Vulnerable: Book 1 of the Magic Mutations Series | ✓

40: Wing Off Already!

The maneuver from the field back to the apartment was a blur. I remembered everyone coming up to me once the invisible wall had fallen. They spoke, but I couldn't hear them. It was like time had slowed and I was submerged in water. Ben managed to guide me to my feet and Erica and Jayce kept the cloaking barrier around me up while they led me back.

The moment I was in the door, I ran to our room, closing the door behind me, before collapsing face first onto the bed, letting the sobs relentlessly pour out of me.

Ben came in not much longer later, but he didn't say anything. He just let me cry all the while stroking my hair.

"I wasn't ready," I mumbled into the sheets when I had caught my breath.

"I know," he whispered. "But now we're here and we will find out how to control it all."

"What if they don't go away."

"They should, Olivia. Don't worry."

And another wave of sobs overcame me, but this time, I let Ben lift me up and pull me into his arms.

When I stopped this time, he pulled back from me, wiping the tears from my cheeks as he smoothed out my hair.

"Is it too soon to tell you how cute they are?"

I felt my lip turn down into a pout.

"Okay. It is too soon."

"How can you love me looking like this?"

"Because they're breathtaking. You're breathtaking." But he wasn't looking at my eyes. He was looking past me. At my wings.

Sighing, I got to my feet. "I better go look in a mirror then."

He got up with me, walking alongside me out of the room, down the hallway, and into the bathroom. The worst part about walking was that my wings hit every doorway on the way through. And they were certainly attached to my nerve receptors.

As I stood in front of the mirror, looking at myself, I couldn't take my eyes away from the giant green wings extending out both sides of me.

Each wing was at least double my body in width. Translucent, shimmering, and glowing. They were easily as tall as me, yet evidently extended higher above my head.

I began to feel sick the longer I stared in the mirror. Having looked enough, I turned away, back into Ben's arms.

· · ───── ∘☽༓☾∘ ───── · ·

Sitting was difficult. Showering was difficult. Going to the toilet was difficult. Ben had to cut my clothes off me in the evening. The magic during the transformation ripped seams through my layers to squeeze my wings through as they formed in the air, but not enough space to coax them back through the hole created.

I felt like I looked ridiculous. Like I was five years old, wearing those fake wings and playing make-believe with my friends, only now I was 19 and stuck in a costume I couldn't remove.

None of my shirts fit me anymore, so Ben and I managed to drag one of his over my body and wings so that I could go to the bathroom. But the shirt's tightness on my wings caused great discomfort. So when alone, I sat in my bra.

Ben spent the first amount of time avoiding eye contact with me, but eventually he realised he was going to have to look at the half-naked me. I mean, he had seen more before anyway.

Every now and then as we sat around our room watching shows on the laptop, I would burst into tears and cry about it all over again.

Sleeping that night was horrendous—if you could even say I slept. Laying on my back was impossible, as was my side. I kept yanking my wings with every slight maneuver and sometimes they would go numb, giving me pins and needles if I laid on them for too long. So sleeping on my stomach was the only way to go.