Wicked Destiny

Wicked Destiny - By Tiffany Stevens

Prologue

Sleep has become obsolete these past three months. I never dream anymore—only nightmares. Well, I consider them nightmares; memories from my darkest days are more like it. Things that I wish I could purge from my memory and never look back on. For months I have relived the same dream and it’s almost as if I can’t control it. So there are many nights that I stay up on coffee and Red Bulls. That’s until my body can’t fully function and sleep eventually wins. Tonight exhaustion has taken its toll and the nightmare has begun.

Standing on the balcony of my room back on the farm, I couldn’t help but stare at the cabin across the lake. I could see the light blazing in the bedroom window and, looking up at the sky, I noticed it was early morning. The sun was just starting to break. I watched his shadow moving around the room and the feeling of something being ripped from my chest washed over me. He is still there, I kept thinking to myself. With my aunt dead and she being the only family I had left, surely he wouldn’t abandon me right now.

Since the death of my aunt Dru, I’d become her beneficiary and had inherited her money and farm. I was only eighteen and freshly out of high school, so what could I have possibly known about running a farm? Yeah, I’d lived here since I was five years old, but there were so many things that my aunt did around the farm that it was impossible for me to follow with her same finesse. I needed help and I didn’t need someone to tell me what I already knew. I figured that Declan would want the job since he had been doing it for the past year. Declan was our laborer. He knew everything about our farm and everything about me. We grew very close over the year, and so close I actually loved him. This was rare because the only person I’d ever cared for other than my aunt was Shay. Shay had been my best friend since grade school and I consider her more like my sister than my friend.

Something was off this morning, though. I knew something bad was coming. I was still watching the shadow as it moved from room to room now that more lights were on. Should I go over there or should I just wait? If he left then, I would let him go. It would kill me, but trying to make someone stay when I knew they wanted to leave seemed like kidnapping to me. So begging was out of the question. Then suddenly the side door opened and I saw a bag being thrown into the bed of his truck. With the sun still not fully up, the sky was still somewhat dark and cast in shadows. Or maybe it was me. I didn’t know, but clouds started to roll in as I began to walk down the steps from my balcony. I couldn’t bare it any longer. I had to see what was going on. So, into the picnic area I walked until I found the trail that took me to the cabin. For some reason I avoided the trail and continued through the woods until I reached the cabin. Standing behind an old oak tree that had probably been around for a hundred years, I watched as he packed everything in the last remaining bag and threw it into the back of the truck. He then walked around and cleaned up his mess and I could hear the pieces of my heart chipping away every second that passed. I could hear my aunt’s voice in my head telling me, “He’s no good Sloane. He will leave you.”

Why hadn’t I listened to her? She knew he would break my heart. Before I knew it, without even realizing it, I was standing at the side door. He didn’t hear me come and I stood there looking at the ground, scared to see the truth and refusing to take it all in. I heard him walk into the living room, and looking up at him made me feel like a deer caught in the headlights. He froze in place and I noticed another set of footsteps behind him. It was a beautiful blonde with big boobs and great lips.

“Well, at least if you’re going to leave, I think a goodbye is in order. Don’t you think, Declan?” I had to keep a poker face. “By the way, make sure you leave a forwarding address so I can forward your last check. Oh, where are my manners? I’m Sloane Townsend. I was Declan’s employer and girlfriend for the past year now, but I guess under these circumstances I’m now the Ex.” I reached out to shake her hand.

“Wow, I’m Constance, Declan’s fiancée.” She shook my hand and Declan was still frozen. All I could do was smile at the both of them.

“So, Constance is it? Nice to meet you. I see y’all are heading out, so I won’t hold you any further.” I turned to walk out, but before I even cleared the driveway that led back to my side of the lake, Declan was standing right in front of me. “How the hell…”

“You don’t understand. I have to go.” Not wanting to hear anymore, I continued on to my side of the lake and out of hearing range so that I could release the tears I had been holding in. As I was about to pass him, the wind began to blow as if on command and I caught one last smell of him. I shut my eyes, storing the smell to memory, and ordered my mind to never think of it again.

“Then what’s stopping you? Certainly not me, and I have more than enough on my plate at the moment. I can’t deal with a two timing boyfriend. It just seems redundant. What do you want me to do, beg?” I turned to glance at him and I saw Constance step out on the porch, watching us. And there it was—the anger that lurked in the back of my mind like a caged animal. I couldn’t help what happened next.

“You have to get a hold of yourself. Your eyes are changing, Sloane. They can sense the power that is here. You have to stop, please, for me.” Was he really pleading for me to stop for him?

That did it.

Looking straight into his eyes, fury boiled in the pit of my stomach and finally everything I felt was unleashed. I screamed as loud as I could and threw my arms up like if I knew what I was doing. The wind was there for me to command. The snapping of trees sounded oddly like the breaking of bones. The trees began to fall in a circle around us and Constance was no longer there watching. My hair whipped around my face as I stood there across from Declan and I felt myself pushing closer to the edge. This was all new to me and I was actually afraid of what I would do. Declan was too, because I could actually taste his fear, and it wasn’t for him.

It was for me.

How could I tell what he was feeling? Shaking my head, I tried to turn off whatever this was, but it couldn’t. The rage I felt became full blown fear and Declan sensed it, too. I looked directly at him, tears streaming down both sides of my face, and then the last thing I ever expected happened. Declan was walking towards me and I heard someone screaming, “No,” in the background. It was Constance, no doubt. The wind picked up as if a tornado was about to touch down; I was frozen in place. All I could do was watch Declan walk straight up to me, and as he did, I couldn’t help but see how beautiful and fearless he was.

He stood right in front me and took my face in his hands. I shut my eyes, not wanting to look into those crystal blue eyes. He was going to leave no matter what and in the end he was a thief even if he didn’t know it. And suddenly I felt his lips press against mine and everything came back. Every single moment we spent together flashed before my eyes as if it was my life. As if my life truly began when we met. He pulled me into his arms and I could feel the wind dying down, but it picked back up the moment I remembered that he was still leaving me. It was like my emotions were in control of everything. He broke the kiss and I couldn’t bring myself to look at him, afraid of what he might think of me. Never mind the fact that he had a scared-to-death fiancée he never told me about. I just couldn’t bring myself to see the disappointment in his eyes.

“Sloane...” He paused for a minute. “You have to stop. Look at me, please.” I couldn’t resist any longer. Not when he held that tone—that pleading tone as if he were begging.

I opened my eyes and I saw it all. The fear, the love, and the betrayal. He brushed his thumb across my cheek and the warmth from his hands stung my face, the traces of him lingered, and in that split second everything disappeared. It was just me and Declan standing there in the woods. He pressed his forehead to mine and closed his eyes. “You have to control yourself or they will find you. You know nothing of the other world that you are connected to and the only way to protect you is to leave. Please, Sloane, for me. Calm your storm before you wreck your aunt’s land.”

That did it. That was the fuel needed to push me over the edge. How dare he speak of my aunt right now? My eyes shot wide open and I struggled to get free of his hold. He snatched me back to him. “Sloane, I love you more than you’ll ever know. Now wake up.”