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Chapter 8

YARA

I needed to get a job.

I was really broke and running low on food and I didn’t want to have to ask my aunt for money because she wasn’t rolling in it either.

I shut my refrigerator door with a groan, missing my job at the Hendrix hotel. The pay was really good and I had made some really nice friends there. I hated that I had to ghost it because my mate who I wanted nothing to do with was the owner of the hotel.

I walked over to my bedroom and got dressed so I could go get groceries with the little amount of cash I had. As I made my way towards the front door after walking out of the bedroom, I heard people moving around in the hallway outside. That wasn’t abnormal – my apartment was close to the stairs so I could always hear people walking past to get to the apartments after mine – but the fact that it didn’t sound like they were walking past my door was. It sounded like they were just standing right outside my door and waiting for something.

I crept over, careful to avoid the creaking floorboards, before peering through the peephole. There were two women in the hallway outside and they were whispering to each other.

Who are they? was the first question to come to mind but before I could come up with an answer, another man joined them and my heart slammed against my chest because I recognized him. He was part of the group of witches that kidnapped me last year!

I stumbled backward with my eyes fixed on the door while my mind whirled. How did they find me? Was it through that guy from my department? But I–

A sudden force sent the door flying open and when it banged against the wall, it sounded even louder – like a crash of thunder – in my ears. Fear crippled me as the man walked into the apartment, conjuring a bright red ball of energy before throwing it at me.

The sight of the blazing ball coming towards me was more than enough to snap me out of it and I jumped out of its way at the last moment. The ball hit the wall and sizzled through it, making my eyes widen. What the hell?! I returned my attention to the doorway to see him conjuring another while the two other people with him also walked into the apartment, heading towards me, and I began to scramble towards my bedroom.

Do something… I had to do something but I didn’t know what. I couldn’t fight the three of them off but I couldn’t let them take me either. All the times I got kidnapped by witches, they only wanted one thing from me and that was to know where my mother was.

It was incredibly ridiculous and extremely rude seeing as she and my father died seven years ago but they never believed me when I said that. I’d actually gotten tortured a couple of times because they thought I was lying about my mother being dead.

Someone chanting something grabbed my arm just as I got to the bedroom door and I immediately conjured my own ball of energy but before I could send it flying into the person, it died in my hand. …What? I tried again, tried to pull on energy deep within me, but there was nothing.

No energy. No ball. No magic.

I couldn’t feel my powers.

Another person grabbed my other hand as a cold wave embalmed me before the people holding me turned me around so I was facing the man and forced me to my knees while he walked up to me. He then proceeded to place his hand on my head and my heart, once quickly beating, now began to slow in tempo as I felt its muscles tighten with incredible force.

Oh. They weren’t trying to capture me… They were trying to kill me. No…

Fear grasped my throat like a fist and an overwhelming sorrow seized my chest. I tried to pull away from the chanting women holding me as the edge of my vision went dark but their grip was too strong and just as I began to feel life slipping away, it stopped. The immense pain was gone and the hands holding me in place were gone too.

What–

“Yara,” a familiar voice called out softly and my eyes snapped open. Instead of the man that had been trying to kill me, I saw Aiden crouched in front of me instead, worry evident on his face, and though I didn’t know how he found me, I was so fucking relieved to see him that I could cry.

I’m alive. I’m alive. I repeated the mantra in my head as nausea clenched my stomach before seeing one of my attackers on the ground. His eyes were fixed on the ceiling and lifeless while his neck was bent at an unnatural angle and I glanced over my shoulder to see the two women dead too with Aiden’s friend – the man that had been in the hotel suite with us that day – standing next to their bodies.

I then returned my attention to Aiden and threw my arms around his neck as I sucked in a breath. Thank you.

“It’s okay,” Aiden muttered while wrapping his arms around me. “I got you.”

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