Testimony of Children (Alice Gray Book 2)

4

Swallowing my fear, I tried to remind myself of who Evan was before he'd been twisted up and spat out by my father. The kind, sweet man who I'd crushed on during my first couple of days in Sheffield. But the horror of our last meeting engulfed all those good memories.

Evan had tried to rape me.

I clamped down on the panic before it could overwhelm me. He'd been acting under the destructive force of my father's power, or my own. Our magic attracts others and feeds their greed, making them twisted versions of themselves. I told myself that my mad, spiteful father had manipulated Evan, but really I didn't know which was to blame. I didn't want to.

Guilt over my own part in his degeneration was too strong for me to lay the full blame at his door. But there was never any excuse for sexual assault. Victim blaming was the worst kind of cowardice.

Evan pulled the door closed and turned to face me. We were so close that our toes touched.

"I'm so sorry, Alice."

Surprised by his directness, I looked up to meet eyes full of anguish. I wasn't sure if he would remember what he'd done.

"You should be."

His body slumped in on itself.

"Have you told them?" he asked.

"I should."

"Why haven't you?"

The defeated expression on his face made my throat full and heavy. I closed my eyes willing the tears to drain back into my ducts. "Evan, I know that you were influenced by the power."

"That doesn't excuse it. I know it and you know it. I should have been able to control myself. I never thought that I could do that to someone. Especially someone that I care for so much," Evan spoke low and soft, taking my hand gently in his.

I pulled away, shaking my head.

"Alice, don't do that. I know you still care for me. You wouldn't have risked facing him again to get me back if you didn't feel something for me. Something strong."

"What? Evan, no. I can't see you like that after what happened. Surely you get that?"

Evan dragged a hand through his hair in frustration. I reached out to touch his arm, but drew back thinking better of it. His eyes met mine, they were full of reproach. Then something hard replaced it.

With no warning he punched the wall next to my head. Pieces of plaster sprinkled to the floor, displaced by the force of the blow.

Cringing away, I brought my arm up to shield my face in case he followed up with another blow. My back hit the wall. There was nowhere to go in the small space afforded by the room. Panic welled up inside me as I cowered, trapped between Evan and the wall.

A spark of my silver life-force responded to the threat of violence reminding me that I wasn't helpless anymore, not like the last time that Evan had tried to hurt me.

Anger replaced the fear.

The energy buzzed and hummed inside me, taking on a life of its own. Eager to be free from the tight control with which I usually held it to me, it sang in my head.

The tune was chaos.

Its beauty fed my anger, spurring me on to take my revenge. I reached out, ready to subdue him. The sounds contorted, increasing with my power until out of the droning noise, the chimes of silver leaves emerged.

It was the sound of the silver tree, the Tree of Knowledge.

Once that sound had been painful to me; relentless noise that created madness in all who heard it. It felt right to me now. I embraced it.

It was mine; it was power.

Evan cringed away from me, his body once again contorting in a painful way as he tried to put some distance between us in the confines of the small room.

Ready to strike, I gathered my magic.

The door crashed open. A dark, powerful figure was silhouetted against the light of the room outside. Thomas paused in the doorway taking in the scene before him.

Evan cowered while my silver life-force swelled and surged around me.

Pushing Evan out of the way, a single stride brought him to me. Dark, fierce eyes, full of lust and pride, connected with mine. He gathered me into an embrace, mouth crashing down. I kissed him back, all the anger I felt for Evan and impotent lust for Thomas from the last month flowing into the strength of our connection.

It was brutal.

My silver life-force swelled with his dense power, pushing back into him, feeding our passion until it felt like we would consume each other. The chaotic chiming persisted, pushing at the confines of my skull.

I couldn't tell if I still contained it within my own consciousness.

Then something changed. The more emotion I poured into the kiss, the more my awareness to my surroundings returned. Someone had taken Evan and closed the door to the storeroom. We were alone.

This was not good.

I pulled away to see a swirl of silver in his iris.

Crap.

A passive smile replaced his furious desire.

Disappointment crept through me consuming the heat of desire and leaving clammy coldness in its wake. The realisation that Thomas was so susceptible to my silver life-force, and my own inability to control the power, landed with a dull thump of understanding.

However much I tried to resist him, I knew that I wanted him. More than I'd ever desired any other man. That he couldn't hold his own against my power was heart-breaking. Nothing could ever be between us if I couldn't trust that his feelings were genuine, uninfluenced by my magic.

I opened the door and stepped through, putting some distance between us. As I moved away from him, the silver haze that had crept over his form dissipated, leaving a contented smile on his beautiful face. His eyebrows drew together, creating stress lines in his usually smooth brow.

"NO. You will not retreat from me again."

"This can't work, I have to go."

I ran out of the restaurant, devastated all over again that I couldn't have the man I knew I loved. Dejected that every connection that I made was corrupted by my power. And most of all, I was consumed by my failure to protect my own heart from the influence that my silver life-force had on others.

The blame was all my own.

Poor Alice. Will her life-force consume every connection she makes?
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