Wicked Fate (The Wicked Trilogy) (15 page)

When I finally open my eyes the warmth is instantly replaced with shock and horror. The euphoric state that his kiss put me in is washed away in the blink of an eye.  My body tenses up knowing that I’ve possibly ruined this entire moment with my weirdness. While everything as far as the eye can see is still covered in snow and ice, there’
s an area around Adam and I where all the
snow has
melted. In
that newly melted area there’
s thick green grass and freshly grown purple and white daisies everywhere.

A summer butterfly floats up between us and lands on his shoulder. I quickly look up at Adam’s face. I’m
afraid to se
e the disgusted expression I know he’ll have.  He too is
looking all around u
s at the
magical things that have
just
happened. When he finally looks back at me there’
s no revolted look on his face
.
I
nstead
, he smiles at me.

Great timing, weirdness! Adam’
s
finally
starting to treat me like a normal pe
rson. The last thing I want to do is remind him that I’m not
at all a normal girl.

The silence between us seems to last forever. I feel
his long
,
slender fin
gers under my chin as he turns
my face
up towards his. I almost pull
away from him in
embarrassment—I don’t.

His
fingers
now
fe
el cool against my flushed face. There’
s a sli
ght tingle where he’s touching me. When I open my eyes I see how close we are to each other. I can feel his breath against my lips and his green eyes are burning into me.

“You’r
e so unbelievable,” he whispers against my lips.

His voice travels
down my spine.

I’m on fire everywhere—not literally, although anything’s possible when it comes to me. I feel exactly as I did the day I stopped Adam from crashing into the ground.
Except this time
, the heat is spreading
all over my body not just in my
arm and this time, it doesn’t hurt—it’s pleasant.

What’s he doing to me?
How
is he doing this to me? He’
s the unbelievable one, not me.

He’s the magical creature that’
s making me feel so many astoundin
g things all at once. For years,
I had felt nothing but worthless; I had no reason for anything. Now
,
in a matter of minutes, t
his wonderfully beautiful boy ha
s slo
wly given me purpose. He’
s giving me reason to n
ot only go to school every day,
but
to wake up in general. I want to wake to these
feeling
s
every day for the rest of my life.

How does he expect me to respond to his comment with
him paralyzing me with his eyes? What do you say to a comment lik
e that anyway?

The things he’s
seen me do
probably
are
unbelievable to him. They’re unbelievable to me and I’ve
lived with t
hese things my whole life. Things that seem to be getting stronger every day, which i
s kind o
f scary; especially since I have
no o
ne to talk to about it
.

Unbelievable
they
definitely are and there’
s no wa
y around it this time. There’s
no more denying thes
e things with Adam anymore. He’s
a
lready seen too much. I decide to be truthful with him. What’
s the point
in denying it? Obviously, he’s
not going to tell anyone. He’s
held on to one
of
my
secrets for eight years and he’s told no one about him getting pushed from the water tower that day. Why would he start telling now?

“Believe it…y
ou see it with
your own two eyes,” I swallow hard giving him a look that dares
any questi
ons.  “My question is, no
w
that you’ve seen all of this—what are you going to do
?”

“I wasn’t talki
ng about what you can do,” he sighs.

“Oh…then
what
are you talking about?”

He strokes
my cheek
again with his thumb. Physical contact with another person feels amazing. My strong resolve crumbles
yet again
. I’m realizing now exactly what I’ve been missing by pushing people away and sticking to myself.

Now my thoughts are becoming
mo
re defined. Instead of being the unrealistic perfect guy that I’ve admired from afar, he’s becoming real to me
.

“I was talking about you
, Mage. Y
ou’re
unbelievable. You’re just so...,” he stops and nibbles at his bottom lip.

I start
to panic.  I’m just so what?
Weird?
Strange?
Yeah,
I already know that.
I certainly don’t need to hear
that from him.

I’m starting to question what it is I’m doing. I’m starting to wonder why I’m even bothering with this boy. It’s obvious that he looks at me the same as everyone else.

Then to top it off, I had to go and make it worse by throwing fire at him. So what if that fi
re saved his life?
And if that wasn’t bad enough, I had to go and grow a
damn
flower gar
den in the middle of winter—i
n the snow
,
no less!
Which, let’s face it, all that’
s pretty cool, but not the point. The point is I should know better. After eight years of being a loner and evaluating people
,
I should most definitely know better.

It’s time I put a stop to all this chatting with people. It’s wrong, it’s always been wrong. I’m not like them and I
have to remember th
at. I need to remember that I’m
technically a threat to them. It
’s for the best if I stay
away fr
om all of them and that includes
Adam and Bernie.

“I’m just so what?” I ask
rudely.

“Well—y
ou’re just so…”

I see his body shaking and the logical side of me says it’s because he’s cold, but the crazy psychotic side of me says that he’s shaking out of fear.

He stares at me before finally dropping his hand from my face and looking away.

Yep! He’s definitely repulsed by me.

As if he hears my thoughts he shakes his head and smiles at me.

“Oh come on
,
Mage! Don’t pret
end like you don’t know what I’
m talkin
g about. You’re a smart girl—you have to know I think you’re beautiful,” he says in aggravation.

I don’t say anything—I couldn’t say anything if I wanted to. All this sweet talk and kissing has
rendered me speechless. N
o one, and I do mean no one, has
ever said anything along those lines to me.

He thinks I’m
beautif
ul! What’s this world coming to? There’s absolutely nothing beautiful about me and
I would know. I’m the one that has to look at myself in the mirror every day.

He begins to nervously ramble—I listen.

“
This is crazy! I can’t even believe I’m out in the middle of the damn cold spouting sonnets like some freaking loser.
I should just keep my thoughts to my
self. It’s just that sometimes
I catch
you looking at me and I guess I just thought—n
ever mind wh
at I thought. I have to go,” he says as he turns
to leave.

I grab his hand to stop him—tingling heat travels up my arm.

I hold
on to his hand
and try to figure out what to say next.
What do you say to someone who turn
s your world upside down? I give
his hand a little squeeze and then
shoot him a
flirty
smile. At least I hope it’s flirty since I have no idea how to flirt.

“Thank you,” I whisper
.

He intertwines
his fingers wi
th mine and smiles.

I’m
slowly becoming one of tho
se blushing little girls I dislike so much. Except now, I understand what it is that makes these girls blush and giggle. Adam’
s definitely saying and doing the right things to turn my pale cheeks pink.

“Thank you,” he says. “For all the sweet stuff you’ve given me for Christmas.
”

I chuckle, “It’s just cookies.
”

“I’m not talking about the cookies.”

With those
words
he leans
towards me a
nd softly kisses me again—I melt
.

It’s
funny. When this school year started I had a feeling that things were going to change for me. I had no idea
at the time
how extreme that change would be and I had no clue that the change would be so welcomed.

Adam’
s very much a welcomed change
in my life. Technically, he’s
been a part of my life since the second grade. I always thought he was special in his own way, but I can honestly say
I had no idea how special. This year i
s turning out to be the best. Things are seriously getting good an
d I can’t wait to see what
happen
s
next.

Chapter
1
0

The Sweetest Sixteen

The next day,
Adam sho
ws
up
at my front door. He takes up the entire doorway as he leans against the frame.

“Want to go for a ride with me?” he shoots me his lazy grin.

“Sure,” I beam.

Spending the day with him sounds like heaven.

We go to lunch at this really cute café in the center of town. You’d never know by the way we talk and laugh with each other that just a week ago we had a silent friendship. It’s like we’re old friends and I guess technically, we are.

He asks me about my family, and I feel comfortable enough to tell him everything—things I’ve never told anyone else.

“So how do you do it?” he finally asks.

“How do I do what?” I respond
before taking a sip of my cappuccino.

“How do you—I don’t know—c
hange the weather or stop people from smashing into the ground?”
he laughs.
“Anything that you do, how do you do it?”

Well
,
here
goes nothing.

“Honestly, I don’t know. I’
ve always been able to
do small things. The big stuff is new.
Sometim
es I’m scared I’ll hurt someone,” I sigh. “I just want to be normal.”

He looks shocked that I open up so easily about my weird situation; I’m shocked by it too, but there’s no reason to deny it with him anymore. He was there in the beginning when I did small things, and he was there the last time I did something big. What good does it do to pretend that I don’t know what he’s talking about?

“
You could never hurt anyone and normal’s boring. If anyone disagrees with that send them to me,” he leans back in his chair and crosses his arms.

The rest of the day flows
be
autifully. After lunch, we go for a walk through Azalea Park, playing
in
the gazebos. The flowers aren’t in bloom, but the park is beautiful. It’s still cold outside, but the snow has started to melt
.

On a small bench next to a man-made lake we sit and talk. He tells me about his family
and his job at the tire shop
. I confess my feelings about being alone at my house and my fear of growing old with cats. He laughs at the cat comment.

“You’re not going to be the old cat lady…you’re entirely too hot for that,” he pulls on the tips of my fingers, “literally.”

We both laugh knowing that he’s talking about the fire that came from my hands.