The Psychic

Chapter 5

The others slept, their steady breaths a fragile calm in the tense night. I couldn't sleep. The restless power inside me twisted and churned like a storm trapped beneath my skin, wild and unpredictable.

Jace shifted beside me, his quiet presence steady, eyes sharp and watchful. No words, just a silent promise: I've got you.

I nodded, wordless. Then he stood, motioning for me to follow. We left the mouth of the cave quietly, stepping past Sarah and Blessing curled in their cloaks near the fire. We hadn't wanted to wake them. We only meant to scout ahead, maybe a short walk to clear our thoughts. But the forest had different plans.

The cold bit deeper the farther we walked. The silver trees leaned over the narrow path, glowing vines twitching like they sensed something too.

Our steps were careful but urgent, the prophecy's weight pressing down with every heartbeat.

Then a sharp c***k splintered the silence.

The growl echoed again, low and dangerous, shaking the air around us.

"Ruby," Jace hissed, stepping in front of me, his body taut like a coiled spring. "Behind me. Now."

My breath hitched, heart pounding as I stumbled back. Jace was the only one with a weapon, a dagger sharp enough to cut through more than just shadows. We'd left too quickly. No torch. No map. Just the cursed book in my hands and the boy trying to keep me alive.

I clung to the book like a lifeline, but something deeper churned inside me. A restless pull beneath my ribs, like a storm breaking loose. It scared me because I didn't understand it.

Not yet.

The shadows surged forward, flickering shapes with clawed limbs and gaping, inhuman mouths. Their snarls tore through the night. Jace moved fast, striking with brutal efficiency. His blade caught the moonlight, slashing through shadowed forms with protective, practiced force.

I stayed back like he told me, useless but trying not to panic. The strange energy inside me tightened, humming with pressure. My fingers tingled. My vision blurred. The forest felt wrong. Warped, like it was breathing with me, or through me.

One shadow lunged straight at me.

I ducked, barely dodging, its claws swiping close enough to graze my braid. A scream tore from my throat.

"Ruby!" Jace's voice snapped through the chaos. "Stay behind me! Don't try anything. Not yet!"

I nodded. Tried to atleast, but I couldn't shake the feeling that something inside me was unraveling. Like the pressure building had no place left to go.

The battle raged. Jace fought like he was born for it. His jaw clenched, eyes blazing, every move meant to protect me. But the shadows didn't tire. They came faster. Closer.

Then the next one didn't come alone.

It moved like lightning. Too fast.

"Jace!" I screamed as it lunged.

He turned just in time to block the first claw, but the second tore through his shoulder with a sickening crunch. Blood sprayed across the trees. His body slammed into the ground with a thud that rattled my bones.

"JACE!"

I dropped the book and ran to him, sliding to my knees. "No no no-" My hands hovered uselessly over his wound, already blooming red and soaking through his shirt. "You're bleeding- You're- Omg, You're-"

His eyes found mine through the pain, glassy but burning with focus. "Stay... back," he rasped. "Don't... let them get... you."

"No! I'm not leaving you!" My voice broke into a sob. I pressed my hands to his shoulder, trying to stop the bleeding, but the gash was deep and jagged, muscle torn open like paper. His blood was warm. Too warm. My fingers were already slick with it.

I could barely breathe.

Something inside me snapped.

A scream built in my chest. Part terror, part fury... and when it broke loose, it wasn't just sound.

It was power.

Raw, howling, electric power that ripped through my body like a lightning strike. The ground shuddered. The trees bowed back. The air exploded outward in a pulse of blinding light.

The shadows shrieked.

A dozen of them were flung into the air like rag dolls, smashing into trees and disappearing in bursts of smoke. The forest howled with me, branches cracking and vines lashing out, as if the world itself answered my rage.

The magic had no shape. No control. Just raw devastation.

I didn't know what I'd done.

I didn't care.

I crawled back to Jace, who groaned as I cupped his cheek with trembling hands. "Stay with me," I whispered, voice cracking. "Please, please don't you dare close your eyes."

He blinked slowly, blood on his lips. "You... that was you?"

I couldn't answer.

The power still thrummed inside me, alive and unstable, but all I saw was him. Hurt and pale and bleeding because I hadn't acted sooner.

I pressed my forehead to his. "I didn't know I could do that. I didn't know... but I will never let anything touch you again."

Behind us, I heard footsteps. Fast. Sarah's voice, distant but growing closer. Blessing calling my name.

Too late, I thought. Too damn late.

But I didn't move.

I stayed curled beside Jace, his blood staining my hands, while the power simmered like fire under my skin, waiting.

"Ruby!" Blessing's voice broke through the crackling silence, sharp and frightened.

I barely looked up. Jace's blood was still warm on my hands, seeping through my fingers, refusing to stop. His chest rose and fell in shallow, uneven breaths, and each one felt like a thread slipping through my grasp.

Footsteps thundered behind me. Sarah dropped to her knees beside us, eyes wide with horror. "What happened-?"

"Get something- cloth- anything!" I choked out. "He's bleeding too fast- he's-"

Blessing tore off her cloak, pressing it to Jace's wound, but I barely felt it. My focus narrowed to his face. His pale skin, the sweat beading along his brow, the way his jaw clenched even now, trying to stay conscious for me.

"I have to stop it," I whispered, my voice breaking. "I have to fix this-"

"Ruby-" Sarah tried to pull me back, but I shook her off.

"Don't touch me," I snapped. Not out of anger, out of desperation.

My hands hovered over the wound. My fingers still tingled. The pulse of whatever power had exploded out of me minutes ago now curled beneath my skin like smoke waiting to reignite. I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know how to heal anyone.

But I couldn't lose him.

"Please," I whispered, not even sure who I was begging. "Help me help him."

The forest around us had fallen completely silent. No shadows moved. Even the wind seemed to hold its breath.

I closed my eyes, trembling.

My blood knew his. My magic had reacted because he was in danger. Maybe it would answer me now because he was dying.

I let the power rise again. Not in a scream this time, not in a storm, but in something gentler. Something deeper. I placed my hands over his wound and pushed everything I felt into that space: fear, pain, guilt, love. The need to save him.

Light sparked beneath my palms faint, golden, trembling.

Sarah gasped.

I didn't stop.

The warmth spread through my fingers, into his torn flesh. The blood slowed. The shaking eased. His breathing began to even out, barely, but enough.

Come on. Please. Please don't leave me.

The light pulsed, brightening, wrapping around the wound in threads of heat and shimmer like liquid sun. Jace's body jerked, once, then stilled beneath my touch.

"Ruby!" Blessing clutched my arm. "His bleeding- look!"

I opened my eyes.

The wound wasn't gone but it was smaller. The deepest part had closed. Skin began knitting itself together in slow, hesitant patterns, as if my magic was learning as it moved. The bleeding had nearly stopped.

"Oh my f**k," Sarah breathed.

I didn't stop. I couldn't. I pressed my hands harder, drawing from a place inside me I didn't even know existed-a well of power that didn't burn or rage this time. It glowed. Soft. Steady. Willing.

Jace groaned softly, and his eyes fluttered open.

"Hey," I whispered, tears slipping down my cheeks. "Stay with me. You're okay. You're okay."

He blinked, dazed. "You... did that?"

"I think so."

"You're glowing," he mumbled. "You look terrifying."

A broken laugh tore from my throat, and I leaned down, pressing a kiss to his forehead. "You i***t," I whispered. "Don't you dare scare me like that again."

He let out a half-smile. Pained, weak, but alive.

The light dimmed slowly, fading from my fingertips. The power receded like the tide, leaving me shaky and hollow, but I didn't care.

He was breathing.

He was alive.

And I had done that.

I looked up at Sarah and Blessing. Both were staring at me like I wasn't quite real.

"You... healed him," Sarah said softly, her voice trembling. "Ruby, do you know what that means?"

I didn't. Not really.

But I had a feeling everything had just changed.

For me.

For Jace.

For all of us.

---

The cave had never felt so still.

The fire’s soft crackling was the only sound as I sat cross-legged beside Jace, watching the way his chest rose and fell. He was asleep now, or maybe just drifting between pain and rest. Sarah and Blessing were curled up near the far side, half asleep but still tense, whispering to each other from time to time. They had seen the worst of what happened when we found him, but not the attack itself and I hadn’t told them everything yet. Not yet.

I shifted slightly, brushing some dirt off my hands, but my eyes stayed on Jace. His face was pale, and the faint bruise along his jaw hadn’t faded completely. My chest ached just looking at him.

Then, slowly, his eyes opened.

“You’re still here,” he murmured, his voice scratchy and low.

I gave a soft, relieved laugh. “Of course I am.”

He blinked, staring at the fire for a moment before turning his head to me. “I thought I lost you,” he said. “When it grabbed me... i thought I wouldn’t see you again.”

“You scared the hell out of me, Jace,” I whispered, leaning in closer. “Don’t do that again. Ever.”

He gave a tired smile. “You always save me.”

I froze.

He looked at me, more awake now. “You always save me, Ruby,” he repeated softly. “Ever since I met you. And you don’t even realize it.”

My throat tightened. “Jace…”

“You do,” he insisted, his voice a whisper now, but strong. “You walk into every storm like it won’t touch you. And somehow, I come out of it alive because you were there.”

For a moment, the fire seemed to dim, the shadows wrapping around us like a veil. It felt like we were the only two people in the world.

“I don’t do it on purpose,” I murmured.

He nodded. “I know. That’s what makes it real.”

The air between us hummed with something I couldn’t name. My fingers brushed his, just slightly, and he didn’t pull away.

Then Blessing stirred from the other side of the cave, and the spell broke.

I cleared my throat and turned toward the girls. “There was a creature. A shadow thing- it came out of nowhere. Before I could even shout, it had Jace. I- I used something inside me. I don’t know how, but I fought it off.”

Blessing sat up slowly. “You fought it off?”

“With light,” I said, still unsure. “It just came out of me. Like instinct.”

Sarah's eyes widened. “And it worked?”

I nodded. “Barely. But yeah. It left.”

The girls exchanged a look but said nothing. The silence after felt like respect.

I glanced back at Jace. His eyes were still on me.

I didn’t say it aloud, but in that moment, I realized: I’d keep saving him. Over and over again because I needed him just as much as he believed he needed me.