Uncontrollable

Chapter Sixteen

Grey looked taken aback at first. His face flushing red and his eyes taking on a look of anger. And then all the emotions dropped away, as if he had used his magic to wipe them away.

"Alright," he answered, standing up and clearing his throat. "You can just go then."

"Wait, Grey. You still promised me you'd help me find my mother. That still stands true. That is what I'd like to do. And, I want an explanation for everything that happened. I want to know why there was a gun put to my head. You don't get to just drop me," I said. I also stood up, furious as to why he thought he could just walk away, putting in no more work on me just because I wouldn't do what he wanted.

"Fine. I'll do all of that. But then, I'm done protecting you from people trying to kill you, I'm done helping you when you can't do it yourself. I'm done giving you opportunities to thrive in the world of magic. You're on your own after that," he stated. It sounded calm and thought out, but you could hear the underlying anger in all of it.

"That's fine Grey. But just as a heads up, the next time you give someone a choice about something, don't get your hopes so high up that you fall if they choose the other side." I knew that I was walking on thin ice, but I couldn't resist not saying anything.

"You are in no position to tell me what to do. I am much older than you," he said before storming out of the room, emphasizing each step.

The immaturity of Grey was starting to drive me insane. He was right; he was older, and more experienced. But he most definitely wasn't as mature.

I imagined myself appearing in the field where I first met Vanessa, hoping that it would be sunset. I lost myself in the memory and then raised my right hand.

I opened my eyes to the birds chirping, and a bright orange sky. Hues of pink and purple were mixed in with the rising orange and yellow sun.

After watching it for a few minutes, and concluded that the sun was rising, not setting. I was wearing a light white tee shirt, and shorts that could barely be considered shorts. That combined with the cold air did not form a good combination.

I scanned my eyes quickly across the field, and then began imagining the war strategies room.

"What do ya think you're doing?" The southern accent ran through my mind and pulled me back to reality.

"Vanessa," I whispered, relieved.

"Why're ya so excited to see me?" she asked, skepticism lacing her voice, her eyebrows raised.

"Because I want to know what happened to me!" I exclaimed. "I mean after I got attacked. What happened?"

"Well, you were clearly losing the fight right off the bat 'cause of your deadly superhero syndrome. And after that, things went downhill. Ya got thrown across the square, and then the guard who did it got up and came to you. He was doin' some kind of spell - a torture spell almost - and it was disfiguring yer body. You began screaming and begging for him to stop, and that was when I ran out of the horse barn. I transported us to a small beach town I know about. It's not a town with magic, so I expected nothing bad to happen. We landed on the beach, but there was a whole group of police officers right there. When we landed. They screamed to each other, and then tackled you. Somehow they knew your name. They put a gun to your head, and then one ran and grabbed me. He was threatening me, and tellin' me that they were gonna kill both of us. I used my magic to get us out of there too."

My head spun with all of the knew information. After taking a few seconds to process it, I looked up.

"What was that spell that you used? The one that kept them from touching me?" I asked, remembering how I stumbled to Vanessa without any of the officers ever grabbing me.

"Oh, you mean so that they couldn't snatch you while you were running towards me. That was a special spell I learned from Grey. We'll teach you all of these spells eventually," she said, crossing her arms.

I opened my mouth to answer, but was interrupted by someone else.

"Guys! You have to come see this." It was Grey's voice. Anger, exasperation, and interest all laced his voice.

Neither Vanessa nor I got a chance to answer before we were back in the warm room of the war strategies. There was a TV set sitting at the middle of the table, and everyone was huddled around it.

I began to question the reason for us being brought here, but I decided instead to follow Vanessa's choice and just go and see what's going on.

The group of men huddled around the television was too thick for Vanessa and me to get through. We tried pushing them out of the way, but they wouldn't move. I imagined them all disappearing and then reappearing five feet back. I pointed my right hand toward them, and then watched as the exact image played out in real life.

They looked confused for a moment, but I took it as an advantage and ran up to the TV. On it, was a new channel. The news reporter was standing on a beach interviewing police guards.

"-were gone. Just like that, they were gone," one officer said. I knew immediately that they were talking about us, and my heart began pumping faster and faster. What had we done?

"And you are sure this was Ryder?" the reporter asked, holding the microphone out to the officer. The question shocked me. Why were they looking for me? Why were they referring to me by my first name? Vanessa inhaled sharply next to me.

The other men had gathered back around the TV, all muttering at the question the reporter had just asked.

"Positive. He was a perfect match with the picture we found," another officer confirmed.

My heart raced faster and faster, and I began to worry about the speed of it. My hands were shaking and sweaty.

"How did you get a picture of him?" the reporter questioned further.

"We had a sketch artist draw one based on the description a man gave us," a different officer answered.

"For those of you who don't know, the man they are talking about was assaulted, but saved by Ryder."

The screen flicked black.

"That's enough of that," Grey said, and the TV disappeared from the table. "Do you see what you two did? You both revealed magic to the entire world! You have just exposed what we can do. They will now begin to hunt down people like us. I can't believe you!"

Grey was clearly furious. Spit was flying from his mouth, and his eyes sent a look of death searing into my brain. Even without looking at him, I still would've been able to tell he was furious; it was clear from his voice.

"This is your fault!" I exclaimed, my blood boiling. "You told them my name that night! You gave them an account of what happened, you told them who to go after, you described me! You clearly turned it off so that we wouldn't have to hear about how you practically led them for me. Sure it may have made the news if they saw what they did, but not like this. And, I would not have been nearly killed. So don't even start blaming us when this all goes back to you."

The anger in my voice was clear. The people around the room stared at me in shock once again, not able to comprehend how I could speak to the king that way.

"I'm done with you Ryder. After I help you get your mother back, I'm truly done with you. I don't want to take your teenage crap, and I don't need to. I won't protect you."

"I don't need your protecting! You can finish helping me and then leave me in the dust! I don't care!"

"You don't understand. I will stop protecting you, but once I do, it's done for you. Once I stop protecting you, you're dead."

~+ Uncontrollable +~

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter.

So, do you believe Grey? Do you think Ryder is in trouble once Grey stops helping him, or do you think he'll be fine?

I'd once again, just like to thank you for all your tremendous support. I can't believe it. Thank you so much.