Burning in a Memory (34 page)

She listened but felt increasingly light headed. Adam only grew more fevered. He stood and closed the distance between them. Shocked, Adelaide nearly lost the flame that she held in her palm but she
desperately clung to the visibility. Scanning his face, she tried to understand his intense expression.

“That’s no way to live. I’m done living like that. I’d rather fight to the end,” he said.

He broke their gaze before he finished and sat back against the wall. His words lingered in the quiet of the pit.

The wheels finally clicked together in her mind
and the realization hit her hard. 

“You knew it was a suicide mission then. You came here to die,” she whispered.

“Go out swinging,” he chirped.

“Are you kidding? Please tell me you’re kidding
! You can’t give up—you need to fight. You need to escape and live, however rough that life is!” she gasped.

“It’s not getting better, Adelaide. I thought about this for a long time. I don’t want to live in fear all of the time. I don’t want to live and watch my family get picked off
one by one until no one is left.”

“Adam!”
She shouted but her voice was failing her. Everything she’d held at bay came crashing down at that moment. Her chest heaved but no audible sobs escaped her. “You brought Angie here to die too?” she asked. It was more than that. She felt it now and it hurt.

Adam stiffened and looked
momentarily awkward, like a deer caught in headlights.

“She knew too. She wouldn’t have come and I wouldn’t have let her if she didn’t know,” he said. His words meant nothing in that moment.
Adelaide’s fear transformed into fury.

“I didn’t know the plan was to charge in without a plan. I didn’t know the plan was to give up after we run into one obstacle to
freeing your brother. You didn’t tell me that,” she snapped. Adam averted his face. It took another minute for it to dawn on her.

“You took me here to die,” she whimpered.

Adam wouldn’t look at her now. He stared at the other wall as if the foot of space actually separated them.

“I can’t have you hurt anyone else. A mage who would hurt other mages is evil. We already have enough enemies in the world. You really disgust me.”

“Wow,” she gasped and said nothing more. That had to be the all time low blow.

             
Adelaide’s eyes burned and with a single blink, tears started. She wrapped her muddy hands around herself and rocked back into the wall. Her light disappeared, leaving them in the pitch black darkness of the dungeon. The shades left the lid on their prison and they weren’t getting out. That meant she was dying for a man who hated her, and that was assuming he wouldn’t die too.

             
Sobs choked out of her until she could barely catch a breath and wheezed for oxygen. Her body quaked. She finally buried her head in her knees to stifle the sounds of sobbing.

             
“Stop crying,” Adam hissed.

             
She barely heard him. Her hands kept trembling. Only sheer exhaustion was wearing her down.

             
“Stop!” he demanded again.

             
“You know nothing about me. You can sit there, all high and mighty, condemning me for my wrongs, but you’ve never had to deal with the things I have. I had no coven to protect me or teach me. I grew up utterly alone. And the way I had to survive has never been the best, but I am alive because of it. I had no intention to give that away so willingly. I want to live, Adam!”

             
Her voice rose with frustration. She couldn’t contain herself in the tiny space. Her aura flailed.

             
“I want to live and I risked it for you! And why? So you could give up and settle for dying? I’m such a fucking idiot. I never should have tried to help you.”

             
She summoned the flame in her palm and turned to face him. She wanted to see how he looked in that moment, but a loud click from above stole her attention away. The lid of their prison disappeared and fluorescents flooded the pit, momentarily blinding them. Once Adelaide’s eyes adjusted, she saw Mistel peering down at them both.

             
“Adelaide, come out and play. But just you, Adelaide.”

Adam
moved quickly and snatched her elbow but she tore it free. He had no right to touch her now.

“Don’t go. You don’t even know what they are going to do to you,” he growled.

              “It doesn’t matter now,” she reminded him. If he wanted to die, none of this mattered. She saw him stiffen but refused to make eye contact with him now.  She wiped her cheeks and acknowledged Mistel.

             
“Let’s go.”

Twenty-
nine

             
She couldn’t take another minute in the pit with Adam, but standing in the basement with the shades didn’t make her feel any better. Immediately, she felt their predatory gaze heavy upon her. Mistel stood with another man. He bore the raw crimson Hawthorn symbol on the back of his neck, but looked surprisingly human. His skin was distinctively tanned with no cracks and his eyes held no red. The man stared her down at her from beneath his flat-cap until she had to look away.

             
“Shut up, Adam Colton!” Mistel catcalled down the pit. Since they’d pulled her up, Adam had been screaming. He nearly managed to keep Adelaide down there, but now he could only thrash against the walls and curse darkly.

             
“Where are you taking me?” Adelaide demanded before Mistel got a little too interested in Adam. She successfully won the shade’s attention.

             
“You need to meet the leaders of the coven,” Mistel said with a smile.

             
“Why?” Adelaide demanded. The male shade laughed quietly, the sound unnerving Adelaide and she drew her arms around herself. His eyes never left her and she itched under his gaze.

“Shut up and come along,” Mistel said. She offered Adelaide her hand. Adelaide resisted but in a moment, it became clear the gesture was non-optional. She reluctantly accepted Mistel’s rock solid grip as they traversed their way through the basement.

“Adelaide, stop!” the last of Adam’s screams reached her as she left. She ignored it and sized up the place as much as she could.

A secondary examination of the basement was worse than the first. Chains hung from the ceiling and black stains marred the floor. Rusty tools and hints of torn clothing littered the place. The rank smell was more potent out here than it had in the hole. Th
e dungeon was obviously familiar with the art of torture.

             
Adelaide suddenly regretted coming up here. Mistel pulled her forward.

“This way,” the male shade held the door open for them. They walked up stairs and ended up on the first floor. The interior of the building was a sharp contrast to the cellar. The inside had been carefully manicured. Chandeliers hung from the ceiling and marble tile lined the floor.

“You never told me why the leaders wanted to meet me,” Adelaide repeated, suddenly desperate to know.

“They
just want to see you. But I’m going to be the one doing the talking,” Mistel hissed. She maneuvered them through the floors like she owned this place.

Adelaide’s reluctance grew with every step and
, soon, Mistel was virtually dragging her. Adelaide could see the windows and the burnt down forest beyond the windows. The exit waited a tempting ten feet away, but even if she broke away from Mistel, the male shade would not let her get far.

“Mistel, what did they tell you? Why are you here? Why are you working with them?” Adelaide bombarded the shade with questions.

              “So many questions. You’re curious, aren’t you?” the male shade suddenly said. Adelaide swung around to look at him again, despite her fear.

             
Below his outdated cap, he had blonde hair that threatened to touch his shoulders. The locks were dirty and tangled, like he just got off of a farm from a stereotypical movie. His well-manicured scruff and vest jacket completed the look.

             
“I like to know what I’m dealing with. Tell me,” she said quietly. She worked to project as much confidence as possible, but it was difficult. The shade’s head tilted to the side and he stared right through her. Just when she thought he didn’t buy it, he gave her a bitter smile.

             
“I don’t believe we’ve been properly introduced. My name is Zachary,” he said but thankfully never attempted to touch her.

             
“Hi,” Adelaide bit off shortly.

Mistel finally released her and circled to the back of the room.

              “How old are you, Adelaide?” Zachary asked next. His blue eyes blatantly scanned her figure until they settled on her face again. His expression did little to reveal his thoughts.

             
“I don’t know what this has to do with anything.”

             
“She’s nineteen,” Mistel suddenly interjected. “And she doesn’t know when to shut up.”

             
His eyebrow rose.

             
“Nineteen. How young.”

             
Adelaide itched in her skin, desperate to get his gaze off of her. Zachary didn’t give her any information so she returned to Mistel.

             
“Tell me what they are going to do with us,” she demanded.

             
Mistel motioned to Zachary for a moment. He surprisingly gave in to her and stepped back. Adelaide watched him go but he still stood to close for her to escape. Mistel closed the distance and grabbed her shoulder in a brutal hold.

             
“Shut up. I am going to do the talking here.”

             
“What talking? You never even told me what you are doing here!” Adelaide’s hysteria prevented her from whispering and Mistel twitched at the loud nose.

             
“I told you the Hawthorns cut me a deal to help them with Leon Colton.”

             
“I didn’t even know the Hawthorns would work with another shade!”

             
“They worked with a mage now, didn’t they?” Mistel pointed out with a smirk.

             
“Yea, and look where that’s gotten me. I spent who knows how long in a dirty pit in a torture chamber!”

             
Mistel pinched her shoulder until the pain silenced her.

             
“You should not have brought Adam Colton here. Any deal you had with them was promptly ruined.”

             
Adelaide’s chin dropped.

             
“What are they going to do with me, Mistel?” she whimpered.

             
“It depends. If you let me do the talking, I might be able to save you.”

             
Adelaide did a double take. Something about Mistel seemed off. Adelaide couldn’t pinpoint what had changed. The red hue lingered around the shade’s blue eyes and the starch blonde hair still framed her cracking porcelain skin. But something strange showed in her face. Something human.

             
What the shade said next though destroyed the image.

             
“They offered me a place in their coven, Adelaide. I am one of them. I just need my mark rebranded and away we go.”

             
“You’re insane.”

             
“You should be so lucky!”

             
This time Adelaide squeaked when her vice-like grip tightened. Her noise of distress prompted Zachary to return and the group began moving again. Mistel only lingered long enough to say one more thing.

             
“You offered to help me once. Let me help you.”

             
Mistel led her through one last door and into a grand hall with vaulted ceilings but no furniture. A male and female shade waited there, but it was the female that was clearly in charge. Brown hair was stacked upon her head like a crown and her presence felt bigger than her five-foot frame. Zachary left their side to stand by the others and the three lined up like a hanging committee.

             
“What do we have here?” the woman said.

             
Mistel maneuvered to stand in front of Adelaide then. She was too small to offer any protection from the prying eyes of the other shades in the room, but the gesture was supposed to be comforting.

             
“This is Adelaide, the mage.”

             
“A mage?”

             
“She has no visible aura but she is a mage. She is also the one we have discussed, Margo,” Mistel insisted.