Limits of Magic: Mending Magic Series, #5

By W.J. May

Your curse is your biggest strength.

I just didn't know it yet.

You can't fight what you are…

When Obtero reveals its newest weapon, a device that can successfully identify and immobilize anyone with the gene, Jamie and his friends find themselves in a race against time trying to rally people to their cause. In a dangerous game of cat and mouse, they began raiding the holding facilities, only to realize their own headquarters may be in danger.

Friendships are strained as the castle is divided. A fight is coming, but not everyone is on the same side. Can the gang rally the forces and learn to control their powers in time?

Or does a house that stands divided always fall?

Never give up. Never give in.

Mending Magic Series:

Lost Souls

Illusion of Power

Challenging the Dark

Castle of Power

Limits of Magic

Protectors of Light

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dark Shadow Publishing
• Release date: Oct 10, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393130741

W.J. May

About W.J. May Welcome to USA TODAY BESTSELLING author W.J. May's Page! SIGN UP for W.J. May's Newsletter to find out about new releases, updates, cover reveals and even freebies! http://eepurl.com/97aYf   Website: http://www.wjmaybooks.com Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-WJ-May-FAN-PAGE/141170442608149?ref=hl *Please feel free to connect with me and share your comments. I love connecting with my readers.* W.J. May grew up in the fruit belt of Ontario. Crazy-happy childhood, she always has had a vivid imagination and loads of energy. After her father passed away in 2008, from a six-year battle with cancer (which she still believes he won the fight against), she began to write again. A passion she'd loved for years, but realized life was too short to keep putting it off. She is a writer of Young Adult, Fantasy Fiction and where ever else her little muses take her.

Book preview

Have You Read the C.o.K Series?

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The Chronicles of Kerrigan

Book I - Rae of Hope is FREE!

BOOK TRAILER:

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How hard do you have to shake the family tree to find the truth about the past?

Fifteen year-old Rae Kerrigan never really knew her family's history. Her mother and father died when she was young and it is only when she accepts a scholarship to the prestigious Guilder Boarding School in England that a mysterious family secret is revealed.

Will the sins of the father be the sins of the daughter?

As Rae struggles with new friends, a new school and a star-struck forbidden love, she must also face the ultimate challenge: receive a tattoo on her sixteenth birthday with specific powers that may bind her to an unspeakable darkness. It's up to Rae to undo the dark evil in her family's past and have a ray of hope for her future.

Find W.J. May

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Mending Magic Series

Lost Souls – Book 1

Illusion of Power – Book 2

Challenging the Dark – Book 3

Castle of Power – Book 4

Limits of Magic – Book 5

Protectors of Light – Book 6

Limits Of Magic Blurb:

Your curse is your biggest strength

... I just didn’t know it yet.

You can't fight what you are...

When Obtero reveals its newest weapon, a device that can successfully identify and immobilize anyone with the gene, Jamie and his friends find themselves in a race against time trying to rally people to their cause. In a dangerous game of cat and mouse they begin raiding the holding facilities, only to realize their own headquarters may be in danger.

Friendships are strained as the castle is divided. A fight is coming, but not everyone is on the same side. Can the gang rally the forces and learn to control their powers in time?

Or does a house that stands divided always fall?

Contents

Have You Read the C.o.K Series?

Find W.J. May

Mending Magic Series

Limits Of Magic Blurb:

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Protectors of Light Blurb

Mending Magic Series

Find W.J. May

More books by W.J. May

Chapter 1

Pain . There was only pain .

It had taken over every part of me, crowding out room for anything else.

The sidewalk was burning the skin on my face, but I didn’t notice. Tourists with strappy sandals and pina coladas were gawking from across the street, but I didn’t care. In a café down the block the man pouring the coffee had suddenly crumpled as well, clutching his head and silently screaming behind the counter, but nobody saw him.

There was only this feeling. And it wasn’t letting up.

DAD!

Even though he was the one causing it, even though he’d recently fired a gun at my chest, I couldn’t help but scream his name. The agents would listen to him. He could get it to stop.

Nothing else mattered in the world. Only that it stopped.

DAD—PLEASE!

The others were writhing on the ground next to me. Ruby was sobbing, her knees curled up to her chest. Griffin was clutching fistfuls of his hair. Zoey had melted immediately back to her regular form and was screaming at the top of her lungs, while Gabrielle was shaking on the ground just a foot away from me—tiny drops of blood trickling from her ears.

Our eyes met for a split second. Then she reached out and grabbed my hand.

It’s working, sir. The agent who was holding the lever stared at us in delight, giving Griffin a kick in the ribs for good measure. This model is so much more potent than the last.

My father was rooted to the spot, staring down in horror.

...yes, I can see that.

It was like something out of a nightmare. The kind where someone tries to pry your skull open with a hammer and it never seems to end. My legs were spasming against the concrete. My hands were shaking beyond control. Every time I thought it was lessening, it would come back even stronger than before and I’d be screaming all over again.

Why did we think this would work? Why did we come here—

Then, all at once, it was too much to handle.

My chest seized up and I was suddenly unable to breathe. In an act of desperation I reached out a shaking hand, grabbing the edge of my father’s shoe.

Dad, please, I panted, pressing my face to the ground. "Please—make it stop!"

I don’t know if he could hear me. I didn’t have the strength to make it very loud. The only thing I could manage to do was scream, and I was hardly the only one doing that.

Blood was smearing the sidewalk beneath me. I didn’t know where it was coming from.

Just shoot me. Anything would be better than—

A convulsion overtook me and I jerked wildly against the ground, bashing my face against the cement in the process. The others were thrashing just as desperately as me, all of them screaming bloody murder. But a few feet away, Ruby had gone eerily still.

Blood was streaming from both her ears, and while her eyes were open she didn’t appear to be conscious. She just lay there, barely breathing, staring up at the sky.

That’s enough, Martin, my father said quietly. Turn it off.

Whether he was reacting to the frantic screams of his son, or if he just didn’t want to have a dead kid on his hands, it was impossible to say. Every building on the block had opened its doors and a swarm of breathless onlookers was pouring onto the street. Many of them were holding up cell phones. Many of them were staring at Ruby in complete and utter shock.

Martin, he said again. "Now."

The man holding the lever glanced at the crowd as well, but hesitated—shifting uneasily from foot to foot. Sir, the boy with the dark hair is a teleporter. I’ve had dealings with him before. If I let up now, he’ll jump them all away. We need to wait until they’re sedated—

"Then sedate them," my father interrupted angrily.

The agent nodded quickly, glancing towards the parking lot.

Travis is getting the drugs now.

In hindsight, it was our only saving grace that there were only a few men and they were minimally armed. The only other stroke of luck was that they were all facing in one direction.

On the other side of the street, three new people had sprinted up from the beach. They hovered nervously in the back of the crowd. The agents never saw them.

"Jamie."

Gabrielle’s voice was so quiet, I couldn’t hear it over the tortured screams. It wasn’t until her fingernails dug into the back of my hand that I realized she’d said my name.

I twisted my head. Stared into her eyes.

...I’m sorry.

The pain shook her slender body, thrashing her upon the concrete and chattering her teeth like she was nothing more than a doll. But she still managed to say the words.

Her hand tightened in mine.

I’m sorry about everything.

I stared back in shock, but even as I watched her struggles were getting weaker. A glassy sheen was sneaking into the corners of those hazel eyes, dimming out the light.

Gabby?!

I seized her hand with newfound strength, pounding it into the cement. Anything to get her to wake up. Anything to get a reaction. But there was nothing.

As I lay helplessly beside her, those beautiful eyes fluttered shut.

NO!

With a wild cry I pushed up to my knees, searching desperately for the man holding the deadly little device. The second I saw him both arms flew into the air and I incinerated him where he stood, letting loose a wave of fire the likes of which the world had never seen.

At least...that’s what I tried to do.

The tips of my fingers glowed. The cuffs of my sleeves were smoking. But other than that, not a single thing happened. I might as well have been a spectator in the crowd.

The bad news was, the man saw me trying.

A second later, that device was pointed directly at me.

...oh crap.

The scream caught in my throat, the breath dying in my chest. My back arched, and for a moment the pain was so blindingly intense it almost felt like I was floating off the ground.

Then my father knocked his hand away.

That’s enough!

Without another word, he stalked forward and kicked Griffin in the head. The teleporter let out a muffled cry then went still, lying prone on the sidewalk.

There. He’s out! Now release the others!

One of the people in the crowd took a compulsive step forward, then jerked back like he’d been burned. His hand lifted tentatively in the air, as if there was an invisible line barring him. The second he crossed it he jerked back again, then turned swiftly to the others.

Sir, I can’t. Martin’s voice was almost pleading as he held the lever up in the air. The Tanner girl can shoot fire. Your own son is capable of such destruction; we can’t begin to—

But I would never know how he was going to finish that sentence. Because at that very moment, the lever flew right out of his hand...and into the hand of another.

Mason.

All at once, the pain vanished. All at once, I was able to think.

Gabby, I panted, scrambling to her side. There was a flurry of shouts above us, but for once none of it was directed our way. Are you okay?

Her eyes were closed and she wasn’t moving. When I lifted her head from the sidewalk, little trickles of blood ran over my hands.

Shit!

The others were stirring, the agents were mobilizing, the crowd was in a panic. Only one person was standing perfectly still...and he was looking right at me.

Is she alive?

My eyes shot to my father before dropping down to the girl lying in my arms. She was pale as a sheet and her skin was ice cold, but she was breathing. At least for now.

No thanks to your little toy, I muttered, lifting her into my lap.

Considering the horrific amount of pain the lever caused, it seemed to have no lasting effect. Zoey was already starting to come out of it, blinking slowly with a hand raised to her head. Ruby was still out cold and so was Griffin—courtesy of my father’s boot.

James—

Stay away from me, I hissed, still staring down at Gabby. I probably should have been afraid of him or scrambling to get away before the agents forgot their search and returned to the prisoners they already had, but I was too angry to care. You’ve done enough.

His face tightened with a strange emotion—one he hadn’t felt in so long, it seemed forced and unfamiliar. He glanced back at the distracted agents before taking a step closer.

James, you have to understand. That night in the cornfield, I wasn’t—

There was a weak shifting in my arms.

...Jamie?

I looked down at once, so blinded by relief that for a moment I couldn’t speak.

I swallowed and cleared my throat slightly. Hey you.

Despite the chaos around me I warmed with a smile the second she opened her eyes, stroking a finger down her cheek like the two of us were in our own little world. In a strange way, we were. The others were still coming out of it, the locals were sprinting inside, and the agents had forgotten about us completely; whirling around in a panic to find the new threat.

She pulled in a quick breath, tightening her fingers around my shirt like she wasn’t entirely convinced it wasn’t a dream. Then she saw the people galloping past us.

What’s going on?

My chest clenched as I hitched her higher in my arms. She sounded so weak, so lost. Like it was a child asking the question, not the brave girl who haunted my every waking thought.

We’re getting out of here, I answered, lifting her into the air.

The agents were still searching for Mason, spinning around in frantic circles with guns drawn. They didn’t see me push to my feet. The only person still watching was my father.

You won’t make it off the island, he said quietly, glancing at Griffin—who was still sprawled across the cement. Not while he’s still asleep.

I followed his gaze for a split second before turning back with a glare. "He isn’t asleep. You kicked him unconscious."

Gabrielle cringed against me, staring at the man like he had fangs. At the same time, I felt her fingers flutter—trying to summon her gift. But there wasn’t even a spark.

Any minute, my other friends would get here. Any moment, Obtero’s backup would arrive. What happened then was anyone’s guess. But I wouldn’t be here to find out.

Zoey, I panted, without breaking eye-contact, do you have Ruby?

There was a rustling of clothes behind me. In my periphery, I saw her lift the little girl into the air. The only one left was the teleporter. There weren’t enough hands to lift him.

But, like I said, help was on the way.

Heads up!

There was a sharp cry, then one of the Obtero guards fell to his knees—coughing and spluttering with what looked like an icicle sticking out of his chest. Another was soon to follow, leaving only the two men flanking my father.

They closed rank immediately in front of him, guns drawn, loyal to the end.

"Look! There!"

I swiveled my head in the direction he was pointing, but didn’t see a thing. Neither did the men under his command, but they obeyed blindly, sprinting into the crowd like hounds who’d scented a rabbit. At any moment, I expected to hear gunshots and screams. At any moment, I expected the ground to rumble as Daniel sent a seismic blast shooting up the street.

But what happened next was very different.

There’s a hotel, two blocks up. It has a beautiful view of the ocean.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned back to see my father looking at me intently. A hundred yards behind him, I saw my friends running through the crowd. He hadn’t spotted them at all. In fact, he’d sent his men running off in the opposite direction.

Jamie...

Gabriel clung to my jacket, but I was frozen in place.

A hotel, I repeated incredulously, shaking my head. What are you—

Listen to me. He pressed something into my hand. It looks out right over the waves.

He was gone a second later, vanishing into the bustling crowd.

I was still staring after him when the others caught up with us, too stunned and confused to do anything else. Daniel was kneeling by Griffin’s side, trying to wake him. Mason was taking Ruby from Zoey’s trembling arms as Elizabeth stepped in front of me with a glare.

What was that! she demanded. You just let him get away!

I opened my fingers to see a hotel room key in my palm.

No. It’s the other way around.

Chapter 2

You cannot possibly understand how difficult