The Dark Side of Magic (The Dark Side, Book 2)

Puppet Master

[Author's Note: Hey, guys! Sorry it's been so long since I updated. I've had this chapter half written for like a week and a half or more now, but I just couldn't get it finished. So, while this is not originally where I intended to end it...it's gotten to be about the right length, so I'm gonna wrap it up here! I hope you enjoy the chapter, and I hope you don't all hate me too much!
It'll be awhile before I get the next one up, probably. I'll be working on the next chapter of Flames of Fate before I start the next in The Dark Side of Magic.
Without further ado, please enjoy Chapter 2 of TDSoM! Thanks again for taking the time to read my work!]
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Kylie inhaled deeply, blinking as the light blinded her. Somehow she felt both rejuvenated and exhausted, although she did not understand how that was possible.

She drank in oxygen hungrily, as if she had been deprived of it for far too long. When her hyperventilating finally ceased, she realized just how much her head was really throbbing. She felt as though her skull was about to implode, and her splitting headache was only worsened by her eyes’ sensitivity to light.

She looked around, at first not understanding where she was or how she had gotten there. It appeared to be a motel – one f those sleazy don’t-ask-don’t-tell ones – and she couldn’t understand why she was there.

As her eyes slowly adjusted to the brightness, she realized how dim the light really was. She was propped up in the bathtub, and the light appeared to be from a single lamp in the main area of the motel room. After what seemed like an eternity, but had only been the span of a few seconds, hell broke loose.

“Blain?” Kale said, panic evident in his voice.

Kylie pulled herself upright with stiff arms and peered over the edge of the tub.

To her horror, she saw Kale crouched over Blain, shaking him. Axton’s body was pale, his golden hair plastered to his forehead…

“What happened?” Celia asked as she rushed through the door. When her eyes landed on Kylie, she froze. Her skin paled and her mouth dropped open. “Kale,” she whispered, voice filled with horror.

“What?” he asked, tearing his eyes away from Axton’s body – from Blain – to look at her.

Unable to speak, Celia simply gestured. When Kale turned around and saw Kylie, he swore, conjuring a chain of ethereal links.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Kylie asked, rising stiffly and clambering over the edge of the tub.

Kale dropped the chain, and the instant that it clattered to the floor it also disintegrated. “Kylie?” he said. “Is it really you?”

“Who else would I be? Stop acting so weird,” she said, furrowing her brow in confusion and irritation.

She ignored his reply, her attention suddenly returning to Blain. She was a little bit out of it – unable to focus – and she couldn’t understand why.

“What happened to him?” she said, walking over to him. “The two of you weren’t fighting, were you? If you knocked him out, Kale, so help me—”

Kale cut her off. “We weren’t fighting, Ky…and he isn’t unconscious.”

“What do you mean, he isn’t—” she began, but when it dawned on her what he meant, she stopped mid-sentence.

Kylie collapsed to her knees, tears streaming unbidden down her face. “Blain…Blain, no. I can’t lose you again,” she sobbed, cradling his head in her lap. “I just got you back.”

“Kylie,” Kale said gently.

“How long?” she asked, her eyes snapping up to look at him. “How long has he been dead?”

“Not long. A few minutes…since you came back.”

“Came back? No, never mind, now’s not the time. I still may be able to save him.”

And so she tried.

She placed her left hand over his heart and the right against his temple, channeling her magic into him in an attempt to breathe life back into him.

You can’t, something in her mind whispered to her. What I took away you cannot give back.

Kylie, alarmed, wondered if that meant that she had killed Blain.

Not Blain, the thing replied. Axton. Blain is alive, simply expelled.

Blain was alive. Kylie was more relieved than she had ever been, but she still owed Axton his life back, so she focused on knitting his cells back together.

You cannot, the thing in her head said again. I sacrificed him to return you from the dead. You cannot undo what I have done.

Kylie ignored the voice, attempting to revive Axton in spite of the nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach.

And then she short-circuited. Suddenly gates slammed shut inside of her and her magic sparked and died.

She sat back on her heels, exhaling slowly as she looked at the ceiling. “He’s dead,” she said. “I can’t bring him back.”

“I’m sorry, Kylie,” Kale said.

“So Blain is dead?” Celia asked, then began laughing hysterically.

“Not Blain. Axton,” Kylie replied. “And why do you find it so damned funny that someone lost their life?”

“What are the odds?” Celia managed to gasp. “We came here to dispose of one body and instead find ourselves needing to dispose of a different one instead.”

“Wait, you mean Blain isn’t dead too?” Kale asked.

“Hold on, who else is dead?” Kylie questioned, confusion written all over her face.

“Was, not is,” Celia said.

“You,” Kale added.

“I was dead?” Kylie asked, knowing it was true but not wanting to believe it. The longer she thought about it, though, the more it made sense. She’d come to in the bathtub, stiff, starved for oxygen, and sensitive to light. She didn’t know how she had wound up in the motel in the first place, and when Celia had seen her, she’d been noticeably shaken.

And then there was the voice in her head. It had told her she’d been dead, she just hadn’t been listening.

“How long?” she said, looking at Kale.

She felt her eyes brimming with tears, and she knew that they would be emerald green. She saw Celia watching her with pity, and the look in Kale’s eyes made her heart clench.

“Three days,” he said. “You were dead for three days.”