Wicked Fate (The Wicked Trilogy) (31 page)

She shows her teeth then lifts her arms and waves them toward me. The wind picks up and starts
blowing her hair all around her face.
Random pieces of tree limb float
around and a
small bit of dirt gets
kicked up into my eyes.

I have no idea what’
s about to happe
n or how to stop her. I prepare to attack. She shoots
her hands straight up towards the sky, ne
ver once looking at me. I hear
her mumble a bit and then soon the words she
’s speaking become clearer. She repeats
those same words over and over again.

When ones not of this world appear within your sight.

I bind you from the vision that turns darkness into light.

The eye so strong and powerful becomes so sad and weak.

The spirit world is closed to you no spirits can you seek.

I bind you Mage McPherson, I bind you!!!

“Stop!
No!” I scream out when I realize what she’
s doing.

She’
s taking the ability t
o see ghosts away from me, it’s a spell. I can’t let this happen. I’
d lose them all, my grandparent
s and Thaddeus.

I quickly lift my hand and fire springs
from my fing
ertips. The purple flames lift her from the ground and she levitates
before smashi
ng into a small tree. Her laugh pierces the air as she gets
back on her feet.

“Too late,” she glares
back at me with a horrid smile on her face.

Her cackle cuts through
my ears.

I look
ov
er to my grandparents and I pray that she’s bluffing. Suddenly, the gra
y from my gr
andfather’s eyes spreads
all ov
er his body. His coloring becomes
whiter an
d soon his arms and legs start
to become invisible.

“No!” I scream
.

The same is happening to my grandmother.

“You’re both disappearing! No
,
please! What should I do
,
Pop?”

“I don’t
know, Mage. Just know that we’
ll always be with you no matter what. Whe
ther you can see us or not, we’re always there. We love ya’,
sweetheart.” 

I can
barely see m
y grandmother anymore. I reach
out my hand to them.

“No! This can’t be happening! Please
,
No! I ca
n’t lose you! I can’t!”  I cry
.

They’re
gon
e and I got to watch them disappear before my eyes.

Tears start
stre
aming down my cheeks. Anger runs through my body causing what feels
like an electric shoc
k through my bones. Thunder rings out in the distance and there’s
a slight
tremor under my feet. I direct my heated gaze towards Eris who’
s still laughing hysterically.

“Give it back to me! Gi
ve it back to me, now!” I growl
.

“I can’t do that.”

I throw
a ball of purple f
ire straight at her. She dodges the ball and shoots red flames back at me. I don’t move, I’m unafraid—instead, I lift
my hand and my fire me
e
t
s
hers dir
ectly in between us. I levitate in the air while I control her fire as well as mine. I’m so angry that I don’t even realize I’m not touching the ground. I feel
the hard dirt slam into the
bottom of my feet when I land
.

It takes almost no effort from me
to deflect her flames and send
her tumbling into a nearby group of azalea bushes. She jumps
to her feet
like a big cat and then giggles like she isn’t in intense pain. She holds her side and then holds
her palm
up to me as if to tell me she’
s surrendering.

“Craven’
s going to be very excited about this. I w
as sent here to make sure you’
re com
plete. You obviously are. He’
ll be very pleased wi
th your purple flames,” she’s out of breath.
“Don’t think for a second that you’ve won. You may be able to beat me, I’ll give you that. Just know that you don’t stand a ch
ance against Craven,” she turns and heads
towards the woods.

I watch her walk away. Who in the hell does she think she is?

She can’t just come into my life every couple of months and take my loved ones away from me, first with Adam and now with my grandpa
rents. Oh, no ma’am! There will be no next time, I’m ending this now. I follow behind her and call her name. She turns
to
face me, her smile is gone.

“Give it back to me!” I scream at her
.

“I can’t, I d
on’t even know how,” she says
nervously.

“Then this ends now!” I scream
at her before lifting my hand and bombarding her with two purple balls of f
lame back-to-
back.

She dodges
the first on
e, but the second one connects with her arm. She cries out as she’s spun around then slammed into a nearby
pi
ne tree, pieces of bark explode all around her. She turns quickly and defends
h
erself. Streams of red fire flies
from her fingers one after
the next, she’s faster than me.

I hold
up my hand
to deflect the fire. Connecting with them all, I prepare
to
push them back at her. She knows
my plan and instead of trying to pus
h the fire back on me she jumps
out of the way
. Our combined fires barely miss her.

She’s speedy, more e
xperie
nced with her flames. Mine are more powerful, but she knows
more about hers
and how to use it. She responds
quickl
y before I have an idea what’s happening. S
he let
s
out
three more balls of flame fro
m my side. I don’t
have time to
stop them before they connect with my body. I hear
myself cry out as her fire spread
s
through me.

My feet leave the ground and I have the sudden feeling that I’m
f
lying. That feeling disappears immediately when I feel
the large tree connect with my ba
ck. The last thing I remember i
s E
ris standing over me, she’s not smiling. Instead, she looks
c
oncerned. I enter the world of blackness again.

Chapter
23

Fully Alive

When I wake up I don’t know where I am. I’m
l
ying somewhere soft and I hear far away voices. I try
to
sit up, but a bolt of pain shoots down my back. I open
my mo
uth to cry out, but nothing comes out. I attempt
to
lift my hand, but it hurts too badly. Everything’
s blurry and th
e bright light above me is blinding. There’s an aggravating
beepin
g noise to my left and I figure out by
the sounds around
me that I’m
in a hospital room.

I’m alive, barely alive, but at least I’m alive. I mak
e a moan
ing noise when more pain rushes up the back of my head.

This i
s insane! Why didn’t she kill me? Why didn’t she finish me off and then walk
away? There has to be a reason why I’m
still alive.

        
“You’r
e awake? Oh thank God,” I hear Adam speak. His voice echoes
from a million miles away.
“Mage?
Baby
,
can you hear me?

I attempt to
lift my hand to him
, but the pain is
too much. Another m
oaning noise escapes
my lips.

“She needs something for the pain. Someone give her something, please!” Adam yells at someone.

The noises go away and soon all is black
.

When I wake up again there’s still pain, but it isn’t as extreme. I try to sit up but there’s no way that’s happening.  Talking is impossible since my throat is so dry. Squeaking and cracking noises are the only sounds I can make.

I lift my right arm, there’s no pain. I feel the side rail of the bed I’m lying in. I use
it to try and pull myself into a
sitting position. The pain
that sho
o
t
s down my left arm nearly causes me to faint. A hand comes
out
of nowhere and stops
me.

“No
,
sweetheart
,
you
have to stay still,” Adam speaks
right into my ear in a whisper. “Just relax
, Mage.
I’m right here with you. Don’t freak out and do anything biza
rre,
okay? You’re at Summerville Medical and you’re surrounded by people.”

I whimper in agreement before relaxing back into the bed. A tear runs
down my cheek as the pain in my
arm, back, and head intensifies. Adam wipes it away.

“I know it hurts
.
I wish I could make it go away.”

My throat feels like it’s on fire. I try to cough, but there’s no moisture
to do anything.

“Water,” I croak
.

Adam leaves my side and then returns
with a little white cup with a bendy straw st
icking out of the top. He leans
the s
traw down to my mouth and I take a few drinks. The water feels
so good going d
own my throat and soon I manage
to speak again.

“Everything hurts…m
y
arm, is
it broken?”

“Yes, your left arm and your clavicle are broken. Oh
,
and you have a concussion. So just lay back and let them make you better
,
okay?”

“Clavicle?”

“Your collar bone
.
”

“That explains a lot. How long have I been here?”

“Four days. You woke up two days ago, but then passed out again
.
Don’t ever scare me like that again
, do you hear me?
I nearly lost my mind when I found you on the path to my house.
I thought you were dead
.”

I feel
his face and mouth a
gainst my hand.

“I’m ok
ay,
Adam. I’m sor
ry I scared you,” I
caress his face.

“
What happened? Who did this to you? I’ll kill them
myself, I don’t care who it is,” he growls.

I don’t want to tell him. I don’t
want to take the chance of him blaming himself.
I’ll die if he starts avoiding me again. He’ll be convinced that he’s the reason behind Eris’ return. The last thing I need i
s for Adam to go get killed trying to defend my honor.

I want
to be truthful with him though, I never want secre
ts and lies between us. I suck it up and prepare to tell him. How can
I convince him that Eris
and this Craven character aren’
t after me because of him?

“It was Eris.”

His body tenses up, this is going to bad.
He let
s go of my hand
.
I reach up and grab his arm to keep him from leaving.

“This is my fault,” he shakes my hand from his arm and backs away.

“No.
Adam
,
don’t even think…”

“Y
ou were nearly
killed because of me.
That crazy
,
deranged lady almost killed you because I’m too weak to stay away from you!”