Wicked Fate (The Wicked Trilogy) (26 page)

Every day I have
long conversation
s with my grandparents, filling them in on all that I’ve
read
. My grandfather says that when he was growing up his father did weird things. I haven
’t gotten f
ar enough in the journals
yet to let him know whether or not hi
s assumption about his father i
s correct.

If what my grandfathe
r says is true that means that the magic skipped
every other generation starting with Robert McPherson. None of his children had
received any magic, yet there’
s a possibility that his grandson, my great grandfather
, was a magical man. M
y g
randfather has
no magical abilities, yet my mother did.  After kind of
figuring out the pattern, it still mak
e
s
no sense. If the magic
was
skipping generations
,
how is it that my mother and I could both have the ma
gic? Only time and reading will
tell.

I spend hour-upon-
hour in the library with Tha
ddeus and, even though my mind’
s always occupied with school, my grandp
arents, Thaddeus, or Sire, I always think about Adam and how much I miss him.

I see him
occas
ionally in school, but it isn’t
enough. No matter how
hard I try
to forget him it
just wouldn’t go away. Night time is the worst since I
lie in my bed and stare at the ceiling wai
ting for sleep. My mind goes
a million miles an hour with though
ts of Adam.

There are
so many memories in the small amount of time we spen
t together.  Those memories are what keep me going. Those memories get me up in the morning and make me smile when I don’t think I’ll ever smile again. How can
it hurt so bad to miss someone that was only a constant in your life for a few months?

When I’m
doing homew
ork, reading journals, or relaxing
in the gardens
, I wonder to myself if Adam misses me as much as I miss
him.

My answer arrives a few days later. It’s Saturday and,
of course
, I’m
in th
e library with Thaddeus. I hear
a loud knock at the doo
r. There’s
a little man at the door with a bouquet of pink came
llias and red carnations. It’s
a strange looking bouquet.

I sign
a del
ivery confirmation and then I take
the flowe
rs. The delivery man also hands me a gift. It’
s wrapped in purple an
d silver wrapping paper. I can
tell by looking at it that it’s a book of some sort. I can
also tel
l by the wrapping paper that it’s from Adam. He’
s the only person w
ho cared enough at one point t
o know my favorite color
. Anything he’s sent
from that point on was either purple or wrapped in purple.

I thank the delivery man and sit on the closest couch
in
the front living room. I lift the flowers and breathe them in. I feel
my heart constrict with the thought that Adam might actually be thinking about me.

I si
t the flowers down
on the couch beside me and begi
n to rip at th
e wrapping paper on the gift. It’
s a book, a stran
ge looking old book. The book’
s called
The Language of Flowers
. I flip through a few pages and realize
right away the su
bject content of the book. It’
s a listing of diffe
rent flowers and what they mean. Adam’s
trying to communi
cate with me the only way he kno
w
s
how without having to worry about breaking his deal with Eris.

I quickly flip
through the book to the page with camellias and carna
tions on it. When I read what’s on the page I clasp
the book to my chest and brea
the deeply. It feels so good to know what Adam’s really thinking. I look
at the page of the book once more.

Camellia (Pink) = Longing for you…

Carnation (Red) =
My
heart aches for you…

His heart aches for me! He misses
me to
o! My thoughts are
going crazy. Should I go to him or should I just take this for what it is and leave it be?

I wanted nothing more than to run to his house and th
row my arms around him. I miss
him so
much and to know that he misses me too i
s enough to
make me float. I pick up my flowers and hold
them
to
my nose
to smell them once more
.

“I
miss you, too, Adam,” I whisper.

After that day
, I glide
around
the library, I’m
walkin
g on air. Even Thaddeus notices
the difference in me.

“You seem awfully happy today,” he drawls.

“Well, maybe because I am happy today,” I stick my tongue out at him.

E
very co
uple of days there’s a flower delivery. Sometimes I find random flowers on my porch. The meanings are
different each time. There’s
a yello
w tulip on the courtyard bench, translation—there’s sunshine in your smile. A daffodil on the porch swing, translation—y
ou’re the only one; the sun always shines when I’m with you.
That one came after I saw some girl flirting with him in the hallway. I didn’t think he saw me, but I guess he did.

The langua
ge of flowers—it’s surprising and totally sweet.

Every
flower I get makes
me
smile, except the
mass of dead
leaves on my porch. Dead leaves aren’t usually noticeable to me,
but the way they’re laid out on the porch makes it obvious they were put there on purpose. The book says the dead leaves mean sadness—Adam’s sad. He misses me and he’
s sad
. Today’s a bad day.

I think about responding, but it would probably make things worse.  Staring at the dead leaves on my porch, I can’t help but wish for spring. Spring means no dead leaves—I’d be fine if I never saw another dead leaf again for the rest of my life.

There’s a
light pink flowe
r lying on the bench the next day at school. I don’t know what it is. Instead of going straight home after school I go to the computer lab to search the flower. I can’t know the message if I don’t know the flower. T
wenty minutes on
Google
and I find out the flower’s a pink primrose.

I run
home and almost shut
the door on Sire. I’m just so
ex
cited to see what the message is. The message before was so sad and I’m dying to know how he is. I snatch
u
p the book and flip through the pages. I stop at primrose and stare
down at the meaning.

Tears form in my eyes and soon I can
hear f
ar away thunder. I’m
almost to my brea
king point. It won’t be long until I demand
to
see him with no care at all for
the c
onsequences. Maybe there aren’t any consequences; maybe this is just one big joke that Eris i
s playing on us.

But w
hy would anyone make the only perso
n left in the world that I love stay away from me? What have I done to deserve this?

I look
back down at the book and
I
let the tears fall.

Primrose (Pink) = Unhappy witho
ut you…

I don’t
get another flower for a few days after tha
t. In those days it takes everything I have
not to go to him. To demand that he be there with me
again regardless of what
happen
s. Doesn’t he have a clue? Doesn’t he know that I’
d rather accept a
ny consequences,
than to go another minute without him?

It’
s b
ecoming too much for me, it’s hard for me
to keep my
emotions under control. I love
this great s
unny weather too much to ruin it
with over
ly
dra
matic outbursts. Instead, I hold
it al
l in as much as I possibly can. There’
s still the typical rainy night, but no m
ore blizzards and that’s what’
s important.

I try
to stay on top of the journa
ls, but I spend more time
daydreaming tha
n researching once Adam starts
talking to me t
hrough flowers. Thaddeus laughs at me and calls
me a sa
p. I don’t
car
e, call me what you like. I’m in love and nothing anyone can say is going to
take that away from me.

I want
to shout
it from the roof tops. I want
the wor
ld to know. Most of all I want
to look Adam in hi
s eyes and tell him that I love
him with all my heart.

Giving up on the journals, I go for a walk with Sire. We play
around in the gardens for
a while. Everything still looks so clean. The house i
s beautiful and whit
e. Even my grandparents can’t
be
lieve how great the place looks
. S
pring’s coming soon and so the azaleas, as well as
the other types of flowers, are
naturally filling i
n. Before long the gardens will
be filled with beautiful flowers
of all kinds. When that happens I’ll
sit in these very gardens and dream of all the messages that Adam could send me with each flower.

A week passes, and still there are no flowers. I can feel myself becoming aggravated. Why isn’t h
e send
ing me anything? Maybe he wants
me
to come to him. Maybe he wants
me to send him
a message. I’m
seriously on the verge of pulling my
hair out. That’s when I receive
my next message.

It’
s on the walk ho
me from school. I almost miss
the rose sticking out of a small slot on the newly refinished fence to my driveway. If Sire hadn’t stopped to pick at some kind of i
nsect in the grass, I would’ve
completely missed the bright red rose staring back at me.

It’s a beautiful
sing
le red rose in full bloom. It’s perfectly shaped and has
all the thor
ns removed. It smells so sweet; I keep
it under my nose the wh
ole way to the house. When I get in my front door I throw down my book bag and go
straight for my book.

Flipping through the pages, r
ed
thornless
rose practic
ally jumps
off the page at me. I read
the meaning and my heart slams against my ribs. This is the final straw! I can’
t do this anym
ore. I don’t care anymore; I’m going to see Adam. I have to see him!

No one’s
stopping me, regardless o
f how powerful or evil they are. I look
down at the page one
more time to make sure I’m not
seeing things and then
I sit
th
e book down on the table. I get up and mak
e my way
to the front door. I’m going to see Adam.

Rose Full Bloom (
Thornless
; red) = I love you; love at first sight…

Chapter
19

Choices

I mak
e it to Adam’s house in
less time than usual. I notice
his truck in the driveway with the
hood up. He’s bent over it doing something to the engine. Quietly, I watch him as he works. He looks
so adorable, all greasy with a red rag sticking out of hi
s back pocket. I want
to run to him and demand that he say
I love you out loud so I can
hear it.