Bound In Blood (The Adams' Witch Series Book 1) (28 page)

I rolled and kept rolling. My bare arms and legs stung a lot, a hell of a lot. For the most part though, I had used Rose’s—and then Mother Shipton’s——body as a shield. I stood and watched the fire envelop the old hag. Thick black smoke rose above the park, wafting toward the star filled night.

I limped toward my own mother and looked into her face. Cici smiled down. “My baby,” she said.

My eyes drooped and I fell into my mother’s bramble of sticks.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Sarah

My eyes fluttered open. The light stung, searing my irises. I looked around, dazed, eyes wanting to close on me.

“She’ll be okay,” an unfamiliar male voice answered an unheard question.

“Do you think she remembers?” It was his voice. Drake’s.

I tried to call out to him. Nothing happened. My eyes still fluttered.

“There’s no reason that she shouldn’t. Her CT scan was negative, but…”

Stay awake!
I screamed inside myself.

My eyes blinked closed once more.

***

I started to regain consciousness again. I blinked a couple times. The room was dark and I could tell I wasn’t in the hospital anymore. I breathed out in relief.

I slowly opened my eyes, letting them adjust and focus around me.

I turned my head. A bouquet of red roses sat on the nightstand. The door was open at the foot of the bed, letting in a shaft of light and I was swathed in an orange and green patchwork quilt.

I turned my head the other way. Drake sat in a chair reading. This felt oddly comfortable, normal, though something my mind wouldn’t let me believe before.

The binding didn’t take!

I tried to shift my position and the bedsprings coiled and uncoiled with a metallic creak.

“It’s okay, don’t try to move.” Drake sprung up. The book he'd been reading fell to the floor with a thump. “Can I get you something?”

“Water,” I croaked. My shoulder and throat burned slightly. I could look up and see a bandage on my forehead, but I still couldn’t stop myself from smiling.

Drake still loved me. He must still love me.

He walked over to the dresser and poured me a glass from a pitcher. He helped me sit up a little as my dry, cracked lips found the rim of the glass.

I drank. Every gulp tore at my throat, but at least my mouth wasn’t dry anymore.

I smiled as he lowered the glass. “Thank you.”

Drake stared at me and then remembered to smile a ‘You’re welcome’. His face then set into that same look of intense thoughtfulness I'd become accustomed to in my dream-like state.

“Is everyone okay?” I asked. “My mom?”

“Staying here while she settles everything. I’m afraid you got the worst of it.”

“Ain’t that always the kicker? Someone goes out of their way to save somebody else and they always get the worst of it.” I laughed and Drake seemed surprised. His eyebrow arched, making his forehead wrinkle.
Okay. Not in the mood for joking. Got it.
It’s no wonder, though. He probably thought he lost me. I thought I’d lost him. More serious now, I asked, "What about you? Are you okay?”

“Actually.” Drake looked sheepishly to the floor. “Yeah, I’m doing really well.”

A knock sounded on the door that sent my heart into a flip. Drake held up a finger, crossed the creaking wood floor, and pulled the door open. I twisted my head. I couldn’t see around Drake’s body though. His voice low, caressing as his head swooped down.

My heart froze and I sucked in a deep breath. I couldn’t seem to get enough air inside me.

Drake shut the door and waited, his hand still on the knob before he turned around again. “Hmm. Sorry.” He crossed back over to the chair and smiled again, a half smile, a nervous twitchy smile. Not the smile that lined his face when he first met me. Not the smile he gave me so many times after. “This definitely isn’t the right time to tell you this, but…Marlene and I are back together. Since she just showed up, I knew you'd be wondering and…” Drake blabbered on, his chair groaning as he shifted positions several times and stared down at his hands where they lay against his thighs.

My heart sank. I was sure, since I was here, recovering in Drake’s house, that the old witch dying negated the spell. That he must’ve still loved me. Cared for me. My heart thundered in my chest, a storm of emotion sweeping through me.

“You see,” he started again, “after all that happened. It became clear to me that I belong with Marlene.”

Panic coursed through me, and my eyelids closed again. It was too much to bear.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Epilogue

Sarah

I bounded down the steps until they rounded down into the foyer.

Since Mom was Rose McCallister’s eldest relative, she was the executor and benefactor of all her possessions. We were staying at the old house until we figured out what we wanted to do with our lives. Well, that was what Cici thought. We were actually staying at the house until I could convince her to stay in Adams.

Yesterday, we went to go pick out an urn for the aunt my father loved, and for the aunt I couldn’t help but mourn. I didn’t want to think that maybe she still lived somewhere inside that body when I pushed Mother Shipton into the flames. I hoped, prayed she hadn't been in there.

It wasn’t long after the whole ordeal when I learned that the Aunt Rose I knew pretty much lied about everything. She did know me. Well, the real aunt knew about me. It was Cici’s idea to avoid contact with her because of a strange phone call she got from Dad before he died. And since Rose never tried to contact her again, Mom didn’t think any more of it.

Cici waited at the bottom of the stairs, her face solemn, lips tight. “Hey, you ready?”

“Yup.”

Today, Cici was taking me to the cemetery to see where we would bury our aunt.

She peered over, her sunglasses hiding her eyes, to study me once I sat in the passenger seat. She patted my arm lightly over the bandages. I looked up and smiled.

“How are you doing, honey? Okay?”

I nodded.

Within a few minutes, Cici turned the huge Escalade onto a small dirt road leading into an old cemetery. The iron gates were so close to the SUV that I looked down to see if they might scrape against the sides of the vehicle.

Huge trees sprouted up here and there throughout. A mixture of new headstones crowded around very old ones, chipped and flaking, and with barely readable engravings.

Cici pulled over a little, not enough to make a clear roadway, but it was that, or drive over someone’s stone. She pointed off to a corner. “Over there,” she said.

We got out of the car and walked up. My heartbeat quickened, my temperature jumping about twenty degrees. I gasped when Mom pointed down at the gravestone between us.

David Perkins

Beloved Father and Husband

I fell to my knees, tears spilling over instantly. “Dad? He’s buried here?”

“Yes,” Cici said.

I turned around. It was as if I stared in the mirror. The sunlight reflected off Mom’s wet cheeks. Cici took a tissue from her purse and dabbed at her face. I placed one hand on the hot stone and closed my eyes.

Footsteps sounded behind us. I tweaked my neck to look around my mom, half hoping for Drake. I always hoped for Drake. Instead, an old man, patches of gray hair standing on end, walked toward us. A pair of suspenders hiked up blue work pants and a sweat stained v-neck cotton shirt was soaked through at the collar. “Hey there,” he said.

“Hello,” Cici answered.

“I haven’t seen you in a while. Did you notice I planted the rose bush like you asked me to, Mrs. Perkins?”

“Yes. Thank you, Frankie. That was very nice. It looks beautiful.”

The old man nodded and turned away. I looked into my mother’s glistening eyes. A tiny smile formed and then vanished, as if she was afraid, unsure of what to feel.

I stood and threw my arms around her. “Oh, Mom.” I broke down in tears too, and we just stood, hugging each other for a while.

There was a lot more I needed to learn apparently. One was Mom. She was a mystery, a riddle.

The other wasn’t so much something I needed to learn, it was what I needed to do. And that was release Drake.

Love had to count for something. It wasn’t a thing that could be forced, stolen, or conquered. It was real. And if it was real, I had a chance to save him.

THE END

Loved this book? Can’t wait to find out what happens to Sarah and Drake?

Look for the second book of The Adams’ Witch Series, Cursed In Love, on Halloween!

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