Wicked Fate (The Wicked Trilogy) (9 page)

“You’re so pretty, Mage. I thought so earlier today when you bumped into me. I’m starting to think you’re following me.”

The sound of my name on his lips makes me feel all weird insi
de. It’s a touchy-
feely emotion
I’ve never experienced before.
Not to mention, no one’s ever called me pretty. It makes me feel all funny.

I now have a new feeling inside of me for Adam, one that
I can add to the rest that won’t go away. There are so many feelings
these days and they seem to be getting stronger.
This means I need to stay the hell away from him.

It’s nice to know that he thinks I’m pretty, or at least he says he thinks so. More than likely it’s the affects of almost dying.  But more than ever I have to keep my distance. This is the second time he’s seen me do something and this time it was something huge.

Again he tucks a wild strand of midnight hair behind my ear, but this time he runs a finger down my cheek.  “How do you do these things?”

I jerk away as if I’d been burned and avoid his question.

“It doesn’t matter to me how you do it. Thank you, seriously,” he shakes his head in disbelief.

“No problem. Don’t mention it. Seriously
, Adam
, please don’t
mention it. You helped me today so
we’ll call it even, okay?”

“I’m not going to tell any
one! If I wanted to tell I would’v
e done it in the second grade! Your secret’s safe with me! Damn!”

“I better go
,” I say as I stand.

He follows me up and wobbles
a little.

“Are you sure
you’re
okay? I can get someone if you’re not.”

“I’m fine!” h
e says in aggravation
,
as he brushes the white rock dust from his dark blue jeans.

I call for Sire to follow me, as if I need to tell him that. Sire’s becoming my shadow.

I give Adam another quick smi
le and then turn to go collect my things for the second time today. Adam comes over and helps.

“Wh
at are you doing?”  I a
sk.

“You just saved my life
,
it’s the least I can do,” he shrugs, as he continues to stuff things in my plastic bags, which are now falling apart
.

“Thanks.”

“
Like I said, i
t’s the least I can do,” his dimple shows with his smile.
“I’m giving you a ride home.”

“No thanks,” I say, as I start to drag my things home with straining arms.

He sighs and shakes his head.

“Fine, then I’m helping you carry this stuff,” he takes most of my bags even with me protesting.

I say absolutely nothing as we walk side-by-
side to
wards my house.

Today, I
see a whole other side of Adam. Maybe it’s because we actually had some kind of conversation. I don’t know
. 

Either way it doesn’t matter.
I ca
n’t allow myself to start seriously falling for this dude just because he called me pretty
.
Especially when I’m sure he was just being nice. And even if he was serious…even if he thinks I’m pretty…t
he last thing I need is to accept s
omeone in my life who’s almost
guaranteed to
either walk away in the end or get hurt because of me.

Chapter 6

TheNightmare

The silence is thick as Adam walks me to my front door. Neither of us knows what to say to the other.  By the time we make it to my door, the plastic bags that we’re carrying are starting to bust and pop. This makes me appreciate his help carrying them even more.

I can’t come to terms with everything that’s happened in the last thirty minutes.  First of all, I’ve
just done something that I’ve never done before
. My hand was actually on fire!

That’s right! I’m hot—for real!

Now, as I look down at that hand there’s nothing to show
from that fire. There’s no
redness or burn marks and I feel fine, not even a singed hair on my arm. It’s the strangest thing; I don’t
feel like a person who was a human
Easy Bake Oven
just a half hour earlier.

It’s tim
e that I start figuring
some things out. The small things that I’ve always been able to do growing up are becoming large
r
. A random hamburger flying across the room out of anger has become levitation of an actual person out of panic. The fact that I co
ntrolled it is
amazing
—at least that’s what Adam calls it.

I
nstead of being small uncontro
llable things that
ha
ppen because of my mood
, I’m slowly becoming able to
control these large things and m
aking them happen on cue.
I’m almost scared to know what will happen next—excited…but definitely scared. What kind of crazy things will I be able to do in the future?

It’s my new mission to find out.

Even more miraculous than the wild things I’m able to do,
is the fact that Adam talked
me after eight years
without any contact and then he called
me
amazing. The boy that I’ve been infatuated with for most o
f my life called
me
amazing!
In a matter of a few months, I went from lonely and bizarre to
friendly
and
amazing. 

Tonight, while I lounge in
bed, I let the thoughts of Adam take over. I reach down and pat Sire’s side.

“Goodnight
,
Sire.”

He now sleeps in the house. He wasn’t too happy on the front porch so
now every night he sleeps right next to my bed. It took some time to ge
t used to the ferocious snores
that he produces every night, b
ut I feel so safe with him
beside me.

It doesn’t take much for me to fall asleep and before long I’m in a strange place.

I’m standing facing the ocean with the wind blowing towards me. It cuts through my long
,
black hair making i
t fly all around my face. I feel
warmth in my hand and I look over to find Adam standing next
to
me holding tha
t hand. He smiles sweetly then
pulls me towards him and hugs me tightly. I lean into him and rest my head against his chest. It feels so right to be in his arms and I never want him to let me go. He leans back, tucks my hair behind my ears
,
and then captur
es my face in his hands. U
sing his thumbs to stroke my cheeks
,
he stares into my ey
es—my knees feel weak
.

“You’re so beautiful
,
Mage. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

I push the side of my face deeper into the palm of his hand. I f
eel so much love for him, but
at the same time I feel fear for him
, too
.  I realize that while I’m in his arms and loving every minute of it, I’m absolutely afraid th
at I’ll never see him again.

“What would I do without you?” I ask.

“That’s not something you’ll ever have to worry about,” he says.

He closes his eyes and leans in
.

Adam’s going to kiss me! After all the years of wondering what this would be like; it’s actually about to happen!
I close my eyes and eagerly anticipate his
kiss. My nerves feel like they’re out of control and my knees
are getting weaker
. I start to worry that they’ll give out and I’ll fall into the sand wh
en his lips connect to mine. I wait
,
but nothing
happens.

I open my eyes and Adam’
s there in
front of me, except something’
s wr
ong. His eyes are wide with horror
as if he’s in pain. His head is cocked up and
his mouth is wide open like he’s screaming, but there’s no sound coming
out of his mouth.

I step back out of his arms, but he remains
still. He
stands there as if he’
s frozen in that specific pose. He’s not breathing and his skin is turning
ashy blue. Suddenly, he lets out a growl and anguish covers his face
. He never takes his eyes off mine, but there’s something different. Adam’
s beginning to glow! Bright red light reflects off of his skin. I lift my arm to cover my eyes from the brightness.

“What’s happening
, Adam?
”
I scream.

Finally, I look past Adam and see a lady standing far behind him. She’s looking right at me
and laughing. Her laugh is an evil high-pitched chime
. It sounds like a million tiny bell
s ringing all at once. I cover my ears to keep
them from burning.

She’s breath
taking
,
with long
,
curly
,
platinum blonde hair
that shifts with
the wind
s
. It reminds me of
white silk ribbons blowing around her face. She’s pale and unique;
like a gorge
ous porcelain doll. Willowy beauty dances around her as her long red coat flows with every aerial lift
. H
er eyes glow with an evil crimson pallor
.

With her hand, she’s
controlling what’s happening to Adam. She’s hurting him! Who is this woman and where did she come from? Why is she doing this to him?

“Stop it!” I scream at her.

The woman staring bac
k at me laughs harder
. Her lau
gh is causing pressure to build
in my ears
—they feel like they’re
going
to
explode. Out the corner of my eye I see something rise out of the water. I
look over quic
kly to see what it is. It isn’t
something coming out of the water, it
is
the water. It lifts, forming a massive wall at least thirty-
feet high.

R
apidly
, the aqueous barrier begins
to move quickly towards the shore—
towards us. I’m in
full pani
c when it reaches the shoreline
. It w
obbles like it has a life of its own,
then leans as it prepares to crash on to
p us. I
scream!

I jump up from my nightmare
screaming out loud. Sire’s
growling as if something’s there. I
lean
over and brush my
hands across my handsome protector to calm his nerves
.

“It’s okay
,
boy. It was just a nightmare. You can go back to sleep.”

He
doesn’t move from his def
ensive pose as he barks at a specific
spot in my room. I look harder at the wall that’s b
othering him. Standing there in my bedroom is the red-adorned woman from my dream staring straight at me. I lose my words.

I reach over quickly and turn on
the lamp, but when I look back she’s gone.
Sire runs to the spot w
here she had stood and paws at the floor
.

Things ar
e getting scary! Who’s this red lady that I dreamt of and why i
s she
stalking me
in my roo
m
?
The whole situation has me on edge.
I can’t help but feel
anxious and afraid. I don’t know what the crimson beauty wants. What if she means me harm?

Whatever her reasons, I hope
she doesn’t
come back. And from this point on, Sire will be
sleeping in the bed
with
me.

I spend the rest of the night searching the house and locking the doors. I check every room just in case she’s hiding, while praying it was just my imagination. I fall into bed just before dawn to catch a few minutes of sleep.