Wicked Fate (The Wicked Trilogy) (16 page)

It’s dark out when we finally get back to my house. We sit in his truck a little longer and continue talking. It’s obvious that neither of us wants
to leave each other. I
give in finally and reach for the door handle. I’m about to get out of his truck when I feel his hand on my arm.

“So um—w
hat ar
e you doing tomorrow?” he asks with a grin
.

“Nothing, really—I guess I’ll hang out around the house. I was thinking
I might try
and clean the gardens up a bit—get
them ready for spring. Why?”

“Want some help?”

“Yeah, that’d be great—I’ll
see you tomorrow then?”

“Tomorrow it is,” he runs his thumb across his bottom lip
. “Goodnight
,
Mage.”

He leans in like he’s about to kiss me again. I close my eyes and prepare
for the
rush of adrenaline that comes with his lips on mine. Instead, I feel his soft lips on my forehead as he kisses me like I’m his sister.

“Goodnight,” I say confused.

I watch him drive away before going inside.

**********

The following day
, we spend
most of our time in the gardens around my house.
Our hands are dirty from p
ullin
g weeds and cleaning up leaves. We play and throw
leav
es at each other while Sire runs
down any
form of movement
from insects to small critters. 

During lunch we go inside and I mak
e us some sandwiches.

“Everyone thinks your house is haunted,” he says around a mouth full of turkey and cheese.

“They’re right…my house
is
haunted,” I tease him.

I wiggle my fingers and make ghost noises—we both laugh because it’s true.

“Is anyone watching us now?” he asks while looking around the empty kitchen.

“Nope,” I take another bite.

“Gosh, Mage, you’re such a
weirdo
,” he mocks the girls at school, as he pulls a strand of my hair.

“Screw you,” I smack his hand away.

“You want to—I can tell by how you look at me,” he nods and gives me a toothy grin.

I push at his hard chest. “You wish!”

A heated blush covers my cheeks.

“Yes I do, very much,” he grabs my hand and gives me his lopsided grin before planting a soft kiss in my palm.

The days that f
ollow are the same. Some days, he comes over and we play in the gardens all day
. Other days
, we go for rides in his loud truck and talk about everything imaginable.

On Christmas Eve, Adam takes me to Waterfront P
ark.
All bundled up we snuggle together on a big wooden swing and look out over the Atlantic Ocean. It’s nice to get away from it all and see new things
.
It’s easy to pretend that things are completely ordinary when I’m with him. That’s
especially important to me now s
ince things are
becoming even more out of the ordinary.

Almost e
very day for the last week I’ve
been able to do some new trick with my eyes or see something happe
n seconds before it actually does
.
There are days when I think these things are going to drive me crazy. Thinking of going crazy makes me think of my mother. Did she have this same “gift”
? If she did, was it this gift that pushed her into a mental institution?

The thought of losing
control of these new powers i
s terrifyi
ng.

I try not to think of these things as I relax with Adam and swing back and forth in silence. The ocean breeze blows
through my hai
r. I close my eyes and listen to the sounds of the water moving
.

The water reminds me
of the horrible nightmare I
had a few weeks before and I worry that the nightmare is vision of what’s to come?

I don’t
want to
panic and ruin our perfect day, so I push that thought out of my head. Only recently did I start seeing little bits of the future, and even then it’s only the near future—like five minutes away.
I would see Sire ch
asing a squirrel and then
two minutes later a squirrel would run b
y with Sire on his heels. Hopefully it’s all coincidence, but I won’t get my hopes up.

Adam grabs my hand and plays with my fingers.

“You have cute hands,” he says as he gives each one of my fingers a little tug.

He slowly lifts my hand to his mouth and kisses my palm. While he does this, I’m secretly wishing he’d kiss my lips instead.

Adam makes me feel like I’m
floating on gossamer wings; like a tiny butterfly fairy in an unseen w
orld. The whole scene—the water and historical lighthouse in the distance; it’s all so magical and beautiful. But this is real, even though it feels like a fairy tale. This isn’t fantasy, no teenage illusion…
it’s
pure reality.

He has
a way of maki
ng me feel like the moment we’re in is the only thing that matters. Whenever I’
m with him I f
orget about everything else. This
could
be a good thing or a bad thing.

“So what do you want fo
r your birthday?”

Shocked I pull my hand back and stare with wide eyes. “How do you know my birthday’
s coming
up
?”

“I know all, baby,” he nods and rubs his bottom lip.

“I don’t want anything. I have everything I need.”

I look away from his mouth. In my head I think—another kiss for my birthday would be awesome.

“Too bad, I’m giving you something.”

“What is it?
”
I can’t help but ask.

“Wouldn’t you like to know
?”
he says.

I’m not sure how he does it, but he manages to make everything sound sexual. 

Before I know it, it’s
December thirtieth, the day before my si
xteenth birthday. My days seem to fly by now that I have
Ad
am to spend them with. It’s going to be weird
to go back to school and not see him almost every minute of every day, but soon school
w
ill
start back and
reality
will
set back in.
Back to being the
strange girl that people look at funny. Well, everyone except my new friends
.

It’s been days since I’ve heard from Bernie, so I call her and we make plans to
get lunch at our usual Chinese restaurant.
H
er mom and brother Benjamin come along this time and we all sit around and talk.

Berni
e’s brother is such a nice guy. He doesn’t
look at me
funny or treat me differently. There are perks to hanging around people who don’t go to school with you. He has no idea that I’m a total freak around these parts.

He talks
about school
and his grades. His face turns
b
right red when his mom asks about
any special girls in his life
,
othe
r than her and Bernie. It’s
cute to watch him blush. There’s no way this guy i
s single consid
ering how totally adorable he i
s.
Again, I blame Bernie for my new boy craziness—Adam, too.
I never noticed guys as much
as I do now.

When we pull
b
ack up to my house, Bernie hands
me my birthd
ay gift
.

“Ah,
Bernie
,
you didn’t have to do that.”

“Of course I did
,
crazy girl! You’re
my best friend, duh!” she giggles
.

I pull
at the pretty pink and blue
wrapping paper. Inside there’s a sterling silver five-by-
seven picture frame. I t
urn
it over to have a l
ook at the picture inside. It’s a picture of Bernie and me
sitting
on the lunch bench in the court
yard at school. 
Kale’s hand is behind her making bunny ears and I have a big goofy grin on my face. It’s perfect.
The top of
the frame has
best frie
nds etched across it. I reach over and give
h
er a big hug.

“Thank you.”

Bernie’s mom and brother wish
me
a happy birthday before I exit the car. I hear
them leaving behind me as I mak
e my way up the front steps to m
y house.  I’m
almost in
my front door before I notice Adam lounging on the porch swing watching
me.

“You’re so cute when you don’t know you’re being watched,” he grins as he uses his long legs to push the swing.

“You’re so full of it,” my cheeks heat up.

Thank God I wasn’t doing something totally embarrassing.

“Have I ever told you that I love it when you blush?” he stands and grabs my hand. “Come on.”

He pulls my hand and leads me down the steps.

“Where are we going?”

“Just come on—i
t’s a surprise.”

I follow
him to the side of the house and
then further back until we’re almost
in my favorite garden.

“Close your eyes,” he runs his fingers softly down my face making me close my eyes.

I close them and then I allow him to
lead me through the garden
. I hear the old rusty gate creak as we enter. He sits me down
on
the old crackled marble bench then he runs his fingers down my face again. It feels amazing.

“Okay, open
.”

In front
of me, on the old marble table, is a little
pu
rple and white cupcake with a single candle in the middle. A single purple balloon floats above the table. Next to the cupcake is a tiny silver box.

“I figured if you hadn’t really celebrated Christmas since your grandmother died, then you probably hadn’t celebrated your birthday either,” he shrugs, like what he’s done really isn’t a big deal.

It’s a gigantic deal to me.

I stare down at the cupcake and think to myself how lucky I am
to hav
e such a great friend like Adam—unless of course we’re more than friends? The fact is
,
I have no idea what this is and I don’t care. I like it.

I decide to show off a little.

I look down at the cupcake and stare hard at the candle. Thinking in my head how bad I want
the candl
e to light, I continue to glare at it. I try my hardest to will it
to li
ght…it doesn’t work.
Go figure
,
the
one time that I actually want
s
omething to happen it doesn’t.

I know I can do things with my eyes and hands. Since my eyes obviously aren’t
doing the
trick, I’ll try with my hands. Reaching my right hand out, I
let it linger r
ight above the candle. I close my eyes and focus hard on the thought of it lighting. My shoulder ignites and I know I’m doing something.  The burn’s not excruciating, but it’s
enough to make me flinch.

The heat from my shoulder begins to spread down my arm. It’s
getting hotter and hott
er the further down it goes. I take deep breaths since that helps
manage the
agonizing blaze as it reaches my
wrist.
I can feel Adam watching me and I don’t want him to know I’m hurting
.

When the inferno reaches my palm, I almost scream out in pain.  Swallowing hard, I lean
m
y head back and pray for it to end as the fire simmers in my hand
.
My arm is wildly shaking, but I hold it in place. I won’t let
the blaze get the best of me.

Soon
, I feel
something cool agains
t the palm. I exhale deeply from the relief of the cold. Opening my eyes, I look
down at the can
dle beneath my hand and watch as the flame dances upon the wick. It reaches up occasionally and licks
at my palm causi
ng the cooling effect that feels
so nice.