Wicked Fate (The Wicked Trilogy) (37 page)

Where is my strength?
I
need more strength!
My eyes con
nect with Adam’s as he continues towards Craven. I hold out my hand begging him
with my eyes to stay back.

Craven sees Adam coming and jumps back onto his feet. I see
the sparks star
ting at his fingertips. Then I see
them leave his hand and
go straight for Adam. I get up enough strength to make my own fire. My fire knocks his blaze away.

“
Go away!” I scream at Adam. “Please,
go away!”

C
ombustion from Craven connect
s with my stomach and I lose my breath. M
y knee
s hit the sand again. I quickly look back up, I don’t
see
Adam anymore.

And then there he is, fighting Craven uselessly.  Craven i
s
obviously playing with Adam. He could
make it to where Adam never touched him. I know he could, he’s powerful. I see
Adam’s fist connect with the side of Craven’s face.

Suddenly, Craven attacks
one more time, this t
ime his purple inferno smashes into
Adam’
s
stomach
. I watch as he flies through the air. When he lands in the sand I’m already
by his side. Spe
ed is apparently something I’ve
suddenly inherited out
of fear.  I land
on
my knees next to him. He looks
me straight
in my eyes and the pain he feels i
s evident.

“Are you ok
ay?” I ask
.

With his eyes wide he shakes his head. I reach
out for his face.

“What’s wrong
,
Adam? Tell me what hurts!”

He’s
holdin
g his stomach like he has a bad stomach ache. I reach
f
or his hands to move them, but he won’t
let me move his hands.

“Let me help you!”
I yell at him.

I can hear
Craven
laughing hysterically b
ehind me. Adam shakes his head once more. Something’s definitely wrong. I grab
for his hands one mor
e time. This time he slowly lets
me pull his arms away from his stomach.

When I see what he’s hiding, I feel sick. Adam has landed on an old
picket fen
ce surrounding an older
beach h
ouse. A sharp piece of fence has
impaled him completely.

No! This can’t be happening!
Please l
et me wake from this nightmare—please! I can’t
los
e him! I can’t! I’m a mender! I
healed my arm an
d shoulder. My mother said I’m a Doyen—I can save him and defeat Craven.

I rip off my
hoodie
and push
it under his head.

“I can help
,
just stay still. This is going to hurt.”

I close my eyes, take
a deep breath
, and then I wrap
my hands around the
jagged piece of wood that’s sticking out of Adam’s stomach. I build up my courage, and then I pull
hard relieving him of the stabbing stick.

Adam sucks
in a breath and let
s
out a horrid
sound of pain. He’s
begging me with
his eyes to help him. I reach down and cover
the ble
eding spot on his stomach. Quickly,
fire leave
s
my hands.

As soon as my fire connects to Adam’s wound,
Craven
snatches me up from behind and throws me across the beach.

I have to help Adam. If I don’t
get to him soon h
e’ll bleed to death. I jump to my feet, t
hr
owing flames at Craven as I run back to Adam. I buy
myself seconds
. I drop
to
my knees at his side. He doesn’t
look
good. I lay
my hands over his stomac
h once more quickly releasing more flames. I cry
the whole time.
I have to save him, please let me save him!

Adam looks up at me and smiles softly before blood spurts from his mouth. I feel
myself leave the ground again as Crave
n attacks from my side.

I need two minutes, j
ust
two minutes with Adam. I fight
back hard. T
hrowing fire wildly, suspending myself in the air, anything I can
do to try and kill Craven or at least stop him long enough to give myself two minutes with Adam.

Finally, I slam
a purple ball righ
t into Craven’s face. He drops
to his knees covering his face and growling.

Inst
ead of continuing to fight, I run as fast as I can back to Adam. I’m
out of
breath and in a panic. I drop
to my
knees at his side and then I panic worse when I see his eyes closed. I scream his name and his eyes pop
back open.

I quickly lay
my han
ds over his stomach and start
to release the fi
re once more. He smiles weakly at me again
.
My tears pour down my face and the rain comes
quick
ly. There’s no
drizzle, just a sudden down
pour. The fire finally starts
to
connect to his stomach and I’m beginning to feel hopeful. If I can make it better before he dies everything will
be ok
ay.

He lifts his arm to me, but he’s too weak and it drops
into the sand.

“I love you, Mage,” he whispers
.

“I love you
,
t
oo,” I cry. “Don’t give up,
just give me one minute! Please
,
don’t give up.”

I feel
his cold hand on the s
ide of my face. At least he has
the strength
to lift his arm now. I continue
to cover his stomach w
ith fire. His eyes smile
back at me a
nd then his arm drops
in
to the sand by my knee. I look
back up at his face in tim
e to see his eyes close. I hear
him take his last breath and then exhale. I
wait
and beg
him to keep
breathing. No more breaths come. It’s too late…Adam’
s dead.

I fa
ll on top of him crying.

“No!” I scream
loudly.

My stomach turns inside out and a
wave of dizziness crash
es
over
me. I turn my head away to get sick in the sand. I can’t stop it. I dry heave and cry
in the sand next to Adam.

How could I have let this happen? Why didn’
t I just stay away from him or
allow
him to stay away from me. I’
d rather have co
nversations with flowers for the rest of my life
than to never hear from him ever again.

This is it for me! There’s no way I’m
going to make it through this. I
’ve officially lost every person that I’ve ever loved. If I don’t die here today, I’m sure to be sitting in the
institution next to my very healthy mother.

I hear a female screaming. I hear
the screams of a mad woman, the screams of a craz
y and deranged wild woman. I have no idea in the moment that those screams are mine.

I reach up to push a stray piece of hair from my face and I feel that my hands are covered with sticky wetness. Holding my hands out in front of me, I see that they’re covered in Adam’s blood—I get sick again.

I stop
the insanity long enough to lean down and pres
s my lips to Adam’s cheek. He’s so warm—he can’
t be dead
. I wrap
my
arms around his neck and pull
him
closer
t
o me. I lose track of time as I sit there and rock him in my arms crying. I want
to hold him
like this
forever
.

They’ll pay for this. They’ll all pay!  I know what I have to do.

I slowly lay
Adam’s lifeless b
ody back into the sand. He looks so peaceful. I place a
kiss u
pon his forehead. His face feels balmy as I lay my cheek to his. I whisper
I love you i
n his ear before I softly kiss
his still warm lips.

It’s a strange
thing to actually feel
yourself
lose control, to feel yourself go emotional
ly numb. All the tears that I’
d b
een crying for Adam disappear instantly. I’ve
offic
ially lost my mind and I don’t care anymore. I don’t care who lives or dies,
as long a
s Craven pays
.

I hear
him approaching from behind me. His laugh growing lo
uder and louder the closer he ge
t
s
. Rage sh
o
ot
s
th
rough my entire body. Thunder ri
ng
s
out from behi
nd me. Every bit of hate that I’ve
eve
r
felt, every bit of love I’ve ever
felt. Fear, joy, any emotion or feel
ing from my entire life come
together as one. The st
orm over the Atlantic Ocean grows. Lightening crashes
i
nto a tree close by and I don’t
flinch as a
limb drops right beside
me.

I feel the wind pick up and I
hear the waves starting to crash onto the beach har
der and harder. It’s a hurricane. The wind whips
through the trees, u
prooting a few. My dark hair blows wildly in the wind and I look down to see my hands glowing.

I don’t waste any time and I strike. For the first time ever, three different fires explode from my fingers in t
hree singular streams. One blue, one red, and one purple
—all crash into Craven,
sending him hurdling into the window of the nearest beach house.

The world goes quiet around me and only the sounds of the waves fill me ears. The silence is interrupts by a loud crash as Craven bursts through
a different w
indow of the beach house. I feel
tiny pieces of glass attack
my arms and face—there is no pain. Pain doesn’t exist to me anymore, not since Adam closed his eyes forever.

Craven lands on top of me. I throw
him with inhu
man strength. He doesn’t give up and he comes
ch
arging back at me once more. Blood leaks down from his forehead—seeing him bleed gives me more strength. This time, he holds out his arm again and puts me in another far away choke hold. M
y feet leave the ground again.

I
fight back with all that I am. Oxygen spills from my body as he squeezes harder and harder. I start to feel dizzy again, but I have
to fight back. He
has to pay for what he’s done
.

He continues
to choke
the life out of me. I’m angry, not because he’
s trying
to kill me, but because I want him dead. I have
to find
some way to kill him. It doesn’t matter if I go away forever as long as I take
Craven with me.

I’m almost at my end when I see
a flash of
gra
y dash across the beach strai
ght towards Craven. Sire latches onto the arm that’s choking me. I feel
the
earth beneath me again as I fall
h
ard onto the ground. Sand fills my mouth and I choke as I
suck
it
in trying to get air.

I watch
as S
ire tears
Craven’s arm to shreds. With a bolt of purple inferno
, he sends
Sire rolling across the beach.

And then another shocking thing happens. S
ir
e’s huge muscular body begins to stretch and mold
into another shape. His soft gray fur transforms in front of my very
eyes into
the skin of a human. There are
a few grunts and groans releas
ed from his snout before it takes
on the form of a human mouth
. I watch as Sire transforms into a grown
man.