Chapter 265

My eyes fly open in the real world and I’m instantly in action, as is Jackson – because the shouts here?

God, they’re even louder and more panicked than those we heard dreaming.

I leap out of bed, ripping the curtain open, already starting across the room when I stumble over my own feet, my jaw dropping open when I see the sight before me.

Rafe – already across the room – staring helplessly at Jesse’s bedside as our cousin sits up in bed, his arms held out in front of him, shouting in his panic as shadows writhe all around him – moving in circles around his arms like snakes, encircling his waist, his torso –

Even wrapping around his neck –

“Holy shit,” Jackson whispers behind me, but then he barrels past me over to Jesse’s bed, reaching for him.

I follow, urging my feet faster, running to Rafe’s side as Jackson leaps onto the bed, skidding to a stop in front of Jesse and reaching for him, but not touching him – not yet.

“Jesse!” Jackson shouts, “stop screaming!”

Jesse just looks at Jackson like he’s insane and keeps going.

“What happened!?” I gasp, grabbing hold of Rafe’s arm and looking up into his face.

“I have no idea!” Rafe exclaims, staring at Jesse, looking more confused and at a loss for what to do than I’ve perhaps ever seen him. “I just – he started screaming and I woke up!”

“Jesse!” Jackson roars, clenching his fist in front of Jesse’s face, the Alpha command loud in his voice.

Something about it works, snapping Jesse out of it, and his shout fades.

“What is this,” Jackson snarls, menace in his tones, though I know it’s not for Jesse – it’s for anyone that did this to him – is trying to hurt him –

I wrap my arms around the bulk of Rafe’s arm while my brother stands stock straight, terrified, both of us staring at Jesse and Jackson.

“I – I don’t know!” Jesse says as the shadows continue to writhe, slow and menacing, all around his limbs, his neck, his hair. I watch them, the serpentine way that they move, trying to figure them out –

And as I search for the beginning and end of them I notice…

My eyes go wide with shock as I realize that the shadows are leaking from Jesse himself – from his pores, and his nose, his mouth, his eyes. Jesse’s gaze darts to me when he hears my little gasp before I stop breathing completely, horrified.

“Jesse, pay attention to me,” Jackson commands, drawing Jesse’s eyes back to him. “Are you in pain? Or are you just scared?”

Jesse takes a moment, panting, his eyes darting from side to side, more shadows puffing out of his mouth with each breath, smokey grey and diaphanous, slipping downward to get caught up in the eddies of his other shadows, which continue to move.

“They’re…they don’t hurt,” he says, the words spilling out of him in a raspy stutter as he - I think - comes to the realization himself.

I feel some of the tension go out of Rafe as Jesse says this and I feel a similar sense of relief rushing through me.

“Jess,” Jackson says quietly, hesitating for only half a second before he reaches forward, putting his hand flat on my cousin’s chest. But Jackson doesn’t look down at his hand, even as the shadows begin to curl curiously around it, licking at his skin like they’re…they’re testing him, even sniffing him.

Jesse starts to breathe easier, glancing down at Jackson’s hand, seeing that he’s not hurt either.

“I don’t think this is bad, okay?” Jackson says, his voice much calmer now, infusing calm into the whole room. “I think…these shadows are yours.”

Jesse’s eyes go as wide as mine now and we all stare at Jackson, completely shocked.

“What?” Rafe breathes, barely audible.

“I wondered,” Jackson murmurs, glancing over at Rafe before returning his eyes to Jesse. “What his magic would be, since his magical affinities are darkness and spirit, heavy on the darkness. I mean, something like this…it makes sense, right?”

We all just stare at him.

Because, I mean…I had forgotten about that completely.

“Why do none of you read the textbooks,” Jackson mutters, shaking his head and turning his full attention back to Jesse. “Concentrate on me, Jess, okay?”

Jesse draws in a deep breath, sucking in some of the shadows along with it, but he nods shakily to Jackson as he does. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the shadows begin to slow in their rotation and I realize, wide-eyed, that Jackson is right – that the shadows are tied to Jesse. As Jesse calms, so do they.

“This happens, okay?” Jackson says, nodding slowly and talking soft, like you would to a scared animal. “It’s a magical burst – your magic all flying out at once because you don’t know how to manage it yet. It happened to me all the time when my magic first manifested.”

“You – you know what your magic is!?” Jesse gasps, his mouth falling open, shadows sucking in and then tumbling out in a way that makes my stomach turn.

“I do,” Jackson replies, nodding once. “Not important right now. Just…let’s get these shadows tucked away, all right? I want you to imagine like…a fishing rod, with all the shadows attached to the line. And now slowly, mentally, just…start to reel that fish in, okay?”

A moment passes as Jesse stares at Jackson, a little disbelief in his panicked eyes, but then he exhales a long breath and concentrates. My arms tighten around Rafe’s arm, my fingers digging into his skin a little, when I see the shadows begin to change shape, transforming – my eyes widen to see – into a shadow river, complete with currents, still swirling around Jesse –

But including, of all things…tiny little shadow fish inside.

“There you go, man,” Jackson says, sounding completely at ease now, even laughing a little when he sees the fish moving in their shadow streams, swirling around his wrist and his hand, still pressed to Jesse’s chest.

Jesse stares around at the shadow scene in awe but – clearly encouraged by the result – he begins to take Jackson’s advice, breathing easier and I suppose…beginning to reel it all in.

The shadows slowly start to lessen, to seep, to disappear backwards into Jesse as he calls them mentally back. They fade in density and in color, all slipping away like smoke from the air until they’re just a haze around his skin.

And then Jesse takes one last sharp inhale and the final shadows slip back into his mouth, swallowed down…I don’t know where. His soul?

And just like that…they’re gone.

“Holy…holy shit, Jess,” Rafe says, his voice trembling.

Jackson laughs a little, taking his hand from Jesse’s chest and sitting back on the bed calmly. “Nicely done,” he says, leaning back on his hands. “Honestly, you reined that outburst in pretty fast – took me ages to learn that.”

Jesse still pants a little, tense on his bed, his shoulders shaking as he stares first at Jackson and then over at Rafe and me. “Am I…did I dream that? Please tell me I dreamed that.”

Rafe and I just stare at him.

“No dreams, man,” Jackson murmurs, shaking his head. “You’re a badass shadow mage. It’s cool.”

Jesse continues to shake as he looks back at Jackson like he’s totally crazy.

And I can’t help it – a ridiculous, hysterical giggle breaks from me.

Jesse and Rafe snap their heads to me as I smack a hand over my mouth.

But there’s no stopping the panicked laughter that continues to spill from me as I stare at my gentle, silly cousin – whose gift is literally…the opposite of anything I’d have ever expected from him.

“What…what’s so funny?” Jesse asks me, his voice tremulous even as his mouth starts to curl up, as if he’s desperate for a laugh, for a smile.

“Jesse,” I whisper, dropping my hand and pressing it to my chest, my other hand still clinging to my brother’s arm. “Why…why is your magic so scary!?”

Something about my stupid question works, because Jesse’s mouth begins to twitch, a smile taking over it and then fading, and then coming back as a little laugh stumbles from his mouth. “Look who’s talking, little miss I-can-light-things-on-fire-with-the-force-of-my-glare.”

And even though it’s not really even that funny – I burst out laughing at this, laughing so hard I double over, my hands on my knees.

Slowly, I feel Rafe next to me begin to loosen, and then he starts to laugh.

And even as I catch my breath, trying to reel my ridiculous, embarrassing, inappropriate laughter in like a shadow fish on a line, I hear Jackson and Jesse join in too.

We’re a mess like that, all of us, for a minute or two – and Rafe tugs me onto Jesse’s bed beside him, seating me down on it while he reaches behind Jesse’s headboard for the bottle of contraband whiskey hidden there.

When I finally stop laughing hard enough that I can open my eyes, wiping the tears from them, I look around to see Jesse hesitantly smiling, and Jackson grinning around at all of us, and Rafe sighing and shaking his head as he uncorks the whiskey bottle.

“Come on,” he sighs. “If we’re all up in the middle of the night after having the shit scared out of us, we can all probably use a drink to settle our nerves.”

He raises the bottle into the air in a toast. “To the newfound Duke of Shadows,” Rafe says with a clever twist of his lips. We all give a little cry of joy as Jesse’s face breaks into a wary grin, liking the title much more than he’s comfortable with his newfound magical skill.

Then Rafe tilts his head back, taking a long swig of the liquor before passing it to Jesse, who does the same.