My blue blast is no match for his purple fire.
I turn my head in the sand towards the ocean and I see the same wall of water coming for me; for us. I close my eyes and the water washes me away.
Leaping out of bed, I’m hyperventilating. I grab my bed frame to keep myself from falling. These aren’t nightmares, these are night terrors and I can’t help but feel like I’m looking at what’s to come. I grab my comforter from my bed and I leave Sire there to sleep. It’s time to start doing some research. I now know these men, The Lords of the Night, are most definitely coming for me. I run downstairs and head straight for the library.
Chapter 17
The Family Tree
The door to the library feels heavier tonight for some reason. Maybe it has something to do with how tired I am. I haven’t slept properly in weeks. Once the door is open, I stare into the darkness of the big, musty room. I need light, and with that thought, the lights in the library come on.
I smile to myself; this whole magical-powers thing just keeps getting better and better. I walk up to the closest book shelf and run my fingers across the bindings of the many different books. The ones I could reach at least.
“I’ll start here,” I say out loud to myself.
I pick out five random books then set them on top of the desk. Dust particles attack me immediately after the books bang against the wood. I cough and choke while I flip through a few only to find they’re only books with short stories and poems in them.
I put those five back and pull out the next set of five—more short stories and poems. Finally, two hours later, I’ve gone through all the books on that one particular book shelf. There’s nothing but regular books on that shelf.
I stop and look around the huge room at all the books that cover the walls.
“This is going to take me forever,” I say, as I put my hands on my hips and blow a stray piece of hair out of my face.
“Oh come on, Darlin’, you can’t give up now,” Thaddeus purrs in my ear.
“Do you have any idea how much faster this would be if you just told me what it is I need to know. You can start with who you are or why you’re here. Maybe tell me why you never said anything about being like me.”
I flash a big, fake smile trying to get Thaddeus to save me days of searching through all these books.
“No can do, sweetheart. It’s your search not mine. You need to know everything, not just what I can tell you. The only way to know it all and understand it all is to read it all.”
“Well can you at least point to the direction of the correct shelf? That would be most helpful,” I say sarcastically.
Thaddeus looks around the room and then back at me. He grins then shakes his head.
“All I know is the reason I’m here is to make sure that no one, except you or people like you, touches any book on that wall,” he points to the wall opposite of the wall I began my search with.
“Could have told me that—oh I don’t know—when I started to read!”
I sound angry, but the truth is I’m relieved. I would’ve spent days searching these shelves only to find that the last one is the one I needed to search.
I smile with my teeth showing before running over to the correct shelf.
I look up at the massive amount of books, there’s so many. It’s still going to take me days just to read through all of it, possibly weeks. Hopefully, I have enough time before the evil ones come for me.
I dive head first into piles and piles of books. I decide to start at the top left and work myself to the right and so on.
It doesn’t take me long to realize that what I’m looking at isn’t books, but personal journals of family members before me who had this gift of magic. I don’t know when these powers started for the McPherson family, but I know that the books start with my grandfather’s great-grandfather, Robert McPherson. The first one in the stack is dated twelfth of January, eighteen forty-five. The older books are hardly legible and it takes me forever just to understand most of it.
Apparently, Robert McPherson had the ability to do magic and had actually built this very house using magic. I think that’s pretty interesting considering I had just revived the house using magic. I smile to myself as I read.
He talks about his ability to see spirits and the things he learned from them. He wrote about how he met his wife, Emma McPherson. He went on about how beautiful she was and how he was so worried about her reaction when she found out about the things he could do with his hands. He was so afraid she would never have anything to do with him anymore once she found out about the blue fire that blasted from them.
I look down at my hands and for a minute I wonder about the significance of the color of the fire. My fire is blue and apparently the ones in my family before me had blue fire as well. It makes me wonder why Eris’ fire is red, and what about the man in my nightmare who used purple fire?
Soon a soft pink light is peeking through the slits of the long, heavy drapes in the library. I stand up and stretch hard trying to wake myself a bit. Somehow I’ve managed to stay up all night long. Coffee—I need coffee. If I’m going to stay awake in class today I most definitely need a pick me up.
I sit at the kitchen table talking to my grandparents a bit before school. I tell them about what I’ve read so far. My grandfather’s pretty happy that I’m becoming interested in the history of the McPherson clan. He’s relieved to find out that it wasn’t just me and my mother that were witches in the family.
After getting dressed, I stand in front of my dresser and stare into the mirror. I look awful with dark circles under my eyes. It’s obvious that I haven’t had a decent night of sleep in over a week. I’ve been averaging about two hours of sleep every night since my birthday. Sitting up all night reading through old journals probably doesn’t help. My jeans are beginning to feel loose too, which means I should probably start eating more.
I splash cold water onto my face to help wake me up a bit.
Thankfully, the weather’s mild and I don’t have to wear my big thick jacket, a long sleeve shirt is enough this morning. It would be nice if the day warmed up and turned out to be sunny.
The day is a blur. In every class I find myself almost falling asleep. At one point in English, I think I did sleep. I just know when I opened my eyes people were looking at me with smirks and I was wiping wetness from the corner of my mouth. Yeah, it wasn’t attractive.
By the time my lunch period is here, it takes everything I have in me to make it to the courtyard. At this point, all I want is sleep. I consider skipping the rest of the day, but I don’t want to miss a chance to see Adam. He’s the only reason I’m even in school. I’m still making good grades and I still pay attention in class, but mostly I go for the opportunity to see his face. Him and the fact that I don’t want to draw attention to my lack of guardian.
When I finally make it to the lunch bench I stand next to Bernie and Kale instead of sitting. I know that if I sit down I’m going to fall asleep. Adam’s nowhere to be found and I’m seriously considering just leaving.
After ten minutes of standing there I start to feel dizzy and I feel like the ground is moving.
I shift my feet and rapidly blink a few times in an attempt to get rid of the strange feeling that’s taking over me. My brain literally feels like it’s swimming around in my head.
“Are you okay, Mage?” Bernie echoes.
“I’m fine, just tired,” I hear the slur in my speech.
“Are you sure? You look really bad. Maybe you should eat something or at least sit down.”
The last thing I hear is Bernie screaming my name. The dizziness takes over and I feel myself beginning to drop. Kale’s arms go around me before the world goes black.
When I wake up I’m in my bed snuggled up next to Sire. I roll over and look at the alarm clock. It’s already after six in the afternoon. I’m confused by what happened and I don’t know how I got here.
I slowly sit up and shake my head a bit. I ha
ve the worse headache ever! Flipping the covers off me, I turn to sit on the side of the bed. And then I see him, Adam’s sitting on the floor in front of my dresser. His knees are pulled up to his chest with his forearms draped across them. He’s glaring back at me. He looks irritated. Slowly he stands and leans against my dresser.
“What happened?” I choke.
My voice sounds like someone’s rubbed the inside of my throat with sand paper.
“You passed out during lunch.”
“How did I get here?”
“I brought you here.”
“But you weren’t at lunch. How did you…”
“Bernie says you haven’t been eating much lately,” he cuts me off angrily.
Grabbing the nightstand next to my bed for leverage, I stand. I regret it when the room starts to spin.
I refuse to sit here and listen to him yell at me about not eating. It’s my business when and what I eat, not his!
He’s really starting to piss me off! I hate him for pretending like he cares. I can’t even look at him I’m so upset and angry.
Straightening my clothes, I start to walk towards my bedroom door. He makes it there before me, blocking the exit out of my room.
“Why haven’t you been eating? And when’s the last time you slept? You look like you haven’t slept in days!”
He’s getting louder and louder and his irritated, green eyes are burning into me.
I stand in front of him, staring straight ahead at his chest. The last thing I need to do is look him in his face. He’s wearing his Rolling Stones shirt and it reminds me of the old flirty Adam. It doesn’t help that he smells amazing, too. His scent reminds me of better days.
“Please let me out of my room, Adam,” I say calmly.
The last thing I want to be is calm. I want to lash out and rip down his wall.
“Mage, please don’t do this,” he sighs and grabs my shoulders hard.
“Do what?” I ask in a daze.
He’s so close, I can feel the heat radiating off of his skin. I want to lean into his warmth and breathe him in. I want to throw my arms around him and never let go. I need him to hold me and tell me that I’m not alone, that he’s here for me; that no matter what he’d always be there for me. I just want him to say that everything’s going to be okay.
“Look, let’s go downstairs and get you something to eat, okay? I shouldn’t stay long. I just wanted to make sure you got home okay. Where’s your grandfather?”
That gets my attention. He can’t be here! He can’t find out my grandfather’s dead. What if he told everyone? I won’t go to a home for teen girls. I won’t! They’ll never get me out of this house. I’ll never tell a soul. If someone asks, my grandfather took a trip up state on business.
“He’s around. Thanks for helping me out, but as you can see I’m great now. I’m just tired and now I am hungry. I think I’ll go downstairs and grab a bite to eat. You can go now, I swear I’m okay and again I really appreciate it, Adam. Now can I please leave my room?” I ramble.
Anything I can say or do to take his mind off of my grandfather is a good thing. Tears form in the corners of my eyes.
“Mage?” his voice shocks me with its sweetness.
His eyes examine my face.
He wants to know that I’m honestly okay.
I close my eyes against the rush of tears that are quickly developing, refusing to let him see me cry.
For the first time ever, I want Adam to leave. I want him out of my house, out where he can’t ask questions. I don’t want him to know that my grandfather’s dead. I don’t want him to know that he left me at the worst possible time.
Does he have no faith in me? Doesn’t he think I’m strong enough to fight? Bringing up the old hurt from over the last couple of weeks causes a burning in my chest and I know no matter how hard I try I’m not going to be able to stop the tears.
Thunder rumbles outside as I feel the tears roll down my cheeks. I put my head down quickly. I swore to myself that I’d never let the ones who hurt me see me cry and here I am, standing in front of the person who’s hurt me the worst, about to cry.
What’s happening to me? I’m beginning to think that maybe I’m going crazy. Maybe things that happened over time made my mother go insane. I’ve lost my final human connection, followed by the person that I’m pretty sure is my first love. I’d say that’s a damn good excuse to go out of my mind.
Not to mention, there’s a man out there somewhere that I assume wants to kill me. And this man—he has purple fire, whatever that means.
I want to pull my hair out!
I feel my hurt and tears turn into anger again. I want out of this room, away from Adam. As a matter of fact, I want out of this house; this stupid house with all the memories I have to dig through. Stupid memories I need just to figure out how to live with what my family has passed down to me.
Without thinking, I suddenly dig up strength and I push Adam hard to the side. I grab the door handle and swing it open making it crash into the wall behind my door.
I don’t feel the stairs beneath my feet as I rush out of the house. I hear Sire behind me, but not Adam. Good! I don’t want him to follow me. I just want him to go away.
I head straight for my favorite garden. Once I’m there I fall onto one of the marble benches. With my head in my hands, I let the tears fall. Rain splatters on the brick courtyard as Sire seeks shelter under one of the marble tables.
It feels good to cry, to let the rain fall down on me. It’s relieving me and waking me at the same time. A good cry is exactly what I need.
The rain pattering down upon the roof of the house and the walks twining through the gardens provides a fresh sweet essence that enlivens my spirit.
I don’t hear Bernie’s brother, Benjamin, come up behind me and I jump out of my skin when I turn to see him standing there. The hard rain has become a light drizzle. He walks over to me with a nervous smile pasted on his face. I think he knows he’s interrupting some serious Mage time.
He sticks his hands in his dark jeans and shifts his head to the side to swing his dark hair from his eyes.
“Uh—Bernie asked me to come over and check on you. She would’ve come herself, but her car’s acting funny. You okay?” he leans down to peek through the curtain of thick ebony hair that’s plastered to my face. “You don’t look so good. You want me to call someone for you or something?”
“No, I’m fine. Thanks for stopping by and checking on me. Tell Bernie I’m okay.”
I jump up from the garden bench too quickly and another wave of dizziness smacks me in the face.
“Come on. Let’s get you inside and into some dry clothes. You’re going to catch pneumonia, girl,” he half-carries, half-drags me towards the house.
When we get inside Adam’s gone. I run upstairs and change out of my wet clothes and then we go into the kitchen and grab a quick bite. The food is exactly what I need and I feel better already.
“So my sister talks about you a lot, I feel like I already know you,” his eyes smile at me.
I take notice of the fact that his eyes are an almost exact match to Adam’s.
“Your sister’s pretty awesome.”
“She thinks you’re pretty awesome,” he leans back in his chair and stretches his arms above his head.
His sleeve comes down and I get a peek of a dark tattoo on his arm. I can’t make out what it is, but it’s kind of a turn-on.
Benjamin stays and eats dinner with me. It’s nice to have a conversation with someone alive. It feels like decades since I’ve spoken with another person.
“Thanks again, Ben. I’m sorry if I seem so out of it. Tell Bernie I’ll see her at school,” I say as I walk him to the door.
“No worries. I’m just glad you’re feeling better. See ya around?” his brows inch up and he tilts his head.
“Of course,” I smile.
We say goodnight, and I shut the door. I guess it’s time for me to go to the library to do some mo
re digging.
The following weekend I stay in the library reading through the journals and before long a week has passed. It takes me that long to finish up the journals for Robert McPherson, which means this is going to take me forever.
Even though it’s taking up all of my time, it’s exciting to learn about my family, at least the ones who kept journals. I can’t wait until I make it to my mother’s journals, to be able to know her and maybe learn more about my father.
I’ve figured out that only the members of my family who had the “gift” kept journals. The intensity in which Thaddeus guards the books is yet another reason I assume these journals hold great secrets.
The week passes in a very normal kind of way. I go to school and act like my usual quiet self. Adam and I still aren’t talking and Bernie finally quit asking why. I hate lying and saying that Adam and I don’t like each other. For me, nothing could be further from the truth.
Since I started keeping myself busy in the library with the journals, the weather has been completely normal. Except, of course, for the nights when I can’t hold the lonely tears back, even then it only rains outside.
Every day is sunny and nice and breezy, yet here I am stuck in a big dusty library; but this has to be done. It’s not too bad; at least the journals are interesting.
They’re filled with history, mostly South Carolina history, sometimes world history. It’s great to hear about the different presidents and world events that were happening in those days.
Every part of my family tree is documented somehow through the journals. Every aunt and uncle is listed, every birth or death. There’s even an occasional old black and white photo of some family member. It’s great! All those hours sitting in this library wondering who I am and it was here the whole time staring me in my face. I’m slowly learning that I, Mage McPherson, the most non-fabulous person in the world, am a part of something very awesome!
Wicked Fate (The Wicked Trilogy) Page 14