Cordelia woke up to the sensation of a damp cloth on her forehead, and the smell of lavender. As she slowly came to conciousness, she started to absorb her surroundings.
She was lying down in a bed, the same one she'd slept in at her last Sterling Manor sleepover. Sometime between the last time she'd been concious and now, someone had taken off her bloody clothes, and left her in her underwear. And perhaps the most important observation she made, was that there was a guy in the room crushing something up using a mortar and pestle.
"Good you're awake." The guy smiled when he saw a wide-eyed Cordelia lying awake.
The guy looked to be around Cordelia's age, had dark hair that reached his shoulders, hooded eyes the colour of almonds, and a crooked smile, and when he spoke his words had a southern drawl to them.
He started walking towards her, and that was when Cordelia spoke up. "Unless you tell me who you are and what you're doing in the next ten seconds, i'll throw you around the room like a rag doll." She threatened, though she wasn't sure whether or not she'd be able to carry out that threat.
The guy raised his brows and his two hands in surrender. "I'm Patrick, Cal gave me a call and asked me to come to town because he was worried about you."
Cordelia gave him another once-over. Sensing her suspicion, Patrick showed her the contents of the mortar, which was filled with a variety of crushed herbs. "I'm a healer."
Cordelia started to open her mouth, but when she couldn't find a reason not to trust him, she closed her mouth and gave him a nod to show he could come closer.
Patrick gave her a small smile and walked to her bedside. On the nightstand was a big basin of water, and several candles that lit up the room. Patrick poured the contents of the mortar into the basin, then once the mixture was homogeneous he took the cloth from her forehead and dipped it into the mixture. He squeezed out the excess, then gently pressed the cool scented cloth to Cordelia's forehead, while mumbling a spell that was familiar to Cordelia.
"It's a healing spell right?" She asked lowly.
He nodded, keeping his eyes closed and his face tranquil. "It's specific to head injuries." He whispered before immediately relaunching into the incantation.
Cordelia's eyes fluttered shut, and she felt Patrick's abnormally warm hand touch her temple. As soon as his skin touched hers, the warmth in his hand seeped into Cordelia's forehead, and all the tension in her body faded away, till there was no pain in her body.
Cordelia opened her eyes, just in time to see the glow in the palm of Patrick's hand fade.
She sat up, her eyes never leaving Patrick. "Holy shit..." She mumbled, before a grin tugged at her mouth. "That. Was. A-mazing." She squealed.
Patrick shrugged, but smiled nonetheless. "It wasn't much, just a concussion."
"You have an amazing gift." Cordelia told him earnestly, before getting on her knees and leaning over to hug him. "Thank-you."
Patrick put his arms around her and patted her back. "Don't mention it."
When Cordelia pulled away, she remembered that she was in her underwear, and immediately grabbed the sheet to cover herself, a blush already forming.
When Patrick saw her reaction he chuckled, "Don't worry, I don't swing that way. Your virtue is safe with me." He told her with a wink, before throwing her a pair of jeans and a hoodie.
Cordelia smiled when she realised her mistake, and gratefully started pulling on the jeans, while Patrick cleaned up his supplies.
"Rumour has it you can do some pretty amazing things yourself." Patrick said conversationally as Cordelia did up the button on the jeans.
It was her turn to shrug, "I guess. Still not sure what my gift is."
Patrick stopped what he was doing to look at her and raise a brow. "Really? Because from what I heard, you have a knack for power replication."
Cordelia frowned, "Power replica...?" She trailed off, as she racked her brain and remembered. During the fight. Beth had the power to make objects materialize out of nowhere. And suddenly Cordelia had made two daggers appear in her hands.
Cordelia didn't have time to digest that piece of information, or what having a power like that meant, because just then, the door opened up a crack and Kol pocked his head in the room.
Cordelia's conversation with Kol just before she passed out came rushing back to her. She had had relationships with Cal and Kol in every. Single. Lifetime. And the three of them had made terrible sacrifices, and killed for each other. It was very overwhelming, especially after a recent head injury.
"Hey how's it going?" Kol asked, as he looked around the room, and Cordelia sat frozen, just watching him. Kol's eyes landed on Cordelia but they only stayed there for a split second, before Patrick came to the doorway and blocked Cordelia from Kol's view.
"We're fine...she's fine. She's just not decent yet."
Cordelia didn't hear what Kol said, but Patrick closed the door and turned to look at her. "Sweetheart, you've got one hell of a messy love life don't you?" He said sympathetically.
Cordelia rubbed her eyes, "Tell me about it." She mumbled.
Patrick plopped down on the bed, so he was sitting next to her. "Listen, i've known the Sterlings for a long time. Now I don't know you, but you seem like a nice girl. I also don't know all the details, but I do know you have a history with them." He sighed, "Want my advice?"
Cordelia nodded.
"Be careful. Be careful with how you talk and act around them, you might give off the wrong impression. Be careful with who you give your heart to. And be careful not to sacrifice everything for those boys. Because there are bigger and more important things than this...love triangle."
Cordelia cringed. "Please don't call it that. It isn't even a love triangle," she protested as she got up. "There is nothing between Kol and I, trust me. And Cal...it's...I don't really know what it is." She admitted with a sigh.
"Okay okay." Patrick said, "Just don't forget you have a history with Kol." He said, before handing her the hoodie.
Cordelia felt a lump in her throat, but pulled the hoodie over her head and telekinetically opened the door before walking out of the room and down the stairs, with Patrick trailing behind.
Cal was pacing impatiently in the living room, while Kol sat on the couch with his hands clasped in front of him.
"Hey guys." Cordelia said when neither noticed her or Patrick walk into the room.
Cal rushed over and crushed Cordelia in a tight embrace, burying his face in her hair. "I'm so sorry Cord." He whispered to her. "I'll never forgive myself for letting you get kidnapped."
As weird as things were, and as much as Cordelia needed to reflect on what having dated Cal and his brother in past lives meant, she still cared about him, and she felt herself melt into his embrace. "It's okay." She mumbled against his shoulder, "I'm okay."
Cordelia started to pull away because he was starting to crush her, and because they had an audience, and when Cal leaned in to kiss her, she turned her face so he kissed her cheek. She needed to reflect before she could start kissing Cal again. Did past relationships change what they had? Did the fact that he had lied to her change anything? She didn't know, but she couldn't decide right now.
Cordelia avoided Cal's questioning glance, and met Kol's intense gaze.
Cal looked at her questioningly, but pulled his eyes away and looked at Patrick, "Thank-you so much for coming up here Patrick, I owe you."
Patrick smiled, "We're even now. Consider this the favour I owe you for our breakup."
Cordelia's mouth made an o shape, and she looked between a guilty looking Cal, and Patrick who seemed to realise his mistake. "Sorry I thought you knew." He told Cordelia.
"That you dated Cal, or that Cal isn't straight?" Cordelia asked softly. Neither said anything. "I um...I just assumed is all." Cordelia said, before brushing past Cal to sit down on the couch. Now she really needed to have a conversation with Cal.
Kol decided to take charge of the awkward situation and asked, "How are you feeling?"
"Good. Overwhelmed, but good." She sighed, bringing her feet to her chest.
"What about you guys?" She asked, looking between Cal and Kol.
"Just a few cuts and bruises." Cal said cautiously, sitting down next to Kol, across from Cordelia.
She nodded, "So any idea who evil soccer mom is?"
"We think that woman was possesed by the spirit of a dead witch." Kol said.
"But wouldn't the witch have reincarnated?" Cordelia frowned.
Kol shook his head. "Sometime in the eighties we came up with a way to permenantly kill the witch. The question however, is who on earth would summon the spirit of an evil witch?"
"And who is powerful enough to pull it off." Cal breathed.
Shivers ran down Cordelia's spine. "So this isn't over. Whoever brought Beth back is still out there."
Kol nodded, "It's unlikely one of the circle members was powerful enough to pull off the spell to bring her back."
Everyone was quiet for a moment, as they all considered the danger that was to come.
Finally Cordelia asked, "So what happened to you guys? How did you guys find me?"
"We figured out you weren't...you when Kol went backstage during intermission to check on you and you quite obviously weren't yourself." Cal said.
God only knew what Nina had done while she looked like Cordelia. The possibilities were frightening. If Cordelia tried to picture Nina flirting with Kol as Cordelia, she'd gag.
"We found a spell to track you down and well...you know the rest." Cal finnished.
"What did you do about Nina?"
"I suggested to her that what actually happened was that she hit her head in her dressing room and slept through the play, and dreamt that she was you." Cal said, but Cordelia figured that by suggest, he meant he used the same power of persuasion he'd once used to calm her down.
Cordelia nodded thoughtfully before abruptly standing up. "Thanks for everything Patrick I really appreciate everything." She said, before looking to Cal. "Would you drive me home?" She asked softly.
Cal nodded eagerly, and grabbed the keys from the coffee table before jogging over to hold the front door open for Cordelia. Before leaving, Cordelia gave Kol a nod, acknowledging everything he had done for her.
A/N: Another long wait I apologize! Hopefully the wait was worth it! You guys got to meet Patrick, who I think will be a fan favourite, it was revealed what Cordelia's actual power is, and you found out that Cal is bisexual. It's alot. I know. But please let me know your thoughts. Are you guys surprised Cal is bi? Any thoughts? If you have a problem with it, then no offense, but you can leave. Because in case you haven't figured it out yet, I'm a big LGBTQ supporter and I think it's important that there are LGBTQ characters. And a male love interest for a girl can be bi or pan.
The book is almost at 20k reads and has over 2k votes and I want to thank every single one of you for reading and voting and commenting, over the past year since I uploaded the first chapter of the first version of Wicked. Your support continually motivated me. ❤️
Consider voting, commenting, or following if you like the book, chapter, or me, but either way have a lovely day/night/life.
~Nina