Wicked Fate (The Wicked Trilogy) (32 page)

He’s serious and I’m stuck in this bed.
He could walk awa
y from me right now and there’
s nothing
I could do to stop him. I can
barely keep my eyes open much less ge
t up and go after him. I pull on the bedrail again and try to sit up. I feel his hand lay softly across
my chest
to hold me down
.

“Just lay still, they want to do a few more x-rays on you and make sure nothing else is broken so just be still u
ntil they do, okay?” his voice i
s different, distant.

“Adam
,
this wasn’t your fault. Just trust me
. S
he was trying to provoke me that day she made you leave, just like she was trying
to
provoke me this last time.”

           
Suddenly, I remember exac
tly how she provoked me. I can’t stop the sobs from
ris
ing from my chest and soon I’m
in a full out raging cry. My grandparents and Thaddeus! Gone forever
! Or at least until
I can
figure out
a spell to bring back my ability to see spirits. If there’
s a spell to take it away, there
has
to be a spell to bring it back.

“W
hat is it? What hurt
s? I’ll get a nurse!” he turns
to leave the room.

“No! I’m fine. She…she took it away!”  I stutter in between sobs.

“Took what? What did she take?”

I know I sound crazy.

“My eye
,
she took my eye!”
I cry.

Now I definitely sound crazy. If I continue with this babbling they’ll
be wheel
ing me to the psychiatric floor in no time.

“Baby, your eyes are fin
e,” he says confused.

“No! I can’t see my grandparents or Thaddeus anymore. She took away my eye,
the ability to see spirits! Oh, G
od
!
Adam
,
t
hey’re gone for good now!” I cry
harder.

“It’s
okay,
everything’s going to be okay
.”

A nurse comes in to check on me. I try
to control my tears.

“
It’s
okay
,
Miss McPherson
,
we’ll have that pain gone in j
ust a bit,” the young nurse says, as she proceeds
to stick a needle fi
lled with something into my IV.
“How lon
g has she been awake?” she asks
Adam.

“Not long.”

“Honey
,
you’ve been here for four days. Why don’t you go home and freshen up. Maybe grab something to eat. You keep this up and you’re going to be in a bed next
to her,” the nurse says sweetly to Adam.

The drugs are
startin
g to take effect and things are
becoming even more blurry. Adam sta
res over at me as if he’s
debating whether to leave or stay.

“We’ll take good care of her while you’re
gone. I promise,” the nurse says
after realizing Adam’s conflict.

He comes and stands beside my bed again. He reaches out and rubs
the top of my hand.

“W
ill you be okay while
I run home for a bit?” he looks like he’s in more
pain than me.

“I’l
l be fine,” I slur.

He turns
to walk away from m
e and I suddenly have a feeling that I’ll
never see him again.

“Adam!” I call
out.

He returns
to m
y side—there’s two of
him now.

I grab for his hand and hold
it tight. Partly because
I want
to feel his warmth and never let go of him, and partly beca
use the bed now feels like it’s
spinning.

“Promise me you won’t go aw
ay again. I can’t lose you…y
ou’re all I have left. If you go away I won’t have a
reason to fight back next time,” I squeeze his hand as I feel
the
tears returning. Dizziness sweeps over me and I sleep.

Chapter
24

The Road Trip

When I wake up again the pain is the first thing I notice
.
The second thing I notice is that it’
s completely dark out
side and in my room. The room’s quiet, too quiet. I try
to sit up, but the pain kn
ocks
me back down.

“Adam,” I call
out.

He’s nowhere to been seen. He’
s go
ne and he’
s
never coming
back. When he
left the sun was up and
now looking out the blinds of my hospital
room I see the moon. If he was going to come back, he’d be here now.

I start to panic. I have to get out of this bed. I have
to go to him an
d make him understand that he’
s not th
e reason for any of this. I have
to tell him the whole reason I was coming to his
house in the first place. I’d
completely forgotten
about the fact that my mother’s still alive, at least I hope she’s still alive. I need
to go to New Jersey and I re
ally need
Adam to be t
here with me when I finally meet
my mother for the first time.

Grabbing the bed rail with my good arm, I struggle
to pull mys
elf into a sitting position. It takes me a long time and it hurts like hell. Once I’m sitting straight up, my head starts to swim. I wait for the room to quit moving before I start to move again.

P
ainfully
, I turn myself
i
n the bed and then I slide down until I feel the floor
beneath my feet.
I’m afraid I might fall, but I hope for the best as I slide off of the bed completely and plant my feet firmly on the floor. T
he blood rush
es from my head and the room begins to spin again. There’s no helping it, I’m
defin
itely about to pass out. I feel
myself leaning and suddenly the
re is
a pair of strong arms holding me up.

“What are you doing
,
Mage?”
Adam practically yells at me.

He lifts me in his arms like I weigh nothing. Being
careful of my ar
m and shoulder he softly settles me back into my bed. I hold
on to him with my good arm for a lit
tle longer than normal. It feels
so good to be in his arms.

“You came back,” I’m so happy I forget about the pain.

“
I just went to grab a soda. Geez
,
Mage
,
I can’t leave you a
lone for two minutes. You’re so needy with all those broken bones and such,” he grins at his own sarcasm.

“I thought you were gone…f
or good. I was coming to get you back.”

Adam laughs as he brushes
t
he hair from my face and plants
a soft kiss on the corner of my mouth.

“You’re
impossible, woman.
”

I explain
everything that occur
red before I fought Eris. I tell
him about my mother’s journal
s missing and about how she’s possibly still alive. I give
h
im all the details I can
remember about my fight with Eris and how I lost my grandparents and Th
addeus. 

“How long
do I have to stay here?” I ask
.

The look on his face scares
me a little.

“T
hey’re going to let you leave the hosp
ital tomorrow. They
just wanted to
make sure your head and neck were
ok
ay
. Especially considerin
g you
were
unconscious for four
days. The only problem is, the nurses
are asking about your guardian.”

“Oh my God, wha
t
are they saying? A
re they going to let me go home? I want to go hom
e! I want to go home now!”

I start to get up and Adam stops me
.

“Just relax, I p
romise I won’t let anything happen to you. Just get better
,
okay.”

“When I get better will you go with me to New Jersey? I have to get to my mother, maybe she can help me get my grandparents and Thaddeus back.”

“When you get better we’ll talk about it. Let’s just deal with one thing at a time, okay?”

“Then I need to make sure I get better
super fast,” I slyly smile
.

I lift my good arm, putting
my right hand over my
left shoulder. This has
to work.
If I can fix iron gates and broken trees, then why not broken bones, too?

If people are
starting to as
k about my guardian it won’t be long before I’m
fo
rced into some foster home. Plus, I need
answ
ers as soon as possible. Craven’s coming for me soon and I need
to be able to defend
myself properly. If I can’t beat Eris, there’s no way I can beat Craven right now
.

I start slow just in case this is a bad idea and I blow
my own arm of
f. I feel
a slow burn throughout my right arm that s
preads into my fingers. A purple glow forms around my hand. The
simmering heat from my
right hand gradually penetrates
the bro
ken parts of me and it feels so good. The pain slowly
dissolves,
I keep
the heat flowing into my left
shoulder. Soon there’
s no pain at all.

I move
my hand down lower onto my arm and let the heat diss
olve under the cast I’m
wearing.
The heat soothes my broken bones. I feel
little spar
ks where the bones are beginning to connect again.

I continue
this process, moving my hand in different spots all over my shoulde
r and arm. Once all the pain has
dissipated, I very slowly start to sit up. There’s no pain. I still can’t move because of the cast I’m wearing, but I know without moving that I have
no more broken bones.

“Want to help me take this
cast off?” I say with a large smile
.

“Y
eah
, right.
There’s no way y
ou’re better. Not just like that,” he snaps his fingers.

“Want to have the doctor take more x
-rays? I’ll do it if it
prove
s
to you I’m fine. Nothing’s broken.
”

I jump out of bed, happy to be able to move without pain.

“Mage,
this is a bad idea.”

“Help me find my clothes.”

Quickly, I start
walking
around. I spot
my ripped up clothing in a chair on
the side of the room. I snatch them up and start
t
o undo the hospital gown that’s wrapped around me. There’
s no way
I’m doing this with a cast on
.

“Could you help me, please?

His cheeks are
stained
with a crimson blush and his face turns dark and serious.

“Gladly,” he gives me a lopsided grin.

Emerald eye connect with mine as he s
lowly
reaches
for the tie of the hosp
ital gown behind my neck. I feel
cool air touch the b
ack of my neck when the tie gives way. His eyes never leave mine. It’
s such
a deeply passionate moment. He gives me a tiny kiss as he reaches his arms around me and pulls me closer to him. I feel
cold air to
uch my lower back when he unties
the bottom of the unattractive gown.
His fingertips run down my spine then down the sides of my hips. He cups my thighs.