The wombs left on his body from his fiancé were slowly healing, but they were not getting him special treatment around his coven. Elena doubled his training regimen. She told him it was to be sure he would be ready for the next time he would face the Night Sky coven. Though everyone knew it was an extension of his punishment for losing a valuable coven member. Now he had to prove himself to be worthy to lead beside the next coven leader and his fiancé, Jay. Every day he was ran through several mental exercises meant to strengthen his telekinesis ability, then he would fight his covens’ best fighters using both physical and magical abilities, and at the end of his day when he was ready to fall into bed and sleep, Jay would crawl into bed beside him demanding his attention.

Yet, through all the exhaustion the only thing Adam could seem to think about was Ciara. Even when he was in bed with Jay, his mind drifted back to the witch from the other coven. Her words had drifted through the darkness as he had walked away. [i]You can go to hell.[/i]  Hadn’t she already known that he was in hell? Over and over again, he replayed those last minutes with her and he swore he could still feel her soft skin under his fingers. But then he would remember the way she turned her head away from him. She knew the kind of monster he was and she was right to want nothing to do with him.

It was three days after he had parted from the witch when the nightmares had begun. He had sat straight up in bed sweating and breathing heavily with terror the first night. Jay had just rolled her eyes, turned her back, and went back to sleep. Later that day, his arm started burning again like it had when the yin symbol first appeared. Adam wrapped his arm to keep people from noticing the new mark and how red and irritated it was looking. Each night the nightmare got worse until Jay stopped staying his bed after their nightly activities. Soon a physical weakness set in, and during training Adam found he couldn’t hardly lift a penny off the ground or defend himself against six of the covens’ best warriors. 

Later that week, Adam laid on his bed sporting a whole new canvas of cuts, scraps, breaks, and bruises. Not that that they seemed to compare to the burning sensation radiating from his arm or the dryness that was starting in his lungs. Jay did not come check on him after he got his ass handed to him in the arena, probably to ashamed of his performance to be seen sneaking into his room. To be honest though, he was glad because he was not in any kind mood or shape to entertain his fiancé. The next day was even worse. After waking up drenched in sweat, Adam added a migraine to his growing list of ailments. He shifted on his mattress and let out a cry of frustration which only made his head throb more and make it even harder to breathe.

 As he rolled over to his side to catch his breath, a vision of Ciara materialized in front of his opened eyed. Great, just what he needed. He closed his eyes to cut off her image while he regained his breath. The pain in her initial statement was not hard to mistake, but what he couldn’t figure out was why she was in pain. His eyes was cold as ice when he opened them to look her over. Her breathing was ragged like she was having a hard time breathing too, and there was a thin shimmer to her skin that suggested she had been sweating. Not to mention the clear pain behind her voice and the tightness in her face and eyes that suggested a headache. Or a migraine. 

[color=gray]“No. No pain at all. I just thought lying here pretending to die sounded like a fun way to pass time.”[/color] Adam snapped with sharp tone that ended with a cough. Then it dawn on him. She had the same symptoms he did. Yin and Yang. They were dying without each other. She had figured it out already though, and that is why she was contacting him. His blue eye looked back up at her once his coughing finally stopped. 

[color=gray]“I have to meet with you if I want to live.”[/color] He said simply after a long moment of silence. Slowly he sat up, letting the covers fall off his torso in the process and revealing his new array of cuts and bruises.

[color=gray]“Whatever. Let’s just get this over with. Met me in the alley way in twenty minutes.”[/color] Adam grabbed his black jacket off the ground and left his room.

---

Twenty minutes Adam stood in the shadows of the ally leaning back against the brick building. His breath came in ragged intakes and there were bags under his eyes, but there was still a coldness to the way he held himself and his eyes looked completely dead. Still he waited for the witch that he had not been able to get out of his mind for the past week and a half.