Black Orchid (Svatura)

by Abigail Owen

  Adelaide shook her head and grabbed the leather glove out of his hands. “You’re crazy.”

  There wasn’t a ton to do around here, but going swimming seemed like such a silly thing, given everything else going on in her world right now.

  She headed toward the house, and Nate followed. “Awe, come on,” he said. “You want to. It’s a hot day. We’re done practicing. There’s nothing better to do.”

  Adelaide bit her lip. It seemed irresponsible. But at the same time, what was she supposed to do, sit around and not live her life while she waited for the world to get uncrazy? Then again, Nate was enough of a temptation fully clothed. Perhaps swimming with him wasn’t the best idea.

  She kept walking. “I don’t have a swimsuit.”

  “Nope, not good enough.”

  Before she could read his intentions, Nate scooped her up in his arms. She dropped everything she was holding as he took off at a blinding speed across the ground.

  “Hey!” Adelaide protested. “Put me down!”

  “No chance. You need a little fun in your life, and you’re going to get it whether you want it or not.”

  Adelaide suppressed a grin. When he wanted to, Nate turned into this entertaining, charming guy, full of fun. She liked it when this side of him came out to play.

  “I can fly, you know,” she reminded him as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

  “Yeah. And you’ll just go straight home.”

  Before Adelaide could think of another way to stop this insanity, not really wanting to come up with a solution anyway, she caught a flash of sunlight gleaming off the water up ahead. She craned her neck to get a closer look.

  “Can you swim?” Nate asked.

  Adelaide looked back at him. “Of course I can.”

  “Good!”

  With that as her only warning, Nate suddenly skidded to a halt and then tossed her into the air. Adelaide screeched and flailed her arms before splashing down into the cool water. She came to the surface spluttering, only to find that Nate had joined her. He floated in the water only a foot away.

  She opened her mouth to yell at him when he lunged at her. “Guess you need to cool off more,” he said before dunking her back under the surface.

  Adelaide wanted to be furious, but the laughter in his voice was infectious. He made her want to play. His sense of fun must’ve been contagious, because instead of rising back to the surface, she swam directly under his feet. She could hear him calling her name. She would’ve grinned if it wouldn’t have earned her a mouthful of water.

  In a flash she snaked her hands out, grabbed him by the ankles, and jerked him under water. Then she took off swimming, not waiting to be there for his retribution. She quickly discovered that Nate was almost as fast in the water as he was on land.

  “I surrender!” she cried after being on the losing end of multiple dousings.

  With a laugh he let her go.

  Catching her breath, she swam over to a bank on the opposite side of the pond. She pulled herself out of the water and lay in the sun, warming herself, ignoring the fact that sand and dirt would be plastered to her backside and hair.

  Nate flopped down beside her with an endearing grin.

  Adelaide shook her head at him. Then she took a deep, relaxing breath and looked around, truly taking in their swimming hole for the first time. Large boulders dotted the opposite shore, but on their side was a relatively sandy little strip of a beach. Instead of the constant red and dry that surrounded her house, this was a true oasis, with green plants sprouting out of any available surface. The crystal clear pond was bookended by a small series of gentle falls on either end, ensuring the water supply remained fresh and flowing. It was, in a word, idyllic.

  “You’re a good swimmer,” Nate said.

  “Thanks. My folks used to own some land in Louisiana that had a pond a lot like this. My sister and I—”

  Adelaide broke off. A picture of Nate splashing around in the water with both her and Lila had popped into her mind. So vividly she could swear that it had to be a memory…but that wasn’t possible.

  Adelaide frowned.

  “Your sister and you?” Nate’s deep voice interrupted her thoughts.

  Adelaide shook her head. Her mind must be mixing up images from new and old memories. Face it, girl… you’re a bona fide wreck.

  She sent Nate a smile. “We used to play there together. A lot of summers were spent in that pond.”

  “Sounds as if you miss it.”

  “Yeah. Simpler times then, I guess. What about you?”

  “Hmmm?”

  “Any memories like that? Let me guess. You were a swim champ at some school. Or every school.”

  Nate sat up, snagged a blade of grass, and started ripping it to shreds. “Nah. I was more into football than swimming. I have… similar… memories to yours. Summers at a watering hole with… friends.”

  Adelaide sat up too. “You’ve never said anything about friends before. I didn’t think you had any.” She bumped his shoulder with hers teasingly.

  He looked searchingly into the brush around them. He did that a lot. Almost as though he was expecting someone to be watching them. Then he glanced at her and threw the rest of the grass he’d been playing with into the pond. Jumping to his feet, he held out his hand. “Come on, Princess. I’ll run you back.”

  Adelaide’s grin faded, and she ignored his hand. “I didn’t mean to hit on a sore subject. I’m sorry.”

  He gave her another soulless smile. “You didn’t upset me. I’m just ready to go back.”

  Adelaide didn’t believe a word. Taking his hand, she stood up. He moved to scoop her into his arms, but she stepped away. “I can fly.”

  “Better not risk the shakes. I’m surprised you didn’t go nuclear on me when I tossed you in the water.” This time the crinkles around his eyes were genuine.

  Adelaide chuckled. “I told you… I have better control now. Besides, I trust you.” The moment the words were out of her mouth, she knew she meant them.

  Nate sobered so fast she felt as if the day dimmed a little bit with the change in his mood. “Let’s go,” he muttered.

  He didn’t give her a chance to reply. He just swung her up in his arms and took off. Adelaide thought about the odd exchange the entire few minutes it took him to run them back to the house. As soon as they reached the front door, he lowered her feet to the ground.

  She didn’t let go of his neck, even when he pulled back a little to break the hold.

  “I’m your friend, Nate.”

  Chapter 22

  Nate froze, panic welling up in him. He jerked back hard enough to break Adelaide’s grasp. “Don’t say something you don’t mean.”

  She flinched at the harshness in his voice, but she didn’t give up. “I do mean it. I’m your friend, and I trust you.”

  Nate ran his hands through his hair. What was he doing? This was exactly what he wanted. But now that he was here… Hell. He had no f’ing clue what he wanted. “What if I asked to meet your family? The ones you’ve been hiding me from all this time?”

  She frowned in confusion. “They wouldn’t be happy about it. But I’d introduce you if you thought it was important.”

  “Why?” The word punched from him. Stop it, dummy. You’re supposed to get her trust, not try to drive her away. Nate ignored his inner voice. “You don’t know me. Not at all.”

  Adelaide took a deep breath. “But I know I can trust you. If you wanted to harm me, you’d have let me self-destruct by now. But you haven’t. Instead you’ve helped me, despite all my rules and secrecy.”

  “God, you’re naïve.” Nate wanted to shake some self-preservation into her.

  Adelaide gave him a sad smile. “You know what I think? I think you’re lost. I think you’re terrified that I may actually be your friend.”

  Nate’s heart galloped. She was too close. “Shut up,” he snapped.

  “You know how I’m so sure?”

  “Stop it.”
/>
  “I can see relationships, Nate. Let me show you.”

  Nate shook his head frantically. “Don’t you dare use your gifts on me. You’re just trying to—”

  Suddenly Nate could see through Adelaide’s eyes as her telepathy pulled him in. Glittering, shimmering threads crisscrossed between them. He froze in place, horrified, but unable to look or run away from what she was doing to him.

  “You see this pale yellow relationship?” She pointed to it. “That developed just in the last few weeks. It means we’re friends and not just in a casual sense. We can completely trust each other.”

  Nate looked back and forth from the connection to her earnest face, his mind and his emotions a jumble of confusion. “I don’t believe you,” he whispered.

  “You can trust me, Nate. I would never hurt you. Ever. Not if I can help it.”

  God, he wanted to believe her. But this had to be what she’d done to him before. This was how she’d fooled him. Nate felt anger and righteous indignation boil inside him, but before he could bring it crashing down on Adelaide, she reached out to the line.

  She brushed her fingertips along it, and it seemed to twang and vibrate at her touch. And then a swarm of feelings flowed through Nate, originating in the spot where that thread touched him. Trust, affection, acceptance, liking. Everything he’d been battling to not feel for her spread through him.

  Nate blinked and took a deep breath, not realizing he’d been holding it. Adelaide didn’t say or do anything else. She just watched, patiently, while he processed everything she was saying and showing him.

  “What’s that about?” he whispered, eyeing the deep purple relationship that was black and frayed at the ends. He looked down to where the strand started from his heart. Bits of red blended into the purple. Adelaide had a similar one coming from her, but the two strands didn’t quiet connect.

  “I don’t know. Yet.”

  Nate swallowed as suspicion, insidious and debilitating, crept into his mind. But this time Adelaide wasn’t his focus. “What happens when you touch it?” he felt compelled to ask.

  Adelaide slowly stepped closer to him. “I feel warmth and tingling when I try to touch the line coming from me.”

  “And the one from me?”

  “I don’t know… I haven’t tried.”

  Nate’s hands started shaking. Fear sat in the pit of his stomach. If he was right….

  “Do it.”

  Adelaide reached out, but the strand moved away from her and flinched almost. She pursed her lips and stepped in closer to him. She placed her hand on his chest, and Nate felt her heat through his wind-dried shirt. Then she slid her hand down and wrapped it around the now violently thrashing line connected to his heart.

  Nate experienced a sudden, piercing pain so shocking that it stopped his breathing. A hundred years of memories and feelings ripped through his mind, and every single one involved the incredible woman standing before him. The truth was blinding in its white hot intensity.

  Nate crumpled to his knees. “Oh, God,” he croaked out.

  “Nate?” Adelaide’s voice penetrated the pain inside him. He heard her fear. “What—?”

  “Adelaide Jenner!” a shrill voice pierced the air. “Get away from him right now!”

  Lila suddenly appeared beside Adelaide. Grabbing her by the arm, Lila jerked her away. Nate, incapacitated by the agony tearing him apart, could only watch.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” Lila spat at him.

  He tried to open his mouth to respond. But no sound emerged.

  “Lila? Do you know him?” Adelaide asked in a voice trembling with distress and confusion.

  Lila squatted in front of him and focused. Nate knew she was reading his mind. God, she’ll know why I’m really here.

  Lila’s eyes flared and then narrowed. “You bastard.”

  She backed up fast, taking Adelaide with her. Then she grasped Charlotte’s hand, who was standing silently off to the side. Nate tried to stop them, to shout “No! Wait!” but he still felt paralyzed by the pain.

  “You’re lucky I don’t kill you right now,” Lila hissed.

  Nate managed to raise his hand and reach for Adelaide. Her face was ashen, her gaze stricken.

  And then she was gone.

  The yell that he hadn’t been able to get through his frozen lips and air-deprived lungs now punched out of him in a raw, guttural, heart-wrenching sound.

  He knew. He knew now that Talia had done something to him and that Adelaide hadn’t been the deceiver in his life. That role belonged to Maddox and Talia. He’d walked away from his te’sorthene. He knew exactly what those lines were between them. He’d severed that relationship.

  “What have I done?” he whispered brokenly. “Adelaide… what have I done?”

  Chapter 23

  Adelaide jerked out of Charlotte’s grasp and whirled around. “Please explain to me what just happened.”

  “How long has Nate been with you?”

  Adelaide shook her head. “Oh no. I think I deserve some answers first. I mean, I knew you guys would be mad at me for letting a stranger—” She broke off with a frown. “Wait… How do you know his name is Nate?”

  “He’s not a stranger. He’s with Maddox.”

  Adelaide snapped her mouth shut with an audible click of her teeth. Her mind spun with the implications. But it made no sense.

  “No…” She shook her head. “No, he’s not. Why were you there anyway? No one told me you were coming.”

  “Mom had a feeling, so she sent me to check on you. Just lucky timing.”

  Adelaide pursed her lips. “I have to go back. I think I hurt him when I touched one of the relationship lines between us.”

  Lila crossed her arms and glanced at Charlotte. Charlotte looked between the girls and then popped away.

  “We can’t do that,” Lila insisted.

  “He won’t hurt me—”

  “He already has.”

  Adelaide frowned. “What?”

  Lila sighed. She dropped her arms to her sides and looked at her feet. “Nate is the reason we had to take away your memories. He is who we made you forget.”

  Adelaide felt the shaking start. But she pushed it way down deep inside her. This was too important. “I don’t understand.”

  “Nate used to be your te’sorthene.”

  Nothing was making any sense. “How is that possible? Te’sorthene don’t just… stop.” She flung her arms out wildly.

  “Someone named Talia did something to him. We think. And the relationship… broke.”

  Adelaide gasped. That explained the severed relationship between them. She raised a quivering hand to her lips and shook her head. “No,” she whispered.

  Lila looked to be on the verge of tears herself. “You were beyond devastated, so I took away your emotions. But that made you really dangerous. So much power and no emotion to govern it. So we took away your memory instead.” Lila took one of Adelaide’s hands and fell to her knees at her feet. “I’m so sorry!”

  Adelaide dropped down in front of her sister and pulled her into a hug. Her head and her heart were spinning. She had known that the holes in her memory existed to hide something bad. But she hadn’t expected this. With Nate, of all people.

  Shaking her head she pulled back from Lila. “He’s not bad. Not anymore at least. I’m sure of it. We need to talk to him.”

  Lila sighed. “I read his mind. Maddox sent him to use you. He was supposed to earn your trust, even your love, so that you’d follow him anywhere. Even back to Maddox, where you’d be a willing prisoner and bait for me.”

  Behind Lila, the rest of their family piled through the doorway. Adelaide stood up and put her hands on her hips.

  “I need to talk to him.”

  *****

  Nate sat on the couch in Adelaide’s Outback house, his head in his hands. He’d been there for hours. Well, technically he’d been sitting outside in the dirt for a good chunk of that time. He’d moved insid
e when Adelaide hadn’t returned. But he couldn’t leave. Not yet.

  “What are you thinking about?”

  Nate jumped to his feet at the sound of Adelaide’s voice. Her name died on his lips when he saw her entire family standing behind her.

  Enemies…

  But he pushed past that first instinctive thought, knowing it wasn’t real. He blinked several times to reset his mind. When he looked back up, the people standing in front of him were not exactly the family of his vague memories, but at least he didn’t want to immediately kill them.

  Filled by shame and sorrow, he focused on Adelaide. “You don’t know what I was thinking?”

  She shook her head, though she didn’t move closer. “I promised I wouldn’t use telepathy on you.”

  How could she be this nice when she had to know what he’d done? What he’d planned to do?

  “Well, I didn’t promise anything,” Lila piped up. “He’s plotting to take down Maddox and Talia.”

  A shocked silence descended on the room. Nate grimaced at the expressions on their faces… a mixture of hope, doubt, shock, suspicion, and, in Adelaide’s case, despair.

  She closed her eyes for a moment and then, with a deep breath, shot her sister an annoyed look. “If that’s the case, then my point is made and you can give us some privacy.”

  Ellie cleared her throat, “I don’t think—”

  “Let’s go outside,” Selene interrupted. She walked across to the door and opened it expectantly.

  Nate was deep in shock, and he kept his mouth shut and his gaze focused on Adelaide as everyone else filtered outside. He wouldn’t mess up this one chance to explain.

  At the soft click of the closing door, she turned to face him. For a moment she said nothing and just let her eyes travel over what he was sure was his haggard-looking face.

  “Did I hurt you?”

  He didn’t answer. Instead he said, “How’s the shaking?”

  She pursed her lips. “I already told you… under control. Answer my question. Did I hurt you?”

  The softness in her voice hit him hardest. Nate clenched his hands and looked away. “No more than I deserved.”