Page 5 of Wild Ivy
Tate shakes his head. “I can’t tell the full extent, but it’s significant. The fabric of reality feels stretched. Like it’s trying to accommodate all these changes at once.”
“Fuck,” Ivy mutters, running a hand through her hair. “We really cocked this up. We need to figure out how to stabilise things before it all unravels.”
The weight of her new role is settling on her shoulders. Part of me wants to comfort her, but I know now isn’t the time. We have bigger problems.
“Okay, first things first,” I say. “We need to get out there and see what the situation is. Ivy, you need to speak to Ramsey and Josh. See what, if anything, is going on inside The Syndicate and The Resistance.”
“Okay, but didn’t Life take over The Syndicate?”
“Maybe, but maybe not. Maybe not all of it, anyway.”
Ivy nods. “Okay, I’m on it. Also, I need to tap into this army of souls bollocks. What if some of those souls are, you know, not souls anymore but back in their bodies?” She chews her lips, as the implications of that are not good, at best.
“Well, we already know Dad is walking around in his meat suit,” Torin snaps. “So probably, yeah, hundreds of others will be too. Don’t be surprised if we walk out the door and see Genghis Khan running towards us.”
“Genghis Khan?” Ivy snorts. “I don’t think Death was collecting souls for his army from that long ago…” But the look on her face says she thinks otherwise.
“I wouldn’t rule it out,” I mutter. “The point is, we have no idea who or what might be out there now, so we need to move quickly. Torin, I hate to say it, man, but you need to at least text your dad. Find out what he knows about coming back, if he knows anything. Does he remember, or what?”
Torin’s eyes flash dangerously. “No fucking way.”
“Torin,” Ivy says softly, reaching out to touch his arm. “I know it sucks. But we need information.”
He glares at her for a long moment before he gives in. “Fine. One text. That’s it.”
“Thank you,” she says, squeezing his arm.
I clear my throat. “I’ll head to the edge of campus, see if I can sense any changes in the wild magick.”
Ivy nods. “Everyone, be careful. We don’t know what’s out there.”
We head out and go our separate ways. I’m not keen on splitting up, but we need intel fast, and this is the most efficient way to get it.
I step out onto the grounds of Thornfield, instantly on high alert. The air feels different. It is charged with an unfamiliar energy that sets my teeth on edge.
As I make my way towards the edge of campus, I notice small things out of place. Trees that weren’t there before. Buildings that look slightly different. Nothing major, but enough to be unsettling.
I reach the boundary where the wild magick begins to bleed through from the forest. Closing my eyes, I extend my senses, feeling for any disturbances.
The burst of power nearly knocks me off my feet.
“Fuck,” I mutter, steadying myself against a tree. The wild magick is roiling and chaotic in a way I’ve never felt before. It’s like someone shook up a soda bottle and popped the cap. All that pent-up energy explodes outwards, making my brain hurt.
I push deeper, trying to get a sense of what’s changed. Flashes of creatures long extinct flicker through my mind. Beasts that haven’t walked the earth in millennia.
And something else. Something dark and ancient stirring in the depths of the forest.
My eyes snap open as I feel a presence behind me. I whirl around, magick crackling at my fingertips, ready to attack.
“Easy there, wildling,” a female voice purrs. “Hand my power back to me, and you won’t get hurt.”
3
IVY
Makingmy way onto campus in the hopes of finding Ramsey and Josh, my new powers hum under my skin in warning. But I’m not sure what it’s warning me against. Looking around, I see everything looks mostly the same, but there’s an undercurrent of wrongness, like reality might snap at any moment.
Before I can reach the boundary line, a chill runs down my spine. I whirl around, sensing a presence behind me.
