Wicked Encounters (The Wicked Series: Season 1)

Twenty-One

The darkness enveloping me is exactly what I've been wanting to avoid for the past eighteen hours. I tried so hard to stay awake, but as soon as Elias came in and told me I was safe, I listened to him and now, here I am in a dream. Exactly where I didn't want to be. But I know he's there, in the waking world, making sure nothing happens.

I just hope nothing happens in here, where I'm not so sure I can control everything.

"Delia?" a voice comes through the fog in the....wherever I am, and I jump at the name, remembering my dream from last night.

But it isn't Elias's voice. Or the Dark Elias...or whoever the fuck that was. It's someone else. "Cordelia? Babydoll?"

Babydoll. It's my dad.

"Dad?" I ask, hating the shrill panicky tone of my voice, like I'm six years old again and lost in the damn woods. "Daddy, where are you?"

"I'm right here, just turn around."

I do, and sure enough, my father is here, right in front of me, like it's no big deal that he's in my dream on this deserted island thousands of miles away from home.

And as I look around, I realize that's where we are. The fog has lifted and we're on the beach, my bare toes in the sand, the wind whipping my silver hair around my face. My father's hair is making the same motion, and I'm struck by how similar we are, down to the shade and texture of our hair and hue of our eyes.

"Dad," I whisper as he pulls me into his arms. "What are you doing here?"

"I knew you'd need to talk to me...that you'd have questions," he says, and a sheepish tone creeps into his voice.

I swallow and step out of his embrace, the shock and relief at seeing him wearing off as I remember the anger I felt toward him and my mom when Elias explained to me what I am.

"You think? How could you and Mom send me here, to this island full of actual paranormal creatures and not tell me what I am? To pretend that this was just some quirky singles' adventure?"

"We never meant to disrupt the course of your life. If you accepted only your human side, that was fine by us. There was always a chance that your power would not surface. I've spent decades unable to pass through dreams as I once did. It is because of you that we are communicating now."

"But how would I ever have a chance to accept the other side of me if you never even told me about it? This was the way you were going to tell me? By sending me into the fucking lion's den?!"

He drops his head and stares at his white tennis shoes. The sag of his shoulders and the way they expand with his deep breath pull at my sympathies. I don't want to be mad at him. I don't want to punish him for what he did. But this is a lot for someone to learn about themselves in just a week's time.

"We couldn't tell you when you were younger for fear that you would let it slip with your friends. If the wrong person found out, you would have been in danger. It's the reason we chose to stay in the mortal realm. By the time you were old enough to understand the consequences, would you have believed us? I had no way of proving it to you. You would have thought both your mother and I needed psychological care. This was the only way."