Chapter 552

My eyes fly open in the real world and I'm instantly in action, as is Jackson – because the shouts here?

God, they're even louder and more panicked than those we heard dreaming.

I leap out of bed, ripping the curtain open, already starting across the room when I stumble over my own feet, my jaw dropping open when I see the sight before me.

Rafe - already across the room - staring helplessly at Jesse's bedside as our cousin sits up in bed, his arms held out in front of him, shouting in his panic as shadows writhe all around him - moving in circles around his arms like snakes, encircling his waist, his torso -

Even wrapping around his neck -

"Holy shit," Jackson whispers behind me, but then he barrels past me over to Jesse's bed, reaching for him.noveldrama

I follow, urging my feet faster, running to Rafe's side as Jackson leaps onto the bed, skidding to a stop in front of Jesse and reaching for him, but not touching him not yet.

"Jesse!" Jackson shouts, "stop screaming!"

Jesse just looks at Jackson like he's insane and keeps going.

"What happened!?" I gasp, grabbing hold of Rafe's arm and looking up into his face.

"I have no idea!" Rafe exclaims, staring at Jesse, looking more confused and at a loss for what to do than I've perhaps ever seen him. "I just - he started screaming and I woke up!"

"Jesse!" Jackson roars, clenching his fist in front of Jesse's face, the Alpha command loud in his voice.

Something about it works, snapping Jesse out of it, and his shout fades.

"What is this," Jackson snarls, menace in his tones, though I know it's not for Jesse - it's for anyone that did this to him - is trying to hurt him -

I wrap my arms around the bulk of Rafe's arm while my brother stands stock straight, terrified, both of us staring at Jesse and Jackson.

"I - I don't know!" Jesse says as the shadows continue to writhe, slow and menacing, all around his limbs, his neck, his hair. I watch them, the serpentine way that they move, trying to figure them out -

And as I search for the beginning and end of them I notice...

My eyes go wide with shock as I realize that the shadows are leaking from Jesse himself - from his pores, and his nose, his mouth, his eyes. Jesse's gaze darts to me when he hears my little gasp before I stop breathing completely, horrified.

“Jesse, pay attention to me," Jackson commands, drawing Jesse's eyes back to him. "Are you in pain? Or are you just scared?"

Jesse takes a moment, panting, his eyes darting from side to side, more shadows puffing out of his mouth with each breath, smokey grey and diaphanous, slipping downward to get caught up in the eddies of his other shadows, which continue to move.

"They're...they don't hurt," he says, the words spilling out of him in a raspy stutter as he - I think - comes to the realization himself.

I feel some of the tension go out of Rafe as Jesse says this and I feel a similar sense of relief rushing through me.

"Jess," Jackson says quietly,

hesitating for only half a second before he reaches forward, putting his hand flat on my cousin's chest But Jackson doesn't look down at his hand, even as the shadows begin to curl curiously around it, licking at his skin like they're... they're testing him, even sniffing him.

Jesse starts to breathe easier, glancing down at Jackson's hand, seeing that he's not hurt either.

"I don't think this is bad, okay?" Jackson says, his voice much calmer now, infusing calm into the whole room. "I think...these shadows are yours." Jesse's eyes go as wide as mine now and we all stare at Jackson, completely shocked.

"What?" Rafe breathes, barely audible.

"I wondered," Jackson murmurs, glancing over at Rafe before returning his eyes to Jesse. "What his magic would be, since his magical affinities are darkness and spirit, heavy on the darkness. I mean, something like this...it makes sense, right?"

We all just stare at him.

Because, I mean...I had forgotten about that completely.

"Why do none of you read the textbooks," Jackson mutters, shaking his head and turning his full attention back to Jesse. "Concentrate on me, Jess, okay?"

Jesse draws in a deep breath,

sucking in some of the shadows

along with it, but he nods shakily to Jackson as he does. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the shadows begin to slow in their rotation and I realize, wide-eyed, that Jackson is right that the shadows are tied to Jesse. As Jesse calms, so do they.

"This happens, okay?" Jackson says, nodding slowly and talking soft, like you would to a scared animal. "It's a magical Burst - your magic all flying

at once because you don't know how to manage it yet. It happened to me all the time when my magic first manifested."

"You - you know what your magic is!?" Jesse gasps, his mouth falling open, shadows sucking in and then tumbling out in a way that makes my stomach turn.