Wicked Fate (The Wicked Trilogy)

by Tabatha Vargo

  “Are you okay?” 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 holding his stomach like he has a bad stomach ache. I reach for 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 behind me. Adam shakes his head once more. Something’s definitely wrong. I grab for his hands one more 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 fence surrounding an older beach house. A sharp piece of fence has impaled him completely.

  No! This can’t be happening! Please let me wake from this nightmare—please! I can’t lose him! I can’t! I’m a mender! I healed my arm and 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 lets out a horrid sound of pain. He’s begging me with his eyes to help him. I reach down and cover the bleeding spot on his stomach. Quickly, fire leaves 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 he’ll bleed to death. I jump to my feet, throwing 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 stomach 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 Craven attacks from my side.

  I need two minutes, just two minutes with Adam. I fight back hard. Throwing 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 right into Craven’s face. He drops to his knees covering his face and growling.

  Instead 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 hands over his stomach and start to release the fire once more. He smiles weakly at me again. My tears pour down my face and the rain comes quickly. 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 okay.

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

  I feel his cold hand on the side of my face. At least he has the strength to lift his arm now. I continue to cover his stomach with fire. His eyes smile back at me and then his arm drops into the sand by my knee. I look back up at his face in time 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 fall on top of him crying.

  “No!” I scream loudly.

  My stomach turns inside out and a wave of dizziness crashes 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 conversations 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 crazy 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 press 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 to 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 body back into the sand. He looks so peaceful. I place a kiss upon his forehead. His face feels balmy as I lay my cheek to his. I whisper I love you in 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 emotionally numb. All the tears that I’d been crying for Adam disappear instantly. I’ve officially lost my mind and I don’t care anymore. I don’t care who lives or dies, as long as Craven pays.

  I hear him approaching from behind me. His laugh growing louder and louder the closer he gets. Rage shoots through my entire body. Thunder rings out from behind me. Every bit of hate that I’ve ever felt, every bit of love I’ve ever felt. Fear, joy, any emotion or feeling from my entire life come together as one. The storm over the Atlantic Ocean grows. Lightening crashes into 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 harder and harder. It’s a hurricane. The wind whips through the trees, uprooting 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 three 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 window 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 inhuman strength. He doesn’t give up and he comes charging 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. My 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 gray dash across the beach straight towards Craven. Sire latches onto the arm that’s choking me. I feel the earth beneath me again as I fall hard onto the ground. Sand fills my mouth and I choke as I suck it in trying to get air.

  I watch as Sire 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. Sire’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 released from his snout before it takes on the form of a human mouth. I watch as Sire transforms into a grown man.

  He shakes the loose sand from his long gray robe. His face is familiar to me. It’s the other man from my nightmares, the younger twin to Craven. I glare into his expressionless mirror filled eyes.

  Sire’s the man from my nightmares?

  “It’s nice of you to join us, son,” Craven growls.

  “Leave her alone!” Sire yells.

  Listening to them as they exchange words, I’m completely confused. The only thing I notice is that Craven keeps referring to the new Sire as Cain. Cain is my father’s last name. Could it be that the man who just shape shifted in front of me, the man named Cain, formerly Sire, is my father?

  If that’s so, then the man who killed Adam is my grandfather. I know this because Cain keeps calling Craven father. The man that I want dead is my own flesh and blood. If I could, I’d laugh at it all. Go figure this would happen to me.

  After my grandfather died, all I wanted was some form of family connection, a living connection. All that time I had spent day after day with my very own father. So many private conversations were held with Sire—so many secrets.

  As if hearing my thoughts, he turns his attention to me.

  I stare back in confusion.

  “You’re my father?” I ask.

  “I’m sorry, Mage. I had to protect you. I knew once you turned sixteen and your grandfather died they were going to come for you. I had to make sure that I could protect you. I’m sorry I deceived you.”

  “Why? I thought you wanted me dead. My mother told me, you had me just to kill me.”

  “Originally, for my father, that was the plan, but I failed. I fell in love with your mother. I ran away from her hoping that my father and Eris would never find out about you, but they did somehow. I love your mother very much. I hope that one day the both of you can forgive me.”

  Purple flames explode against Cain’s side. He slides through the sand and lands at my feet.

  This is most definitely ending now. I’d gained a mother and a father in the last two days, and because of that, this would all end now. I reach down and help him up.

  “Go to her, tell her these things. She still loves you. Take care of her, please.”

  I look over to see Craven coming towards us. His good arm pointed straight at me.

  “You should run,” I say.

  My voice isn’t my own. It’s emotionless and dead. It’s the voice of a cold-hearted killer.

  “I can’t leave you, Mage. You’re my daughter. It’s my job to protect you!”

  My hand ignites with purple flames and I hold it to his face.

  “Do you see this? I don’t need your protection—my mother does. Go…now!” I scream.

  I watch as Cain, my father, heads away from the ocean.

  I’m ending this now. I don’t care if I go down with the ship as long as the ship sinks. Maybe that’s the real difference between me, Eris, and Craven. Before Adam’s death, they fought well because they weren’t afraid to die and I was. Now we are on an even playing field.

  My careless emotions are stronger than Craven’s right now. I have no reason, no wants—other than wanting to be with Adam again. Craven may not have any reason, but he definitely wants something. He wants more power.

  His fire doesn’t even make it anywhere near me before I deflect it and send his fire along with mine crashing into his side. His body flies towards the ocean then splashes into the water.

  For a while, I don’t think he’ll surface. I run knee deep into the wild water. He’s not getting away that easily. Craven’s wet body slams into mine and we both fly through the air.

  Purple fire comes at me while all three colors combined leave my fingers for him. He doesn’t stand a chance. I’m done! I fly at him and slam my shoulder into his side. He brings his fist down hard against my back. It doesn’t hurt. I’m still numb.

  Sand explodes into the wild wind as we land onto the beach. An earthquake begins to shake the beach as a hurricane continues to thrash the trees and houses around us.

  He manages to get his hands around my throat again and he lifts me from the earth once more. I feel the heat of his fingers even though his hand isn’t actually around my neck.

  Oxygen leaves my body and I know this is the end for me. Except I refuse to die before him.

  Suddenly, I remember the huge wave that always interrupts my nightmares.

  Where’s the damn wave when I need it?

  I look over to the ocean trying my hardest to stay conscious. There’s no wave. I imagine what the wave looked like in my dreams and slowly it starts to form. I picture the wave growing larger and larger and it does. I’m the reason behind the wave.

  I beg the wave to come to me, to crash onto the shore, crash into Craven. I don’t care if it takes me with it as long as it drowns him. I focus harder on the wave as the dizziness starts to take me. The wave is now the size of the one in my nightmares. I watch out of the corner of my eye as it makes its way towards us.

  This is it, this is the end. I smile at Craven as I’m about to pass out. Finally, he notices the huge fifty-foot wave coming for him and I feel his hand ease up a bit. He looks back at me with shock in his eyes.

  “See you in hell, Pops!” I choke.

  I feel the shadow of the wave cover the side of my face. The storm continues all around us. Spray-off from the huge ocean wave lands on my cheek cooling my hot skin. I let go and wait for the wave to take me. It hangs over us now, teasing us with death. Suddenly, it begins to drop and I close my eyes from the sight of the water crashing down on top of me and Craven. I feel the ice coldness of the ocean water scoop me up before the blackness takes me away.

  Chapter 28

  Good Mourning

  I wake up once again in a hospital room. Bernie and Benjamin are standing over me.

  “She’s awake!” I hear her call out.

  I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck. I can barely open my eyes, and the heart monitor beeping aggravates me more this time.

  How am I alive? How did I live through that? Did Craven survive too? Adam! Adam didn’t survive. All the memories of the day on the beach rush in on me all at once. I start to cry.

  “Adam!” I squeak.

  “There are tons of people searching for him, Mage. The Westcott’s are going crazy!” Bernie’s face looks sad.

  I can’t speak. I can’t put into words that Adam’s dead. I just lay there and continue to cry.

  I have so many questions. How did I get here? Who found me and where did they find me? Where is Adam’s body? He must have gotten washed away with the huge wave.

  The thought of Adam’s cold lifeless body floating away into the ocean makes me nauseated. I choke down the bile that rises in my throat. There’s no way I’m going to make it through this.

  “You’re lucky to be alive, Mage. Who would have thought it, a tsunami off the coast of North Carolina? I guess it’s a good thing the beach wasn’t packed,” she continues to ramble. “Except one man did die, some old guy.”

  Some tension leaves my body. Hopefully the old man she’s talking about is Craven. What about Cain? Hopefully, he went back to Trenton Psych and confessed his love to my mother. Hopefully, he’s telling her the truth and making her day bright again. I want her to be happy. She’s given so much for me— her freedom, her life.

  I get to leave the hospital and go home two days later. Lesley Lane, Bernie’s mom, promises to stay with me until the authorities figure out what to do with me. I don’t care anymore what happens to me. I’m fully alive. There’s air in my lungs and conscious thoughts in my brain, but I’m a zombie—dead inside.

  I see a picture of the man killed on the beach during the tsunami…it’s definitely Craven, so that’s good news. There’s been no luck in the recovery of Adam’s body. I still can’t bring myself to tell people he’s dead. I keep thinking to myself that he’
s on a vacation somewhere warm. It helps sometimes…kind of.

  I don’t know how long I’ll stay this way, dead inside. Time is irrelevant to me. I spend my days lying around the house not really talking much. Bernie and her mother practically move in. At least this way I won’t have to be put in a home. Not that it matters. Regardless of where I live, I’m no longer living.

  They write love stories about people dying for the one they love. Lots of people say they would, but the reality of it is, most people would never die in the place of another. Some claim they’re madly in love, but they have no idea what real love is. They throw the L word around like it’s nothing. Adam and I had real love, the kind of love that people dream of, but rarely experience. A love that was stronger than any magic in the world.

  He died for me that day beside the ocean; he gave the ultimate sacrifice for me. Some would say it’s the most romantic thing they’ve ever heard. People will say it’s beautiful that he loved me more than himself. But I’d give anything to have him back. I don’t care about romance or the beauty of it; to me it’s a horrible thing. Losing him is the hardest thing I’ve ever experienced. I wouldn’t wish the pain I feel for his loss on my worst enemy.

  I blame myself for his death. If I had just stayed away from him, he’d still be alive today. I could say that I wish I’d never met him, but that would be a lie. Call me selfish, but I would never give up the time that we had together for anything in the world. I can’t make myself regret any of it. I can’t make myself regret the fact that Adam was in my life.

  In my timeless haze of life, a month has gone by since his death. No one ever comes to take me away from my home. I think Bernie’s mom made some kind of arrangement with the officials. I never asked, but I appreciate whatever she did.

  Since waking up in the hospital, I’ve tried to think of different ways to bring him back. I’ve searched for potions and spells in the journals in the library, there’s nothing. If only I could still see Thaddeus, he could tell me how to bring Adam back. I don’t care how he comes back as long as he does.