Wicked Fate (The Wicked Trilogy) (22 page)

I close my eyes and try
to shield myself from the e
xtreme wave of dizziness that’s consuming me.  I need
to
hear him say it! My heart is begging
to hear him say it!

“How much do you care about me?” the words barely mak
e it out of my mouth.

He turns away completely and ignores
my question.
I want to shake him, break through his emotionless façade and see the Adam that he was just an hour ago.

“Mage, if they fought with their fist
s
I could stand a chance. But they don’t and I’m not magical. I can’t do the things you do.”

“You’re more magical than you know,” I
choke.

Tears rush
harder down my cheeks.

He’
s the most magical
creature I know. He has the ability to make me feel. He mak
e
s
me love;
he makes me smile—gives me the option to dream of a bright future. He’s taking it all away from me now and there’s nothing I can
do to change his mind.

There’s nothing I can
say to convince h
im to let me fight for us. It’s over…we’re over. If we were even anything to start with, which now I’m thinking definitely not. His feelings are obviously different from mine. I’ve
fallen in love for the
first time in my life and it’
s being yanked away from
me; just like everything else I’ve ever loved.

I’m
plag
ued with unhappiness and I have to a
cce
pt that. Except now, the unhappiness i
s w
orse because now I know what it feels
like to be truly happy. It’s like being given chocolate for the first time in your life, but never being allowed to ea
t chocolate ever again. I still would have
tasted it regardless.

“I just got you,” I bawl
.

“I’m doing this for you,” he says.

He turns and walks away.

I feel
small stinging sensations all over my fac
e and arms. I close
my eyes and let the little bits of i
ce sting me all over. It doesn’t
mat
ter anymore what’s hurting me. Whether it’
s
my grandfather’s death, or the end of my relationship with Adam, I need to feel something. Right now, all I feel is
the d
ime-sized hail.

My tears stop. All my feelings are gone. There’s nothing, just
a
dar
k impenetrable gloom that settles
over me.

I hear
the loud noises of the ice hitti
ng the trees and the ground. It’s definitely
hailing; rather hard actually. My tears that
had caused the rain are now causing it to hail; which is pretty appropriate considering how cold I feel
inside.

Chapter 15

A Blizzard in the South

The sleet and snow continues
to fall after that day. All the new flowers in the garden I transformed with Adam, which
I now call Adam’s garden, have
died and shriveled up. After he left me
, I
sat next to the goddess fountain and stared into space.

Everything that was great in my life
d
ied within a matter of hours, on
my birt
hday no less, my sweet sixteen. It wasn’t so damn sweet.

Not one person in my life is human or alive anymore. Where do I go? Do I st
ay here and tell no one that I’
m alone? Or do I run? And if I cho
o
se to run, how do I run and where do I run to?

Today I’
m putting my grandfather’s body in the ground.
It’s weird to bury someone while they’re standing
next to y
ou. This is the second time I’
ve experienced this in my life. Today, as I bury my grandfather
, he stands
next to me trying to provide comfort.

At his request
, I bury him in the garden
where he died. Not only was it his favorite of the gardens on Azalea Plantation,
but there was no way I could’
ve moved his body
alone any further than I did.
I think he knew that.

I hate that it has to be done this way. I’d love
to call someone and have a proper burial, but my grand
father says since no one really knew he was there, no one will miss him. He also says
that the authorities would put me in foster care
until I’m seventeen. That’
s a scary thought.

I
don’t want to be taken from my home, plus I’ve cared for myself since I was thirteen, so why stop now? I have my life savings and my grandfather has informed me of some money hidden in the house.  He says there’s a small fortune and when I’m ready, he’ll tell me where to look. As soon as I’
m ab
le to breathe again perhaps I’ll search for it
.
First things first, I need a job and some form of transportation. 

I stand
above
my grandfather’s grave crying. My grandparents try to console me the best they can.
Technically, I didn’t really lose him. Technically, I got him back. Before, he
was
there
, but he never really remembered me. Since he’s
entered
the spirit world, he always knows who I am.

I still can’t
hel
p but be upset. No matter what, I’m still alone. I have
no more human c
onnections. Everyone I love is gone and all I want to do is sit around feeling sorry for
myself
.

I still have Bernie, but I’m seriously debating
never speaking to her again. N
ot that she did anything wrong, I just can’t stand the thought of
having another pe
rson walk out on me or die
.

I haven’t told
my grandparents about the lady named Eris and h
er comments about the man who’
s look
ing for me. I seriously doubt I’ll ever see her again anyway. It seems
to me that she was just playing with me and
Adam. If by some chance they do come for me there isn’t much I can
do but try my hardest to protect myself.

Telling my grandparents isn’t
going to make me any stronger against The Lords of
the Night or whatever Adam called them. All it would do is
upset my grandparents and give them more reasons to worry about me. So instead
, I just slump
around the house, mostly pacing the confines of my bedroom.

Holiday break is over and everyone’s going back to school. I plan on skipping school
and stay
ing home to dwell, but I don’t
want to do anything to draw attenti
on to my situation. I
never miss
school, more than likely if I decide
not to go back now someone m
ight notice. I know Bernie will
.

After
debating and debating I decide to go. Maybe I’d
get to see
Adam; I don’t know if that would
be
a good th
ing or a bad thing. I si
t next to Bernie at our lunch bench. The reflection of the s
un off the white snow pierces my eyes so I close them. I can
hear a conversation
between Bernie and Kale; they’
re complaining about the snow.

Evidently, people are
finding it strange that
only the town of Summerville i
s covered in snow and ice. No other su
rrounding town is
having this severe winter weat
her and the blizzard gets stronger at night, it’s the loneliest time for me.

I
agree with them; I hate snow too and I wis
h I could make it go away. I’v
e tried everything to make myself feel better, but nothing works.
I just keep telling myself it’ll
g
et better soon. It can’t
be like this forever.

I hear Adam’s voice, he’s talking to Kale. He looks over and says
something to Berni
e.  He’s acting like I’m not there. My heart’
s breaking
into a million pieces and he’s pretending I don’t exist! How could he be so cold
?

The cold wind whips as I feel
myself getting
angry with him. Gra
y clouds
form
and soon bits of snow and
ice began to fall. If this keeps up it’ll
never be warm outside again.

Adam
’s eyes beg me to
stop,
he knows I’m the reason behind the strange weather.  I stand with hate and agony on my face. I pin him with my eyes as I walk
away.

In the beginning
,
it was just pain that I f
elt, but soon all that pain turned
to anger. Anger for what
,
I’m not exactly sure. I guess part of me
i
s mad at Adam
for abandoning me when I need him the most. He has
no i
dea that my grandfather’s dead. He has no idea
that he lef
t me all alone, but that doesn’t
matter
. I’m
still upset.

A
p
iece of me understands why he’s refusing to talk to me, but the
other pi
eces, the pieces that are so lonely at night, want to hate him. There are some nights when I
wake up in a cold sweat
with Adam’s name on my lips and here he is walking
around wi
th Kale pretending like there’
s nothing between us.

During h
istory class, I si
t in my normal d
esk. I try not to acknowledge him…I try to pretend that I don’t care. Throughout the entire class period I’
d ca
tch myself
staring out the window praying for a warm sunny day.

Occasionally, I can
feel Adam’s s
tare brand my face and it takes everything I have
i
n me not to look into his unresponsive
green eyes. It hurts too badly.

Finally, I give in. Knowing that he’s looking at me I reach
in
to
t
he collar of my shirt and pull out the necklace he gave me for my birthday. I squeeze
my eyes shut to keep the moisture from coming out. 
The cold silver in my palm feels good. Just knowing that I have the necklace makes
me feel a little better.

I
don’t care if he sees me with the necklace. I don’t care if he knows how bad I’m hurting. I open my eyes and for a minute he stares
back
. He reaches up as if he’s
going to grab his necklace; the other
half of mine. I silently pray that he’
s still wearing it. Instead
, he drops his hand, snatches up his notebook, and walks
out in the middle of class.

Later
,
on th
e walk home from school I play
arou
nd a bit with my magic. I wait until I’m
out of view of anyone then
I start
pointing at random things and making them move. I sho
o
t my
vision to the old fence that’s
at the very beg
inning of my driveway. It looks
horrible and run do
wn; so I point at it and picture
it the way it must have looked when it was first put into place.

The broken parts mend
them
selves, all the rust disappears
, and the whole
area around the fencing cleans itself and grows anew. Sire runs and frolics
in the fres
h grass and for a minute I find myself laughing out loud at him. It’s fun to clean up the little area and it looks great when I’m finished.

I continue
this along the whole entire d
riveway. Cleaning up trees here-and-
there and rearranging
the gravel along the road. It’
s almost effortless for me to do these things. While walking down the driveway making all these changes
,
I decide to do more. I might as well work on the house, too.