in my fair share of fights in middle school and high school, but I’ve never been hit so hard in my life. I’ve never had adrenaline spike through my veins so sharply, and something inside of me I didn’t even know was there snaps.
My hands shoot up as if to shield me, and I feel a strange ripple in my chest, like a wave, rushing through my body and down my arms, out of my hands. I can literally feel the air shifting, and then a sound like—like a jet plane, but not, like a really loud thunderclap, but not—explodes out of me.
I’m thrown backward from the force of it.
The two men are hurled away from me, the streetlight bends with a screech of metal, car alarms start going off, my back and head hit the wall of the club, and—
It all goes black.
Chapter 6
Everything is blurry as I wake up. My head hurts, and my eyelids are heavy as lead weights.
I blink a few times. Slowly, like I’m emerging from underwater, my vision clears. I ache all over, like I’ve just run a marathon while being pelted with rocks. Everything hurts. My mouth is dry, and I’m groggy as hell. Shit. I haven’t drunk that much since—
Wait. No… I didn’t drink anything.
The world sharpens around me, coming into focus, and I realize I’m lying in a hospital bed, in a white-walled room. I’m the only one, which means this is a private room, and I definitely can’t afford that on my insurance. How did I end up here?
I try to move—only to hear a loud clanking sound and to find I can’t raise my arms.
I look down.
There’s an odd silver brace of some kind on my wrist, and my hands are cuffed to the bed.
What. The. Hell?
What happened last night? What did I do?
I vaguely remember being at the club. I definitely remember the earlier part of the day, and even getting ready, but then it starts to get a little blurry.
Someone knocked into me and spilled their drink. Then I went… I went outside to clean it up… the glass got broken… a punch… something…
Did I hurt anybody? I know I’m prickly, but Jesus, I don’t think I’m violent. And fuck, my head hurts. I think that guy hit me hard enough to give me a bit of a concussion.
Not that I can check my face or anything, seeing as I’m cuffed to the damn bed.
I’m just about to yell for someone to get their ass in here and tell me what the hell is going on when the door opens. A tall woman in a perfectly pressed skirt and blazer walks in.
It’s Aurora.
What the fuck?
“What did you do to me?” I demand, shaking the cuffs. I should’ve known the Circuit would be behind this somehow. Did they erase my memories? Knock me out? Is Maddy okay? What the hell is going on?
Aurora has the grace to look a bit sorry, if nothing else. She pulls up a chair next to the bed. “The handcuffs are the idea of the police, I’m afraid. I’ve been dealing with them for the last few hours. Modifying a few memories. Do you have any idea what a mess you caused with that stunt?”
“What stunt?” I scrunch up my face, shaking my head. I honestly don’t remember.
Aurora raises an eyebrow. “Hiding your magical ability is a punishable offense. You should have registered—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” I struggle to sit up. Aurora helps me arrange the pillows, which is nice and all, but right now it just pisses me off even more. “I don’t have any magic.”
Aurora’s eyes narrow and she stares at me for a long moment, as if she’s trying to read my mind. I glare at her.
After a few moments of this standoff, her face relaxes, and she sits back in her chair. “Well. The brace you have on prevents you from doing any magic. It dampens it, so to speak. So you can’t use magical means to lie.” She taps her fingers on the arm of the chair. “Do you really not remember what happened last night?”
“I remember I went out to a club. I got a drink, but someone knocked into me and spilled it, so I went outside to clean it up. After that, it’s all fuzzy, just bits and pieces… until I woke up in here.”
Aurora nods. “You were knocked back into the side of the building. And you took a pretty hard hit to the face.