Chapter Twelve-Introductions and Information
I woke with a startle when Aiden moved away from me and off the bed. Reaching for my knife, I panicked when it wasn’t there. Sitting straight up, I searched the room for lurking danger and only relaxed when Aiden spoke.
“Sadie?” he said, resting a knee on the bed and leaning toward me. “Are you ok?’
I nodded. “Yeah. I’ve woken up in some bad situations. Freaked me out that I didn’t have my knife.”
He nodded in the direction beside me. “It’s on the table.”
Looking at it to reassure myself I was safe, I turned back and smiled. “Thanks, Aiden.”
He stood and grinned. “You’re so beautiful when you just wake up. Do you feel better?”
His compliments made me blush, the heat rising and covering my cheeks. Knowing he saw it caused more embarrassment and a never-ending cycle of blushing.
Pathetic.
“I feel a lot better,” I said. Jumping to my feet, I stuck my dagger in my back pocket and stretched my arms above my head. “I need to go check on Tessi and Mel.”
“Your friends?”
“Mmmhmm,” I replied.
“You healed her, right?” he asked. He stretched, too, his arms bulging in places I didn’t remember them doing so before. His shirt rose, showing the flat, smooth skin on his lower abdomen.
Abdomen. Remembering. Aiden was remembering! The conversation we held moments before I slipped into oblivion was coming back to me. He lowered his arms, looking at me expectantly.
“Aiden, you remembered the kitchen incident!” I squealed.
“Ok,” he said, obviously confused, but went with it. “Yeah, I told you that.”
“Do you remember anything else?”
He shook his head. “No, but the more I’m with you, the more my mind wants to remember. You’re so familiar…a memory etched so deeply within me that it consumes my heart. Your smell takes me back, brings me happiness, but I don’t know why. Vanilla icing has made me smile this stupid, goofy grin for years, and it’s because of you. I didn’t know until I got a whiff of you. Your touch is like a long, lost caress I didn’t know I missed so much. When you kissed me…I’d never felt my heart beat so fast. My stomach never felt so upset and so excited at the same time. Your voice is like my favorite song, stroking the memories I know are there but won’t reveal themselves. Sadie…I know you, but I don’t.”
Walking slowly to him, I allowed his sweet words to wash over me. Resting my hand on his cheek, I smiled softly. “Aiden, you do know me. And everything will come back in time. Keep doing what you’re doing.”
He nodded in my hand, his facial hair tickling my palm. He was an older version of himself, and like a fine wine, only got better. He was more attractive as a man than as a teenager, and he’d sent my heart into a flurry of flutters back then. Now? Yeah, I thought it was probably going to stop all together out of overuse.
“What were you asking me again?” I chuckled.
“You healed that girl. She was dying and you fixed her.”
“That’s not a question.”
He raised a brow and cocked his head.
“Ok,” I said. Taking my hand from him because I couldn’t think straight with his nearness, I balanced on the bed frame. “Yeah, I healed her. It’s one of my powers.”
“See? I should be freaked out by that, but I’m not.”
I giggled. “It’s probably a good thing. You’re going to remember me doing much more than that.”
“Soon, I hope,” he whispered.
I took his hand, squeezed it, and reassured him he would. For his sake, and mine, I hoped I was right. “Let’s go check on everyone.”
He followed me out of the room. I hurried across the hall to where Tessi rested and found the room empty. I tried the next door and found Mel sitting up, looking around in confusion.
“Sadie!” she yelled. She stood gingerly, her strength not yet renewed. “What happened?
“I saved your ass,” I joked. “We have a lot to talk about. Let’s find Tessi and I’ll introduce you to everyone.”
She nodded and we all started down the hall. I found Tessi in the kitchen, talking to Grandma and sipping tea.
“Hey,” I said to announce our arrival. “Tessi?”
“OhmygodSadie!” she said all in one breath. She ran to me, throwing her arms around my neck and squeezing the life from me.
Patting her back awkwardly, I said, “I’m happy to see you, too.”
“You saved us,” she said. She reached for Mel and wrapped an arm around her. “We were going to die.”
“I got a tip.” I shrugged. “Let’s introduce you to everyone. Tessi, Mel, this is my grandma, Aiden, and my brother, Santos.” I pointed in the direction of each person. Directing my attention back to Grandma, I asked, “Where is everyone else?”
“Scott and Liv left for their honeymoon last night, Kyle and Elsie are on the trail of a rogue unbound, and Mark is on his way over,” she explained. Glancing to my friends, she smiled warmly. “It’s nice to meet you.”
Tessi’s smile fell and she stared in admiration. “You’re…Anna Tabors.” Looking to me, her mouth fell open. “Sadie Tabors.”
I nodded. Did she just make the connection? “My grandma.”
“She’s head of the council,” she hissed at me like I didn’t already know.
I nodded again.
“And a famous sorceress. No wonder you’re so good at it!”
My eyes locked with Grandma’s, and we both tried and failed to contain our laughter. Leaving my friends, I went to stand beside her. “Learned most of what I know from her.”
Tessi was still in shock or something and said nothing, only stared. I instructed them to sit at the table. “Girls, I got a warning early this morning about an attack on you from that water fae we encountered a few weeks ago.”
“Her again?” Mel groaned.
“Yep,” I said. “She also crashed my brother’s wedding with some friends.”
Grandma nodded at the empty seat and I took it, then she explained everything she knew about Bram and his resurrection. Tessi and Mel listened intently, both wide eyed with deer-in-headlights gazes. When Grandma finished, she placed a hand on my shoulder, comforting me because she knew what was coming.
“Wait…wait…wait,” Mel screeched, throwing her hands up in the air. “One: there’s possibly six original sorcerers coming back from the dead? And two: Sadie is part of a prophecy?!”
Before anyone could answer, Mark showed up looking disheveled and spastic. He glanced at my friends, doing a double take, and then backing away as he attempted to assess the situation.
“Mark, this is Melody Lynn and Tessi Andrews,” I introduced. “They’re my friends from Charleston. They were attacked early this morning.”
“Oh,” he said, visibly relaxing. “So I can talk around them?”
“Both are sorceresses,” I explained. “And we filled them in on Bram just now.”
“Good,” he said, smiling at both politely. “Anna, I had the meeting with the research team tonight.”
“And?” she questioned. Tomorrow she would head back to the council headquarters in England. In the past it moved around, but she’d insisted on protecting a compound so they didn’t have to constantly be on the run from unknown dangers. With all the power the council held, it had been stupid of them to keep moving.
“Have you heard of the Sorcerer Wars?” he asked. Each word was enunciated, dropping from his lips like poison.
She paled. “No. They weren’t real.”
He nodded. “They were. He’s wanting to bring them back. And there’s been activity in Africa. We think another resurrection is happening.”
She clutched the edge of the table and sat carefully. “They’re all going to come back.”
He nodded, then shifted his eyes to me. “And the prophecy.”
Snapping my head, I locked our gazes. “Is there more
?”
He grimaced. “We found…it’s a letter that Jake found in one of the books. It was tucked in there, so we don’t know how legit it is, but it’s definitely old. Old old. It said the dark sorceress would be in her early twenties with features to match her title. Meaning dark hair, dark eyes. You match all of that, Sadie.”
“What does that mean?” Aiden asked.
“She’s prophesized to defeat all six sorcerers who are apparently being resurrected,” Mel said curtly.
I glared at her for speaking to him that way. “We don’t know for sure it’s me.”
Tessi spoke up. “It’s fairly obvious it’s you, Sadie. Own it and let’s figure out what to do.”
Grandma reached over and took my hand. “I want you to come back to headquarters with me. You can bring your friends with you. I think it would be good for you to be at the next meeting.”
“You want me to be at a council meeting?” I gasped.
At the same time, Mel screamed, “I get to go to the council headquarters!” and threw her hands up in the air. She was anything but subtle.
Giving her a shut the hell up look, I apologized for her behavior. “Mel’s a little loud. She was raised by hyenas.”
She squinted her eyes at me and stuck out her tongue, such a Mel move, but kept quiet for the remainder of the time.
“Everyone gather your belongings, we’ll head out in the morning,” Grandma instructed. Speaking to Mel, she said, “And you…you’ll have to control your outbursts in the headquarters. People have been killed for less. The guards are a little on guard.”
Her eyes widened and she nodded in agreement.
Tessi laughed, then asked, “Is it safe to go back to the apartment in Charleston for our stuff?”
Pursing my lips, I shook my head. “It probably burned down with the unbound beings I set on fire.”
“You what?!” Tessi screeched. “My stuff was there!”
“They were trying to kill you!” I yelled back. “It might have been contained to just them. I don’t know. I was more worried about saving Mel before they unfroze.”
“I’m going to check,” Tessi declared. She disappeared before anyone could go with her and I groaned.
She was gonna be so pissed if I burned her shoes.
“What are these Sorcerer Wars?” I asked. Fear coursed through me when I said it, like my body knew it meant danger and I shouldn’t be speaking of such things.
“I was hoping you wouldn’t ask,” she said.
I felt Aiden come up behind me. He clasped his hands over my shoulder and rubbed my tense muscles. “Tell me,” I said when I gained my courage.
Mark spoke. “The Sorcerer Wars were a terrible practice. The first sorcerers were power hungry. They discovered what they could do and wanted more. They were selfish, destructive, and lethal. They killed and drained energies, but discovered it didn’t stay long. So Bram and another, Wolfe, created the Sorcerer Wars. They pitted the most powerful against each other to the death. Each of the six found a sorcerer, then they threw them all in a maze. There were hunts and tasks to be completed, and the way it was set up, if one died, their power was released into the air. The first of the six to get to it, kept it. The sorcerers were in the wars until the community was wiped. Whichever survived got to stay and keep their powers, but they lost everything. Their loved ones, their homes. It was a dark time.”
Things began to pop up around the room. Tessi’s shoes, Mel’s blue leather jacket, and a bunch of other things. I ignored them, looking at Mark. “Am I expected to participate in these? Is that why he’s looking for the most powerful sorcerers?”
He looked at Grandma and she nodded. “We think so,” he said quietly.
Standing, I stepped over and around the stuff arriving, grateful I didn’t burn the place down, and started for the hall. Footsteps fell in beside me, but I was lost in my thoughts and couldn’t be bothered to see who it was.
Suddenly, a hand grabbed my wrist and stopped me in my tracks.
“What?” I scowled, turning,
Aiden stood, his eyes studying me in a way they hadn’t in a long time. His smile was brighter, bigger, and his eyes danced in happiness.
“What’s with you?” I grumbled. I jerked my hand away, angry he wasn’t taking this seriously.
“Sade,” he said.
The one word made my heart fall to my feet and my knees grow weak. He was calling me a name only he called me, the name he had etched on my necklace he gifted to me on my sixteenth birthday. If he was calling me Sade, it only meant one thing.
“Sade,” he said again. “I remember!”