Page 51 of Her Magic Light

“You hurt Adrian. But don’t worry. You didn’t mean it. It wasn’t your fault.” He sounded so sad now. “It wasn’t your fault,” he repeated. “Not your fault.”

I gasped, drawing a sharp breath even though I could barely move, still seeing Adrian’s severed head, the gash almost right through his neck. “Idid that? But how? How?” I would have laughed, but Coop was too heavy to shift. “No way. How could I have done that?”

There was no way I’d hurt a man by simply flinging out an arm to prevent him from coming closer.

“But I didn’t…I didn’t want… I didn’t even think of…” What was I saying? Was I buying into this bull crap now?” “Let me up. Let me upright now.”

“No can do.” Coop’s voice was right by my ear.

My chest tightened again, this time, with a redundant sob. I couldn’t swallow it back down, and I couldn’t force it out.

“But what’s going to happen now?” I whispered.

nineteen

I’d been here before.

But this time my cheek was pressed to smooth tile rather than itchy carpet tile. I opened my eyes wider, looking into more of the dark. The aroma of food hung in the air, but it turned my stomach because it was mixed with the coppery tang of blood.

The same blood dampening my hair.

There had been a lone french fry on the ground by the knocked over chair, spread twice as wide as it had been on the plate. It had probably been squashed against the floor in the stampede to leave. I identified with that french fry.

“Meira.” Coop’s voice was still quiet.

I tried to move my head so I could hear him better, but he had me pinned completely beneath him. Where the hell did they all learn this technique? They probably called it the “safety smother” move. But I was still too exhausted to struggle.

“Meira.” Coop’s use of my name was more urgent this time.

“Yes?” I whispered.

“I need you to close your eyes and keep them closed. Don’t be afraid. Just close your eyes.”

Even before he’d finished speaking, I did as he asked. I trusted Coop. Maybe I didn’t understand him most of the time, but I trusted him. The alarm shrieked in my head as I lay there with my eyes closed.

“I’m going to move,” Coop said, his mouth almost right against my ear. “And I’m going to secure your wrists behind you.”

I tried to nod again to show I understood, but I still couldn’t move. And I didn’t care.

“Easy,” he murmured as the weight on me started to release. “Easy,” he said again.

I almost didn’t know what he was saying. What did he think I was going to do? As I considered it, my mind began to spin and all I could picture in my head was Adrian.

I released his name on a whisper as sadness constricted my throat.

“Don’t think about it,” Coop said. “Don’t think, Meira. It’s too much.”

Adrian’s body was still in here, though. People had fled, and I was pinned down again and there was a corpse in here with us. Once alive. Now dead.

A corpse people thoughtI’dcreated.No, I had created.With a power I didn’t know I wielded.

“I need you to stay calm, Meira. Just stay calm, and I’ll sort all of this.” Coop snapped some handcuffs into place around my wrists, but I didn’t care. I wanted to curl around the sorrow growing around my middle.

I deserved the punishment this time.

“Did I do that?” I rasped.

He stiffened alongside me. “Don’t think about it.”

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