by Leigh Fallon
Adam.
Adam was still alive.
Lyonis’s screaming was really getting on my nerves.
“Oh, shut up,” I roared at him. I felt my power disperse a little. The glow around me dimmed, and the great whirling vortex of water, trees, and boat debris faltered slightly.
“Megan.” I heard Adam’s voice clearly, as if all other sound in the universe had stopped for one moment. “Megan, I’m all right. Come back to me,” he pleaded.
Come back to him—of course I’d come back to him. I was his. I dropped lower and let Lyonis fall to the ground with a thud. Water started splashing back to earth. Trees, boats, and rocks all came crashing down around us in a big circle.
“Adam,” I breathed. My voice returned to the one I recognized. “I thought you were dead.”
“Me too, baby, me too,” he said weakly.
I threw myself into his arms.
“You are one scary girl. Beautiful, amazing, magical, but damn scary,” he whispered into my hair, then groaned. He stretched out and grabbed Fionn’s arm. “Are you still with us, Fionn?”
“Just about,” Fionn croaked, and rolled over.
Twenty-three
EMPOWERED
Fionn looked warily at me. “Well, that’s one I have never seen before,” he said in a weak voice. “Rían, check on that bastard, will you?”
Rían picked his way through the debris to where Lyonis lay in a heap. “He’s alive,” he announced. “More’s the pity.” He gave the unconscious man a good kick and walked back over to where Adam and I were lying on the ground. “Have you disarmed her?” Rían asked Adam jokingly. He gave me an admiring look. “Jesus, girl! Remind me never to get on your bad side.”
I snuggled into Adam’s arms. The tears were pouring down my face, my human emotions flooding back into my body.
“We’d better get you to a hospital, bro,” Rían said. “Looks like Fionn could do with some patching up too.” He turned to me. “Now, don’t take this the wrong way and get all freaky mad, O very scary one, but you have seen prettier days. Your face is a mess, and those burns on your hands look really painful.” He winced.
Wow. I had completely forgotten about the punch I got in the face, and about my burned hands. I glanced down at them. They really did look bad. “Ouch,” I said.
“That bastard,” Adam said through gritted teeth.
“Come on. Let’s get you lot to hospital and call the Gardaí for this asshole,” Rían said, walking by Lyonis and kicking him in the ribs again.
“Will you give him one for me?” Adam said.
“It would be my pleasure.” Rían kicked him again.
It wasn’t long before there were squad cars and ambulances on the little lane that led down toward the boat graveyard. They had to bring the stretchers on foot, since they couldn’t get the ambulances down to where we were. Adam and Fionn were taken away first to the hospital.
I was going to ride with Rían and Áine and get seen to in the ER, but we had to speak to the Gardaí first and make statements. Rían recounted the story of my abduction. He claimed Lyonis was some deranged psychopath who claimed to be a member of a weird holy order. He’d kidnapped me, beaten me, and then shot Adam and Fionn when they came to rescue me. It did the trick. Lyonis was taken to the hospital under a Gardaí escort. I doubted we’d be seeing much more of him.
I was desperate to be with Adam, so as soon as the Gardaí were finished with us, Rían, Áine, and I set off for the hospital. Now that I was sitting still in the back of the car, the pain in my hands really started to take hold. They throbbed all over.
I looked over at Áine. “How did you find me?”
“I sent Caitlin home with the horses and then we looked for you everywhere. I knew something was blocking me, and instead of trying to see past it, I focused on it and looked for it. It led us right to the boat graveyard.”
“He had me drugged. I don’t even know how long I was gone,” I said.
“He must have been waiting for you. He pulled you off with a sheephook. We found it in the field along with a wad of cotton that was doused with chloroform. You were only gone a couple of hours.”
“Does my dad know?”
“He thinks we’re still out on the horses. Caitlin promised not to say anything as long as I explained to her what was going on. So at the moment he doesn’t even realize there is a problem, but your face and hands are going to require some explanations, so best to let him know now, before he hears something through the Kinsale gossips.” She handed me her phone with a sympathetic look.
I dialed his number. “Hi, Dad.”
“Megan, whose phone are you calling from? Is everything all right?”
“Um, yeah, but there was sort of an incident. I’m all right, but we’re on the way to the hospital.” I tried to phrase it so he didn’t immediately think the worst, but as I thought it through, I realized he was going to absolutely freak out when he heard about our injuries. I’d save that for later.
“It’s a very, very long story, Dad, but I’m fine; I just have a few bruises. Look, I’ll be at Cork University Hospital. They’re taking Adam and Fionn there too.”
“Adam and Fionn are going to the hospital too? Christ, Megan, what the hell happened?”
“Dad, I can’t tell you over the phone; just come to the hospital and I’ll tell you everything.”
“Of course I will. Who’s with you?”
“Áine and Rían. Honestly, I’m fine. It’s Adam and Fionn we should be worried about.” Saying it out loud reminded me that Adam had been severely injured. I’d been so overwhelmed at his not being dead that his injuries hadn’t registered. The tears came again; I could hardly finish the phone call. Áine took the phone from me.
“Hi, Mr. Rosenberg, it’s Áine. Yes, don’t worry, we’re looking after her. I think she’s suffering from shock. Yes, of course we will. See you in twenty minutes. Bye.”
I looked at her and she put her arm around me. Her hug made me fall apart completely. Maybe she was right. Maybe I was suffering from shock; the tears just wouldn’t stop.
Still holding me with one arm, she flipped open her phone again. “Just one more call to make,” she said, smiling down at me.
“Caitlin, hey, it’s Áine. Yeah, we have her. Yes, I’ve told her dad. She’s a bit worse for wear; we are taking her to hospital. I know—look, I’ll tell you all about it later. No problem. Bye.”
“Is she okay?” I asked Áine.
“She’s fine, just concerned about you. She knows there’s something up with us, though. We’re going to have to think about what to tell her. Let’s get you fixed up first. We’ll sort that out later. She’s going to keep quiet for us in the meantime.”
When we arrived at the hospital, I wanted to go right up to see Adam, but they told us that he was in surgery and wouldn’t be out for a while. They also said I needed to be seen by a doctor before I could do anything. So I let them put me on a bed and tend to my bashed-up face and burned hands. The nurse who was cleaning my face winced as she wiped dry blood from a large cut along my hairline. I’d forgotten about that impact on my head in the trunk. The side of my face had puffed up and my upper lip was bloody and swollen. Once she’d finished applying the paper stitches I finally got to look in a mirror. I hardly recognized myself.
“Don’t worry, pet,” the nurse reassured me. “That swelling will go down quickly, and the stitches are on your hairline; they won’t even leave a mark.”
I attempted a smile for her. To be honest, I didn’t care; I just wanted to get down to see Adam. They draped my hands in gooey gauze and bound them thickly with bandages.
I saw a nurse approaching with my dad. “Oh, my God,” he whimpered.
“Dad, it’s not as bad as it looks; I promise. Please calm down.”
He rushed over to me. “I heard what happened; the Kinsale Gardaí called me, and Áine spoke to me outside. How could this happen? Why you?”
“Dad, this guy is psychotic. I
t could have happened to anyone. I was just really lucky that Adam and Fionn caught him in time.”
“How are they?” Dad asked, taking my bandaged hands gently in his.
“I don’t know. They won’t let me out of here, and Adam’s still in surgery. Dad, can you talk to the doctors and see if you can get them to release me? Please?”
My dad was deathly pale; he looked like he was the one in shock. “I’ll see what I can do.” He got up and walked out of the exam room. He was back in a few minutes with the news that Fionn’s surgery had gone well, and that while Adam had lost a kidney and a lot of blood, he would also be fine. The feeling of relief was overwhelming.
As soon as I was released, I crept into Adam’s room. A nurse who was checking on him turned to me as she adjusted his position. “He will be out for quite a while, love. You should come back in a few hours.”
“No, no, I’m staying here.”
“Whatever you want, dear, but you look like you need some rest of your own.”
“No,” I said firmly. “I’m staying.” I sat in the chair by his bed.
My dad stood at the door.
“Let me take you home, Meg. Please? You’re exhausted.”
“No, Dad, I’m not leaving him.”
My dad sighed and went out to sit in the waiting room.
I put my head down carefully on the bed beside Adam. Being here with him, even in his unconscious state, made me feel safe and protected, and soon exhaustion overcame me. I fell into a deep sleep.
A comfortable, warm sensation woke me, a hand rubbing my back, another sweeping over my hair.
“You’re awake,” I whispered.
“How are you?” He gently traced his hand over my face.
“I’m fine.”
“And your hands?”
I sat up. “Don’t worry about me. How do you feel?”
“I’ve been better, but it’s not too bad.” He laughed, then grimaced in pain.
“So…” I said slowly, “it would appear that I have fully evoked my element by accident.”
“I’ll say! That was awesome.”
“But where do we go from here? What will we do now?” I asked, searching his eyes.
He gazed back at me for what seemed like forever and then gently traced his finger along my cheek. “Don’t worry about that now. No matter what happens we’re in this together. Right?”
I reached up, covering his hand with mine, and nodded. “Right.”
We were interrupted when Rían popped his head around the door. “Hey, you two. How are you feeling, bro?”
“I’ll survive. All things considered, I’m feeling pretty good. How’s Fionn?”
“He’s good.”
“And that jerk Lyonis?”
“He’s in hospital too, but in Garda custody. Megan here landed him right on his head, so he has a serious concussion and a fair amount of bruising to his abdomen and ribs.” He winked at us. “Megan, you’re going to have to go home with your dad today at some stage. The poor man’s asleep in the corridor.”
Adam looked at me. “Take your dad home. Get some rest.”
“Okay.” I kissed Adam good-bye and went out to the hallway to get my dad and head home. Suddenly, I had an overwhelming sense of relief—it was finally over. No more running from what I was. I had evoked. Now we just had to deal with the consequences of that, but no matter what, Adam and I would be dealing with them together.
Things quickly went back to normal in the aftermath, with a few notable exceptions: My dad was neurotically overprotective, Caitlin was seriously suspicious of the DeRíses, and Adam and I found ourselves at the center of school gossip … again.
There wasn’t much I could do with Dad; I’d have to ride that one out. And I knew that the gossip mill would move on to something else soon. But Caitlin’s suspicions needed to be dealt with. Luckily, Fionn was on the case. He invited her over to their house for dinner one night, and I listened as he fed her the most amazing story. It was told so well, I nearly believed it myself.
According to Fionn, Adam, Áine, and Rían were in a witness protection program. Their parents had been killed by a gang and all three of the DeRíses knew their identities, so the gang was constantly looking for them in order to dispose of the witnesses to the murders. Fionn claimed that he had been enlisted by the program to protect them and keep them hidden, and that was why they moved to Ireland and lived a very quiet life. What had happened with my abduction was a simple case of mistaken identity. Fionn told her that a member of the gang had located the DeRíses and abducted who he thought was Áine, but was in fact me, and Adam and Fionn got shot trying to rescue me.
Caitlin was mesmerized by the story and on a complete high at being involved and having to keep the DeRíses’ identities a secret. I felt bad about deceiving her yet again, but Adam pointed out that a lot of it was so close to the truth that it wasn’t even too terrible a lie. And, most important, it was for her own good.
Fionn lured the Order to Cork shortly afterward. They were enraptured by my evocation and talked excitedly of the alignment, but Fionn quickly put a stop to any celebrations, accusing them of treachery. They each vehemently denied being involved with the Knox, but M.J. did admit that he had told the council about me. He felt it was his duty to warn them because of my relationship with Adam and the potential problem with the Fifth Prophecy. So that meant that there were more people who could have betrayed our trust. We just didn’t know who to blame—and who we could turn to in the future.
As for Adam and me, we’d each gotten a glimpse of how life would be without the other, and that wasn’t going to happen again. Our future was full of obstacles, but we would face them one at a time, together. We’d simply play along with the Order for an easy life.
So as the Dublin Order members fought with Fionn in the study, we sat obediently on the couch and pretended to listen. They had moved on by this point to fighting about the Amulet of Accaious, which Fionn now had. He was adamant that it would stay with him to ensure it would never be used against us, but the Dublin Order couldn’t accept that they weren’t allowed access to it. We had planned to go to dinner with the three Order members that night, but as their fight with Fionn heated up, that looked less and less likely.
“Come on,” Adam said, getting up. “We don’t need to listen to them now. Let’s take a walk. They won’t even notice we’re gone.”
Adam held my hand. We walked quietly out into the yard and down the field to the copse of trees at the side, our usual haunt when we wanted some alone time. Once we were under the privacy of their canopy, he swung me around and caught me in his arms.
“Have I told you today how amazing you are?” he breathed.
“Let me see now.” I did some fake pondering. “You know what? I don’t think you have.”
“Well, let me show you how amazing you are, then.” He bent his head down to mine and kissed me softly. The leaves in the trees began to stir and rustle as a gentle breeze blew around us, warm and soothing.
“Wow,” he whispered. “I’ll never get used to that.”
Shortly after I’d evoked my full power, we had discovered that when we were together now, the atmosphere around us changed. It seemed to absorb some of our power and become part of us. And when we kissed each other, the air around us would caress and kiss us in the most sensual and earthmoving way. I thought I’d had the most fantastic relationship with Adam before I evoked, but neither of us realized the depth and intensity that it would attain after. It was now truly magical.
I leaned back against the trunk of a tree and caught my breath. I raised my face up toward the branches above my head, watching the last of the residual energy that we had created work its way through the leaves until it faded away. Adam moved in closer to me, put his lips to my neck, and started working his way up toward my ear. My breath quickened again, and I felt the energy emitting from me mixing with his and swirling around us, leaving us once again breathless. I let myself slide onto the grou
nd. He followed me down and hovered over me on his hands and knees. The power was all-encompassing. We just stared at each other and then he lowered his lips to mine and kissed me passionately and deeply. The air whipped up around us, shaking the grass we were lying in and scattering leaves down on us from the trees above. He rolled over onto his back and followed my gaze up into the trees, watching the magic disperse.
“Do you think we should mention this to anyone?” I asked breathlessly.
“Let’s keep this our little secret. Anyway, it might not always be like this. Let’s just wait and see.”
We heard voices coming out of the house in the distance.
“I guess that’s our cue,” he murmured, catching my eye and smiling.
“I love you so much,” I whispered. “I will be with you always, no matter what.”
“I love you too. Forever,” he said, reaching out and taking my hand. He held it to his chest. We stayed like that until we heard car doors opening. Adam stood up slowly, then bent down and took both my hands and pulled me up to him.
“Ready?” I smoothed his hair back into place.
“As we’ll ever be.” He smiled and started walking backward toward the house, pulling me with him.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you to everyone who made this book possible. Special thanks to the gang at HarperTeen, including my amazingly talented editor, Erica Sussman, TJ, Becki, Christina, Elyse, and Kristina. You guys eased my way into the publishing world with lots of laughs and fun, and for that, I’ll always be grateful. To my fabulous agent, Tina Wexler, who makes the magic happen behind the scenes. A HUGE thanks to the people of www.inkpop.com, without whom I wouldn’t be here. Hugs to all the wonderful Inkies who supported me and my book from day one, especially Morgan Shamy, my advocate and friend.
A big shout-out to my proofreaders-slash-babysitters, Jennifer Galvin, Paula Conroy, and Betty Bowe, who were unfortunate enough to holiday with me in the middle of writing this book; I’m sure it wasn’t pretty, but they never once complained. Thanks to Lorna Grehan and Valarie Feehan for their editing skills, and to my dad, Liam Conroy, whose idea it was to write this book in the first place.