Wicked Fate (The Wicked Trilogy) (29 page)

“I’m so sorry, Adam,” I reach
out my hand to touch him.

He jerks back when he sees
the small purple fire still burning on the tips of my fingers.

The flam
e on my fingertips extinguishes. I cover
my face
with my hands and start to cry. How am
I ever going to have a normal r
elationship with Adam when I’m
constantly pu
tting his life in danger? I feel
his arms go around me and squeeze me tight.

“It’s okay
,
sweetheart
, please don’t cry,” he whispers
against my hair.

“I could’ve killed you!” I sob
into my hands.

“I’m
fine,
i
t was just a littl
e scare. Please stop crying, baby
.”

I look up at him and notice
the light coming in through my curtains. Adam had spent the night w
ith me. He didn’t leave me, and how do
I repay him? By almost zapping him with purple fire
,
that’s how!

What’
s happeni
ng to me? More changes? What does this mean? And who’
s the lady in my dream? A sudden realization hit
s me and I stop everything. My crying ceases
immediately. I tens
e in Adam’s arms and he feels
my sudden change.

“What is it?” he asks
.

These random dreams don’t usually mean much to me. They scare me, but after waking I’ve never
really had any
peculiar feelings. This time is different. This dream i
s a warning, now that I look back all my dreams were
some kind of warning. I now know what that warning is. It won’t
be much longer
before the man in my dream comes for me. He’s coming for me and he doesn’t
want m
e to go back with him. He wants
me dead.

Chapter 21

The Mysterious Mr. Thaddeus

I don’t dare tell Adam that I think my worst nightmares are
about to c
ome true. Something about the whole situation still isn’t right. I don’t think that the
people wh
o are coming for me have
anything to do with m
e and Adam being together. I have
a feeling it
has
to do with something completely different, but what could it be?

After seeing Adam off, I run into the library and call
for T
haddeus. He never appears. Instead of wasting time, I go
straig
ht into the journals. There are only a few left and I have
to finish
reading them. I hope that one of the last few journals explains
everything.

I finish
reading the last of Aunt
Agatha’s journals and move
to
the next stack. The new stack i
s all the sam
e brown color and same thickness. I grab
the first one and b
egin to read. By the time I’m
halfway
through the first journal I’m slowly realizing whose journal I’m
reading.

The owner o
f these particular journals is the brother of
Robert McPherson,
who was the first in a long
line of family witches. Apparently, he was the younger of the two brothers and was constantly in trouble. Whether it was having an affair with a married woman or cheating in a game of poker, Thaddeus McPherson was always using his magic in ways he wasn’t supposed to.

I sit
in the library almost all day, stopping every now and again for somet
hing to drink or eat. I can’t believe the things that I’m
reading. This couldn’t be my sweet and loving T
haddeus. He would never do the horrible things that are
written in his journals.

From what I read
,
Thaddeus was very different from his brother; he was a jokester who only worried ab
out himself.  He even used his m
agic once to almost kill an innocent man because the man refused to hand over his wife.
I can’t believe the things I’m reading.

When I finally finish all the journals for Thaddeus, I’m in complete shock
. I put the last book on the shelf, and then
si
t in the big leather chair behind the desk.

Fir
st of all, Thaddeus obviously is my very distant
great uncle. Second of
all, my sweet best friend who’
s
always been there for me wasn’t always
a sweet person. He was a horrible kid that played mean tricks on people and found it hilarious. Last
, but not least, from what i
s written in his journals, he killed Robert McPherson! He murdered his own brother! Thaddeus
, my Thaddeus…a killer! Every day it’
s something new.

“Please tell me these things aren’t
true,” I whisper into the air
.

“I’m afraid so,
darlin
’,” I hear
him respond.

He isn’
t visible.

“Why?”

“
I was just a kid
then. It was all fun and games—
until someone got hurt.”

“Your brother, Robert?”

“Yes,” I can
hear the hurt in his voice.

“So
,
it’s true then? You killed him? Why
,
Thaddeus
? How could you do it?”

I look
u
p at him as he suddenly appears
sitting in one of the chairs in front of the desk.

“I don’t expect you to understand. When I killed him he wasn’t himself. I knew Robert better than anyo
ne else. The man I killed wasn’
t Robert.”

“Well help me understand, please!” I can
feel the tears coming.

This i
s Thaddeus, one of
the people in my life I trust the most. There has
to be
some kind of mistake, I can’t
believe that he would kill his brother in cold blood. The o
ther things he did growing up, maybe. Even I can
see how a young person could
take advantage of all the power. There are times when I want to do things
I shouldn’t, but I would never, never kill someone I
love
.

“We were
experimentin
’
with our powers. No one knew this of course, i
t was our secret. We were
tryin
’
out different
spells, it was kind of our past
time and it was fun. He knew of all my indiscretions. They were all planned to see if the powers we had would work to fix them. He actually helped me plan them. Sometimes they worked
,
sometimes they didn’t.”

“But there’s
nothing in
his journals about it?” I ask
confused.

“No
,
there wouldn’t be. You see
,
he was afraid
that Emma, his wife, was
readin
’
his journals and we didn’t want her to know more than she already did.”

“So what happened?”
I ask.

I can tell he’
s reliving the w
hole moment in his mind. I can see the hurt in his gray eyes.

“After
playin
’
around with small spells and tricks we decided to take our powers
to the next level. We were
goin
’
to attempt to bring someone back from the dead. We had it all figured out, we knew the exact spell that would do the trick.”

I sit and listen
amazed by the information I’m
receiving. Thi
s is unreal. How’
s it possible to bring someone bac
k from the dead? The suspense is killing me as I listen and wait
for Thaddeus to tell me more.

“We were
goin
’ to test the
spell out on an old horse that neede
d to be put down. We were
goin
’
to put him down and then use the spell to bring him back.”

He stops and stares back at me as if he’
s afraid t
o tell me the rest. I nod for
him to continue.

“What happened?”

“We never got to try the spell on the horse. Before we could put the bullet in him
,
he
freaked out and started
buckin
’
like crazy. It all hap
pened so fast there was
nothin
’
I could do. I lifted my hand to stop him with my magic, but before I could
,
he quickly kicked Robert in t
he head. When I saw Robert
lyin
’
on the ground I forgot all about the horse and wen
t to him. I prayed he was okay—h
e wasn’t.”

“Oh my G
od
,
Thaddeus!
Did you tell someone what happened?”

“No. Instead I put the horse down myse
lf. I was so angry; I don’t
even know how I kill
ed the horse without the bullet.
I ne
ver touched the horse. I remember
scoopin
’ Robert up and
takin
’
him back to the house. I brought him to this very room. Then I used the spell on Robert. He was my brother
,
Mage! He was the only person who knew the real me, I couldn’t let him die. I loved him dearly.”

“So, did it work?” I ask impatiently.

“Yes. But he was only alive for about twenty minutes.”

“It didn’t work all the way or….?”

“When he took his first new breath I was so reliev
ed. I couldn’t believe what I’
d accomplished. I brought my brother back from the dead. But I could tell something was wrong immediately. He stood in front of me, gave me an evil smile, and then right away tried
to
kill me. Mage
,
I tr
ied to fight him without
hurtin
’
him, but Robert was always more powerful than me. He shot streams of blood red fire at me; there was
n
othin
’
I could do. I reached for the gun, the one I ha
d for the horse. He was
killin
’
me. Right before he finished me off, I lifted the gun and fired. I didn’t even point it. I couldn’t even see
clearly after the attack he
mounted against me. I only wanted to wound him. I just wanted to stop him
,
I swear!”

Thaddeus drops
his head in
to his hands and I can’t get to his side quick enough. I get
down on
my knees beside the chair he’s sitting in. I want
more than anything to be able to hug
him or comfort him, but there’s nothing I can do. I just sit there and listen as he cries. I feel
so bad for him.

He really didn’t do
anything wrong, he was just tryin
g to save his brother. It isn’t his fault that the spell
backfired.

“I’m so sorry
,
Thaddeus.”

“The hardest part was
writin
’
that in my journal. I couldn’t write the truth. The last thing I wanted was for someone to get their hands on that spell. I never wanted anyone to go through what I went thr
ough. I told everyone that I
meant to shoot the horse, but accidently shot Robert. I told them that I brought him here to the house to try and help hi
m. No one believed me
. Not to mention the bullet hole in the wall. That didn’t help very much.”

He points
to a small hole in the wall that I never notice
d before. The whole library takes
on a complete
ly different feel all together—a place that was once a safe haven now feels dreary and full of death.
Poor Thaddeus stuck in this room forever, the room where the most traumatic event in his life had taken place.