Wicked Fate (The Wicked Trilogy) (40 page)

He feels like Adam. They’
re about the same size and as long
as my eyes are closed, Adam’s the one holding me. He’s the one softly rubbing my back and whispering soothing words in my ear. It’s his
warm lips on t
he corner of my mouth, and it’s Adam who’s
softly kis
sing
my tears away.

Without realizing what I’m
doing
,
I slowly slid
e
my
arms around his neck and kiss him back. In my mind, I’m
in a meadow
of flowers in Adam’s arms and for a
brief few seconds all the
pain from the last few months is gone. I’m
happy again in
that moment. Then reality kicks in. This is
not
Adam!
Adam’s dead!

I push back immediately and catch my breath. Ben stares back at me in shock with
a touch of g
uilt. Without thinking, I reach up and slap his face. I feel
the tears co
me back as I turn and run away. I don’t
pay attenti
on to the area around me. I leave Ben
standing there rubbing his cheek where I had just slapped
him. He’s standing
there dazed and confused
, staring
at all the newly bloomed flowers and trees tha
t were all dead, cold, and non-
existent less th
an
two minutes ago.

I end
up in the library lying across the big desk crying my eyes
out.  I start hating myself all over again. What kind of sick person am I?

I’m the kind of person who’
s so in lo
ve with someone else that I kiss strangers. What’s happening to me? I’m going crazy, like
for real
crazy. I need to seriously consider having myself admitted somewhere safe. I feel horrible for what I’ve just done. I’m a bad person. I’ve
deceived Adam
,
and he probably watched the whole thing.

“I’m so sorry
,
Adam
. P
lease forgive me,” I cr
y
out loud.

I miss him! I miss my family! This is not acceptable!

I jump
up again, det
ermined to find a spell in this library to bring back my
eye. I could kick myself for not paying closer attention to every spell I had read. I didn’t read them all
because I figured they were
so useless to me.
All I could think about when I was reading them before was finding out who I was.
Now
, I just want a spell to bring back Adam and my family. I don’t care if I can’t touch them; I just need to see them.

I’m
interrupted two hours later by Bernie
.

“Some lady’s at the door for you, Mage,” she scrunches up her nose at the messy library around me.

“Thanks,” I say.

I get up and follow her to the front door where an older lady stands
smiling back at me. I would have noticed her an
ywhere with those big
green ey
es. Mrs. Westcott is
a beauty and her son looked just like her.

Chapter
30

The Retrieval

“Hi, Mage—It’s nice to finally meet you,” Mrs. Westcott nervously smiles back at me. “I’m sorry to stop by unexpected, but I have a few of your things at my house and I’d love it if you stopped by.”

“You have some of my things?” I ask confused.

App
arently, the search for Adam has ended and the police have
returned his truck, along with my things
, back to his mother. I’m angry that they’ve given up even though I know they’d
never find him and if
they did, he’s dead. They
barely questioned me
before
and
I
was the last person to see him.

I wonder
to
myself why Mrs. Westcott didn’t just bring my things with her.  She answers my question when she tells me she wants
me to come to her house for a talk. She m
ust’
ve thought that I wouldn’t hav
e come to her house without
some kind o
f incentive. I agree to stop by later and tell her goodbye at the door.

The walk to Adam’s house has so many memories
of my life before it was ripped a
way from me. The further I walk, the sadder I become. When I make it to his driveway, I feel like I can’t breathe. Parked in front of me i
s Adam’s truc
k. The pressure in my chest feels like it’s going to explode.

I see
Mrs. Westcott standing at the living room window
staring out at me, but I don’t care. I walk up to the truck and ru
n my f
inger down the side
.
The memory of Adam jumping on the bed thanking me for this new paint job brings a smile to my face.

T
he memories of all the t
imes Adam and I spent together in
v
ade my mind. All the times we laughed together and all the times he held me and made everything go away. The hurt feels good and the tears this time are
tears of love and happiness.

I open
the truck d
oor and the inside still smells like him. Another tear rolls
down my cheek.

I climb
up into the cab of A
dam’s truck. His scent invades my senses and I suddenly feel as if he’s near me again. I curl up
into the fet
al position and breathe him in
.

Something
shiny on the floor catches my attention. I reach down to retrieve it. I cry harder when I see what it is. L
ying on the flo
or
of Adam’s truck
,
almost as if it had been left there for me
, is Adam’s necklace—
t
he other half of mine. I scoop it up and clench
it in
my fist. I’ll wear it forever, or at least until I can give it back to him.

An hour passes before Mrs. Westcott comes outside for me. She doesn’t speak as she wraps
a jacke
t around my shoulders and walks
m
e into her house.

Adam’s little sister, Annabelle, i
s sitting on the cou
ch watching cartoons. I follow Mrs.
Westcott
into the kitchen where she fixes
us each a
cup of hot chocolate. It’s not until we are
both sitting at the kitchen table with a c
up in hand, that she first speaks. She too has
the dark circles of mourning under her dimly lit green eyes.

“He talked about you often
,
you know?”

I hold
the
steaming cup in my hand and blow at the top
trying to cool it.

“Did he?”
the pain in my chest
spread
s
throughout my body.

“Oh
,
yes. Adam and I were extremely close. He told me everything…”

I look
up abruptly when she says
the word,
everything
. He wouldn’t have told her about my magic, would he?

She continues
.

“They’re never going to fin
d him are they, Mage?” tears begi
n to form in her eyes.

What am I supposed to tell her? There’s nothing I can say to make it better. I can’t guarantee her anything. I want to tell her so badly that I’ll never give up. I want to tell her that I’ll keep searching for a way to bring him back until my heart stops. But I can’t. Instead, I reach across the table and lay my hand over hers.

“I don’t care what you have to do
, Mage. J
ust bring him back to
us,” she whispers
.

I’m
caught off gu
ard. Does she know what I can do
?
Did
Adam tell her ever
ything about me? I suddenly feel betrayed.
How could he do that to me?
I thought he held all m
y secrets.
I though
t he loved me enough to keep my secrets, no matter what.

She answers as if she can hear my thoughts.

“He didn’t tell me. You hear things around town, especially in a small town like Summerville. I never believe
d them, not until the
d
ay when you and Adam were in my
front yard
arguing. I saw what you did to his
truck just by pointing at it.”

I feel my
entire body go stiff.
This is bad…this is really bad!

Why did I do that? Adam had warned me that his mother might see, but I didn’t care! All I cared about was getting him back and now here I am
, face-to-
face with yet another person who knows my sec
rets. Soon, the whole town will
know a
nd I’ll be banished. Either banished or strung up and burned alive like a witch in the old days.

“I’ll never tell another living soul
, Mage. Y
ou have my word
. Please, anything you can do—j
ust do it. If I can help in anyway, anyway at all, you just
say the words,” this time it’s her who’
s squeezing my hand. “He loved you very much
, you know?
He tol
d me that. He told me that he’
d found the one
,” she smiles fondly at me
. “I remember that day. He was so happ
y and I could tell
just by looking at him
,
that my son was in love.”

My heart breaks
into a million pieces
all over again. More tears come as I squeeze
her hand back in a very reassuring way.

“I
’ll do everything in my power…I
promise.”

Chapter
31

The Enchanted

When I get home I feel better. My talk with Mrs. Westcott rejuvenated me somehow. When I walk through the front door, I instantly notice Ben
waiting in the living room for me.
This is so not what I need right now.

I plan
on quickly taking the stairs to my bedro
om and pretending that I don’t see him, but he speaks and so I have to
acknowledge him.

“We need to talk,” his voice i
s stern.

I walk
into the living roo
m and sit on
the old wing back chair across from him
.

“What was that?” he asks
.

“What?” I pretend I don’t know what he’s talking about.

“The
kiss!
What was that all about?”

“I don’t know, Ben,” I sigh
. “That kiss was a mistake. I’m really sorry! It was a huge mistake that shouldn’t have happened.”

“Don’t say that! It didn’t feel like a mistake to me and I don’t think it di
d to you either.
I’ve never had a girl kiss me the
way that you kissed me. It was…you’re just so…you’re so u
nbelievable
.
”

I flinch. Those are the exact same words that Adam used after our first kiss.

Mage, you’re just so unbelievable.

I can
still hear his voice.

I can’t tell Ben that the only reason I kissed him is because I was imagining he was Adam. I can’t tell him the reason the kiss was so amazing is because in my mind I was kissing the love of my life. There’s nothing I can say to make this better.

“It’s
not what you think,” I whisper
.

“Well…please elaborate, be
cause right now
,
I’m feeling all weird
and I don’t know why. I mean…a
fter I kissed you the world looked different to me. The flowers, the trees, all of it! What does that mean
, Mage?  I’m
confused!”
his eyes look crazed.

He tugs on his hair the way Adam used to and shakes his head like he’s lost.