Enchanting Sparks | (Doctor Strange x Female!Reader)

Chapter 31 - Stay. Please.

- Stephen's POV -

As the room turned back around, I saw the glow that had captured their attention, and just as I too turned to the light, I was taken slightly aback by the sight of (Y/n). Normally, her eyes would be the only thing glowing, perhaps magic trailing from her fingertips, but this, this was different. Her whole body was alight with magic, illuminating the room with a purple glow.

She met my look with confusion before her peripherals caught a glimpse of the rest of her body. She held her arms out, now looking at the magic surrounding her. Now, I wasn't scared to see her like this, and my reaction may have been slightly similar to that of terror. But I could definitely tell she was. Her mouth let out a small shriek as she started panicking. All this time, I had assumed she'd at least been aware of her abilities, but evidently not.

"Stephen..."

"Hey, hey. You're ok."

I was trying to calm her now manic state. As I went to place an arm on her shoulder, she moved away, scared she was going to hurt me. And as she did, she tripped backwards and fell. Now, where everyone would have expected her to land on the floor, she didn't. She slipped through the floor and disappeared, a small scream filling the room before she went.

"Where did she go!" Wong said, moving to my side.

After a couple of seconds, she reappeared but fell from the ceiling in a different part of the room. I ran towards her, hoping to catch her but she was too fast. And instead of hitting the ground, she again slipped through. She was falling constantly through the floor and the ceiling, reappearing at different spots all over the room, screaming.

"HELP!"

"What can we do?" Wong asked me, now realising this was a slightly more complicated situation than one would think. We had no idea what these powers could do, or how to control them. So I did the only thing I could think of doing. Intercepting a fall would be dangerous at this point since she was essentially falling through the same space, and therefore, picking up speed. So, after I had started noticing a slight pattern in her locations, I flew up to a part of the ceiling where I expected her to fall through next. And to my surprise, I was right. So I threw up a spell that slowed and froze her in the air. But something felt off.

The spell worked. Or did it? She froze, her body stuck in motion, but the runes of my spell were nowhere to be seen. She was still surrounded by her own magic. As I looked around, confused by what had just happened, I noticed Wong usher the students out of the sanctum and back into the temple. As I returned my gaze to her, I saw her face. Her expression was filled with fear. My heart ached for her. This would no doubt be a terrifying experience. I reached out to place my hand on her cheek, and as I did, she unfroze. She fell with one final scream but luckily landed on a cushioning spell Wong had sent to the floor below her once the door had shut behind the students. The cloak lowered me to the ground as I rushed over to check she was ok.

"I- Wha- Stephen, what is happening to me?"

She looked up at me before her eyes found her hands which were now trembling. If she wasn't so panicked I would have made a joke about our matching shaky hands.

"(Y/n), I need you to try and calm yourself. I promise you're ok." I said as I tried reaching out again to place a hand on her shoulder.

Every time I made contact with her while she was alive with this purple magic, I noticed her relax enough to bring her back to a pre-magic state. She didn't back away this time, and as my hand was just over her shoulder, I saw a tear slip down her cheek. Once my hand landed, I pulled her into a hug and the magic went away. Her whole body was shaking, no doubt from fear. I moved her head back and quickly scanned her eyes. Her pupils were dilated, but no longer a bright violet. I sighed with relief before pulling her back into my embrace.

"(Y/n), there's something you need to see," Wong said, now rushing over to the scene. He noticed her state before adding, "Perhaps once you've gotten some rest." He looked at me and nodded, before heading back to Kamar-Taj.

The rest of the evening, (Y/n) was silent, only ever nodding in response to me. She barely even met my eyes. After we tidied the mess from that evening's party, she went immediately to the library, where I only found her a little while later. Our bedrooms were on opposite sides of the sanctum, so I offered to stay with her that night, in case something else happened, but instead, she shook her head and made her way to her room. If space is what she wanted, then that's what I'd give her. But not before I sent the cloak to stay by her door. If anything happened, it would find me. And eventually, it did.

It was the early hours of the morning and sleep was nothing but a nuisance for me. How was I supposed to sleep knowing (Y/n) was in another wing of the sanctum, feeling scared and alone? I was so desperate to help her through this. Not to mention the fact that I had no doubt lost the bet and the thought of planning the perfect date, only for something to go horribly wrong, kept my thoughts firing away. At some point, I must have fallen asleep stressing about the whole situation. But the screams that rang through the sanctum had woken me up before the cloak managed to bang on my door. I rushed out of my room and across the sanctum, following the sounds. I was scared for them to be coming from her. However, to my dismay, they led me straight to her room, and I saw her there, wriggling and glowing. Now, I wasn't a stranger to nightmares. Who was? I would occasionally relive the car crash and wake up drenched in sweat, shaking (more than usual) at the thought of that night. But this, seeing her like this, it was something else.

I rushed to her side, moving a hand onto her face, only to find her temperature quite warm - much warmer than it should be for someone 'sleeping'. Her movement stopped once she subconsciously registered someone else in the room with her, and after a few seconds, she opened her eyes, scanning her room before they landed on me. Once she did, she moved to sit up. Her body was no longer glowing, but her eyes, her eyes remained ever luminescent. She curled up her knees, fidgeting with the covers in her hands. There was something very clearly on her mind, but I wasn't going to push her. I knew that when she was ready, she would come to me. I moved my hand up from her face to gently stroking her hair, now noticing how heavily she was breathing. She took a few moments to calm herself before she finally spoke, the first words she had said since the unfortunate event earlier that evening.

"Stay. Please."

Hehe, short chapter but I'm so excited to continue this story. I've had a bit of writers block recently since this portion of the book is more original content than the first half, so bare with me if the chapters sometimes feel a little bit like random filler.

I got a few more chapters lined up and I'm feeling really good about it :)

I also discovered these ╰(*°▽°*)╯So replying to comments is going to be even more fun!

Anyways, hope you're all doing well, I appreciate you guys so much!

Until next time <3