Page 24 of Liberty

Chapter 11

OAK

I closed my eyes,ready to let sleep claim me when the first nauseating pang hit my stomach. I shot up. The first word falling from my lips was her name. “Liberty.”

I had placed my cellphone on the nightstand, and I fumbled to find it. When it was in my hand, I called Ellis. He answered on the fourth ring, his tone telling me I woke him. “Yeah?”

“Where is Liberty?” I demanded with no preamble.

“Sleeping. Like the rest of the fucking world.” I heard him yawn.

“Go check on her.” It was an order.

He sighed, and if I was there, I knew he would have thrown his head back and looked toward the heavens. “I haven’t heard or sensed a single thing since she went to bed a few hours ago.”

“Something’s wrong,” I insisted as another wave hit me. “Go check on her.”

He grumbled, but the rustling in the background let me know that he was moving around her apartment. I heard a creak of metal, likely a door hinge, before he got back on the line. “She’s asleep. Perfectly fine.”

“Check her breathing.”

“What?” he groaned. “Look, that’s definitely crossing a line. Entering a girl’s room as she sleeps is inappropriate.”

“I don’t care if it’s fucking inappropriate. Just do it. You can blame me for it later.”

He grumbled again. “Oh, I’ll be sure to fucking blame you. Don’t you worry.” I heard him take a few steps, then a whisper to her. “Wake up, Liberty. Hey, wake up.”

After a few tries, he got back on the phone, and I couldn’t wait for him to speak. “Well.”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “She seems fine, but something’s happening.”

“What do you mean something is happening?” I was already pulling on my pants while I held the phone between my shoulder and ear. She could be perfectly fine, and I would still go over there. I was stupid to trust someone besides myself with her safety. I just thought – shit, what had I been thinking? That I needed a little space to think, to fucking breathe.

“Her breathing seems fine, but her pulse is weak.”

I paused with my jeans mid-thigh. “How is that even possible?”

“Um? I don’t know. Magic?” I know he was being sarcastic, but that made perfect sense to me.

“Wake her up,” I demanded, as I put the phone on speaker and tossed it onto the bed. I threaded my body through my shirt as I waited.

When he came back on the line, his voice seemed more panicked, “I can’t do it, man. It’s not working. She’s bleeding.”

I was out the door before he could say anymore. The nausea I felt had magnified, making it nearly impossible to run to Liberty’s apartment. Still, I pushed through it, using the fastest speed I could muster, and was pounding on the door two minutes later. I didn’t wait for Ellis to open it. The mere act would have caused a long wait. Instead, I pushed it open myself, not carrying that I broke the lock and shattered the knob in my hand.

I found them in her bedroom, with Ellis leaning over her body, still trying to wake her. The moment I walked in, he spotted me, looking helpless as he said, “I can’t do it. She won’t wake up.”

The closer I got to her, the more I knew. “It’s magic. We need to break it.”

“I don’t know magic.” He confirmed what I already knew.

It didn’t matter. I knew enough to know what words I should utter to break the trance. I pulled Liberty’s body into my lap, threading my fingers through the bloody strands of hair as I held her close to my chest. My body burned as I closed my eyes, words in a language I nearly perfected falling from my lips as I cradled her close.

This was not what I had been training for, but I couldn’t think of a better use of my skills. I pulled power, the energy of everything that surrounded us into me. I let it slide under the surface of my skin and release through my fingers as I weaved my way through the spell, breaking through it one strand at a time. It was like untying a knot. You had to work through the smaller tangles before reaching the center.

But I knew the instant the center was reached. My skull sliced with pain as the magic tried to push me out. It was intense, its caster skilled, but I had one advantage. My will to keep Liberty alive was far greater than their desire to have her killed.

When I reached the center of the knot, pain exploded through my body. I pushed forward, gritting my teeth as the words continued to fall, holding my body rigid as the fire coursed through every cell. And when I untangled it completely, when the very last kink of the spell dissipated, the blaze within me vanished, and Liberty’s body relaxed in my arms as she curled into me.