Chapter Three-Tabors Never Give Up
Why was one of my roommates hammering so early in the morning? The pounding thrummed in my head, pulling me from my restless sleep. Sitting up in bed, I glanced at the clock and groaned at the early hour of seven a.m.
Whichever one it was, I was gonna kill them.
After such a late night out, followed by hours of theories and questions, we’d all finally passed out around four. The water fae’s disappearance was perplexing, but her vague warning had me concerned. Who was he? And why did he want to know where I was?
The pounding continued, so I tumbled to the floor and dragged my feet to the door. Swinging it open, I glared into Tessi’s eyes. “What?”
Figures it would be her. She was always the perky one.
“Something appeared for you just now.”
Yawning, I scratched the top of my arm. “Huh?”
“Come on.” She grabbed my hand and pulled me behind her.
In the kitchen, she stopped short at the doorway, and though I couldn’t see into the room, the glow it emitted was blinding. She dropped my hand and stepped to the side, allowing me entrance.
“What in the world?” I muttered. Squinting, I stumbled forward and reached for the object producing the glare, an envelope the size of a greeting card. I shook my head in disbelief and snatched it up.
The light stopped, much to my eyeballs’ relief. Blinking several times to get my eyesight under control, I nearly stopped breathing when I saw the handwriting on the outside.
To my little sister.
Scott’s scribble graced the envelope and my chest tightened. “How did you know this was mine?” I asked, turning to Tessi.
“I was in here fixing coffee and turned for a moment when it appeared. It was seriously only normal for about five seconds before it started glowing, but I saw it and knew it had to be yours.”
She and Melody were the oldest in their families, eliminating them from the pool based on his words. I nodded in understanding.
“You gonna open it?” she asked.
My heart hammered in my chest. I wanted to, yes, but how had he found me? I’d cloaked myself for years, determined to stay away and forget everything that happened. Opening this letter would make it even more real, and would probably put me in contact with him.
How was he? Were he and Liv married yet? Did they miss me as much as I missed them? The questions raced through my mind and tears threatened to spill, but I refused to let my emotions get the best of me. “Later,” I said, tossing it on the table. “Got any food cooked?”
She shook her head. “I’m dead right now. I don’t even know why I’m up.”
“Me neither,” I chuckled. Walking to the counter, I opened the cabinet, grabbed a cup, and poured myself some coffee. The bitter taste of caffeine filled my mouth, warming me from the inside out. Once I was halfway awake and functioning properly, I whipped up a bowl of oatmeal.
I could have magically conjured it, but I preferred the real thing. The magic left a residue, making most foods taste odd to me. Sitting at the table, I nodded to Tessi when she left to go back to sleep and sat staring a hole in the envelope while I ate.
If he’d put a tracking spell on it, he would have shown up by now. It must have meant he’d found some other way for it to find me.
Once my bowl was empty and my thoughts were jumbled, I’d decided I would open it out of morbid curiosity. Taking it back to my room, I sat cross-legged on my bed and ripped into it.
Taking out the folded white paper, I closed my eyes as a tear fell down my cheek and landed on the edge of my lips. I licked the salty wetness away and dried my face. Sniffling, I opened my eyes and peeled the letter open.
“We miss you. –Scott”
I turned it over and searched for more, but this was it. I read it again, tracing my fingers over the words and fighting the oncoming breakdown. Lying back on my pillow, I stretched my legs out and held the letter to my chest.
“Sadie,” she said. I hadn’t heard her arrive.
Peeling my eyes open, I choked back a sob. “Grandma?”
“Sadie,” she said, eyes filling with tears. “My Sadie.” She held her arms open wide and I ran to her, wrapping my own tightly around her. “I’ve missed you, my girl.”
The dam broke and flooded her shirt. I wept for the years I was gone, for the pain I’d felt, for everything that had happened. We stood there sharing our grief for minutes that felt like hours.
I finally pulled away, wiping my snotty nose on the edge of my shirt. “How did you find me?”
“Scottie placed a tracking spell on the letter. He knew the envelope was too obvious.” She grinned. Her blue eyes danced with joy as I guided her to sit on my bed. “We knew you didn’t want us to find you, but we’ve been searching since you left.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. Being around Grandma ripped my heart wide open and my emotions were all over the place. “I needed to get away.”
“For five years?” she questioned. “Sadie, please, explain this to me. Your parents, your brothers, me, Liv, your friends…we’ve all missed you and searched for you. Help me understand.”
Picking at my thumbnail, I bit my bottom lip and looked down at my lap. Shifting uneasily, I peered up at her. “It’s a long story.”
“I have all the time in the world for you,” she grinned. She looked younger, happier, than the last time I’d seen her. When living in Loudon Heights, she’d dyed her hair to appear older. I guessed that wasn’t something she needed to do since joining the council, because now it shone in rich brown tones that mimicked my own.
“I couldn’t handle it,” I admitted. I wasn’t proud of it, but it was the truth. I couldn’t lie to her. “Losing you and…everything else that happened was too much. I wanted to rid the world of the evils like Harlow, so I set out to do that.”
She grinned. “I’ve heard of the vigilante sorceress traveling the states and knew it was you, Sadie. I just knew it. I’m so proud of you.” She took my hand in hers and squeezed. “But you didn’t lose me. I visit every week.”
“It wasn’t going to be the same,” I countered. “I wasn’t ready to be on my own. I needed you.”
She shook her head. “No, you didn’t.”
She was probably right. I’d been practicing with her since I was a young girl, before I was even a teenager, and my skill was beginning to exceed hers all those years ago.
“Sadie, we want you to come home,” she said. She stood, walking to my window and pulling back the sheet hanging as a curtain. “Why Charleston? Is it because of the fight? Of Devlin?”
I shook my head. “No, a rogue vampire mix led me here. And the supernatural crime is abundant, so I stayed.”
“Have you been back?” she quizzed, turning back to me. “To the house?”
“No,” I said curtly. “I don’t want to go back there.” That house is where my brother Sebastian died, and where I killed my first evil being.
“There’s talk, Sadie, of an evil sorcerer. I think you could be in danger,” she said.
My heart sped up. “Please do not tell me Devlin is back. I will pop over to that house right now and disintegrate his ass myself,” I snarled.
“Language, and no, it’s not Devlin.”
“The Crimson Calamitous? My earlier statement stands,” I responded.
She shook her head, walking back to the bed and sitting. “No, dear Sadie, this evil is far worse than either of them.”
“How can anyone be worse than the CC?” I countered. “I thought he was the most evil and powerful being of all time.”
“Long, long ago, before I was born, before Devlin was born, and before the CC was even thought of, there was a sorcerer who ruled us all. His name was Bram and he was a sadistic ruler, making everyone participate in games for his entertainment. Most died, and he tortured everyone else.”
My mind processed her words. “And why do you think he’s back? Should
n’t a sorcerer that old be dead? And why would I be in danger?”
“Some of the dark users have been practicing resurrection, and the council has detected a surge of energy in Spain. We believe they’ve succeeded,” she explained.
“What does it have to do with me?”
“He’s after the most powerful of our kind, and Sadie, you are one of the most powerful sorceresses.”
Dumbfounded, I stared at her. What did this mean? What would he do? I wouldn’t follow him or work with him. Could we defeat him? How did those people manage to bring someone back from the dead?
“But he’s in Spain,” I responded.
“For now.”
Hopping off the bed, I paced the length of my bed. I didn’t know if I could handle going back, reliving everything that happened, the memories that would resurface.
“I see you’re in distress, Sadie, but you have to come home. This is ridiculous. You’ve been gone for five years now. Olivia is graduating college in a week and she and Scott are getting married the next day,” Grandma said. “She wants you in the wedding. They both do.”
“I thought they’d be married by now,” I said, stopping in my tracks.
“Both wanted to graduate college and they were waiting for you. We’ve lost too much, and family is all we really have.”
She stood then, coming to stand in front of me. “Sadie,” she said, tucking my hair behind my ear. “Please, come with me. See your family. If you want to leave again, we’ll understand, but everyone needs to see you. Your parents miss you so.”
I picked at my thumbnail. “How are they?”
“Well, but they miss you. Losing Sebastian and then you leaving was really hard on all of us.”
Large tears fell from my face. “I’m sorry.”
“Please come back. Stay two weeks for the celebrations, and we’ll know something about Bram by then, Sadie. You can’t protect yourself from him. You need help to stay safe.”
“I have my friends,” I replied, snapping my head up.
She nodded. “And they are very powerful. I can feel the energy in this apartment, but none of you know how to defeat Bram. I don’t even know how.”
“Then what good will this do, Grandma? Who’s to say he’ll even want me?” I asked. The water fae from the night before was on my mind, though. Her warning. Was Bram the same “he” she spoke of?
Was I already on Bram’s radar?
“Trust me,” she said sternly.
“I’ll come to the wedding,” I said. “But I don’t know if I’ll stay much longer.”
“I have more information for you, Sadie,” she said. She took a step back. “I know your heart was broken when Aiden had his memory wiped and was sent back.”
“Don’t say his name,” I growled.
She put a finger up and stopped me. “Don’t be disrespectful and interrupt me. You may have been gone for five years, but I’m still your grandmother.”
Lowering my eyes, I nodded. “I apologize.”
“You still hurt over him,” she observed.
I said nothing. It spoke volumes.
“Love at such a young age is rare and beautiful, Sadie. It’s not something to be ashamed of.”
I hated showing weakness. Aiden made me weak. “I don’t want to talk about him.”
“Too bad,” she huffed. “We searched for him, but Harlow moved him and his family. They weren’t in Maryland. She also cloaked them, but Scott and I haven’t stopped looking. Mark even got a few members of the council to assist in the search.”
I stared at her with a bored look on my face though my heart pounded.
She walked to my dresser, picking up my dagger. “We haven’t stopped, Sadie. We cared for him, but mostly, we knew you cared for him and wanted to find him for you.”
I played with the necklace around my neck. The one he’d given me that said Sade, his nickname for me. I hadn’t taken it off since he’d left.
Grandma turned, her blue eyes warm and loving. Grinning, she took my shoulders in her hands. “Sadie, we found Aiden.”