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  “I still don’t understand why taking Mrs. Lawson’s powers killed her.”

  “Mrs. Lawson was a natural witch; her powers came from within her, and they were connected to her life force. She wouldn’t have been able to survive without them.”

  “And you think Emma knew she was killing her?” I asked. I already knew the answer, given that I’d witnessed how ruthless Emma had become, yet it still shocked me.

  “She admitted it when I questioned her.”

  “And the doctors wouldn’t have known what was happening to Mrs. Lawson.” What an awful way to die. “Is Emma dead, now that Josh took her powers?”

  Isaac shook his head. “She was working on borrowed powers, so taking them from her won’t kill her.”

  “So she just gets to walk away, even after murdering Mrs. Lawson and trying to kill me?” I’m not normally an eye-for-an-eye-type person, but that was totally unfair.

  “She’s getting what’s coming to her,” Isaac said. “She woke up while Josh was draining her powers. She tried to fight him, but I’d bound her before he started. She couldn’t move.” I’d been bound by Isaac before; when he didn’t want you to move, you didn’t move. “But her struggling to hang onto her powers while Josh was casting the spell caused something inside of her to snap. It turned the spells she cast back on her threefold. All the mean things she did to others are coming back on her.”

  I pictured Kaylee screaming for me to get the spiders that hadn’t been there off of her and how terrified she’d been of demons that hadn’t existed. Emma had killed Mrs. Lawson, and who knows what else she did. She was in for a rough time if her spells were going to come back three times as badly as the ones she’d cast on others. I couldn’t bring myself to feel sorry for her.

  “We dropped Emma off at the hospital’s front entrance before we brought you home.”

  I pictured Emma propped against the door to the hospital, a sign taped to her chest that read, Psycho Bitch. It almost made me laugh.

  “What about Paige?”

  “She was less resistant. After seeing what Emma was capable of, she didn’t want to have any powers. She wanted to go back to being who she was before she became friends with Emma.”

  I was less angry with Paige, mainly because I’d been able to sense her remorse and fear back in the classroom. The things she had done were harmless pranks, not life-threatening acts of evil.

  “What if she tells someone? Won’t we be in danger of being exposed?”

  A sly smile pulled the corner of Isaac’s lips up. “You’re underestimating my powers. She’s bound not to speak of it.”

  “I’ve been wondering, how did you become so strong?”

  Sure, his parents had been teaching him spells since he’d been small, but so had Josh’s, and Josh could only do a fraction of the spells Isaac had already mastered. And maybe having two parents with magic coursing through their veins gave a person an edge over others, an instant power boost, but Isaac’s abilities were off-the-chart superb. He’d healed the bones in my wrist when I’d fallen off the stepstool and kept me from dying at the school. He’d ghosted us through a semi and beamed me from one spot in my room to another.

  His hand went to his chest, touching the charm he wore on a silver chain. The one his grandfather had given him. “He had cancer, and treatments were only making him sicker. One day, he stopped going and moved in with us. Doctors gave him six months, but he lived with us for six years.”

  “Did he teach you how to heal?”

  Isaac shook his head. “Healing takes years to master. He did teach me things like how to teleport an object from one place to another and how to fix a flat.”

  I smiled, thinking I wouldn’t mind learning either of those tricks myself. “If your grandfather could heal, why didn’t he heal himself?”

  “He couldn’t. I’m not sure if the cancer was spread too far or if he just didn’t know how.”

  I nodded, waiting for Isaac to go on.

  “One day he woke up and knew he didn’t have long. He said he could feel his life force draining from him. He didn’t want my last memory of him to be him lying on his deathbed waiting to take his last breath. He willed his powers to me.”

  I did my best not to let my eyebrows shoot upward or my mouth drop open in shock, but I was pretty sure Isaac heard my sudden intake of air. “He gave you his powers?”

  “Yeah.” For the first time ever, Isaac actually looked like a small boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar before dinner. “He said he couldn’t stand the thought of his powers dying with him. He passed away the next day, and my parents were stuck with a twelve-year-old who could do spells they’d never dreamed of.”

  “Were they mad?”

  “Not really.” He paused. “Though I think they would have appreciated a heads-up. Time to prepare.”

  “You mean time to make sure you promised not to misuse you newfound powers.”

  “Exactly.” His brown eyes met mine. “I’ve never told anyone that before.”

  “Mum’s the word.” I made the gesture of locking my lips with an invisible key. How Isaac’s powers had grown to be what they were was really none of my business, and keeping his secret was the least I could do after all he’d done for me.

  Emma and Paige were taken care of. They’d never hurt another person with curses or hex bags. That left one person unaccounted for.

  “What about Mark?”

  “He has no idea what Emma was, or what we are. His actions have all been sincere.”

  “Really? I would have guessed he was one of the elements in Emma’s coven.”

  Isaac shook his head. “The other corners were Natalie and Lauren. But Paige told us they didn’t want anything to do with Emma or her coven after Kaylee became sick. They felt responsible for what happened to her and gave up the powers Emma had gifted them that same day. They’re not going to mention it to anyone.”

  They should feel responsible—and guilty—at the very least.

  Then I remembered the look on Natalie’s face when Kaylee had been crouched on top of her desk screaming, and the apology that made more sense now than it had when she’d said it. It was Emma who had made the curse on the necklace more potent. Maybe their guilt was punishment enough.

  I wracked my brain for another question, anything to delay the conversation that was sure to come once we’d finished talking about everyone else. I came up empty. The silence between us was not a comforting, pleasant silence. My hands shook knowing I would have to broach the subject sooner rather than later.

  “Isaac,” I began. “About yesterday. I don’t—” Ugh. I sucked at putting my feelings into words. I took a slow breath and told myself I could do this.

  He didn’t wait for me to gather my thoughts. His shoulders slumped forward. “I’m sorry for what I did. You have no idea how sorry. I knew Kevin wasn’t in control. I could taste it. I shouldn’t have let myself become so upset, but it’s like I told you, I would have done whatever it took to keep you safe. At the time, safe meant taking Kevin down.”

  I bit my bottom lip to keep from saying, Oh my God, out loud as I realized how truly lucky Kevin was to be alive. “You can’t do that,” was all I managed to say.

  He laughed, loud and dark. “Could have, and probably would have if you hadn’t jumped between us.” His velvet brown eyes met mine. “You shouldn’t have done that. We almost killed you.”

  “But you didn’t.”

  “Your heart stopped.”

  “Oh.” That would explain the nothingness. “But it started again,” I said as if we were talking about his Jeep and not one of the most important muscles in my body.

  He snorted. “After several minutes of CPR and several jolts of power. Madison, for a moment there, you weren’t responding. You were dead.”

  I wasn’t quite sure what to say. I settled on gratitude. “Thanks—for saving me.”

  My response earned another dark laugh from him. When he stopped, there was no trace of humor in hi
s beautiful face. “I’ll understand if you don’t want to see me again. Just say the word and I’ll go.”

  I wanted to know what was with everyone that morning. For the second time that day, someone I cared about was offering to walk out of my life. Did they really believe I needed them less then than I had the day before? Hadn’t my actions been proof enough that I needed them both alive and in my life? My temper fueled my response.

  “Why do you think I hurled myself between you and Kevin?” I snapped. “It wasn’t because I wanted to know what an electrical conductor felt like.”

  “No.” Isaac lowered his gaze. “Is that really how you feel?”

  “You’re going to have to be a little more specific than that,” I said. “I was sort of being fried at the time.” I held my breath and waited for his reply, knowing full well what he was referring to.

  I forced myself not to look away when his eyes met mine with fierce determination. I hoped that determination was to get the words out and not anger.

  “Love for Kevin.”

  I winced and fought to keep my expression neutral.

  He continued, “You feared you had already lost his friendship and would lose even more if he continued to battle his powers against mine.”

  So far, he was right on target. “He’s a friend. I care about him.”

  “You have similar feelings for me.” I didn’t miss how he left out the L word.

  Isaac watched me expectantly. I needed to put what I felt in my heart out in the open and trust that things would fall into place. I needed to tell him just how important he was to me, that I loved him.

  “After what you’ve seen, do you have to ask? I’ve only known you a short time, and yet my feelings for you go all the way to my core. You make me whole.” I let out a nervous laugh and continued to babble on. “I didn’t even know I was missing a large piece of myself, and the thought of losing you scares the crap out of me. It twists my insides into knots. You had to feel how much I need you and that my biggest fear is losing you. You had to, because I felt that same thing from you.”

  “Need.” The word rolled off his tongue with contempt. I flinched at how it sounded. Cold. Necessary. Not at all warm like the word I hadn’t said. “You feel whole because you’ve embraced your powers, not because you met me. And as nice as it is to be needed, you can learn more about your powers without me.” He stood. “Our relationship had its obstacles anyway.” Isaac looked through me as he spoke. “Kevin was lucky you stepped between us. He’s alive today because you did. It’s better for everyone if my—” He paused, clearly searching for the right words. “If my emotions aren’t complicated like that.”

  “What? Wait!” My breath came quickly. Panicked. Even knowing my fear of losing him, he was dumping me. “Please don’t do this.”

  I wasn’t sure if the obstacles Isaac referred to were our powers colliding if we didn’t suppress them or Kevin. But I did know what would happen if his emotions were complicated.

  “Then promise me you won’t embrace the dark. Promise me, and then you can’t,” I begged. I could feel a hole ripping open in my chest knowing he was about to walk out of my life.

  “Madison, I can’t make that promise,” he replied dryly.

  “Can’t or won’t?” I whispered.

  “Won’t.” Isaac’s gaze grew fierce. Adamant. “The promise I made before stands. If we are apart, I won’t be tempted.”

  His words played back in my mind: I’d do whatever it took to keep someone I care about safe—expose what I am, harness my anger, let my darker side take over.

  “I don’t want you giving away your soul for me. Ever. No matter what the reason. Not even a little piece.”

  “I think it’s best if I’m not tempted,” he repeated. “Don’t you? You say you feel the same for me as I do for you, but I don’t think that’s true. Need?” He said the last word as if it were toxic. He leaned down and kissed my forehead. “It’s better we don’t complicate each other’s lives. It’d be too much work.”

  The sound of my heart breaking echoed in my ears.

  “Isaac,” I choked out. He stiffened, hands balled at his side, and his eyes closed as if he couldn’t stand to look at me. “Don’t do this, please. It’ll kill me if you leave.”

  Isaac turned away from me without opening his eyes.

  “Please, Isaac.” I’d let my heart guide me when it came to him, yet I couldn’t say three little words out loud.

  It took three tries to get the words out; they kept catching in the back of my throat. He was at the door when they finally made it to my lips.

  “I love you.” I wasn’t sure I’d spoken loudly enough to be heard.

  Isaac stopped, his back still to me.

  “I love you,” I said louder.

  His shoulders relaxed a little. “Don’t say it because you think that’s what I want to hear.”

  How could I have been so stupid? I’d spent so much time worrying that he didn’t feel the same way about me that I’d never stopped to consider he would need to be reassured of my feelings as much as I needed to be of his. He’d all but said the words to me before, and my replies had always fallen short. Now that I’d said them, it was easy to spill my heart to him. I got up and stood behind him.

  “I’m saying it because it’s true. I love you, and I was so afraid these feelings I have for you were a product of our magic or even the thrill of being in a new relationship, but now I know it’s more than that. It scares the crap out of me, feeling this strongly for someone I barely know. It scares the crap out of me knowing just how hollow I’d be inside if you weren’t in my life.” I rested my hand on his arm. “It’s not the powers that make me whole, it’s you. I’ve been so afraid to even admit it to myself. But I do. I love you.”

  Isaac turned to face me. Whatever he saw on my face caused his eyes to soften and his jaw to relax. He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me closer. He spoke into my hair. “I love you too. I needed to hear you say it. If I’m going to risk being shocked when we kiss or giving in to the dark to be with you, I need to know it’s for the right reason.”

  “I do.” I craned my neck so that I could see him without having to step back. “Forever, but you have to promise me you won’t give into the dark.”

  His lips brushed mine. “No. I will promise you I won’t use my powers to hurt someone you love if I can avoid it, if I have any other option available to me, but I will not promise to stand by and do nothing if you are in trouble. The promise I made to you yesterday stands.”

  I would have to be careful never to need that kind of protection, then, because I knew arguing wouldn’t get me anywhere. His tone had shown no sign of yielding.

  “That’s enough, for now,” I whispered.

  His powers wrapped around me like the wings of an angel. It was a feeling I never wanted to be without.

  Chapter 20

  Life Goes On

  KEVIN CALLED ME THAT NIGHT, as promised. He was glad he’d visited, relieved to be able to talk to others about the powers he had and happy to know they couldn’t bubble over anymore. I think one day he will decide he wants to embrace them. When that time comes, he’ll be back to learn how to control them.

  I didn’t mention this out loud. Instead, I kept the conversation to what he’d been up to for the last few weeks. He told me about basketball and Megan, his girlfriend. She sounds nice. I’m truly excited that things are going so well for him.

  Ever since the festival, school has seemed downright boring. Emma has been admitted to the hospital and is in for an extended stay behind the solid white door on the fifth floor. We figure her time there depends on just how much evil she’s done. I’m willing to bet it will be a long, long time. To be safe, in case she gets out one day and makes another deal in exchange for powers, we dug up the poppet and made a new one that included a few strands of Emma’s hair and a piece of the shirt she’d been wearing.

  The events from the day of the festival have seemed to humble Pa
ige. Her appearance hasn’t changed, but like I said before, black suits her. She’s even kept some of the confidence she’d gained while having the powers—only without the smug attitude that had made me want to yank her hair out. She apologized to Kaylee and me, saying she’d never meant for it to go as far as it had. She seemed to want to mention other things, but didn’t. We forgave her because that’s what friends do, although we have no intentions of hanging out with her or anything like that. Paige had ruined any chance of that happening when she’d stuck by Emma’s side.

  Mark didn’t know about the powers or what had really happened to Kaylee and then later in the classroom. And his crush on me faded after he asked Sarah out and she said yes. Not that I’m complaining. Having a not-so-secret admirer is definitely more trouble than it’s worth, and I can tell by the silly grin that takes over Sarah’s face whenever his name comes up that she really likes him.

  Josh and Isaac gave a small amount of their powers to Kaylee, just enough to allow her to protect herself should she ever need to. I wanted to give her some of mine too, and I wasn’t the least bit happy when I was told I’m not strong enough. Boys, always thinking they’re the stronger sex. I would do it anyway, if I knew how.

  I don’t, which suits Isaac just fine.

  Mr. Chapin had a weak moment and gave me two generous Bs on the essays I’d handed in on Monday. With the homework I had turned in last week, it pulled my grade up to a seventy-one percent, a small miracle I am grateful for.

  As for Isaac and me, we’re taking the time to get to know each other. A bit backwards considering we’re in love.

  Friday, I met him in front of the double glass doors to the parking lot.

  “Want to go for a drive?” he asked.

  We had spent every afternoon of the week at his house, studying and practicing magic. A drive sounded nice. We ended up at the lighthouse.