Burning in a Memory (28 page)

             
Adelaide nodded. Blood loss was an easy fix when caught in time. Her eyes returned to the room and she suddenly felt cold.

             
“If he’s all right, I’ll let him sleep,” Adelaide said as she fell back a step. Angie’s hand rose and blocked her way.

             
“Don’t leave, go see him. He’s conscious. He’s asked about you so I’m sure he wants to see you,” Angie said.

             
Angie sounded sincere and it made Adelaide’s heart ache.

             
“I can’t…” Adelaide started to whisper but her throat went dry.

             
She felt rooted to the ground like a coward and had more difficulty gathering her courage together now than she did for battle.

She could feel the hotness of her cheeks and the dryness of her eyes. Her hair made up a tangled mat and her clothes virtually
disgusting rags. She wiped her face in a pathetic attempt to remedy her appearance. After a minute, she gained the courage to enter the room. The heavy door swung shut behind her and the sound made Adam stir. Adelaide maneuvered to the bed corner to see him clearly. His skin had more color now and his hair was tame. He smelled of antiseptics and was covered in white bandages.

             
“Adelaide,” he called softly.

             
She resisted the urge to retreat.

             
“Hey, how are you feeling?” she asked.

             
He sat up abruptly. The action must have been painful, but if it was, he kept the grimace off his face. He locked eyes with her then.

             
“I am alive. And you are too, apparently,” he said.

             
“Yea.”

             
His demeanor changed in seconds. His hand shot out and caught her elbow. Her surprise gave him enough of an advantage to pull her forward. She stumbled, stopping only when the bed would allow her to move no further.

             
“I saw what you did, Adelaide. Or whoever you are…”

             
“Adam!”

             
“Tony was right about you. You show up and so do the shades. You show up and half my coven might be dead. Who are you?”

             
Adam’s aura flailed dangerously. His grip tightened around her elbow to the point of agony.

             
“Adam, it’s not…”

             
“It’s not what? Not what I think? What do I think? What should I think? I’m not an idiot, Adelaide, despite the fact that I’m sure you think I am for fooling me for so long.”

             
She squeaked. Her elbow burned but she failed to break his grip. Her other hand grabbed his and tightened to maintain some control.

             
“Let me go,” she begged.

             
“I should kill you,” he hissed.

             
Everything about his face in that moment told her that he was absolutely serious. Her breath left her and fear replaced it.

             
“Adam,” she whimpered his name.              

Adam suddenly released her and she pin-wheeled backward. Hitting the wall, she clutched her aching elbow. By the level of pain, she guessed
that he nearly broke it.

He turned his face from her in a show of zero fear.

“You’re lucky because I’m not about to go homicidal in a hospital.”

“Adam, I brought you here,” she reminded, but it sounded pathetic.

“I’m not sure why you felt the need to bring me here or if this was an accidental route on your escape plan. I’m going to find my brother, and, after that—after that I’ll deal with you,” he sniped.

She did a double take.

“You can’t go after Leon. You have no chance of freeing him!” she hollered before she could prevent the words. Adam said nothing.

The better half o
f her mind told her to run now—somewhere she knew Adam could never catch her. But still her mouth rattled off her panicked thoughts. “You almost were killed. Do you want to get die for real? They took Leon back to the Hawthorn coven which, might I remind you, is a damn powerful shade coven.”

“Get away from me,” he said.

“Adam, at least let me explain. I don’t want to see you get hurt,” she pled.

“Get out
now or I’ll change my mind about killing you here!”

Finally
, she reluctantly obeyed and left the room. Angie stood by the wall, clasping a yellowing magazine and dull smelling coffee.

“Adelaide, what’s wrong?” the woman asked
her.

             
“Nothing.”

             
“Seriously?”

             
Adelaide stopped and paid attention. While Adam had seen Adelaide use her aura in the tunnel, Angie never did. And, based off of the woman’s reactions, Adelaide knew that Adam hadn’t shared her secret. As far as Angie was concerned, Adelaide was still human and still on good terms.

             
“Adam’s going after the Hawthorn shade coven to try and get his brother back. He’s going to get killed so you to talk him out of it!”

             
Angie shushed her quickly before frantically looking around. Despite her concerns, those who lingered in the hall seemed to be wholly caught up in other things.

             
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

             
“Listen to me. Adam knows the people that took Leon and Preeti are the Hawthorn shade coven. He plans to go after the shades to get them back.”

             
Angie tilted her head inquisitively.

             
“Even if we knew it was the Hawthorns, we don’t even know where they are,” the woman said.

             
The Coltons might not have known where they were, but Adelaide did. She’d been there once upon a time, deep in the woods of Washington.

             
“Besides, this isn’t something we should talk about here or now…” Angie added.

             
Adelaide refused to let it go. After all of this, she couldn’t let it go.

             
“Angie, you have to talk him out of it. I’m begging you. I can’t see Adam dead.”

Twenty-four

             
She used her fingernails to tear at her scalp, her flesh, and the layers of grime that stuck to her. The scalding water did little more than turn her skin red and flood her lungs with steam.  Dirty, pink water pooled around her feet. The massive water heater in the hotel allowed her to linger indefinitely in the shower with her thoughts. Despite her virtual begging, Angie had been unsuccessful in convincing Adam to give up his plan. Adelaide had finally gotten agitated enough that she fled the hospital and sprung for the first hotel that gave her an open room. She didn’t even feel bad about maxing out her Visa to do it.

             
She twisted the nozzle to stop the cascade of water and reluctantly stepped out. Her new clothes and makeup waited for her on the counter. Her entire world might have been falling apart, but she wouldn’t look bad while it happened. The old but familiar procedure of layering and brushing actually made her felt better. When she adorned the tight, low cut clothing, she stepped back from the mirror. She felt more like herself and less like someone pretending to be an angel. She gave a hopeful smile to her reflection right before a knock sounded at the door.

             
Adelaide walked to it, and opened it without looking through the peephole.

             
“I knew you’d come,” she said.

             
Adam didn’t answer. With the help of Angie, he lumbered inside and dropped down on the squeaking springs of the bed. While he staggered, his skin held color and his hazel eyes held fire. Angie released Adam and positioned herself in the dimly lit corner. Adelaide reached out for the switch to illuminate the room in a florescent glow.

             
“You guys have to tell me what’s going on here,” Angie spoke first but Adam’s gesture silenced her.

             
“What did Adam tell you?” Adelaide asked of the female mage regardless.

             
“Nothing. But something tells me that whatever it is, there’s a reason it’s hidden from me. Adam shouldn’t be out of the hospital, racing here, to follow some undisclosed text you sent,” she said.

             
Adelaide stole another look at her phone on the bathroom counter. She knew that Adam would respond when she hit the send button and the envelope icon disappeared into digital space. Adelaide’s inclusion of her hotel and room number had been a calculated risk she hoped didn’t hurt her now.

             
She gathered her nerves.

             
“I know where the Hawthorn coven stronghold is, and it’s likely the place they’re taking Preeti and Leon now. If you expect to find them in time, you need me to do it. I’m offering my help,” she repeated the important part of the text message.

             
Adam visibly fidgeted but she ignored it.

             
“How do you know this?” Angie slowly asked.

             
“Adelaide is a mage,” Adam said before Adelaide could.

“Not possible,” Angie whispered.

              “It’s true,” Adelaide seconded. Angie shook her head vehemently.

             
“But you have no aura. Not even a weak one. For fuck’s sake, Tony looked you up. He couldn’t have been wrong. Human, human family, human birth—everything,” Angie rambled now.

             
Despite her apparent disbelief, she backed away from Adelaide. Bumping into the bed, she reached out blindly for Adam. He took her hand and squeezed it, but that did little to calm her down. The female mage looked like she was still a second away from flipping out. Adelaide hurried to explain.

             
“I know it’s weird but I never really developed an aura like everyone else. I never grew up with mages. The coven I was born into was destroyed when I was very young and I barely remember them. But I do remember a family member, my cousin, Mistel. During the shade attack, she put me in bushes outside of a park and then a human family found me.”

             
Adelaide paused when old memories threatened to overwhelm her. She always hated picturing that park. As a child, she sat on the curb near those bushes for hours while her coven was massacred.

             
“The human family had just lost their daughter named Adelaide while they were outside of the country. I’m not sure why they took me in, or if they knew anything about magic, but I grew up with them. When I finally got old enough, I started to look for people like me. I found Mistel eventually, but she’d changed by then.”

             
Adelaide paused during her story to steal a look at Adam. She’d laid her world raw and he still sat like a stone on the bed with a scowl permanently etched into his face.

             
“Impossible,” Angie kept muttering. “Not growing up with mages doesn’t mean you wouldn’t have an aura. It’s just part of the gig. It could be weak maybe but it would always be there.”

             
“I can’t explain it then… It’s just always been like that. It only shows up when I use magic.”

             
Angie still didn’t look like she believed anything that was said, but she did have other questions.

             
“Okay, assuming most shades never found you because you had no aura, why didn’t your cousin kill you?”

             
“I got lucky I guess.”

             
“How did you meet the Hawthorns?”

             
“I kept looking for more information and found them. But unlike Mistel, the Hawthorns didn’t recognize me and I passed as human,” Adelaide lied through her teeth. The Hawthorns might have believed she was human until they caught her sneaking around. It was hard to pretend after that.

             
The redhead frowned. Adelaide could sense her discomfort but couldn’t tell if Angie bought anything yet.

“Okay, moving forward. Why are you here? I’m getting the feeling it’s no accident. I’m getting the feeling that rockslide wasn’t an accident either.”

              Adam twitched violently, suddenly failing to mask anything. His head snapped toward Adelaide.

             
“That was fake too, huh?”

             
Adelaide was too afraid to answer so she only nodded. She’d given the rocks above her a gentle push at the time. The resulting rockslide was a bit of an accident and more than Adelaide expected.