If I could go back. I think. I would go back. I'd go back before I met Jayden. Before I saw him. Before I even felt him near me. I'd go back before Zilor, before I even left Seattle, and I'd never leave.
When the world came back to me, I was in the bushes with Naomi hovering over my chest. I had felt the brief sensation of flying through the air. The pull on my arms being ripped away from Jayden's hands. But I have no idea how I didn't feel the landing, especially since Naomi looks exhausted.
Aubry flitters over to my right shoulder and softly says. "It's dark magic. That's not him."
But her words barely register in my mind. My body, on its own, trys to get up and I don't know, run back into the devil's arms? Luckily Naomi is faster than my stupid self. She shaves me back into the bush letting the plant's arms wrap around me into a jell cell. "Stay down!" She demands.
"You are not welcome here." A dark deep voice shivers up my spin and I shrink into the bush. "Get out of my forest." That voice. That scary, creepy, skin crawling voice, is Brooke. I shutter at the thought of it. She sounds stronger than I thought she could be. -She's fearless. The earth under me trimmers but Jayden only looks around as if he's lost his favorite toy. -me.
My heart pounds. I did this. I put them all in danger and I don't know how to get them out. Taking a deep breath, a list of things that I do know, charges from my lips to my ears. "My name is Jazlyn, my foster parents are Wade and Stephanie Erickson. They live in Kennewick, Washington. They gave me a star, which took me to Normalyna. Brooke is a Nymph she controls the earth around her. She has a star."
I catch my breath as Jayden's wild eyes lock onto mine. It only takes a moment for his eyes to flash black and with a lung he's heading toward me. Roots shoot up from under the durt near my feet. Spikes explode from the branches like knives, but they grow longer and longer. Forcing Jayden to stop.
"I have star. The wind listens to me, or follows me or... " I have a star. I take a breath as Jayden snarls at me, his hands flexing in and out of fists. Toms said the stars are stronger together. -Together.
The oak tree that grew from nowhere, swoops down with a force so great, I tumble and I'm not even standing. The gust of wind is intoxicating and is inviting me to play. The branch connects with Jayden's gut, but he doesn't move. He's a wall with enough straight as a steal train. Brooke plunges again and again.
I catch the wind from her swoops and chase it backwards. It's big wind. Bigger than the torrato from my room. -wait was it from my room? I shake my head I can't think of that right now. I cast the wind to Jayden. Naomi and Audrey have just enough time to duck beind me. Crap! I forgot all about them. I have to be better. Do better! The wind connects to Jayden at the same time Brooke thwacks him again. But this time he takes one small step backwards.
Brooke's knives take the space he left and I know exactly what Toms ment. The stars are stronger together. Not what Brooke controls or what I control. It's the star themselves that are stronger.
My star glows brilliant blue, I look for Brooke's ring but she still flighting, still whaling against the wall. I can't see her star, I wonder if she even still has it.
Black smoke slithers through the roots and buches, closer and closer to me. But Brooke cuts it off with more and more shrubbery. There's a thick forest wall between me and the dark magic. But I know there is only a matter of minutes before I suck it back inside and follow Jayden out this forest. That idea makes me skin crawl.
"Brooke." I scream. "Where's your star?"
Jayden's eyes flinch and he dives into the knives after me. His skin cuts with each spike letting black smoke slither from this openings. The smoke crawl past his body and onto the knives following them down to the roots. -Suffocating the plant. Brooke's roots. Terror lumps in my throat as I realize, its not suffocating the plant, its suffocating her. My wind spins out of my control, twisting and spinning around us. I'm practically lying on top of the pixies to keep them from being tossed around.
"Brooke!" I scream again as I inch backwards on my bottem. I don't know what to do. I don't. Is she dead? Dose it have her? "Brooke! Your star." I scream with desperation I didn't even know I had.
One of Brooke branches struggles down to me. She's moving slowly, agonizing slow and my wind doesn't help. - thrashing and howling as if it's agents us from touching at all. I reach up but I can't grab her. My fingertips brisk by her leaves, which are now turning brown. But there wrapped in vines around a leaf, is a vibrant lavender star. I shimmy up, pushing the bush that still holds me aside. Naomi almost pulls me back but she notices my arm reaching to Brooke and she flys into the wind to Brooke's arm. I don't know how Naomi even has the straight to move forward in my wind, but she does it. The power in her little pixie body pulls Brooke's hand to mine.
Our hands connect with a shocking tingle that flows through my body. Our stars spark to life in a light so blinging I have to look away. But that's all I do. That's all I have to do. Whatever the stars do, they force the dark magic away. Light pulses like a beating heart pushing, tugging, whatever it dose. The light grows and grows so much I can't even see any more and when it dies down. When it finally glows to a soft little star on my necklace. Jayden is gone, the smoke is gone and Audrey, Naomi and I sit there with our mouths open, gaping at what just happened. What did just happen?
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