Torn Ivy (Thornfield Supernatural Academy #2)

3. Ivy

3

IVY

I storm away from Josh, Vex, and Cathy, my mind reeling from everything they’ve just told me. Chaos magick. Becoming the antithesis of Death. A Death rejection specialist. It’s all too much…. Wait.

Death rejection. That holds way more connotations than I’m comfortable with. Am I overthinking this?

Yeah, probably .

“Ivy, wait!” Josh calls after me.

I spin around, glaring at him.

“You can’t leave. Death will find you.”

“You can’t run from this, Ivy. Death will find you eventually,” Vex says.

“Maybe,” I snarl, “but you are trying to put me in the firing line when I want to do the exact opposite. I’m doing this to save my guys!”

“Are you, though?” he asks seriously. “The way I see it, if you run and don’t do what Death wants, he will kill them himself. If he hasn’t already.”

I freeze, my blood running cold at Vex’s words. “What do you mean, if he hasn’t already?”

Vex’s expression is grim. “Death isn’t known for his patience. If you’ve run, he may decide to take matters into his own hands.”

“No,” I whisper, shaking my head. “He wouldn’t…” But I know in my heart he would. Of course he fucking would.

“We don’t know for sure,” Josh says quickly, shooting Vex a glare. “But the longer we wait, the more danger they’re in.”

I clench my fists, torn between rage and fear. “So I’m just supposed to trust you and your crazy plan to become some kind of chaos entity to fight Death?”

“It’s not ideal,” Cathy says softly, “but it may be our only chance to save them and stop Death’s corruption.”

I look between the three of them, my mind racing. As insane as their plan sounds, do I really have any other choice? If Death has my guys, though. There isn’t any choice, really, is there?

“Fine,” I growl. “What do I need to do?”

Josh nods once. “First, we need to awaken your latent abilities, and for that, we’re going to need to piss you off.”

I snort. “Trust me, I’m plenty pissed off already.”

“Not enough,” Vex says, shaking his head. “We need to push you to your absolute limit.”

“And how do you plan on doing that?” I ask, shoving my hands into my hair and tugging, the anxiety of this entire night getting to me.

“Like this.”

The new voice resounds around the chamber, cutting above the hum of the computer machines and the soft murmurs of the workers.

Turning to it, I feel actual homicidal rage.

“Hey, Ives,” Ramsey says, holding his hand up in a half wave. “Angry?”

My vision goes red as I lunge at Ramsey, all rational thoughts fleeing my mind. “You fucking bastard!” I scream, my fist connecting with his jaw with a satisfying crack. “I trusted you! You are my handler! My best friend!”

He staggers back but doesn’t fall, a smirk playing on his lips despite the blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. “I know, but it had to be this way. You weren’t ready, Ivy. You weren’t ready to take on this fight. There has to be something worth it. Something you couldn’t lose.”

“Rah!” I swing again, but this time he’s ready. He ducks under my punch and uses my momentum to flip me over his shoulder. I hit the ground hard, the wind knocked out of me, but rage and adrenaline surge through my veins, pushing me back to my feet in an instant.

“You manipulative piece of shit,” I snarl, circling Ramsey. “Was any of it real? Our friendship? Or was it all just part of your grand fucking plan?”

Ramsey’s smirk falters for a moment, something like regret flashing in his eyes. “It was real, Ivy. You are my friend. But this is bigger than friendship. This is about the fate of the supernatural world and, eventually, the human one, too.”

“Fuck the worlds,” I snap, lunging at him again. This time, I manage to tackle him to the ground, pinning him beneath me. “You lied to me. For years. You’ve been playing both sides. You double-crossed me!”

I punch him again, relishing the crunch of cartilage as my fist connects with his nose. Blood sprays, but I don’t care. All the fear, confusion, and anger of the past few days comes pouring out of me in a torrent of violence.

“Ivy, stop!” Josh shouts, but I ignore him.

Ramsey doesn’t fight back; he just takes the beating. That pisses me off even more.

“Fight back, you arsehole!” I scream, grabbing the front of his shirt and shaking him. “You wanted to piss me off? Well, congratu-fucking-lations! Mission accomplished!”

Suddenly, I feel a surge of energy coursing through my body—a raw, primal power that makes every nerve-ending tingle. The air around me crackles with electricity.

I look down at my hands and gasp. They glow with an eerie pink light, wisps of dark energy swirling around my fingers. What the actual fuck? I don’t have active magick.

Ramsey grins up at me through bloodied teeth. “There she is,” he says. “The Chaos incarnate.”

The rage inside me reaches a fever pitch. With a scream of fury, I slam my palms down onto Ramsey’s chest. “You are a dick!”

He grabs my wrists. “I know, Ives. I know. But you are ready for this now. This is the right thing to do.”

“No,” I growl. “The right thing to do was work for The Syndicate so I could find out what happened to my parents. For real. This is some fucked up shit I want no part of.” Panting heavily, I heave myself off him and move away, hands trembling.

The pink energy swirls around me, crackling and pulsing. I stare at my hands in disbelief, watching tendrils of dark mist curl between my fingers.

“What the fuck is this?” I demand, rounding on Josh and the others.

Josh stares at me in something like awe, but there is fear there, too, and it scares me. “That is your chaos magick awakening. The parts of yourself that you rejected while still in the womb.”

“Eww.” I glare at him with a big ick for talking about wombs. “I don’t want it. Take it back.”

“It doesn’t work like that,” Cathy says gently. “This power has always been a part of you. You’ve just unlocked it.”

“By showing me my whole life has been one big betrayal.”

“I’m sorry, Ivy. I hate that this happened the way it did. If there had been another way?—”

“There was! You could have told me what was going on. Let me make my own choices with my eyes wide open. I feel like you’ve hoodwinked me, and that is not okay.”

He looks sad, and I feel torn again. Only this time, between loving him and being so angry at him, I could smash his face in again.

“Fair enough. But I’m a lying bastard who’s trying to save the world.”

“Fuck that,” I snarl. “What about my guys? Where are they?”

“If Death has them, they’re likely in his realm. A place between life and death,” Vex says.

“You,” I say, pointing at him, “had better run, because you made me trust you. I should’ve gone on not liking you.”

“Aww, she likes me,” he purrs in that sexy way that really pisses me off right now.

“Never said that,” I grit out. “Where is this place? How can I get there?”

“You don’t even know the guys are there,” Ramsey says.

I shake my head, feeling utterly defeated. “I was a fool to think I could outrun Death. Of course he has them.”

“Look,” Cathy says in that no-nonsense tone she is known for. “I get that this is all a big wake-up call, and you’re pissed off. With every right. What Josh and Ramsey have said is true, though. You weren’t ready. You had nothing to lose and everything to gain by working for The Syndicate. But here is a fun fact, Ivy. Your parents were killed by The Syndicate. That’s right. They killed your parents to get to you . The poor little orphan girl with so much latent power, she could blow up universes. So listen up. You have two choices. Stick your head back in the sand and be a na?ve little girl or pull your big girl knickers up and face the truth as we have given it to you.”

I stare at her, my mouth open at her blunt, harsh, painful words. The pink energy around me pulses and crackles, responding to the turmoil of emotions raging inside me.

“You’re lying,” I whisper, but deep down, I know she’s not. It makes a sick kind of sense, explaining so much about my life that I’ve never understood.

“I’m sorry, Ivy,” Cathy says, her voice softening slightly. “But it’s the truth. The Syndicate has been manipulating you from the start. If I had known what you were up to, I would have tried to stop you, but it was too late when I found out. You were in too deep, and I know that nothing I could’ve said would have mattered… except to push you further to them.”

I close my eyes, trying to process this new information. Everything I thought I knew about my life, about my purpose, has been a lie.

“I’m going to find my guys,” I declare suddenly, eyes snapping open. “And then I’m going to take down Death and The Syndicate. Not because you want me to, but because they’ve fucked with my life for the last time. But I need to know one thing. What happens when Death, as he is now, is defeated? What then? Who takes over? Are we going to end up in a similar situation?”

“That’s the thing,” Josh says, shaking his head. “We don’t know.”

Rolling my eyes, I mutter, “Great, just great.”