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“Liv—”
“I said no, Colter! Why is that so difficult to understand? Everyone keeps talking about me like I’m this person who needs something. Everyone tells me what to do, and somewhere along the line, my free will got taken away, and I won’t stand for it.” The angrier Liv got, the more her skin glowed.
“Liv—”
“No!” she shouted before I could tell her she had to calm down. Her magic had risen to the surface without her trying now—she didn’t even know it was happening.
“Liv, you should—”
“Stop telling me what to do!” she shouted, pushing her arms down as hard as she could, and all the power within her rocked outward. It poured out of her, and she shone like a bright light, brighter than the sun. I cried out and turned away, lifting my arm to shield myself from the blinding light, the magic that washed over me with pure, incredible heat.
The light cut off almost as quickly as it came, and when I spun around, Liv’s eyes rolled back in her head, and she sank to the ground.
“Liv!” I screamed and ran to her, catching her before her head hit the ground.
She was out cold. She hadn’t been strong enough for her own power, and I’d pushed her too far.
Shit.
20
COLTER
When Rory came out of Liv’s room, she shut the door behind her. Her face was serious.
I pushed away from the wall I’d been leaning against.
“How is she?” I asked.
“She’s okay—exhausted and physically very weak, but she’ll be okay. She’s strong enough to have used a few choice words about you.”
I chuckled. “She’s okay, then.”
Rory didn’t laugh with me, and my laughter faded again.
“What the fuck were you thinking?” Rory asked. She walked through my penthouse to the kitchen, and I followed her.
“I was thinking it might be a good idea to help her unlock her power so she can better defend herself. Why is that a bad thing?”
“We learn to use our powers over decades, Colter,” Rory said. “She’s just learned about this whole new world, and you’re pushing her way too fast.”
As if I didn’t already feel like absolute shit that she’d gotten hurt. I hadn’t known that her power would rip through her like that. Hell, how should I have known that she would get angry with me, and that it would make everything worse? I wasn’t a crystal ball.
“I’ll talk to her,” I said. “I’ll explain—”
“I don’t think she wants to see you.”
I balled my hands into fists. “This is still my house; she’ll see me if I say so.”
Rory only raised her eyebrows. I knew I had a penchant for making demands and ordering people around, but what the fuck else was I supposed to do? It was all I knew; it was how I’d been raised.
“We need to talk about the machine,” Rory said, changing the topic.
I shook my head. “I’m not going into that right now.”
“When will you talk about it?” Rory asked. “At some point, you’re going to have to come clean about why you’re so set on getting this thing to work.”
“This isn’t about me,” I said.
