Scornful Sadie (Dark Sorceress Trilogy Book 1)

by Felicia Tatum

  “Wow,” I said. “How long have you been together?”

  “Going on three,” he said with a smile.

  “Wow,” was all I could say. I was ecstatic for him, for Scott, but it was bittersweet. I couldn’t help but wonder—what if Aiden had stayed around?

  What would have become of us?

  “We’ll talk more soon, ok?” I said, standing. “I want to go see the tree.”

  He nodded in understanding. “Go. It helps me.”

  Slipping out the back door, I breathed deeply as I took in the air around me. It was the same. Grandma’s flowers still grew all around, the yard was still large and open. We’d grown up here, trained here, mourned here. Walking to the tree, I laid my hand on the bark, feeling the energy swirl under my palm.

  “Sebastian,” I whispered. My voice carried in the wind, seemingly hugging the wood. “I miss you.”

  Sinking to the ground, I leaned against the trunk. I sat there for a long time, the sun soaking in my skin as I visited with my brother. He’d been evil in his last days and it wasn’t something I’d been comfortable with, but he was still my flesh and blood. My older brother. My one-time protector.

  The sun was setting when I finally opened my eyes, stood, and stretched. I heard the back door open and turned.

  Gasping, I clenched my fists at my side.

  “Momma,” I choked out. Once again my emotions were taking over.

  What in the hell was wrong with me?

  She ran to me, tears streaming down her face. My dad stood behind her, stoic as ever, watching. She wrapped me in a warm, motherly hug and I held on for dear life. It felt so good to be back around my family.

  “Sadie Mae Tabors, you better never leave me like that again! You tell your mother where you’re going!” she chided as she practically strangled me with her embrace.

  I nodded my head, unable to speak.

  She held me, her soft, comforting scent of flowers overwhelming my senses and bringing back so many memories. When she pulled back, my father came over, roughly patting me on the back.

  “Sadie,” he said. “What you did was immature and unnecessary. If you wanted to leave, you know we would have supported you. Sneaking out and then cloaking your whereabouts?” he chided. “I thought we raised you better than that.”

  His anger masked his hurt, but I heard it in each word. His only daughter left without a word, without a trace, and he was left wondering if she was ok. If she was even alive.

  I’d have been mad, too.

  “I know, Dad.”

  “You know? Do you know what you put your mother and me through? How upset your brothers were? Your grandmother?”

  I hung my head. Normally I would fight him, argue, but the pain in his eyes was too much. It hurt me to even look at him. I should have called, at least.

  My mother spun and faced him. “Spencer, she’s here now,” my mother said. “Leave it alone. Sadie must have had a good reason to leave like she did.” Turning back to me, she caressed my cheek. “And I’m sure she’ll tell us all about it when she’s ready.” She said it as more of a demand than a comment.

  I wouldn’t tell them anything, but I smiled softly anyway. I wasn’t a child anymore, and while I understood they were upset, I owed them nothing more than a simple explanation.

  “How did you know I was here?” I questioned.

  “Santos informed your grandmother when you arrived, and she told us about twenty minutes ago,” my dad said angrily. “Why do you always go to her?”

  “I didn’t,” I spat back. Distancing myself from them, I silently told Sebastian goodbye and headed inside.

  “Where are you going?” he yelled.

  Yeah, he was uber pissed.

  “I’m going to get my stuff in a room and to take a shower. Then I’m going to go find my other brother,” I called.

  I heard my mother rushing to catch up. “Sadie, you aren’t staying with us?”

  I shook my head. “I’ll stay here with Santos. It’s obvious y’all are upset and I think it’s best I stay here.”

  “We just missed you, Sadie,” she said, crying once again. “We don’t understand why you left.”

  Spinning around, I said, “I needed space. I couldn’t deal with everything going on and needed to get away. That’s all.”

  “For five years?” Dad screamed. “Was this because of that Aiden boy?”

  Hearing his name made me fume even more.

  “Leaving your family over a boy is ridiculous,” he said, shaking his head.

  “Don’t, Dad. Just stop. I’m not a child, nor am I an idiot. I just told you why and that’s it. Stop trying to put words in my mouth.” I hurried inside before he could say anymore and growled in frustration.

  “They’ve been pretty upset,” Santos said from the doorway.

  “I couldn’t tell,” I responded. Pushing past him, I grabbed my bag and called out to him. “Which room can I use?”

  “Mine’s the one upstairs on the left,” he answered.

  The back door slid open and I rushed down the hall and into the bedroom at the end. Closing the door, I sealed it from outsiders and threw myself on the bed.

  How had everything gotten so messed up? What was wrong with me? When Grandma and Aiden left, something snapped inside. The more I dwelled on Harlow and her decisions, the angrier I got. I’d decided to leave months before I actually did, using Grandma’s resources to assist in my searches.

  Florida was my first destination. Orlando was overrun with hungry vampires and impish fae who enjoyed controlling the elements more than they should have. Within six months, I’d destroyed most of them and Orlando was fairly safe again.

  The years that followed were mostly the same. I traveled where I was needed, training every day and slaying the evil monsters when I found them. I worked wherever I could to have money and survive, since money wasn’t something I could create with magic. I hadn’t been back to Tennessee since, the pain of returning seemingly too much, and I refused to attempt it.

  Now that I was here, it was like a slap in the face. Everything I feared was coming true. Grandma still wasn’t here. My parents were more than a little pissed at my leaving. Scott was the only one left to see, and who knew how he would react. We’d always been close, him being the oldest of my brothers and therefore, the most protective.

  I didn’t know if I could handle him being mean to me, too.

  Taking my toiletries to the adjoining bathroom, I stripped down and allowed the hot water to relax my stress away for the time being.

  ###

  Wrapping the towel around my head, I released the energy holding me in and stepped out into the hall, preparing to be yelled at again. I journeyed through the house, listening for voices, but heard none.

  “Santos?” I called.

  Nothing.

  In the kitchen, I grabbed a water from the fridge and went to the sliding doors that opened to the back yard. There, Santos was talking to Scott and Liv excitedly.

  Scott looked older. His jawline was more pronounced, his muscles more visible in his chest and arms. He must have been working out. Olivia no longer had the baby face she did, but instead looked like a woman. Her hair was shorter, falling just below her shoulders, but her smile still lit up the place. She and Scott held hands, their bodies naturally attuned and leaning into each other.

  I wondered what it would feel like to have that, but it also scared the hell out of me.

  Sliding the door, I walked into the fresh air. They all turned at the sound, Scott and Liv smiling like it was Christmas morning.

  “Sadie!” Olivia screamed, running at me and throwing herself into my arms. She knocked the towel off my head with the force, almost sending me to the ground.

  “Hey, Liv.”

  Her face was huge with the grin she held, her eyes dancing in the fading sunlight. “I’m so glad you’re back!” she squealed. Olivia was much more of a girly girl than I was, and her squeaky, excited voice reminded me of that.
/>
  “I missed you, too,” I chuckled. I hugged her back fiercely. I’d forgotten how much I really did miss her.

  She finally released me, her grin still spread wide, and stepped back. Scott was in my space in an instant, taking me in his large arms. “Sadie,” he said.

  “Scottie,” I said back.

  He held me close, engulfing me in his presence. “I’m not mad,” he whispered in my ear. “But you know I’m always here for you, Sadie. No matter what.”

  His words touched my heart, stirring emotions once again. When did I become such an emotional disaster?

  He pulled away and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “Now, Juniper and Mark will be here soon, and you can tell us all about this vigilante sorceress we’ve heard so much about.”

  Lowering my head, I grinned in pride. My accomplishments were great, and I heard the happiness when he spoke of them. How they’d all known it was me, I wasn’t sure, but it made me feel good.

  We headed inside, where Santos and Liv worked to get dinner ready. It was weird, seeing them working so closely and easily together. Santos barely knew her when I left, and now she was a part of the family.

  Soon to be a legal part of the family.

  “So, graduating and a wedding, huh?” I asked while we waited for our friends.

  Liv turned and wiggled her brows. “You know it!”

  “What did you major in?”

  “Art History,” she replied. “I want to teach and I figured it would go well with Scott’s paintings.”

  I glanced between them questioningly.

  “I’ve been featured in a few galleries,” he said like it was no big deal.

  “What?!”

  Liv turned, looking at him with such a proud, loving look that my own heart swelled for them. “He’s been featured in ten galleries and has been selling paintings online,” she explained. “Definitely more than a few.”

  “Scottie,” I beamed. “I’m so proud of you. I always knew your painting would go somewhere.”

  He shrugged sheepishly.

  “What else? How’s the dress shop?”

  Santos and Scott exchanged uncomfortable looks. Scott nodded his head at me, as if telling Santos to go ahead, but he shook his head quickly.

  “What is it?”

  “We closed it,” Liv answered, rolling her eyes at the guys. “No one was here to run it, because we all got so busy with school. So, Anna sold off all the supplies and it’s a studio for Scott now.”

  “Oh,” I answered. I was happy Scott had a place to paint, but no dress shop? Grandma had run it since I was a little girl. Knowing it was gone felt odd. “At least Mom won’t be yelling at you to not make a mess with the paint now.”

  He chuckled. “You’d think she’d stop since I’m going on twenty-six years old.”

  I stared at him. He’d passed the twenty-five mark. Sorcerers stopped aging at twenty-five for a very long time; thousands of years for most. He would look exactly like he did now for a lengthy amount of time to come. “It’s weird, to know we’ve all grown up,” I whispered, more to myself than them.

  Liv sat beside me, placing her hand on mine. “We did all grow up. Sadie, we’ve missed you so much. We wanna know about you.”

  Santos brought plates of food over and nodded. “Yeah, we’ve heard some stories about this badass chick who executes bad guys like it’s nothing. There was one story that got back to us from this fae who saw you in Florida. They said this vampire came at you, fangs bared and faster than lightning, and you just flicked your wrist like it was nothing and staked him before he could realize what was happening.”

  I giggled. “Yeah, that was James Zion. He was murdering people all over Orlando and neighboring towns.”

  “You knew his name?” Santos squeaked.

  Laughing loudly, I nodded. “I know all of their names. I have to hunt them, know their patterns.”

  Scott joined us, sitting a pitcher of tea in the middle of the table. “I always knew you were good with potions, but combat, too? I mean, look at you! You’re ready to kick anybody’s ass that looks at you wrong.”

  I shrugged. “I go to the gym and run. I can’t go after bad guys if I can’t chase them or keep up with their speed.”

  “Remember that guy when we fought Devlin? The one you stabbed after asking questions?” Liv asked.

  “Jacob,” I recalled.

  “Was that the beginning?”

  I nodded again. “It was. I knew after that moment I could do what I needed.”

  Scott was next, looking at me thoughtfully. “Sadie…what made you start this? Why did you leave?”

  I knew it was coming, but still I wasn’t fully prepared. Sighing heavily, I cracked my neck and shook my leg up and down. “Harlow shouldn’t have gotten away with everything she did. Someone, somewhere, should have fought her. They should have recognized what she was, what she was doing, and done something about it. So, I vowed to do that for others.”

  Liv spoke next. “We found him, you know. He’s in California.”

  “He doesn’t remember us,” I said bluntly.

  “But he might when we’re finished with him,” Scott grinned.

  Refusing to get my hopes up, I stared at him. “What’s the plan?”

  “She couldn’t have completely wiped his memories. Grandma did a lot of research and asking around. It’s not entirely possible.”

  “Yes, it is,” I countered. “I do it with innocents I rescue.”

  “Humans,” Liv pointed out. “Aiden is a descendant as much as I am. He just didn’t come into his power.”

  I sat up straighter. “What are you all thinking?”

  “We’ve invited him to the graduation and wedding under the guise that Livvie is a long distant cousin,” Scott explained. “Once he’s here, we’ll magically provoke his memories. Display an act here, do something or say something we did in the past. It should stir his memories enough for him to start to remember, then we can pull them out.”

  “Why can’t we pull them out to begin with?” I questioned. Seemed like a much simpler solution.

  “It could wipe his complete memory for good,” Santos said.

  “Like amnesia?”

  He nodded.

  “Then I guess we’ll provoke him…if he comes.”

  “He RSVP’d,” Olivia said. “He said yes.”

  Ignoring the gnawing in my gut and the fluttering in my heart, I allowed myself to enjoy spending time with them the rest of the evening.

  In two days’ time, Aiden would be in Tennessee.

  “No,” she said, shaking her head again. Pointing at me, she changed my dress color for the fifth time in the last hour.

  Olivia decided magically conjuring her bridesmaid dresses was the best idea, and now Juniper and I were being tortured. Sighing, I gave Juniper a small eye roll as Olivia studied us intently.

  “I don’t know what color to go with,” she finally grumbled.

  “Can I wear black?” I asked.

  She snapped her head toward me in shock. “To my wedding?”

  I held my hands up in surrender. “My bad. No black.”

  Obviously stressed, she glared at me. “It’s not a funeral, so no. It will be a bright, springy color.”

  “Come on, Liv,” Juniper said. “You’ve tried green, orange, pink, blue, and purple. How about yellow? You and Scott have that yellow rose thing.”

  She pondered her best friend’s words. The dresses changed from floor length to just below the knees. A light yellow color appeared with a sash of roses. A rose wreath was also around my head.

  Holy rose.

  Olivia squealed and jumped in delight. “J, you’re so good at this!”

  Juniper, an immortal, grinned. Her brown eyes were rimmed in red, giving her a horror type of look, but she was far from scary. Nothing else about her had changed. She still looked young, seventeen to be exact, and was totally gorgeous. Her curly locks hung in ringlets around her face, cut short to just below her chin. S
he still wore musical notes on her outfits and put colors in her hair. Her milky brown skin was smooth and unblemished, giving her an almost angelic look if not for the eyes. Not much was different about her, unlike everyone else. “Now what about your dress?”

  Liv’s face lit up as she walked to the closet. “I already have it.”

  “What?” Juniper screamed. “And you didn’t tell me?”