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CHAPTER ONE
JAIYANA
“Come on! You’ve got this, Jay,” Chad shouted, his low voice blending in with the light rap music filling the weight room.
I dug my shoulder blades into the padded bench press, focusing on Chad’s baby blues above me.
His gaze flicked down to my breasts. “Great form, girl. Go, go!”
I rolled the silver bar resting in my powder pink wrapped grip before lowering two hundred and ten pounds. When the bar hovered above my nipples, I grunted and heaved, pushing it back up one slow inch at a time. My thighs tensed, and every muscle in my body strained. Halfway up, my arms shook, and the bar hovered.
I was stuck. I couldn’t go up more, but I refused to drop the weight or use my magic to cheat. An invisible ribbon of raw energy danced along my bare left arm. Which was weird but not as pressing as the weight I was moments from crushing myself under.
Pressing - because you’re on a bench press. Hilarious.
Maybe this is not the time to talk to yourself.
Chad stuck two fingers of each of his hands under the bar, just shy of touching it. “Keep moving, push girl, you’ve got this!”
His words ripped me back to the moment. Instead of thinking, I let out a strangled yell and forced every one of my mortal muscles, well, mostly mortal, to push. My stomach flexed, and my left butt cheek cramped, but the bar climbed the last few inches before Chad took the weight off me.
“Nice,” Chad said, guiding the bar back onto the rack.
I rolled to a seated position. Strands of my long black hair stuck uncomfortably to my shoulders and back, but they didn’t distract me from the perfect burn across my chest and arms.
“I didn’t have it, you helped.” I messaged the side of my ass to release the cramp, trying to remember what part of the chest connected directly to the gluteus maximus.
“That was all you.” Chad clapped his hands together.
I pursed my lips. Physically maybe, but if he hadn’t encouraged me, would I have dropped the bar?
Another wide swath of raw magic, which didn’t come from me, danced along my arm, changing my focus from myself to the world around me. Lifting my hand, I twirled the ribbon between my fingers. It trembled, the vibration so fast it almost made the invisible magic solid.
My heart skipped a beat. Something was wrong with the Ley Lines. I hadn’t been called to fix one of them in a hundred years. A shiver of inappropriate excitement hummed in my gut. If the Ley Line was reaching out to me, something was seriously wrong—but it also gave me purpose.
You desperately need that, Jay.
Shut up.
“Your wrists, okay?” Chad asked, oblivious to the magic entwining my fingers, just like everyone else around here.
I shook the ribbon off my fingers. “Yeah.”
My blond, exceptionally built, but mortal gym friend bobbed his head. “You’re scowling.” He flexed his arms before lifting a forty-five-pound plate off the rack.
“Probably.” I schooled my face. “Sorry, I just got called into work.”
“Oh.” He slowed his motions. “I didn’t hear your phone go off.”
I pointed at my wrist, forgetting I wasn’t wearing my smartwatch, but the lie was already tumbling out of my mouth. “Buzzed while I was mid-lift. I owe you a spot. You here Thursday?”
“Yeah.” Chad either didn’t look or didn’t care enough to call me out on my lie. “Derek just walked in. He’ll spot me.”
I let out a disappointed breath. There was always someone who could replace me.
I pushed to my feet and helped Chad rack the last of my weights.
“What do you do again?” he asked.
