Wicked Fate (The Wicked Trilogy) (20 page)

He caresses my cheeks while staring into my eyes. My legs feel
weak a
nd I pray they continue to hold me up. He leans down and softly presses
his lips to mine. His hands leave my face and he wraps his arms around my waist to
pull me closer.

The light breeze that’s blowing picks up as my heart beat quickens. I react
instantly this time
, throwing
my
arms around his neck and kissing
him back.
He moves his hands down my back, pulling my body closer to his.

When the kiss ends, I continue to hug him while relaxing
my hea
d on his shoulder. I don’t want to open my eyes and it feels good to be in his arms.
All this
time
I
’ve
always felt so lonely, but in reality I was n
ever alone. In reality, Adam’s always been there. He’s
always been a part of
me; a part of my heart. I lean back and he captures
my face in
his hands once more. He looks
around a
bit.

“
Now, that’s impressive,” he says.

I look around the garden. It’s
been completely transformed. Everythi
ng that was dead before looks
reborn. F
lamboyantly colored flowers have grown
from every perfec
tly trimmed bush or tree. I feel like I’m
swimming in a sea of vivid flowers.

Any cracks that were once a p
art of the crumbling patio are gone and it looks brand new. The bricks look freshly laid and the old rusty fence surrounding the garden doesn’t have a speck of rust.
T
he
gorgeous go
ddess fountain is flawless, the garden is perfect.

Sire’
s rolling and frolicking in the f
resh green grass that surrounds
the patio and the marble
benches throughout the garden.
Th
e smell of magnolias surrounds me as the breeze blows through the
large tree in the
back of
the garden. Everything’s so beautiful, but something’s off.

There’s no movement. Other than Sire and the two of us, there’s
no other life in the garden. No other an
imals or insects, no birds singing. All I hear i
s the sound of the water flowing through the transformed fountain.

“It’s beautiful, but it’s missing something,
”
I say.

I back away from Adam, a
mis
chievous smile on my face. He watches as I cup my hands together and place them against my lips. Closing my eyes, I slowly blow warm air into the space between my hands. I imagine
a big beautiful butterfly flying al
l around the garden. My lips tingle as I
blow
softly until I’m out of air. And then I feel it,
little flutte
rs against my palms.

I look over at Adam, the light in his eyes beams brightly as I open my hands to release
the big colorful but
terfly that I hold. It’
s a perfect moment in time. Even if I were living in the midst of some fairy tale, my existence cou
ldn’t be more perfect than it i
s right now
. Here I am, standing in a
secret garden
that’s been
t
ransformed by my feelings for
Adam.

The spell is broken when Sire growls ferociously. Our attention is shifted to the
edge of the garden when we hear
some
one slowly applauding. My eyes connect
with the evi
l red eyes of the woman that’s
be
en in my nightmares. She leans
her head back as she let
s
ou
t the screeching cackle that’s
haunted
me in my sleep. Then she sobers and glares
at me.

“Impressive, but now that I’m here you’ll need more than pretty butterflies
,
little girl.”

Chapter
13

And So It Begins

My blood turns to ice as I watch the
evil lady from my nightmare
s approach. The breeze catches
her long curly blonde hair and again
I’m reminded of white ribbons. She’s smiling—an unfriendly smile. She’
s here to
harm me, I sense her menace.

It was stupid of me to allow Adam to come along. I just need to fight her off long enough for him to get away. The trick is to stay calm…everything’
s going to be ok
ay.

So many times in the last co
uple of weeks, I thought I
was dying. Every time fire shoots
through
my body I think it’s the
end of me. But now
,
looking at
the woman who devilishly smiles back at me, I know I’m
safe. My grandfath
er told me that as long as he’s here I’d be safe. Thankfully, he’
s home warm in bed.

“Who are you?”  I ask
.

She tilts her head to the side like she’s
inspecting me.
She doesn’t pay any attention to Adam who’s squeezing my hand at my side. Sire’
s crouched
in front of me
like a
cat waiting to pounce.

“You’re not what
I expected. You’re pretty
, but k
ind of small and fragile looking
.”

“Who are you?” I repeat
loudly.

“My name
’
s Eris and it’s nice to finally meet you, Mage. We’ve been looking for you for a long time.”

“What do you want?”

“Think about that for
a
minute. What do you have that I could possibly want? Do you have any idea how happy he’s going t
o be when I bring you back? He’
ll worship me for finally succeeding
in a task that no one else was
able to do.”

“What task? And who’s ‘he’?” I feel sweat trickle down my back
.

“The task of finding you, of course
.
That grandfather of you
rs had quite the block on you—n
ot even Craven could penetrate it.
Tell me—your grandfather—is
he a magical man?”

“No. Who’
s Craven?”

“Ah—so
the block was your mother’s work?
Very nice
,
indeed.
She’s such a silly woman. She had to know it wouldn’t last forever. Come with
me,” she waves
her hand for me to follow her.

“
I’m not going anywhere with you,” I say defiantly
.

Sire growls like he understands the conversation. The look Eris gives him could kill. She looks back at me and smiles unpleasantly
.

“Either you
come to him or he comes to you—either way you’re going. I was told you’
d have no complaints about leaving.”

Her attention is then drawn to Adam. Her red eyes take him in and she snarls. I squeeze
his ha
nd tighter. Hopefully, if things get bad he knows to run. She’
s calm now, but
soon that’ll change. I can
see her doi
ng horrible things and I f
eel her hate towards me.

“So, this is your reason?
He’s the reason you stay?
” she nods at Adam. “I’
ll make it quick and painless. It’s the least I can do.”

She lifts her hands and points at him. Her long skinny fingers begin
to violently sh
udder.  Her big red eyes
gl
ow with dark fury and soon I see
sparks of fire s
tarting at her fingertips. I’ve felt what she’s feeling before. I know what she’
s about to do.

“No!!!” I scream out.

Sire’s growl rings out as he jumps
tow
ards the she-devil. She directs
her visio
n to Sire and waves her hand at him. He backs off and crouches while still growling. The last thing I want i
s for Adam or Sire t
o get hurt and this woman is a person who plays
with lives.

I can sense that she thoroughly enjoys
playing wi
th people’s emotions. She loves making people miserable. She’s a monster
with the face of a beautiful woman.
She looks innocent but I sense her sinister soul.

Since last night, my instincts are fine tuned.
I
can feel what she feels and this is a game to her—her
preference of
sport. It’s obvious since she laughs after every wicked remark she makes
.

Again she directs her attention to Adam. My pulse is racing since I know this time I’ll have to interfere. Her hand shoots back out as she points
towards him. Her eyes spa
rkle and glow as she smirks. I see
the sparks forming at her fingertips again an
d soon a red stream of fire shoots from her fingers going
straight for Adam.

I lunge in front of him and hold
up m
y hands to block it.  It burns when her fire
co
nnects with my palms. My fire’s hotter when it shoots
down my arms and out of my palms pushing her red blaze back.

It’s different this time. It isn’
t a sl
ow agonizing burn as my fire mak
e
s
its way to my hands. This time
, it’
s quick as lightning and bec
ause it’s so fast, I don’t feel it.
Either that
or I’m
just so
afraid that my other senses are
numb.

My blue fire pushes the red
further and further
away from Adam and me. I
feel her pushing
against
me harder and harder.
It feels like she might push me down.

I stand strong, focusing on not dropping my hands. There’s a big purple ball of flames where our two fires connect
. Soon, after pu
shing for what feels like forever
,
I’ve pushed the purple ball close to her
.
I’m winning.

She’s struggling harder than me. She takes
a deep breath to pre
pare herself, and then she drops her hands. Her red fire instantly
disapp
ears and my blue stream slams
hard against
her. Her feet fly over her head and she slams into the iron fence behind her.

She let
s
out an ear bleeding screech before jumpi
ng up. Quickly she knocks dirt and debris from her long robe. She laughs hard, and then abruptly stops
. The ice cold rage upon he
r face could freeze water.

I don’t know how I just did what I did, but I don’t care. All I care about is being able to do it again. I immediately take
a defensive st
ance as I wait for her to try again. Sire’s perched next to me,
ready to attack as well.

“I’ve
ma
de it here too late. If I had found you yesterday t
he outcome of that would have been much different I assure you.”

She’s
calm, even after being abruptly knocked down. He
r confidence in overcoming me is frightening. She smiles wickedly as she taps
her
chin in thought. I remain
in my defensive stance.

“Just leave us alone—please!” I yell
.

“I can’t do that,” she points at Adam. “If he’s the reason you won’t go with me, then he has to go away. But how do I get rid of him?” she contemplates and then smiles. “I’ve got it.”

She glares
past me at Adam. The garden grows still as she imprints
him with
her eyes. Expressionless, she looks like a
beautiful
ly
blank canvas.
She’s not doing anything—just staring towards Adam. I turn
to look
at him
.

Adam’s bent over,
his hands on the sides
of his head. His fingers tug at his dark hair as a hissing noise escapes his lips. He looks
up at me
in desperation, his eyes wild. She’
s doing s
omething, but what? How am I
supposed to help
him if I don’t know what she’
s doing?