Fate's Revenge (Twisted Fate, Book 4)

Chapter Thirty-Seven

A/N: I couldn't not update this chapter :) Enjoy!

Gabe, I assumed, caught me before I could meet the floor. The darkness faded quickly, and when my consciousness returned, I woke in his arms without feeling as though I'd slammed against anything. There was no pain or even soreness, which was good as I would have surely hit my head. Maybe I did? Nothing else explained the reaction my body began to have as soon as I became fully aware and opened my eyes. It was like a pause, a moment when everything felt right. Then suddenly and without warning, everything changed.

Everywhere I felt Gabe's touch, my skin burned like it was on fire.

My whole body began to shake, like a seizure that slowly took hold of me, starting slow and getting faster and faster. It wouldn't stop. The longer he held me, the worse it became, until every inch was convulsing from my head to my toes. My teeth chattered together so hard I thought they would break. It's Gabe's touch. It's... He's hurting me!

It was like a Taser gun bolting currents into each of my limbs in a singular fashion.

I began to struggle to be free, trying to free myself from his grasp as I fought against the incessant twitching I couldn't control. "Let me go!"

He kept walking, keeping me firmly within his arms as though it wasn't even a struggle, and didn't even look down to acknowledge I was awake. The only sign that I had to know he'd heard me was the all-too-familiar tick of his jaw. I started to assist the tremors, kicking and wiggling and thrashing, unable to withstand another moment of his touch. My blood boiled in my veins, sweat lactated from every pore, and the ability to breathe ceased to exist.

It was worse than any one of my deaths, even if they were combined.

"Let me go! Let me go! Let me go!"

I put more strength into my escape and finally, he dropped me. It wasn't gentle or in any way intentional, but at least it was cushioned by the mattress of the bed. Landing in a heap of body parts, I quickly untangled my limbs. Then, as Gabe watched with unmasked astonishment, I scrambled backwards until my back was pressed against the wall.

"Don't touch me," I warned, gasping, and hugged my knees to my chest. "G-go over there. T-the other side of the room."

"Alyssa, what's wrong? What's going on? Why are you scared of me?" He started to reach towards me and I flinched, squeezing my eyes and trying to bring my legs closer.

Why was the wall so solid? Why wasn't it possible to just... burrow through? Did he even realize that I wasn't just being a spaz? That the shaking and twitching hadn't just been me wanting to get away? I couldn't help it. Whatever Renalda had done to the tea must've changed something within me. Had she dosed it with Gabe's blood? Was that why I suddenly reacted to his touch like it was a live wire?

"No! D-don't... touch me."

I heard him sigh and my body registered his retreat. The remaining tremors slowed and then stopped. Breathing, even though I had to concentrate, became possible, and my heart slowed. Still, I was aware of everything, my skin a sensor zinging with awareness left by the shock treatment of a moment before. Something wasn't right. There was something that was supposed to be here and wasn't, like a word you know the definition of but can't quite remember.

"Alyssa, talk to me," Gabe pleaded now, his voice like an echo from far away. "Are you okay?"

I couldn't answer, unable to speak and unwilling to nod. But that voice... What was missing? My skin dulled, the pricks subsiding to how I would feel after a massage instead of an electrocution. Calming. Mind-clearing. Good. Suddenly, I felt energized. My body forgot it's pain from a moment before and felt somehow rejuvenated, cleansed.