On unsteady limbs, I climbed from the car and we headed inside. The door was still ajar, so I pushed and stopped dead in my tracks when I saw the scene in front of me.
Aiden stood with his arm around the waist of a tiny, petite, blonde girl whose laugh was way too loud and fake. She was cute if you liked that sort of girl. Juniper’s eyes grew large as she looked back at me and I felt the power rush through my body.
Immense amounts of anger cause uncontrollable power surges in some sorcerers, and I was about to have one. Scott noticed, racing toward me and pushing me back out the door. He whisked me out of sight and directed me toward the woods behind the house.
Screaming, I threw my hands up and allowed the magic to flow. The energy connected with the ground, flames dancing in waves as they rose and fell with my anger. I let it all out. The amount of power coursing through me was astronomical and I was surprised I wasn’t losing momentum.
“Sadie,” Scott called from about ten feet behind me. “Are you finished?”
Lowering my arms, I turned. I nodded once and stalked past him, back to the house. The sound of water drifted around me as he put out the damage I caused. His feet hitting the ground behind me seconds later told me was running after me, but I didn’t care.
There was only one thing on my mind, and that was getting Aiden back.
###
Storming back in the house, I stopped when all eyes turned to me. I knew I must look crazy with my windblown hair and pissed off expression, but I didn’t care. Striding toward Aiden, I gave Barbie a glance over and a smirk before grabbing him to me.
With my body pressed against his, I locked my arm around his neck and pulled him to my lips. Years of missing him escaped in the form of a kiss, and I felt his arms wrap around my waist. Moving my mouth with his, I willed him to remember me, to remember us. We broke free when Barbie doll snaked her way in between us and pushed me away.
“Who do you think you are?” she screeched.
“We haven’t met. I’m Sadie. You are?” I lifted a brow and gave her my sweetest smile.
“His girlfriend!”
Aiden still hadn’t spoken, his fingers lingering on his lips as he stared at me wide eyed. Had he remembered? Was a kiss all it took?
Come on, Sadie. This isn’t a damned fairy tale.
Holding my hand in front of the blabbing face, I said, “Yeah, I don’t care. Move please.” I sent a shock to her feet and she stumbled as she found herself walking to the other side of the room.
“What in the...?” I heard her saying.
Gasps surrounded me, but I didn’t care. Stepping toward Aiden, I smiled. “Aiden?”
“Wow,” was all he said.
Olivia came to my side, locking her arm in mine. “Sadie, let’s talk in the kitchen,” she said sweetly. She practically dragged me away.
She pushed me ahead of her, hot on my heels as I took my time strolling to the kitchen. Once there, she turned and flicked her hand to ensure we had privacy. The room didn’t have doors, but she magically sealed us in.
“What are you doing?” she hissed. “You majorly pissed off Amy.”
“Who’s Amy?”
“The girlfriend,” she said with an eye roll.
“Oh,” I said. “Her.” Walking to the counter, I hoisted myself atop it and crossed my legs at my ankles. “I don’t care about her.”
“Sadie,” she said, exasperated. “I know you missed him, but this isn’t the way.”
“Why not?” I questioned.
“We have to make him remember.”
“What better way than with my lips?” I teased, winking at her.
“And if he leaves ‘cause his girl got upset?” she countered.
I stopped swinging my legs. “I didn’t think of that,” I muttered. Did I screw everything up by letting my emotions control me? Seeing another girl hanging all over him made me green with envy.
“I’m going to smudge her memory to make it look like he kissed you,” she sighed. “I hate to do that, but we need him here.”
She turned her head, grabbing her stomach and then her chest. “Scott’s upset,” she whispered. Waving her hand in front of the seal, she released us and rushed to find him.
Jumping from the counter, I followed quickly behind her. Arriving in the living room, I found Scott and Mark holding Aiden back as he attempted to make a beeline for the door, or so it looked. He squirmed and fought against them, but they were stronger.
“Let me go! Amy!” he screamed.
“Aiden,” Scott said calmly. “Please listen.”
“Who are you people?”
Mark and Scott exchanged worried glances, then Scott took both his arms and held him from behind. Mark stood in front of him, waving his hand in front of his face. Aiden stilled, eyes glazed and staring straight ahead.
“Aiden Rivers, your girlfriend Amy broke up with you before you came to town and you’re going to stay here because of how upset you are. You won’t fight us about leaving anymore,” he instructed.
My heart clenched knowing we were deceiving Aiden. What was I thinking, throwing a temper tantrum like a child? I should have sucked it up and followed the plan. It’d been five years, did I really think he wouldn’t date anyone?
Yes, yes I did.
They released him. He shook his head and looked around confused. “What’s everyone staring at me for?”
Olivia sighed in relief beside me and hurried to him. “Aiden, I was asking if you wanted to see where the ceremony will be tomorrow! You must have spaced out because you didn’t answer.” She made it seem so nonchalant and true he didn’t question her.
“Yeah, sure. I must have got lost thinking…about something.” He looked around one last time, eyes lingering on me before following Liv out the door.
“Sadie!” Scott yelled.
Well, he was angry.
“I know,” I said with a wave of my hand. “Olivia already gave me the once over about what I did.”
“I can’t believe you were so careless! What if Amy saw what you did outside?”
I shrugged.
“You’re infuriating!” he seethed. He stomped from the room and out the backdoor.
Juniper took one look at me and burst out laughing, doubling over after a few seconds. “You just walked up and kissed him!”
Smirking, I turned away so she wouldn’t see how proud I was of myself.
Mark cleared his throat. “What did you do outside?”
“Blew up some trees and set shit on fire,” I replied.
He chuckled under his breath and shook his head. “Same old Sadie.”
Juniper gave him a look and nodded. “She is, isn’t she?”
Rolling my eyes, I fought back my own grin. “Stop, guys. They’re really mad at me.”
Juniper shrugged. “I thought it was hilarious.”
“I should have controlled myself,” I said. “Listen, I have to get out of this dress.”
“We’ll go find Scott,” Mark said.
They left me standing in the middle of the living room, torn and confused, yet excited at seeing Aiden again. How long would this take? Would he still want to be with me once he remembered?
Would he hold it against me for running his girlfriend off?
There was only one way to find out.
Chaos. My parents’ house was pure chaos.
The men were at Grandma’s getting ready for the ceremony, set to start in just under two hours, while all the women were here. My mom, Olivia’s mom, Grandma, Juniper, and myself were running around attempting to all get ready and help Olivia at the same time. Per usual, I was dressed and ready to go first, even locking my dagger around my thigh with a holster. You know, just in case.
“Sadie, can you finish up the flowers?” Megan, Olivia’s mom, asked.
“Sure thing.” Thankful to get away from all the chatter and confusion, I slipped out of my nice shoes and replaced them with my boots. I imagined I would be in deep trouble if I got them dirty be
fore this shindig went down.
Stepping outside, I inhaled the fresh morning air. A ten a.m. wedding. Who did that? After a glance around to ensure no one was near, I began magically placing the yellow roses all around the arch. I mixed in some baby’s breath for effect, hoping they were ok with the slight addition. Small bouquets to match went on the back of the first chair on each row. Arranging a centerpiece for the guest table, I set it in the middle and moved the book and pictures to make it look better. Satisfied with the outside, I headed back inside.
Everyone was now dressed. My mom, Sabrina, looked gorgeous in a light blue gown with a matching wrap. Grandma’s dress was similar, but in dark blue. Megan looked stunning in red. Juniper, of course, matched me and even had her eyes hidden with contacts. She’d dyed the colored strands in her hair yellow to match our dresses.
Liv was gorgeous. The gown fit her perfectly and her yellow rose bouquet held matching diamonds from the netting. Her hair was curled and pulled back off her face. She glowed with happiness.
“You look so beautiful,” I smiled. Looking around, I realized I was the only one not crying.
She grinned widely. “Thanks.”
Megan sniffled, then turned to me. “Is everything done out there?”
I nodded.
“Good, thank you,” she said, patting my arm. “We need to get the reception ready.”
Grandma waved her hand. “I’ll get it when the ceremony is over.”
“Are there any humans coming?” Juniper inquired.
“A few,” Liv replied.
“Good. I’m glad I didn’t put these horrid contacts in for nothing!”
We all giggled at her response. I’d never worn contacts, but I imagined they weren’t pleasant. Watching her put them in earlier gave me a serious case of chills. Anything touching my eyeball was not cool, especially my finger.
“How long do we have?” Liv asked.
“About an hour,” my mom said.
“It took that long with the flowers?” I asked surprised.
They all nodded. “You must have been thinking about a certain kiss,” Juniper teased.
“What kiss?” Mom and Grandma asked at the same time.
Groaning, I gave her the evil eye. Mom and Grandma stared at me expectantly.
“I’ll tell them,” Juniper said gleefully. “Yesterday, Sadie saw Aiden and he had a girl with him. A girlfriend, actually.”
They gasped. Grandma looked horrified.
“Anyway, Sadie went outside and blew stuff up at Anna’s,” she continued.
Grandma glared at me, opening her mouth to speak, but thought better of it.
“And when she came back in, she walked right up to him and laid one on him! With his girlfriend right there! She was so mad.”
“Sadie Tabors!” Mom cried.
I shrugged. “What? We’re supposed to help him remember.”
“You better have fixed my yard,” Grandma said sternly.
“Scott took care of it,” I said. “It’s fine. Really.”
“What about the girl?” Mom asked. “He doesn’t remember you, Sadie. You hurt her.”
Sighing, I nodded. “I know! I know.” It’d eaten at me all night, knowing I hurt that girl when she hadn’t knowingly done anything to me. It wasn’t her fault she fell for Aiden. Who wouldn’t? He’d been gone for so long, I should have expected it.
All was quiet after that, each of us lost in our own thoughts. The sound of the front door opening had us all scrambling. Liv locked herself in a bedroom with Juniper and her mom, while Grandma, Mom, and I went to greet the rest of the wedding party.
Scott looked dashing in his tux, his grin a mile wide as he stood in the living room. “You ladies look beautiful.”
“Wait until you see your woman,” I said. Hugging him, I began to get a little emotional. My brother was getting married today.
“Mom,” he said, letting me go. “You’re going to mess up your makeup if you cry all day.”
“I just can’t believe my baby’s getting married,” she sniffled. “It seems like you were just born and you all should still be children.”
My dad came over and put his arm around her. “There, there. We’ll have more children to watch grow one of these days.”
Her face scrunched in angst. “I don’t think I’m ready to be a grandmother!”
Scott held his hands up. “Whoa! Calm it down. No one is having any babies. Let’s focus on the wedding, ok?”
I’d never seen Scott look so scared as he did the moment she mentioned becoming a grandmother. Santos winked at me from beside him and I fought back a giggle. Scott didn’t squirm at much and it was entertaining.
“The wedding starts in less than fifteen minutes,” Grandma said, taking charge. “Is Elsie seated at the guest table?”
Elsie was Kyle’s kind of girlfriend, an unbound we helped not long after he started becoming a vampire. She was half vampire and half fire fae.
Kyle strode in. “Yep, she’s ready.”
He looked just as handsome as everyone else, their tuxes all black except Scott’s, who wore white. He was going to walk Olivia down the aisle since her father was killed in the great Devlin battle.
“You look nice,” I said. We’d become friends when he’d come to Arrow Rock, and in turn Loudon Heights, not long after Liv started to come unbound.
“You do, too,” he said with a wink. “Now, where’s my sister?”
“This way,” Mom said, leading him upstairs.
Grabbing Scott’s arm, I pulled him aside. “I’m really happy for you and Liv. I wanted to apologize for leaving and not letting you know where I was. The longer I’m here, the more I realize what a mistake it was.”
He wrapped me in his warm arms, his brotherly love washing over me. “Sadie, Sadie. You’ve always been so stubborn. Nothing at all like I thought getting a sister would be like,” he chuckled.
Pulling away, I swatted him hard in the chest. “Hey!”
He laughed heartily. “I wouldn’t trade you for any other sister in the world, but if you ever leave again like that, I’ll make sure when I find you that you can’t again.”
Rolling my eyes at his threat, I said, “Ok, ok. Where’s Aiden?”
“Kyle brought him and he’s probably already outside,” he said. “People were starting to show up when we got here.”
“Are you nervous?”
“A little,” he admitted. “We gotta go get ready!”
“Go,” I said ushering him toward the kitchen. “I’ll see you out there.”
He grinned, practically skipping his way through the kitchen and to the back door.
###
Olivia and Kyle stood around the corner, barely out of sight, as Juniper and I waited for our cue to head down the aisle. Scott, Mark, and Santos stood in the front, with Grandma officiating. Mom and Dad sat in the front next to Megan, all three with glistening eyes.
The music began and Juniper gave me a wink before starting out the door. I counted to twenty, as instructed, and followed. There wasn’t a flower girl or ring bearer, since neither side had any small children available for the role. I cursed myself for not laying a rose petal walkway down, but couldn’t do it now for fear of the humans noticing. Once we got to the front, I smiled warmly at my brothers and Mark, then turned and waited anxiously for Olivia.
The wedding march started and everyone stood. Leaning my head and standing on my tiptoes, I grinned when I saw her coming. I didn’t watch her, though; I looked back at my brother and studied him as he saw his bride for the first time. His eyes grew large and moist, then the brightest smile I’d ever seen on his face appeared. His chest swelled and his breathing intensified.
They truly had a love like no other.
A glance back showed her looking as elated as he did. Kyle was proud and strong as he led her to her soon-to-be husband. The tears fell freely in the crowd, and I was beginning to see why crying was so common at weddings.
Emotions. Flying. Everywhe
re.
She reached Scott, holding her hand out for him to take. He did greedily, pulling her to him as everyone laughed. “You look sensational,” I heard him say. She giggled, peering up at him from under her veil. Grandma cleared her throat and signaled everyone to take their seat.
The two separated, barely, and the ceremony began. Both had written their own vows, but they spoke so intimately I couldn’t make out what either of them said. The looks they exchanged were enough to make anyone want their kind of love.
Scornful Sadie (Dark Sorceress Trilogy Book 1) Page 6
