cry, my hits becoming no more than a soft swat. ‘GET AWAY!’ I wrap my fingers around his wrist. He grunts against the pain of my weak little flames but doesn’t try to pull away.

‘LILLY KENDRYK!’ he bellows in my face before giving me a short and swift shake. ‘Calm down, love,’ he adds softly. I fall still, stunned at the familiarity of not only the voice but at the name he called me by. My fire dies out and he pulls his hand free before gently brushing the hair from my face, clearing my vision.

A whimper escapes my mouth and I feel my lip tremble as I look up at the man holding me. His grey eyes and messy blonde hair is just as I remember it.

‘C-Collins?’ I whisper.

‘It’s me, Lilly. You’re okay. We got you.’

‘W-we?’

He looks at the man still beating the shit out of Ryan.

‘You filthy fucking rapist.’

‘You disgusting bastard.’

. ‘You fucking dare touch her…’

‘THAT’S MY FUCKING WIFE!’

Punch.

Barely conscious, Ryan is dropped to the floor and his attacker spins quickly to look at me before running to my side and falling to his knees.

‘Give her to me,’ he insists. ‘Give! Now! Gently… move her slowly. That’s it. Easy.

.’

Collins hands me to him as carefully as if I’m made of glass and places me in waiting and eager arms.

‘Make sure that fucker doesn’t move,’ he orders Collins, with a nod to Ryan, as I settle in his embrace.

Collins promptly obeys and leaves us, making his way to Ryan.

I don’t look to see what Collins is doing. My eyes are fixed on one thing and one thing only.

The face of the man who holds me in his arms.

His brilliant blue eyes. His tousled brown hair.

The world stops. My heart. My breathing. My body. It all falls still.

He scans my face with both longing and anguish, smoothing my hair from my face with a trembling hand.

‘I’m sorry, Beautiful,’ he says shakily. I hear his distress in his trembling voice just as I see it in his eyes as he takes stock of my injuries. ‘I came as soon as I could. I… Oh god. My sweet girl. Look at you. What – what did he do – oh Christ…’

‘Gabriel.’ His name comes out in a choked sob as my fingers rest on his beautiful lips. ‘Y-you remember me?’

‘Like I could ever forget you, my beautiful girl. My best. My only.’ He rests his forehead on mine, and a tear slides down his cheek. ‘My wife. The mother of my child. The love of my fucking life.’ He does his best to show me a smile, but his tears are impossible to ignore. ‘I feel like I haven’t held you in my arms for years.’

‘You haven’t,’ I reply, offering my own smile. One full of relief and hope. ‘I’ve missed you.’

‘I’ve got you now, my beautiful girl. I’ve got you.’

I’m pulled into his chest and held tight. He kisses the top of my head again and again and again as I look up at him.

My Gabriel.

Rescuing me from the monster in my nightmares yet again.

‘I absofuckinglutely love you,’ he whispers. I don’t get to say it back before his lips claim mine in a consuming and tender kiss.