“So, you don’t live here, right?” he asked, stepping closer.
“No, I’m in town for this and a visit.”
“Where do you live?”
Smiling, I chuckled. “Right now, Charleston. Who knows a few months from now.”
“That’s gotta be fun. Traveling, seeing new places.”
Fun was one word for it. “It’s definitely interesting.”
He studied my face intently. “I really feel like I know you,” he whispered.
“Do you?” I prodded. Reaching for his hand, I warmed it with magic and sent it through him. “Who am I?”
“Sadie…Sade.” He looked down at our joined hands. “You’re so warm.”
I didn’t reply, only beamed at him.
He touched his hand to my cheek, caressing gently. “Your eyes tell me they know me, too. What aren’t you telling me?”
The words ached to spill from my mouth. Our past, the memories. The moment in the kitchen when we almost kissed, the car ride to the council when we talked and got to know each other, the first time either of us kissed anyone in Grandma’s living room, the last moments we shared. Wanting to tell him everything, I had opened my mouth to speak when I was interrupted.
“Hey, buddy, you ready? We’ll give you a ride,” Mark said, slapping him on the shoulder.
I closed my mouth and shrugged. “You should go.” Dropping his hand, I turned my back to him and walked from the room.
“I’ll find you later, Sadie,” He called after me. The determination in his voice left no doubt he’d be waiting for me when I got home.
###
Sinking into the comfiest chair in the living room, I locked my feet under me and curled up. Why were things so difficult? Wasn’t fighting evil supposed to give me good karma? Why was the bad, dead guy after me?
“Sadie,” Grandma said. “Scott and Liv are finishing up packing for their honeymoon. I insisted they go, but when Mark returns, we’re going to all talk about this Bram situation.”
I scoffed. “Situation. I think it’s a bit more serious than that.”
Pursing her lips, she nodded. “Perhaps.”
“Will they be safe?”
“It’s Scott and Olivia we’re talking about,” she chuckled. “Besides, I don’t think Bram’s interested in anyone but you.”
Groaning, I rested my head on the back of the chair. “He most definitely seems interested in me.”
She perched on the arm and patted my hand. “We’ll figure it out. You aren’t in this alone.”
“I don’t want you all in danger. This is my fight.”
“If it concerns you, it concerns all of us,” she stated.
“Remember what happened last time everyone was involved? I won’t have that on my head.”
“Sebastian wasn’t anyone’s fault, Sadie.” She stood, stretching her neck to peer out the window. “Mark is back. Let’s go to the kitchen.”
Reluctantly, I stood. Closing my eyes, I imagined my clothing changing to my normal wear, and felt tons more comfortable once I was out of the poofy dress and heels. “Much better,” I mumbled.
Mark walked in the door and greeted me. “Hey, Sadie. I left Juniper with Aiden so he wouldn’t get bored and go snooping around the house. If he found the library…” he said, wrinkling his forehead in worry.
The library in Grandma’s house wasn’t a normal place. Initially when you walked in, it looked like a place for books, but upon closer inspection one would find the passageway to the real library. Housing thousands of magical books and dictionaries, not to mention herbs and potions. Aiden definitely didn’t need to find it on his own. “Good plan,” I agreed. “They’re in the kitchen.”
We headed in, finding everyone standing around looking upset and apprehensive. Pulling a chair from the table, I spun it around and sat on it backwards. “Let’s do this.”
“We aren’t going on this honeymoon,” Scott said shaking his head. “No way we’re leaving.”
“Yes, you are,” Grandma, Mom, and I all said simultaneously.
Olivia twirled and faced me. “How can you expect us to leave when you’re in danger?”
“Because you just got married and deserve a honeymoon?” I asked. “I’m sorry your wedding was crashed, but I can’t do anything about it now. You can still have the honeymoon. No one is going to come after you. They want me.”
“We can help,” Scott asserted.
“Could, but don’t want you to,” I shrugged. “You two need to finish packing and go already.”
Grandma intervened. “I agree with Sadie. We can handle this. You have this cruise and trip planned and paid for. We aren’t going to let that go to waste.”
They exchanged looks, both looking defeated. “You’ll notify us if something happens?”
We all nodded.
Scott sat across from me and Liv rested in his lap. “Then tell us about the Bram thing. Our flight leaves in six hours.”
Grandma sighed and began her tale. “When we found Sadie, I told her about dark sorcerers using their powers in unnatural ways and possibly resurrecting one of the original sorcerers, Bram. Now we know he is back. The council has been trying to get as much information as possible, but the most current information we have is he’s in Spain, and he’s looking for the most powerful sorcerers in the world.”
She looked at me, giving me the most sincere and concerned look I’d ever witnessed on her face. “He was a relentless ruler in his day. Sorcerers weren’t free to live on their own, to have families. They were forced to live in the same communities with…basically dictators. Bram was the most ruthless of the rulers. He was one of six, and we’re not sure if the others are being resurrected or not. The council and I believe he may be trying to recreate the world he used to live in. He has beings under his dominion, as we saw today, and he’s not limiting them to sorcery this time. I’m sure you all noticed the unbound beings attacking today.”
Every being had an aura color, and the unbound were white. They all took on an aura not long after coming into their powers.
“We think he may be recruiting them since they have such a range of power. As for why he wants Sadie and the others, we don’t know. Mark is head of the research on Bram,” she explained, looking at him as she spoke. “And he’s doing everything he can to figure out what we’re facing.”
He nodded, then directed his attention to me. “Sadie, after today, I think we’ll step it up. I didn’t realize he was going to come after you so soon.”
I gulped. This was more serious than I expected. “I’ll help if I can.”
“You’ll be right there with my library, dear,” Grandma said. “You know what to do.”
I nodded.
“How did Sadie get so powerful?” Dad chimed in. “She’s been gone, but she’s not a fifth generation sorceress. Should she be so powerful?”
Fifth generation sorcerers were unique to each family, gaining a multitude of powers with their birth. Scott was our current fifth-gen.
Grandma pursed her lips and shook her head. “She shouldn’t. She’s watched me, trained with me, for years. It seems when she grew…angry with her surroundings, she tapped into a deeper power and it’s now the forefront of her magic.”
Cocking my head, I sat up straighter. “I’m not supposed to be so powerful?”
She shook her head.
What had I done? “I’m not the first person to be angry.”
“No,” she agreed. “Most definitely not. I realize this, and I don’t want to startle you…but I found a prophecy.”
Oh my god. I said nothing, staring at her and mentally willing her to take back her words.
“And?” Scott breathed heavy and kept darting his eyes to me.
“And it spoke of a young sorceress, called her the dark sorceress, that would come to her power a few years before Bram came back to life. I never thought anything of it because no one was successful at bringing the complete dead back to life. It only works in situations like Juniper’s, where th
e soul is still in the room and not crossed over. Bram crossed over long ago. This shouldn’t have happened.”
“Why do you think it’s me?” I croaked.
“Because you’re the only one we know of that’s more powerful than she should be.”
Dark sorceress. “What does that mean? Dark sorceress?”
“Let me get it,” she said. “I’ll read it to you.” She rushed from the room and to her bags.
Sitting dumbfounded, I didn’t hear Liv talking to me until she snapped her fingers in my face. “Sadie!”
“What?”
“Are you ok?”
“I don’t want to be part of a prophecy,” I confessed. “I don’t.”
She crouched in front of me, resting her hand on my arm. “I know. It’ll be ok,” she said soothingly.
Grandma returned, flittering in with a scroll in her hand. Seriously?
“Here it is,” she said. Unfolding it, she smoothed it out on the table and began reading.
“The most awful of the six will return with a vengeance.
Only one can stop him, the dark sorceress who comes into her power at the beginning of the resurrection.
She will be the one to change sorcery forever and defeat the awful one.
Once she becomes her darkest self, the light will shine through.”
I turned away, not wanting anyone to see the shock and utter fright I was sure etched on every inch of my face.
“What does that mean?” my mother screeched. “Her darkest self?”
A chair scooted across the floor and soon Scott was in my view. “Sis?”
Blinking several times, I finally focused on him.
“Sis, we don’t know it’s you.”
“We don’t know it’s not,” I whispered.
He smoothed my hair behind my ear. “You could never be dark, Sadie. You’re too good.”
“I kill,” I said, tears threatening to fall.
“Bad guys. Dark kills light, not dark.”
Grandma patted him on the shoulder and he stood and moved. She took his place and gave me a small smile. “Sadie, even if you were your darkest self…you’d still be good. Don’t worry about what this says. We’ll find more information.”
What if I did go dark? Would I come back from it? How would I know if it was about me? Was Bram going to destroy everything about me?
“I need to go,” I finally said. I stood abruptly, knocking the chair to the ground. Looking at it, I walked backwards saying I was sorry and popped out.
Landing in Grandma’s yard, I inched up the steps and stopped at the top. Juniper and Aiden were here. Dammit. Maybe I could get past them and not talk about anything.
Opening the door, I listened for voices but didn’t hear anything. I took a few steps but stopped when I saw Aiden laid out on the couch with his arm thrown over his eyes, napping. The same couch where we’d shared our first kiss. Moving forward, I stopped a few feet from him and reveled in watching him.
He didn’t know anything about me, or this, or the bad, supernatural world. Who were we to remind him? I needed to let him go, let him live, and not drag him into this. As I turned, my foot caught on the rug and I sprawled out on top of him.
He hmphed as he woke, his arm dropping and eyes growing wide as he looked at me. The tears fell now as I scrambled, and failed, to get up.
“I tripped,” I choked out.
“Sadie.” He was concerned as he wrapped an arm around me. “Are you ok?”
I nodded, lying. “I hurt my toe.”
He raised his head slightly and cocked it. He looked at me, then the back of the couch, then the floor, then me again. “This has happened before.”
Sniffling, I finally gathered my balance and got up. “What?”
“We’ve been on this couch before,” he said, this time more certain of himself.
“Are you sure?”
He sat up and tapped his leg. “Friday wasn’t the first time we kissed.”
Oh my god, he’s remembering. “Aiden…”
“It’s a faint memory…but it’s there. You’d been crying, just like now. And we kissed. I think it was my first kiss.”
My nod sent a tear rolling down my cheek and splashing on my chest. “Yeah.”
“Sadie, why don’t I remember meeting you? Or anything else about you?”
I reached for him, taking his hand and squeezing. “You will.”
I left him there, dashing to my bedroom and locking the door. It was too late to save him from all of this. He was remembering. Now he was in as much danger as the rest of my family. I didn’t know if I could handle losing one of them again. Sebastian’s death haunted me, but losing someone else? I wouldn’t come back from that.
Throwing myself on the bed, I cried out my pain and drenched my pillow. It exhausted me and at some point I fell into a restless sleep.
When I woke sometime in the middle of the night, I kicked off my boots and secured my dagger under my pillow. I threw my pants to the ground and slipped under the covers, hoping the nightmares didn’t return.
They did. The prophecy was fresh on my mind and every scenario I could dream up, literally, happened throughout the night. I woke multiple times, drenched in sweat and shaking. Was this what my life would be like until this was over?
The sound of my door lock being picked sometime in the wee hours before sunrise woke me. Startled, I lay still and slipped my hand under the pillow, wrapping my palm around the hilt. The door creaked open and I controlled my breathing so they wouldn’t know I was awake. When I heard the steps growing closer, I jumped to my feet, swinging the dagger in front of me and screaming.
“Sadie!” Aiden screamed, jumping barely out of reach of the knife. He was dressed in shorts and a tshirt that stretched tightly across his chest and arms.
“Oh my god, Aiden! What the hell?” I yelled. “I could have killed you.” I lowered my arm, breathing heavy as I realized what I almost did. My dagger was inches from his flesh. It would have killed him if I’d hit like intended.
“Why do you have a huge knife in your bed?” he wondered, looking at my hand, then lowering his eyes down my body.
Shit. Looking down, I groaned inwardly. Here I was, standing in a tank top and panties and Aiden was in my bedroom. “Why are you sneaking into my room at,” I screeched, looking at the clock, “six a.m.?”
“I was trying to check on you!” he yelled back. “I was worried. I knocked and you didn’t answer.”
Wrapping my arms around myself and crossing one leg in front of the other, I said, “I didn’t sleep well. Guess I was sleeping pretty hard.”
“Well, are you ok? I heard you cry out a few times during the night.”
I closed my eyes and nodded, ashamed he’d heard me. “Yeah. Fine. Just a nightmare.”
“Sadie,” he started, shuffling toward me, but was interrupted.
Suddenly, the sound of water filled the room and the water fae appeared, perched on top of the footboard. “Hello, Sadie Tabors.”
“Not you again,” I said through gritted teeth. Pushing Aiden out of the way, I stalked to her with my dagger extended. “This will be the last time you come after me.” How did she get in? She’d probably been planning to off me in my sleep.
She held up both palms and stood, backing away. “I’m not here to hurt you. I’m here with a warning.”
“From Bram?” I mocked. “Don’t care.” I pushed forward.
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “You spared my life yesterday. And I’m sorry I interrupted whatever this was with your boy toy, but your friends are in danger.”
“What?” I questioned. Was she for real?
“Bram’s planning an attack on your Charleston friends today. In a couple of hours. You spared me, so I’m sparing your friends. We’re even.” She disappeared then, leaving me wondering what in the hell was going on.
Aiden came up behind me, fingers wrapping around my upper arm. “Sadie, I’m sorry I scared you,” he said huskily.
Oh, yeah. Panties and a tank. I spun to face him. “Don’t ever do that again. If you hadn’t screamed I would have killed you.”
“It would have been worth it to see you looking as sexy as you do right now,” he said. His eyes scanned the length of me and he winked.
Did he have to keep making me want him? “Thanks?” I refused to let him see how much he affected me.
“No, thank you,” he replied. He leaned forward, brushing his lips against mine and raced out the door.
Scornful Sadie (Dark Sorceress Trilogy Book 1) Page 8
