Torn Ivy (Thornfield Supernatural Academy #2)

21. Ivy

21

IVY

The streets shimmer with untapped potential as I walk, each step leaving diamond-like footprints that fade to stardust. My power hasn’t just evolved in the last few minutes, it’s become something entirely new, something that doesn’t play by the old rules. But that’s exactly what I need right now.

First things first: intelligence gathering.

“Show me,” I whisper to the Thornfield campus, which is covered in a hazy mist that has nothing to do with the weather. My power responds. The magick spreads through the concrete beneath my feet, creating a web of awareness. I can feel five distinct signatures of wrongness moving through the shadows. The Wraiths are already here, positioning themselves.

They’re good, I’ll give them that. But I’m better. Because while they’re watching me, waiting for me to make a move toward Cathy, they don’t realise that I know exactly where they are.

My power isn’t just chaos anymore, and evolution, by definition, adapts.

I find a quiet spot on the campus, around the back of the main building, and lean against the wall, closing my eyes. Magick spirals out from me in all directions, carrying my consciousness with it. I can feel every rat in every sewer, every spider spinning its web, every cockroach scuttling through the walls. Life, in all its forms, ready to be adjusted.

The Syndicate thinks they know what I can do, but they haven’t seen anything yet. Yes, this will out me in a big way, but who cares? If I’m being honest with myself, I think Ramsey is wrong, and they know everything already.

They’re trying to scare me with their countdown, their threats, their elite kill squad. But they’ve forgotten something about me, or maybe it’s something they never knew in the first place. I’m not just fighting for myself anymore. This isn’t about loyalty to The Syndicate versus love for my aunt, which, let’s face it, is thin on the ground. But family is family and all that bullshit.

This is about advancement versus stagnation. Change versus control. The future versus the past.

And I know which side I’m on.

My power ripples again, but this time, I direct it with a single thought. Every insect, every rodent, every tiny life form on the campus becomes an extension of my awareness. I can feel the Wraiths moving and can track their progress through the gaps in reality they think no one else can see.

Come on, you fuckers. You are blind, and you don’t even know it.

Lightning crawls across the sky as I push away from the wall, my power humming with deadly purpose. Time to show them that they picked a fight with the wrong girl.

In nature, it’s not the strongest that survive, it’s those most responsive to change, and change has never been a problem for me. Only this time, it’s not just my face or my name… it’s everything.

I move through campus like a ghost, my power rippling reality around me. The Wraiths think they’re hunting me, but they have no idea they’ve just become the prey.

I spot Echo first, her energy signature a discordant note in the symphony of life around us. She’s perched on a rooftop, eyes scanning the grounds below. Time to make my first move.

With a thought, I send a swarm of moths spiralling towards her, infusing them with chaos. As they near Echo, their wings glow with eerie purple light.

Echo notices too late. The moths explode in a burst of chaotic energy, momentarily blinding her. In that instant of distraction, I’m there, moving myself through time and space with something that sings witch power to me.

She whirls, hands already weaving some dark spell, but I’m faster. My power lashes out, wrapping around her like living vines. They sink into her skin, injecting havoc directly into her system.

Echo’s eyes go wide as she feels my magick invading her. “What are you?” she gasps.

I smile, letting a bit of Poison show through. “Something you wouldn’t understand even if I explained it with crayons. You are now obsolete.”

With a twist of my will, I shatter Echo’s connection to her own power. She screams as it tears away from her, leaving her drained and powerless.

Echo collapses, her body convulsing as my frenzied energy ravages her system.

One down, four to go.

I grin. This is the most fun I’ve had on the job in a while. But I don’t have time to revel in this small victory. Already, I can sense the other Wraiths converging on my location, drawn by Echo’s scream. Good. Let them come.

Shade materialises from the shadows first, his form rippling like sentient darkness. “What have you done?” he snarls, seeing Echo’s prone form.

“Eradication of the weakest,” I reply, letting my power flare around me. The air shimmers with the stench of ozone.

Shade doesn’t waste time with words. Tendrils of shadow lash out, aiming to flay the skin from my bones. But my magick is faster, transmuting the darkness into butterflies that dissolve into mist.

His eyes widen in shock. “Impossible.”

I smile, feeling the chaos sing through my veins. “You have no idea what you’re fighting.”

With a thought, I send a wave of mutated insects swarming towards him. Each one carries a spark of my magick, ready to explode on contact. Shade tries to disperse into shadow, but my power is already there, infecting the darkness itself.

He screams as the madness invades him, twisting his essence. I watch dispassionately as his form unravels, scattering into wisps of tainted shadow that dissipates on the wind.

Two down.

A whisper of sound is my only warning before Silence appears behind me, their hands already reaching for my throat. But I’m not there anymore. My power surges, shifting me through space in a burst of purple energy.

I reappear behind Silence, lightning flickering between my fingers. “Nice try,” I taunt. “But you’ll have to be faster than that.”

Silence whirls, their eyes widening as they take in my transformed state. They open their mouth, but no sound comes out. Instead, I feel a pressure building in the air around us, like reality is being compressed.

With a thought, I shatter the silence they’re trying to impose. The pressure explodes outward in a wave of sound that shatters windows and sends Silence stumbling back.

Before they can recover, I’m on them. My hands clamp down on either side of their head, and I pour anarchy directly into their mind. Silence screams, a grating noise like nails down a chalkboard, as my power overloads their senses.

They collapse, their power broken, and their mind shattered.

The air grows thick with the stench of decay as Grave approaches. Rotting vegetation sprouts from the ground with each step he takes.

“Impressive,” he rasps. “But can you take two of us at once?”

I step back as Whisper moves into view, and I smile coldly as they approach. “Two against one? Hardly seems fair.” My power crackles around me, reality warping in its wake. “For you.”

Grave’s eyes narrow. “Arrogant little bitch. Let’s see how cocky you are when your flesh is rotting off your bones.”

He raises his hands, dark energy swirling around them. The greenery around campus withers and decays. But before the effect can reach me, I twist reality around myself, creating a bubble where his power can’t touch me.

“Impossible,” Grave snarls.

“If by that you mean possible , then yes.”

Whisper doesn’t waste time with words. I feel the pressure of his power trying to invade my mind, to trap me in a loop of my worst fears. But my evolved magick shrugs it off like water off a duck’s back.

I lash out with twin tendrils of power, one for each of them. Grave tries to counter with a wave of decay, but my magick simply absorbs it, growing stronger. Whisper attempts to retreat into the shadows, but I’m there waiting for him. I flood his system with pure chaos, overloading his ability to manipulate fears.

Grave roars in frustration as his power fails to affect me. He charges forward, hands outstretched to touch me directly. But I’m no longer there. I blink behind him, my power coalescing into a physical form.

“You want decay?” I snarl. “I’ll show you decay.”

With a single slash, I sever Grave’s connection to his power. He screams as his own abilities turn inward, his body beginning to rot from the inside out.

Whisper, realising he’s outmatched, turns to flee. But my power is everywhere now, infused into the fabric of reality around us. There’s nowhere for him to run.

I reach out with my mind, grasping the threads of his consciousness. With a vicious twist, I shred his psyche, leaving him a drooling husk.

The campus below carries on as if nothing has happened while I stand on the rooftop in the centre of destruction. My power hums contentedly, having feasted on their abilities. I can feel their stolen magick integrating with my own, making me stronger.

“Still want to ask me to kill my aunt?” I call out. “If the answer is ‘yes’, then you’re next in line. Choose wisely.”

I run and leap off the top of the building. Holding my arms out as I plummet to the ground, for a moment, lost in the beauty of flight, my feet hit the ground, knees bent, and the earth cracks under the pressure. I straighten up with a wicked smile.

In the moment that follows, I know I’ve lost myself. I’ve been torn apart, and I don’t know if I can ever be put back together again.

But maybe I don’t want to be.