Torn Ivy (Thornfield Supernatural Academy #2)

28. Tate

28

TATE

I watch Ivy carefully as she considers her aunt’s words. There’s a fire in her eyes, but there’s something else, too, a flicker of uncertainty.

“Cathy,” Ivy says slowly, “I get that you want to fight. But we can’t just charge in guns blazing. These aren’t normal enemies.”

“They seemed pretty vulnerable to my prototype,” Cathy argues, patting her weapon.

“For about five seconds,” I grit out, feeling a bit sweaty and unstable. “Then they started regenerating. We need a better plan.”

Ivy nods, her brow furrowed in thought. I can practically see the wheels turning in her mind, weighing options and possibilities. This is what makes her so unique in the ring. She truly does think outside the box.

“What if...” she starts, then pauses, chewing her lip. “What if we fall back on the original plan and use their own perfection against them?”

Bram raises an eyebrow. “That was all well and good in theory, but you got anything concrete?”

“They’re creatures of pure order, right? No chaos, no variation. Everything has to be just right.” Ivy’s eyes light up as the idea takes shape. “So what happens if we introduce a little disorder into their perfect system? Like Cathy’s weapon, but on a more severe scale.”

I catch on to where she’s going. “Overload them with chaos?”

“Exactly,” Ivy says, her eyes gleaming with that slightly unhinged look I’ve come to love and fear. “We don’t just introduce a little chaos. We flood their system with it.”

“And how exactly do we do that?” Torin asks sceptically.

Ivy’s grin widens. “We use me. Or, more specifically, my magick. Those beings are pure order. The antithesis of everything I represent. So, what if we turn that up to eleven?”

I feel a chill run down to my soul. “Ivy, your power is already incredibly volatile. Pushing it further could be dangerous.”

“For them or for me?” she challenges.

“Both,” I say firmly.

Bram nods in agreement. “He’s right, Ivy. We don’t know what channelling that much chaos could do to you.”

“I do,” Cathy interjects, her expression grim. “Or at least, I have an idea. The Resistance has been studying what we could of chaos magick for years. Trying to understand its potential and its limits.”

Ivy turns to her aunt, curiosity evident. “And?”

Cathy sighs. “We’ve been through this, Ivy, already. You will be torn apart. It will literally unmake you at a molecular level.”

I feel my heart clench at the thought. “Absolutely not,” I growl. “We’re not risking Ivy like that. There has to be another way.”

Ivy’s eyes flash with determination. “What if we combine approaches? Use Cathy’s weapon to destabilise them, then hit them with a controlled burst of chaos magick?”

“Define ‘controlled,’” Torin asks, eyes narrowed.

“That’s where you guys come in,” Ivy explains. “Tate, you anchor me. Bram, your shadows can help contain the blast radius. Torin, your vampire nature gives you a unique perspective on the balance between life and death. You can help me fine-tune the chaos.”

I want to argue, to insist it’s too dangerous. But I see the resolve in Ivy’s eyes and know this is a battle I won’t win. Instead, I nod grimly. “Fine. But at the first sign of trouble, we pull the plug. Your life isn’t worth sacrificing.”

“Agreed,” Bram says firmly.

Cathy looks between us, her expression unreadable. Finally, she sighs. “It’s risky as fuck, but it might just work. Those beings rely on perfect order. A targeted burst of chaos could shatter their cohesion.”

“So, we have a plan,” Ivy says, a fierce grin spreading across her face. “Now we just need to draw them out.”

“How do you propose we do that?” Torin asks.

“We give them what they are after,” Cathy replies. “Me.”

“No,” Ivy says, shaking her head. “We give them me.”

“No,” Cathy echoes. “We give them me. This part isn’t about you. They want me out of the picture.”

I narrow my eyes as I take in this exchange. There is something Cathy isn’t saying. “Why?” I ask.

Cathy shrugs. “Because I’m Ivy’s aunt, because I work for the resistance? Who knows? Take your pick?”

Bram nods slowly. “It could work. We lure them in, thinking they’ve got you cornered, then spring the trap.”

“I don’t like it,” I growl.

“Me either,” Ivy protests.

Cathy checks her weapon, a grim smile on her face. “Well, tough shit. Decision made. Bram? Take us back?”

He looks at Ivy for confirmation.

She nods slowly, and I groan. This is going to end in disaster. We aren’t ready for this.

Bram creates a shadow portal, and we jump through, landing in Cathy’s back garden again, hidden behind some big bushes.

I watch uneasily as Cathy strides confidently into the middle of the grass, her weapon held at the ready. The rest of us are hidden, poised to spring our trap.

“Here I am, you symmetrical freaks!” Cathy shouts. “Come and get me!”

For a long moment, nothing happens. The garden is eerily silent, not even a breeze rustling the leaves. Then reality ripples and two of those perfect beings step through, their movements unnaturally fluid.

“Catherine Hammond,” they intone in unison. “You will be eliminated to preserve the natural order.”

Cathy snorts. “Natural order my arse. You lot wouldn’t know natural if it bit you on your perfectly sculpted backsides.”

She raises her weapon and fires. The blast hits the beings square in the chest, causing them to flicker and distort. But just like before, they begin to reorganise almost immediately, impossible flowers blooming from the cracks in their forms.

“Now!” Ivy shouts.

We burst from our hiding places. Bram’s shadows lunge forward, creating a barrier to contain the chaos that’s about to be unleashed. I grab Ivy’s hand, channelling my magick to help anchor her to the here and now. Torin moves in next to Ivy and places his hand on the back of her neck. I feel her shiver at his touch.

Ivy’s eyes blaze with purple fire as she coils the magick deep inside her. Static forms around us, sending our hair standing on end.

I watch with a bad feeling in my soul as Ivy gathers her power, purple energy crackling around her. She takes a deep breath and unleashes her magick. Raw chaos erupts from her in a swirling vortex of purple and black energy. It slams into the perfect beings with devastating force.

For a moment, nothing seems to happen. The beings stand motionless, absorbing the chaotic energy. Then cracks form in their perfect symmetry. Tiny fissures that spread and multiply.

“It’s working,” Cathy murmurs.

But something’s wrong. I can feel it through our connection. Ivy’s power isn’t just affecting the beings, it’s tearing at the fabric of reality.

“Ivy!” I yell. “Pull it back! It’s too much!”

She doesn’t seem to hear me. Her eyes are distant, lost in the flow of pure chaos.

The perfect beings are coming apart now, their forms dissolving into swirling patterns of impossibly ordered chaos. But reality is fracturing around us. I see glimpses of other realms through the cracks - places that shouldn’t exist in our world.

“Bram!” I shout. “We need to contain this!”

His shadows strain against the onslaught of chaos, barely holding it back. “I’m trying!” Bram grits out. “But it’s too much!”

Torin’s eyes are wide with panic. “We need to stop her!”

I try to reach Ivy through our connection, but it’s like trying to grasp smoke. Her consciousness is lost in the swirling vortex of chaos magick.

“Ivy!” I yell again, desperation clawing at my throat. “Come back to us!”

For a heartbeat, I see recognition flicker in her eyes. Then she screams. A sound of pure agony that chills me to my core. Purple energy explodes outward, shattering Bram’s shadow barrier.

The perfect beings dissolve completely, their ordered perfection torn apart by raw chaos. But the vortex doesn’t stop. It keeps growing, reality fracturing further with each passing second.

“No!” Cathy shouts. She aims her weapon at Ivy, her finger on the trigger.

I move without thinking, tackling her to the ground. “Are you insane?” I snarl. “You could kill her!”

“She is dead anyway if we don’t do something!”

She’s right. The chaos is spreading, consuming everything in its path. Trees warp and twist into impossible shapes. The ground beneath our feet ruptures, sending clumps of dirt high into the air, but Ivy is my main focus. Ivy is suspended in the heart of the chaos vortex, her body arching in agony as reality fractures around her. Purple energy courses through her veins, visible beneath her skin like lightning. She’s being torn apart at a molecular level, just as Cathy warned.

“Hold on!” I scream, fighting against the turbulence to reach her. My anchor magick strains against the pure havoc, trying to ground her, to give her something to hold onto.

Bram’s shadows dance wildly, attempting to contain the destruction even as they’re shredded by the raw power. “We’re losing her!” he shouts over the roar of reality coming apart.

Torin grips her by her shoulders roughly, shaking her. “Her life force is fragmenting!” he calls out. “The chaos is unmaking her!”

I watch in horror as Ivy’s form blurs at the edges, coming apart like a photograph dissolving in acid. Purple light blazes from her eyes and mouth as she screams again. It’s a sound that tears at the fabric of existence itself.

“Ivy!” I push forward, fighting against the maelstrom with everything I have. My magick wraps around her like dark chains of pure order, trying to hold her together. But it’s not enough. The chaos is too strong, too primal.

Through our connection, I feel her consciousness fragmenting.

“Fight it!” I bellow, pouring more power into our link. “Remember who you are! Remember us!”

But the chaos is winning. I watch in despair as pieces of Ivy literally tear away. Fragments of her being scatter across dimensions we were never meant to see. Her body flickers like a bad transmission, existing in multiple states at once.

Cathy’s voice cuts through the mayhem as she steps up next to me and holds out the laser gun. “Here.”

“No! I can’t!” I shove my hands into my hair as I stare between the gun and Ivy. “I can’t!”

“Do it!” Torin roars. “She is as good as dead if you don’t!”

With a shaking hand, I take the laser gun and aim it at Ivy, panic and fear ripping through me with an overdose of guilt.

“I’m sorry. I love you.” I pull the trigger and watch, feeling sick to my stomach as the laser hits her and disrupts her aura, shattering it completely. “No!” Grief bears down on me, forcing me to my knees as she falls. Torin is holding her up like a macabre puppet, a sickened shock on his face.

The chaos vortex contracts, drawing back into Ivy like water down a drain. Reality knits itself back together, though everything feels slightly askew - as if the world has been broken and put back together imperfectly.

Finally, the last of the purple energy fades.

She’s barely recognisable. Parts of her keep shifting between states of existence, never quite settling into one reality. Her skin is translucent in places, showing the chaos still coursing through her veins.

“We were too late. She’s been torn apart at the quantum level. This is exactly what I was afraid of.”

“Can we fix her?” I demand, my voice cracking.

Bram moves closer, almost robotically. “She exists in multiple dimensions now. Parts of her scattered across realities we can’t even comprehend.”

I take Ivy’s limp hand and press it to my lips. “We’ll fix this. I promise. We’ll find a way to bring you back.”

But looking at what’s left of the woman I love, I wonder if some things can’t be fixed. If sometimes the price of power is too high to ever truly come back from.

The perfect beings may be destroyed, but they’ve taken Ivy with them. Torn her apart in ways that might be impossible to repair.