★†★

Bring on the fire and bring on the storm

Burn down the bridge and tear down the wall

★†★

I race to the school library, I don't think I have ever ran as fast to the library as I did today. Luckily no one is here, Mr Groff and the other students are preparing for Homecoming, still trying to wrap my head around what's going to happen tonight with Roman taking Penelope and Nate and Jessica. I don't know why I'm thinking about this, it is not as if I'm jealous...... Or maybe I am because they seem to be okay with me not being around them.

I sneak to the restriction section, my hand automatically reach for Professor Holme's romance book. I didn't get to read it last time, am definitely reading it today, right here right now. I'm not big on romance but I need to know if my Chemistry and my portion Teacher is a smut expert.

I open the book and the first I see is dedication, it's dedicated to 'George Holme' His father perhaps. Directly under the name is a spell.

"Ha ha!" I tap my hand on the spell. "I knew it, a fucking spell book," I knew the school won't be stupid enough to keep romance novel in the library unless it's just a camouflage for the real reason, which is a spell book.

I move the book closer to see the spell. What is the worse thing that can happen? I know I shouldn't be playing around with spells especially when I don't know what it means but I still need to know.

"Htiw siht koob si nepo eht yaw," I say and wait for something to happen, I look around but nothing happens.

I frown and close the book. "It's pointless," I sigh and return the book to it's place.

I bite the inside of my mouth and turn away, so much for my theory. I stop when I hear a scraping sound behind me.

I turn around to see the true meaning of magic. The novels shifts from there respective places, shifting backward, creating a new empty space. I watch as the book rearrange with my mouth opened.

Behind the display of magic is a door. I walk closer and stop infront of the door and bite my lips. I don't know what's behind that door but I want to open it.

My gut tells me to open, so I'm going to open. I place my hand on the doorknob and push it, I close my eyes and step into the place. I open my eyes to see a staircase, I sigh and take the stairs down.

It's like a basement no one knew was here, obviously someone does because as I take steps down I notice the lights on and it doesn't look abandoned.

Almost down the stairs as I trip and fall with a loud thud, I groan. "I think I broke something," I mutter as I keep my head down.

"It's gonna take a lot more than falling for you to break something," A familiar voice says.

I raise my head to see Damien laying down on the floor, his legs are crossed, his left hand his covering his eyes. How the hell did he know it was me? Maybe he remembered my voice.

I haven't been seeing this guy and after our first introduction this morning, I don't think we are familiar enough to be seeing each other like this.

I watch as he removes his hand from his eyes and stand up, he didn't bother to dust his jeans, the floor is cemented and I can feel sands on my hand and face.

He walks to me and stands over me, he offers me his hand. Handsome and a gentleman, I swear am going to marry this guys. Am not kidding.

I take his hand and gasp. Flashes of swords, Damien swinging a sword, him using it to cut people, finds their way into my head.

I remove my hand from his and jump up. "What's wrong?" He asks, concern shows in his voice.

I shake my head to shake the memory off, I tuck my hair behind my hair and sigh. "Am not sure but I just saw a flash of you cutting someone," I hesitate before continuing. "The vision was specific, I only saw you swinging a sword," I explain.

He places his hands in his pocket and stands in front of me. "You can sense people's emotion by just touching them," He comments. "Impressive," If he is impressed he didn't show.

I raise an eyebrow in question. "What do you mean by that?" I ask curiously.

He shrugs. "You are a part witch and part-" He shakes his head to cut himself from talking.

"What?" I press. "What were you going to say, Part what?"

He shakes his head.

I shake my head in disbelief. "You can't do that to me too, everyone around me is lying to me, all I ask is that someone tell me what's happening, why can't-" I stop talking when I notice my hand burning up, like real fire burn.

I turn my palm to my face to see the burning R sign on my palm, only this time this really burning my skin, it stings.

I'm having a hard time breathing. "What's going on with-" I feel the pain on my neck, I groan and fall on the floor and remove my jacket.

Damien quickly rush to my beside, holding me. "Hey breathe," He tries to calm me but I notice he isn't moving just staring at my body.

I scream out loud when I feel the burn on my back, I quickly remove my shirt not caring about his gender status, at least am putting on a bra.

"What's happening to you?" He asks in concern.

"You think I kno-" I scream when I feel the sting on my hand, I take a look to see a strange lines appearing from my shoulder to my wrist.

It's like I'm burning alive from my inside. My eyes flutter as I take a deep breath and open my mouth to scream.

Damien pulls me into his arm, giving me a comforting hug as well as keeping me from screaming in agony.

His hands rubs circles on my bare back. "I have a way for the pain to go away," He says softly.

I nod because I don't think I can make out anything sensible. "The Headmaster told me you have an incantation you say whenever you want to channel your power," He says and I nod. "I want you to say it."

I shake my head. "I can't," I refuse because the last time I utter those words, I almost killed an entire school, am not doing it again.

He takes my face in his hands and say. "You don't have to be afraid of the words, Raven. They are just words and they are harmless, say the word and I'll be here to help you focus," He tells me sincerely.

I don't know what it is with him but I believe him, when Roman was with me after my scream woke the whole school, my mind was at rest but I wasn't in peace, but with Damien, I can't explain it. I thought I had a connection with Roman but the connection I have with Damien is deeper and stronger, and it's crazy because I just met him today, I feel like I can be myself around him, like he is my person.

I nod, he nods and pulls me into his arms. "Say it Raven, say it!"

I close my eyes as the pain reach my bone. "Lurytendra Azra Bycom." I say and instead of the pain to cease, it becomes more painful and unbearable. I try to move out of his arms but he won't bulge, keeping me trapped.

"Ere eketa engji ya va Ulrik El Noe El, Camille Raven Stark," He whispers and tighten his arms around me.

Slowly the pain reduce till I feel nothing, I take a deep breath and look up to see Damien groaning with his eyes shut, he looks like he is in pain. "Damien," I call out his name and he doesn't answer. I gape at his face. What's happening. I remember Dean using that spell to bring me back when I lost control at WestHigh but he wasn't affected like this. Damien seems like he is in pain.

I use all my strength to pull away from him when I notice the black line forming on his neck. "Damien! What's going on with you?" I push his shoulder.

He takes a sharp breath and opens his eyes, he tilts his head to his side and the lines disappears. He closes his eyes as he swallows.

"Are you okay, are you still feeling any pain?" He asks in concern.

I nod my head. "Am fine, what about you, are you okay? What's with the lines on your neck?" I ask curiously.

He shrugs. "Nothing," He shut off.

I shake my head and scoot closer. "It's not nothing, you were in pain, what happened?"

He sighs. "I took your pain," He answers.

My mouth drops open. "What?"

"You were in so much pain, I had to do something," He says.

I can't believe I'm hearing this. I don't say anything as I move closer to him and wrap my arms around him. "Nobody has ever done that for me, thank you very much," I say sincerely and notice that he is not hugging me back.

"It's okay, it's nothing," He pulls away from me and stand up.

I notice the markings are still on my body. "Do you know what these are?" I ask as I get up from the ground.

Damien moves closer to me and inspect my body as he walks around me in circles. "No-" He hesitates before continuing. "But there is a diagram of a raven on your back, the burn healed up to form a tattoo on your back," He says.

"Do you think you can tell me how they are connected?" I ask because I can't see my back.

He sighs. "The bird is in your upper back, the wings are what spreads to your shoulder and the arrows are pointing toward the line on your wrist and the raven on your hand," He stops and adds. "I don't what they mean, we'll figure it out, right now," He bends down to pick my shirt and jacket. "Get dress and let me take you on a tour of this place," He offers.

That's right, this place, I was too busy to actually stop to think about this place. "What is this place exactly?" I actually curiously as I pull my shirt over my head down. I have always wanted to have a tattoo and now I have a burnt body that looks like an alien marking. It's weird because before they don't appear on my body except the burning R symbol on my palm and it never hurt me, now they aren't going away.

"It's a museum," He informs me.

I raise an eyebrow up and take a good look around the place. "A museum or an underground antique store?"

He chuckles softly and quickly change his expression to his normal hard and scary one. "It's a place where all the dark objects and spell books for black magic are kept," He explains.

"Not to be nosy but how did you get in here?"

He shrugs. "You are always nosy, how did you think I get in here?"

I shrug. "You saw the spell in Professor Holme's romance novel, duh."

He stops walks and turns back. "You mean The Demon and The witch?" He asks. I nod. "Did you read it?"

I shake my head. "No, why?"

He swears under his breath. "Because if you did you'd know that there no spell in that book, it's just a normal romance novel," He tells me.

"But I saw the spell and I said it and suddenly this door appear, I opened it and I landed here," I explain to him.

"Someone or something wanted you here," He says and looks around in alert. "What happened to you today, has it ever happened before?" He demands.

"Any time I use magic the one on my palm show and it always fades away minutes after using magic, it stopped after I escaped the Chambre de Chasse Dean put us in and today it's all over my body." I explain.

"What do you do to reduce the pain?"

"Today is the first day am feeling the pain."

He nods. "Come on, stay close and don't do anything thing silly."

I stand still and salute him. "Aye aye captain," I joke.

★†★

Now I know why Damien called it a museum, the place literally represents everything dark, I have seen things in my life, I have never seen anything like the things in this place.

A dagger that doesn't need to touch the skin before it pierce through, all it needs is shadow. A sculpture that trips souls. A pen that has a power to destroy someone or thing only by writing the person's name.

I stop at a particular exhibit, it's a book, a very big book with the title that reads; There are many Eric in this world but the first sentence of the book reads; . I knew it was Eric, Theo didn't show me the rest of their lives but I know Eric wasn't a bad person.

"What's wrong?" Damien must have notice my change of mood, I went from commenting each object to moody.

"This is wrong," I say while staring at the book.

"You don't agree that Eric Stark is a world destroyer? How do you even know about him?"

I shrug. "I don't know him but I know it's a lie, call it a Cami thing," I sigh and move on to the next object.

I stop to look at it again. "That sword," I whisper. "I have seen it before but I can't remember where," Let me see where, I don't see movies much and I don't remember the details whenever I see them, maybe in a movie, a comic or somewhere but it's this particular sword.

He tense up and stand still beside me. "I guess we found what wanted you here," He says.

★†★

💗,Milia.