Harley Merlin and the Broken Spell , livre ebook

Distributed by eBookpartnership - Bella Forrest

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

147 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

Magic always comes at a price.Harley is a ticking time bomb, ready to detonate with uncontrollable magic. The only solution? Find the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, make some risky deals, and balance the Light and Darkness within her-before she's torn apart, atom by atom.If only she didn't have a million other problems standing in her way.The new Director of the San Diego Coven isn't exactly friendly, and Katherine has already gained untold power. More than ever, Harley needs answers about the rituals Katherine plans to perform to become like Eris, goddess of discord and destruction.Wade knows that Harley is strong enough to win this battle-not to mention stubborn, overconfident, and wildly reckless. True to his proud family lineage, he's always played by the rules. But for one girl, he's willing to bend those rules, to lie, to give his life. Because love can make a person do crazy things...Continue the journey.

Informations

Publié par	Distributed by eBookpartnership
Date de parution	01 juillet 2022
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781947607804
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0000€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Copyright © 2019
Hot Pancakes Ltd
www.hotpcakes.com
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
ONE Harley
I screamed, smothering my face with a pillow to muffle the sound. Tears streamed down my face, and my lungs felt starved of air. Sharp, agonizing jolts tore through my limbs like forks of lightning, setting my blood on fire. A half-empty mug of cold coffee sat on the edge of my desk, lying just out of reach. It wouldn’t fix the problem, but at least it’d take away the metallic tang of blood in my mouth. I’d bitten down on the insides of my cheeks when the attack had started, an hour ago, just after dawn. It was the same torture every morning since my Suppressor had cracked, a little over a week ago.
Squeezing the pillow, I dragged it and my body across the sweat-soaked bed and crawled down to the floor. Each movement made the pain worse, as if every surface were covered in needles. All I wanted to do was curl up in a ball and die… just until the pain went away. I’d have taken a year’s worth of the worst cramps imaginable or a thousand bullet-ant bites over this. Make it stop… Please, make it stop.
I braced for what always came next-the seeping cold that crept through my veins. I clutched the pillow and gritted my teeth as the shivering took over. The cracked Suppressor leaked more and more of the pent-up Chaos into me every single day, flooding me with uncontrollable energy. The attacks always came around the same time each morning, but further attacks could hit me at any time of day. And the pain was only the half of it. The lack of control was worse. Way worse. My body and mind were no longer my own.
With each new wave of agony, I wondered if the time might’ve come, if this might be the day the Suppressor fully broke and unleashed hell. I wanted to reach into myself and rip it out of me. I didn’t care how, but I wanted- needed-it gone. But there was always a chance the rest of the Suppressor could rupture by itself. The thought was as terrifying as it was welcome. So many things could still go wrong.
At least this can’t go on forever, right? I mean, it’d kill me long before then, if I couldn’t get it to properly break. And, from Isadora’s warnings, I knew I didn’t have much time left to break the damn thing. Days. Weeks, if I was lucky.
“COME ON!” I roared into the pillow with everything I had. A few expletives followed, the thick fabric muting the sounds to a faint squeal. I’d become an expert in the art of muffled screaming, desperate not to wake anyone up with my howls of pain. They didn’t need that kind of misery to start their days off.
A loud bang went off like a thunderclap, followed by a jolt of searing pain that shot behind my eyes. I shrank around the pillow.
Oh crap, this is it. The bang, the pain…The Suppressor…
“Harley? What the-” A shadowy figure ducked beside me and peeled my clamped fingers away from my arms.
I hadn’t realized my nails had been digging into my skin, forming tiny crescents.
“Did it break?” I whispered, my throat raw.
“The Suppressor?”
I nodded slowly, the tiny movements sending a blinding sting through my eye sockets.
“I don’t think so,” he murmured. His emotions hit me in a wave of fear and heartbreak and concern, his adrenaline pumping. I tried to push back against his feelings, not wanting his adrenaline to spike my own, but it was no good; I didn’t have the strength to resist. The Suppressor was amplifying his emotions, making them impossible to ignore.
Wade rested his hand on my shoulder, evidently trying to figure out what to do with me. “Didn’t you hear me knocking? I’ve been out there for ten minutes.”
“I… didn’t… hear,” I panted through a fresh onslaught of stabbing blades in the pit of my stomach. His fear had fed into mine, and the coursing chemicals made everything ten times worse. My muscles constricted, battling the agony instead of relaxing against it. All I wanted was total unconsciousness.
I gasped in surprise as strong arms gripped me, pillow and all, scooping me up off the floor. Wade carried me over to the edge of the bed, where he set me down and wrapped the blanket around my shoulders. He rubbed circles across my back, while his worried eyes gazed down into mine. As the pain eased up, I saw him properly for the first time, the blurry haze clearing to reveal his handsome face.
Lookin’ good with a little stubble, Crowley.
“You want to tell me what all this is about?” he asked gently.
“The Chaos… attacks. They’ve been… getting worse.” I grimaced as a few aftershocks of pain shot through me. “For how long?”
I shrugged. “A week.”
“Is it like this each time?”
“Pretty much.”
“Every day?” I could hear the disbelief in his voice.
“Like clockwork.”
He shook his head, running a hand through his dark curls. “Why the hell didn’t you say anything if it’s been this bad?”
“I did tell you,” I said. “I told all of you that I was dealing with… some pain.”
“Yeah, you said some pain. Not… this.” He swept a hand over the bed. A flurry of sadness drifted over me-his sadness. “If I’d known the crack in your Suppressor was causing this , then I’d have had you sent to the infirmary. I’m sure Krieger has some potion or spell he could use to make this easier.”
“I already asked him for a sleeping potion,” I replied. “I took it, and the same thing happened. Worse, actually.
Unless I want to be knocked out twenty-four-seven, I just have to push through the pain.”
He frowned. “You should’ve told us. You didn’t have to sugarcoat it.”
“You’re all freaking out enough as it is, and I didn’t want to add to that. Santana nearly rallied all of Mexico when I said there was a little bit of pain-imagine what would’ve happened if I’d told you all the real… extent of it.” I gripped the edge of the mattress as more seeping Chaos edged under my skin. My teeth chattered like crazy, and my legs jiggled to try and stop the coldness from getting too deep.
“It’s our job to worry, especially when we can’t actually do anything to help you right now,” Wade said, the subtext glaring like a beacon. The situation must’ve made him feel pretty helpless. I could feel his despair as it rolled over him like a bank of fog, choking out everything else. But just having him beside me made me feel a bit better.
“Honestly, you’re making a mountain out of a molehill.” I pulled the covers tighter around me. “It’s mostly under control. It just hurts like hell, that’s all. Coffee helps a little.”
“I’ve noticed your increased caffeine intake, actually. You were bad enough at three mugs a day, but you’re downing at least a gallon these days,” he joked. “I’m surprised you’re not bouncing off the walls.”
“Barely makes a dent. I could drink a truckload and still feel like somebody hit me with a sack of wrenches.” “Well, drink away, then.” He got up and crossed over to the desk, where he plucked up the cold cup of coffee and passed it to me. I drank it in one go as he sat back down beside me. I hoped it wouldn’t be long before I started to feel more like myself again.
“Nomura’s been helping a lot, too. Mostly with meditation and a few herbal teas that he got in Nepal,” I added, wiping my mouth on the back of my hand. “I was hoping we could get started right away on the whole Euphoria thing, but he says it’s a bad idea with the crack and whatnot.”
Wade nodded. “He’s worried about your control.”
“I guess so. I can’t really blame him,” I replied. “Anyway, he gave me this herbal mulch stuff that I’ve got to take every night for ten days. I mix a spoonful in water, drink it down at midnight, whisper a little chant, and bingo!”
“Bingo? What do you mean? What happens?” He looked adorably confused.
“Well, I don’t know right now, but it’s supposed to put me in a slightly better state, spiritually speaking, to get this Euphoria show on the road. Once my ten days are up, I can start practicing with him.” A flicker of excitement pierced my exhaustion and lingering pain. “It’ll still be risky, but it’s safer than doing it now, when I’m a total mess.”
Wade chuckled. “You aren’t a total mess. You’re just more of a mess than you’ve let on.”
“Yeah, although obviously I’m not hiding it as well as I thought,” I said. “It’s not just these attacks that are causing problems, though. The Suppressor has been playing havoc with my abilities, too. Nomura’s already benched me because of it.”
“Benched you?”
I nodded. “He’s been really helpful and everything, but I think this Suppressor business is stressing him out, too. I guess it’s a lot of pressure on him to teach me Euphoria and get me to do it right in such a short span of time. The only time I see him calm is when we meditate. In the training room, he just keeps snapping at me.”
“He has a lot on his plate right now, with teaching other students. I wouldn’t take it personally,” Wade said. “You’re probably right. It just sucks that I can’t even practice my abilities until I get the Suppressor out, and my
Chaos under control.” I sighed, wishing I had more coffee. Hot, this time.
“Wait, he’s not letting you practice at all?”
“Nope. He doesn’t think it’s safe… and he may have a point. I did almost kill him in the training room the other day, when I accidentally engulfed him in a bubble of water and took a few minutes to get him out. So… yeah.”
“I didn’t realize it was a total ban,” Wade said, with sympathy in his eyes. “But like you said, it’s for the best.
Things have gotten a little crazy since that crack appeared.”
I smiled at him as the pain gradually subsided. He was sitting so close, his hand still casually rubbing circles across my back. Looking up into his eyes, I nestled a little closer. His arm moved around my shoulders. You know what’d make me feel way better, Wade? Another one of those sweet, sweet kisses. I ho