Wicked Fate (The Wicked Trilogy) (17 page)

Instead of jerking my hand away
from the fla
me, I sit
and let t
he fire touch my palm. It’s amazing how cold the fire feels
against my smoldering hand.

Without looking at him, I can feel Adam smiling. I don’t care what he sees anymore. I no longer fear him telling people and if he really wants to be a part of my life, then he needs to know the real me.
No more hiding who or what I am. I
want
him
to see me do th
ese things and if
he walks a
way because of it, then I’ll have saved myself the
heartache.

He reaches out and pulls
my hand
away from the fire, then flinches from
the heat
that’s
radiating from my fingers.
I jerk
my hand fro
m him, scared that I might have burned him.

“Did my hand burn you?”

“No, but your hand is so hot. Did you burn it on the candle
?”
concern flickers in his eyes.

I hold my hand up to inspect it—not a single burn mark. T
he fire that I had
brought forth from inside has
already burned out.
There’s nothing to show for what had just happened except the candle on the cake that is now illuminating a small area of the garden.

“Why did you
let the candles bur
n your hand like that?” he asks, as he grabs my hand and does
his own inspection.

“It didn’t burn, it
cooled it.”

“What do you mean it cooled it?
It’s
fire…fire burns,” his brows inch up.

“I guess
my fire is hotter. T
he
candle flame felt cold
.
I don’t know—I can’t explain it.” I lean over my cupcake and prepare to blow out the candles. “What should I wish for?
”

“What do you want?” his eyes search my face.

I close
my eyes to think of a wish. Wha
t else could I possibly want
? With the a
ddition of Adam and Bernie in my life, I’m
beginning to feel
whole. That might sound crazy and maybe I’m jumping the gun, but I’ve always had great instincts and my instincts are telling me that Adam is good…he’s right.

Blowing softly on the candles, I wish for the only thing I can
think of.

I wish the way I feel right now—in this moment—never
ends
.

When I open my eyes he’s looking at me funny. Some strange emotion I’ve never seen flashes in his luminous eyes. As quickly as it comes—it goes.

As if realizing himself, he puts his carefree mask back on and softly pinches my cheek.

“I hope you get what you wish for,” he tosses me flirty grin. “I know you told me not to, but I got you something.”

He pushes the little silver box to me.

I shyly smile at him before I start peel the silver wrapping from the box. Inside is a purple jewelry box. I pop the box top off and fold back the white tissue paper. Lying inside is a little silver necklace with a half heart charm.

He takes
the
necklace out the box and pushes
my hair to the side
. Dragging his fingers purposely against my skin, he puts the necklace around my neck. 

“Happy Birthday,” he whispers as leans down and kisses me behind my ear.

Goose bumps cover my entire body.

“Thank you. I love it, all of it.”

He grins as he reaches in the collar of his shirt. Pulling out a more masculine silver chain, I see that the other half of my heart charm is hanging around his neck. He leans in and softly kisses me giving me no time to register what the half heart charm means.

Chapter 11

The Ascendant

It’s
pitch-black outside by the time Adam walks me to my door.  Fireworks go on sale a week before New Year’s Eve, so kids are already starting to shoot them. Every now and again the sky lights up with color. I love the way Adam looks with the reflections of the fireworks on his face.

Once we say goodnight, I run into the kitchen and grab
a quick snack
. I can’t
get to the library quick enough to te
ll Thaddeus about my day. I’m pretty sure I’m falling in love and I want
to tell the world.

Thaddeus laughs at me as I tell him about my day. When it’s time for bed, I don’t bother
my grandfather
to tell him goodnight. I don’t
want to take the chance of waking hi
m if by some chance he’s
already asleep.

My grandmother’
s standing outside my bedroom door. She smil
es nervously as I quickly go through all
the events
of the day. When I’m done with my story, I sense
the sadness about her.

“What’s wrong?” I ask
.

“Mage
, tomorrow’
s your sixteenth birthday, as hard as
it is to believe. It seems
like just yesterday you were learning to walk, and now look at you
,
all grown up and more beautiful than any other girl in the world.”

“Grandma
,
what’s wrong? I can f
eel it, something’s wrong.”

I’m
beginning
to panic. Things can
only go downhill
from this point on. Things are too perfect, they can’t
get any better.

“B
ig changes are coming. I’ve seen them in you over the years. Just promise me you won’t be afraid, can you promise me that? I need you to be that brave little girl that you’ve always been. No matter what
,
okay?”

“Okay
, I promise.
Now
,
please
,
tell me what you’re talking about.”

“Ju
st trust me, honey, everything’s
going to be alright,” she leans
up t
o kiss me on my cheek and I feel
nothing.

“I love you
,
Mage.”

“I love you
,
too
, G
randma.”

S
ire
grabs my attention as he comes
running down the
hallway towards my room. He’s
ready for bed and
he almost knocks me over when he jumps up on me. When I look back up my grandmother’
s gone.

I can’t sleep. For hours I lay there awake thinking. Everyone’s talking in riddles and I don’t know what any of it means.  The only thing I do know is that something new i
s about to happen to me. When and what
, I have no idea, but something’
s def
initely about to happen.  I fall asleep
around eleven o
’clock and I have
another horrible nightmare.

I’m
sta
nding in front of Adam and he’
s
holding my hand. The waves make
loud
crashing noises and the water’s running across my feet. He’
s smiling back at me
just
li
ke in the other dream. I look
past him to see
if the evil laughing lady is behind him. She stares back, but she’s not
laughing
this time. Standing at Adam’s side, are
my grandparents and Thaddeus.

The evil lady i
s saying
something to me, but I can’t understand a word she’
s
saying. Suddenly, Thaddeus begi
n
s
to
disappear before my eyes. I try to get
around Adam to get to my grandmoth
er and grandfather, but he wo
n’t let me pass. Soon my grandmot
her and grandfather slowly begin
to disappear as well. I scream out to them but nothing happens
.

I
cry
ag
ainst Adam’s chest while he holds me. I can’t help but feel like I’m
never going to see
my grandparents or Thaddeus again. I look
up into Adam’s eyes and he smiles. His eyes turn
from their pretty hypnotic green to
the dullest gray I’ve ever seen. I gasp and step
back to get a bett
er look at him. Slowly, he begins
to di
sappear as well. His smile fades
into a frown.

“No, Adam! Don’t go!” I cry.

In a matter of seconds he’s gone. I drop
to my knees and cover
my face with my hands. They’
re go
ne! All of them, everyone I love, my whole entire family
is
gone! I look up when I hear the blonde lady’s
ev
il high pitched laugh. I cover
my ears, bu
t they still feel like they’re
going t
o explode. Suddenly, not only i
s the evil witch star
ing back at me, but now there’
s a man beside her.

He’s tall and slender and wearing a long gray robe. He has
shoulder length black and
gray hair and colorless eyes that sparkle. They’r
e like mirrors; c
lear and reflective—only showing
the colors of nature around him.

He looks
harmless standing next to the
wicked blonde woman, but I can feel
evil radiating
from him. Even though he looks harmless, he feels dangerous!

He holds out his hand to me
.

“Come
,
my sweet.”

The sound
s
of
the waves at my side distract me. I look
away from him and towards the mighty Atlantic just in time to see the ferocious wave about to cras
h down on top of me. I scream.

I sit up in bed quickly, sweat trickles down my forehead. I look over at
the c
lock on my bedside table. It’s eleven fifty-five, which means I wasn’t asleep for very long. I snuggle up to Sire and try
my
hardest to go back to sleep. But I’m uncomfortable, and soon I feel a slight burning sensation in my stomach.

I adjust the way I’m laying and I think about
get
ting
som
ething for my heartburn. I swear to myself that I’ll never eat Chinese food again.

The burn gets more intense and I hear myself make a moaning noise.  It’
s really startin
g to hurt pretty badly. I turn over onto my back and press
the back of my head de
eper into my pillow. This only makes it worse.

The burn begins to slowly spread. I want
to scre
am for help, but the pain is becoming unbearable. I try
to get up to go get
my grandfather, but I can’t move. I lay there with my eyes wide. I’m dying! I don’t know what’s killing me, but I’m definitely
dying.

The fire moves
into my hips and chest
,
slowly working its way through the rest of my body. From the mirror on my dresser
I can
see a blue lig
ht illuminating from my bed. It’
s me;
I’m glowing bright and blue
.

It feels like hours are
pa
ssing as the blazing fire works
its way down to my knees a
nd up into my throat. I can’t
bre
athe. No matter how hard I try
to take a d
eep breath, nothing happens. I turn
my head to look at
my nightstand. The clock shows eleven fifty-nine. It’s
only been a matter of minutes
,
but
it feels like I’ve been on fire for hours.

T
he fire intensifies and I arch my back and dig
the back of my head deeper
into my pillow. Far away, I can
hear
a girl’s scream and it takes me a minute to realize that the girl screaming is me. I’m burning alive; every part of my body feels like it’s on fire. I’m
dying from human combustion!

When the burn reaches
the tip of my toes an
d the top of my head, I think I’m going to faint. I’m surprised that I haven’t
fainted befo
re now. The pain running throughout my body is
excruciating.