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  “The enchantment is permanent, though,” Gabe stresses. “You need to understand that. If all of you choose to do it, you’ll forever be linked to each other.”

  I gulp. “That’s …” Well, there are no words.

  “It’s a lot to take in,” Emaline agrees, making me wonder if I said my thoughts aloud. “And there are other ways to protect you …” She trails off, and I sense a but.

  “But,” Gabe finishes for her, “a merging enchantment would be the most discreet and best way to not only protect you but protect our boys.”

  “I don’t want to scare you,” Emaline says warily, “but being an elemental enchanter can be very dangerous. And if a hunter has already contacted you …” She shakes her head, sadness masking her expression.

  I’m still not fully sure I understand what a merging enchantment is in the literal sense, but I understand enough to get the basic gist of it—that it’ll protect me and protect the Everettsons, and that it’ll also make me connected to them forever.

  “It’s not like I have to be around them all the time, is it?” I double-check. “I mean, I can go places by myself …? And eventually, when I get older, I can go on and live my life? I’ll just sense them sometimes if there’s a problem.”

  Emaline hesitantly nods. “But you’ll always feel that connection to them.”

  “How strong of a connection?” I wonder.

  “It’s not extremely intense.” Max appears in the doorway with his hands stuffed in his pockets. “But it’s noticeable and can get kind of obnoxious when Easton is being a drama queen and thinks he needs help with everything.”

  “Bro, that’s so not me.” Easton steps up beside him and rolls his eyes. “I’m as chill as a vampire.”

  Vampire? My eyes widen, but no one seems to notice, as if this is all normal. But it probably is to them.

  Max shakes his head. “You’re about as chill as a goddamn pixie jacked up on faerie dust.”

  Easton’s lips part with a comeback, but he trails off when Holden pushes past him, Hunter, Foster, and Porter following. All of them glance at me, yet their expressions are unreadable. Instead of sitting on the sofas, they form a small circle around the room then trade an undecipherable look with each other. No one says anything, though, and finally Easton rolls his eyes.

  “Fine, I guess I’ll be the spokesperson.” He steps forward and dramatically clears his throat. “We discussed things and decided that, while it’s going to be a little weird having a girl in our inner circle, it’s probably best if we do the merging enchantment.” His lips spread into a smirk as he looks directly at me. “Just as long as she doesn’t send an emergency signal through the link every time she sees a mouse or gets a pimple or stupid girlie shit like that.”

  My lips twitch. “Oh, fuck off. I’m sure you’re probably just saying that because you do that crap all the time.”

  His eyes sparkle in delight. “Only when I’m having a really bad hair day. Sometimes it can get complicated looking this fantastic.”

  “He’s not kidding,” Foster says with a hint of a smile. “He spends, like, two hours in the bathroom every morning.”

  Easton glares at him, but the corners of his lips tug upward. “Good to know you become a traitor when you’re trying to impress her.”

  Foster grits his teeth. “I do not.”

  “All right,” Gabe intervenes. “Let’s stop overwhelming Sky.”

  “Yeah right. Look at her.” Easton smirks at me. “She’s totally getting off on this.”

  I narrow my eyes and flip him the middle finger, but he only laughs.

  Emaline sighs. “Good gods, sometimes I question how I’ve managed to stay sane all these years.”

  “Who says you still are?” Gabe mumbles then pulls a whoopsie face when she glares at him.

  But then she smiles and kisses his cheek. “It’s a good thing you love crazy.”

  I have to admit, as strange as they are, watching them interact helps me feel a bit more at ease. Of course, when they all look at me expectantly, waiting for me to agree to do the merging enchantment, all that ease fizzles.

  “So, what do you say, Sky?” Easton asks with a smirk. “You think you have the guts to do the spell or what?”

  Maybe it’s the smirk or the challenge in his tone. Or perhaps I’m still high and drunk and not thinking clearly. Or maybe, deep down, all the years of having to deal with my powers alone has finally gotten to me. Maybe I secretly crave having some sort of connection.

  Or maybe I’ve just lost my damn mind.

  Who the hell knows?

  Whatever the reason, I find myself nodding.

  “All right, yeah, let’s do it,” I say, hoping I’m not making a big mistake.

  They all nod, but some of them appear a bit tense.

  “We should probably warn you that you might pass out,” Foster says. “I know you don’t like that.”

  “No, I don’t.” I internally shudder as I remember passing out earlier and darkness crawling into the crevasses of my mind. “Can you, like, try to wake me up as soon as possible?”

  He nods. “I’ll do my best.”

  “Okay.” I release an unsteady breath. “So, what do I have to do?”

  “We stand in a circle and place our hands in each other’s,” Holden explains, sticking his hands out to his sides.

  The others follow while Emaline and Gabe back up at bit. That makes my nerves go up a notch. My anxiety only doubles as I place my hand in Max’s, who’s standing on my right, and then in Foster’s, who moved to my left.

  “Now what?” I ask, glancing at the six of them.

  “Now close your eyes,” Foster instructs, threading his fingers through mine.

  As I lower my eyelids, I have the strangest thought that maybe this is all a prank. After all, Emaline said her boys like to do that sort of stuff. Then again, I doubt her and Gabe would play along.

  Then, all my doubts go bye-bye, see ya later when a sudden wave of power blazes through me.

  I gasp as I feel all their powers connect and merge with mine. Suddenly, I can feel everything they’re feeling. It’s brief and happens so quickly, but I have to say, some of the shit that’s going on with them is a bit … complicated to deal with.

  I don’t get too stressed out over it, though, because a split-second later, I hear a loud zap, and then I pass out.

  “Skylin, can you hear me?” darkness purrs in my ears.

  “Go away!” I scream. “Leave me alone!”

  “Now, why would we do that?” darkness whispers. “Why would we ignore our queen?”

  “I’m not your queen,” I whisper. “Just go away.”

  “We’re never going away. We’ve waited a long time for you, and we’re not going to stop until you’re ours.”

  The voice is deep and familiar, but I can’t place from where.

  “Who are you?” I whisper.

  “I think you should be asking: who are you …?”

  “Sky, open your eyes.” Foster’s voice cuts through the darkness like a zap of lightning. “Come on; wake up.”

  “This isn’t over yet,” darkness warns. “I’ll be back for you, our queen of darkness.”

  I force my eyelids open, sucking in a sharp breath.

  “Easy,” Foster whispers as he strokes his fingers up and down my back.

  I blink profusely as I peer around, noting I’m in my bedroom, the lights are on, and I’m lying in bed, on my side. Foster is sitting beside me on the edge of the bed with his hand on my back, and he’s wearing a pair of plaid pajama bottoms and a black T-shirt.

  “How long have I been out?” I sit up, rubbing my eyes.

  “A couple of hours.” He watches me guardedly. “I came to check on you a couple of times, but you were pretty out of it.”

  “Oh.” I’m touched he kept his word and tried to wake me up, but what happened while I was asleep has me distracted. “I dreamt of darkness again. It was really pushy, saying… I’m its queen.” I shudder a
t the memory of how delighted darkness sounded about it.

  He considers something while cracking his knuckles against the sides of his legs. “When I was about ten, darkness started really trying to take over my dreams. I think because my powers were developing faster and I was having a hard time controlling them.”

  “Did it ever call you its queen?” I ask then shake my head at myself. “Never mind. Please forget I asked that.”

  He smiles then scoots closer to me, bringing his legs up onto my bed. “Remember what I said in the bushes? It’ll get easier with time, and the dreams will eventually go away when you learn to block the darkness out.”

  “I’ll try to hold on to that, but I’m not going to lie, it makes me not want to go to sleep.”

  “You should probably try, though.” He glances at the alarm clock on the nightstand. “We have to get up for school in only a couple hours.”

  “Shit,” I murmur, flopping back on the pillow. I stare up at the ceiling, trying to process everything that’s happened and everything to come. “I’m nervous about school,” I admit. “I’ve never been good at making friends, and now I have to try to make them in a school full of people with powers.”

  “You won’t be totally alone,” he promises. “East and I will be there.”

  “Yeah, but I’m sure you guys have your own lives and your own friends.”

  “We have a few, but not a ton. And we’ll take care of you.” He lies down beside me and turns his head toward me, a teasing smile playing at his lips. “If we don’t, then we’ll be stuck feeling your social awkwardness all day, and we definitely don’t want to have to deal with that.”

  I playful scowl at him. “Like you guys are any better? I may have only felt what you were feeling for, like, two seconds, but there was some weird shit going on. Honestly, I may not have agreed to do the how merging thing if I knew I was going to feel everyone’s internal drama.”

  “It won’t always be as intense as when we did the merging spell. It just took a lot of strain on our power, so we couldn’t control what we sent out to each other very well. But it’s not always like that.” He muses over something. “My bet, though, is that weird shit you felt came from Porter. I love him and everything, but he’s into some weird stuff.”

  A smile quirks at my lips. “I think it totally was him.” I roll to my side, tucking my hands underneath my cheek. My gaze skims his profile, his full lips, his lightning-blue eyes that are lined with dark, thick eyelashes.

  God, he’s so pretty. No wonder I had a crush on him without even seeing him close up.

  He glances at me, amusement dancing in his eyes. “What?”

  “Nothing.” Shit, did I send my feelings to him?

  Either I didn’t or he lets me off the hook as he silently stares up at the ceiling again.

  “Are you going to sleep in here?” I wonder when he makes no move to leave.

  He casts a glance at me. “I was going to until you fell asleep, unless you want me to leave.”

  Part of me does. Part of me doesn’t.

  All of me is confused.

  Maybe that’s why I say, “Yeah, sure. Stay. But if you hear me murmuring in my sleep about darkness, promise you’ll wake me up.”

  He nods, then tentatively, he reaches out and tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. “I promise I will.”

  My stomach flutters. Actually fucking flutters like I ate a bunch of butterflies or something, which is really gross when I think about it. Eating butterflies, I mean. And makes me very stupid for reacting to his touch this way.

  What is wrong with me? Since when do I get fluttery over guys?

  “Okay.” I swallow, and in the silence of the room, it’s noticeable.

  But Foster says nothing, simply staring at me, his eyes searching mine.

  “We should probably turn off the lights,” I finally suggest when his gaze starts making my skin warm.

  I start to sit up to do just that, but he captures my hand and pulls me back down to the bed.

  “You want to know something awesome about our powers? We don’t have to do mundane things like turn off lights or take forever to move stuff out of a house.”

  “I knew you guys didn’t do that on your own.” I lightly swat his arm, and he chuckles.

  “Yeah, but it was so much faster, wasn’t it?” he says with a smile.

  “Yeah, but it still doesn’t explain how you did it.”

  He grins. “A portal that led from your house to the storage unit. My dad created it after you left.”

  I shake my head in astonishment. “I don’t even know what to say.”

  “How about lights out?” he suggests, giving my hand a squeeze.

  I’m not sure what he’s about to do, but I play along anyway. “Lights out—”

  Sparks hiss between our palms, and then the light suddenly burns out.

  “Okay, that was kind of cool,” I admit. “Although, the pitch black is a bit unnerv—”

  Before I can finish, an orb of blue, miniature lightning bolts forms in his hand.

  “Okay, now you’re just showing off,” I say with a smile.

  “Maybe just a little bit.” He pivots on his side, keeping his hand glowing. “Go to sleep, Sky. You’re safe from the darkness. I promise.”

  I wish he was right, but the second I start to close my eyes, darkness whispers to me.

  All I can do, though, is hope that, in time, I’ll be able to block them out.

  Shimmering Chaos (Enchanted Chaos, Book 2) is coming July 28, 2018

  Want to read more of Skylin’s story? Shimmering Chaos (Enchanted Chaos, Book 2) is coming July 28, 2018! And Iridescent Chaos (Enchanted Chaos, Book 3), final book for Skylin, releases Aug. 28, 2018. After that, the series will be moving onto to a new character!

  For more info on upcoming releases, visit my website, jessicasorensen.com

  About the Author

  Jessica Sorensen is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author who lives in the snowy mountains of Wyoming. When she’s not writing, she spends her time reading and hanging out with her family.

  Also by Jessica Sorensen

  Enchanted Chaos Series:

  Enchanted Chaos

  Shimmering Chaos (releases July 28, 2018)

  Iridescent Chaos (releases Aug 28, 2018)

  Capturing Magic:

  Chasing Wishes

  Chasing Magic

  Untitled (coming soon)

  Chasing Hadley Harlyton:

  Chasing Hadley

  Falling for Hadley

  Holding onto Hadley (coming soon)

  Cursed Hadley:

  Cursed Hadley

  Enchanting Hadley (coming soon)

  Bad Boy Rebels:

  Meeting the Bad Boy Rebels

  Sweet Lies & Kisses (coming soon)

  Hacker Rebels:

  Discovering Alexis

  Disocvering Us (coming soon)

  Tangled Realms:

  Forever Violet

  Untitled (coming soon)

  Curse of the Vampire Queen:

  Tempting Raven

  Enchanting Raven

  Untitled (coming soon)

  Unraveling You Series:

  Unraveling You

  Raveling You

  Awakening You

  Inspiring You

  Fated by Darkness

  Untitled (coming soon)

  Unexpected Series:

  The Unexpected Way of Falling

  The Unpredictable Way of Falling

  Untitled (coming soon)

  Shadow Cove Series:

  What Lies in the Darkness

  What Lies in the Dark

  Untitled (coming soon)

  Mystic Willow Bay Series:

  The Secret Life of a Witch

  Broken Magic

  Untitled (coming soon)

  Standalones:

  The Forgotten Girl

  The Illusion of Annabella

  Confessions of a Kleptomaniac

&n
bsp; Rules of a Rebel and a Shy Girl

  The Opposite of Ordinary

  Broken City Series:

  Nameless

  Forsaken

  Oblivion

  Forbidden (coming soon)

  Guardian Academy Series:

  Entranced

  Entangled

  Enchanted

  Entice (coming soon)

  Sunnyvale Series:

  The Year I Became Isabella Anders

  The Year of Falling in Love

  The Year of Second Chances

  The Coincidence Series:

  The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden

  The Redemption of Callie and Kayden

  The Destiny of Violet and Luke

  The Probability of Violet and Luke

  The Certainty of Violet and Luke

  The Resolution of Callie and Kayden

  Seth & Greyson

  The Secret Series:

  The Prelude of Ella and Micha

  The Secret of Ella and Micha

  The Forever of Ella and Micha

  The Temptation of Lila and Ethan

  The Ever After of Ella and Micha

  Lila and Ethan: Forever and Always

  Ella and Micha: Infinitely and Always

  The Shattered Promises Series:

  Shattered Promises

  Fractured Souls

  Unbroken

  Broken Visions

  Scattered Ashes

  Breaking Nova Series:

  Breaking Nova

  Saving Quinton

  Delilah: The Making of Red

  Nova and Quinton: No Regrets

  Tristan: Finding Hope

  Wreck Me

  Ruin Me

  The Fallen Star Series:

  The Fallen Star

  The Underworld

  The Vision

  The Promise

  The Lost Soul

  The Evanescence