“Yes. The people here have been very kind. There were a few empty homes and we’ve graciously been offered them, for as long as we need. I think this young man standing next to you had something to do with that happening so quickly.”
“It was nothing,” replied Sebastien. “Glad to help.” He wore his most Sebastien-y smile, the one that always turned Meghan’s legs to jelly.
“I think we will bid you all goodnight,” said Billie, staving off a yawn.
“Yes. If we don’t return soon my wife is sure to come searching,” said Noah lightheartedly.
“Have a good night,” Ivan said, with a nod.
They watched them disappear into the darkness now veiling the encampment; lanterns popping on, flames bursting to life, lining the walkways with hazy shades of orange and yellow.
“I wonder what’s going to happen now?” asked Meghan.
“With what?” asked Ivan. He looked and sounded spent.
“Is everything too vague an answer.”
Overwhelmed. That was what Ivan’s face had read earlier that she could not read at the time. It was still there. A mix of tiredness, worry, doubt, regret, with a small side of defiance. Or was it denial? Maybe it was a little of both.
They fell into an awkward silence as they walked. The path was wide enough only for two to walk side by side.
Ivan fell a few steps behind.
Meghan wondered if he’d go inside tonight? She almost felt like forcing him to. Maybe she’d sneak him one of Kanda’s sleeping potions.
Fallen leaves crunched under their footsteps, the sound almost deafening. Meghan was suddenly overly aware of each breath she took and how loud and raspy it sounded.
“Do you ever miss boring?” asked Sebastien, out of the blue. “Just hanging out at the lake, sitting around the campfire.”
“Stuffing my face with blackberry dumplings and homemade ice cream,” Meghan added, her eyes lighting up.
“Whoopie pies,” said Sebastien, his mouth watering.
“Listening to Kanda tell stories,” Meghan added, her eyes lighting up. “Good thing Colin’s not here, he’d never let me hear the end of it! Me, wanting to learn something.”
“Who wants to learn anything in the summer?” joked Sebastien.
“Not us,” she said back.
Sebastien stopped and shook his head. “How pathetic is it that I would die to have just one good old boring day like that again? What am I? Fifty years old?”
Meghan grinned widely at the thought and a giggle escaped. She didn’t even get upset about it. The giggle turned to laughter, which got louder and louder. “Sorry,” she squeaked, unable to control it.
Sebastien sucked his lips into his mouth trying to hold back his own laughter, but a moment later, he had given up and joined in.
Meghan shook herself, trying to stop. Her body refused to cooperate. Why couldn’t she stop laughing? Nothing about their lives was remotely funny! If anything, things were getting worse by the day. And yet, she kept laughing, Sebastien right along with her, unable to control himself anymore than she could.
Meghan and Sebastien heard something strange behind them.
It sounded like a low garble stuck deep inside a cavern.
She turned and stared at Ivan.
“W-was that you?” she stuttered.
He stiffened, shaking his head, no, but a disgruntled snort escaped his lips.
“That was you!” Meghan replied, in a stunned tone. Her own fit ended, replaced by astonished awe.
Something exploded from Ivan’s mouth.
It came out in a torrential flow of uncontrollable force that he could not stop.
“I didn’t even know you knew what laughter was,” said Meghan, in total disbelief.
“How do I stop this?” choked out Ivan.
“Stop it? Dude, just let it out. You’re way too uptight,” said Sebastien.
This infuriated Ivan even more, and yet the laughter would not stop. It was coming out of him now almost as if being forced. It was beyond laughter. More like completely cracking up.
“Okay, you’re freaking me out a little bit now,” said Meghan.
“Yeah, I was just kidding,” said Sebastien. “Well, sort of,” he added so only Meghan could hear. She shrugged, unable to disagree. Ivan wasn’t one to be overly or publicly emotional.
Ivan doubled over, having a hard time catching any air.
“You are so not okay,” realized Meghan.
Ivan fell to his knees, unable to keep his balance. “Go away,” he pleaded. “Please, just go.” He was no longer laughing but still struggled to take normal, controlled breaths.
“Definitely losing it,” Sebastien whispered.
“Maybe you should go,” Meghan told him.
“Yeah. Okay. Um, if you need anything, I’ll be at my parents’ house.”
“Thanks,” she mouthed as he departed.
Meghan heard Nona’s concerned thoughts enter into her mind but asked her to stay away, too. She could handle this on her own.
She helped Ivan lean back against a tree and took a seat next to him. He turned away, refusing to look at her.
“And stubborn Ivan reappears.”
“Is it impossible for you to just leave me alone?”
“Can’t do that. You’re clearly not okay. Actually, I think you might be having a panic attack.”
“I don’t have panic attacks.”
“You do now.”
Ivan groaned. “You’re going to be even more of a pain now that you’re my sister, aren’t you?”
“Don’t have a choice, do I? We’re family.”
“I don’t have panic attacks.”
“Maybe you haven’t before,” she agreed. “But Sebastien has a point.”
This was the wrong thing to say. He started to get up. She pulled him back down.
“I’m being serious, Ivan. You do have a tendency to bottle things up.”
“Maybe I don’t have the need to share every little thing I feel with everyone I know!”
Meghan kept her temper in check, even though she wanted to shout back at him.
“Ivan, having a panic attack isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If anything, it makes you more human. It shows you care about something so much, that it literally hurts to think about it.”
“That’s not me,” he said.
“Again, maybe it wasn’t you. But it is now. Look at everything you’ve been through. You watched Jae commit suicide only to find out he’s still alive but has this horrific task ahead of him. You can’t help him. It’s all him. You found out you have a sister and she, I, have some terrible choices ahead that you can’t make for me. You found out your mother is still alive! Everything you were working towards was all based on lies. What you’re feeling right now, Ivan, is helplessness. Nothing is going the way you thought it would. Everything’s changed. And it’s going to keep happening. And there’s not a damn thing you can do about it!”
“And what, now that you’re my sister I’m just supposed to share everything I feel with you?” he looked a mix of angry and disoriented.
“There’s no rule that says you have to, but you can. I’ll always listen. I may not have helpful advice, but I’ll always listen.”
“As the older sibling, shouldn’t I be taking care of you?”
“Ivan, we’re not little kids. We can take care of each other.”
“I don’t know if I can do that,” he spoke honestly. “I don’t know how to do that.”
“You already do it. Obviously, without realizing. You’re the only reason I survived the last year with any stitch of sanity remaining. All the rest of it... don’t let it bottle up so much. You’ll turn gray before you’re twenty-five! Strike that! You’ll go bald before you’re twenty-five!”
“Speaks the girl who worries about everything.”
“Red head,” she reminded. “No graying here, I’ll go straight to white.”
She could practically see his eyes rolling in reply, even though he had leaned
his head onto his hands.
His breathing normalized.
“So, just how much time does it take for new realities to sink in?” he asked.
She frowned. “This isn’t something you can just rush through. There’s no guide to surviving life’s little surprises. If there was, I’d be the first one in line. Besides, you were being a great big brother before you even knew you were one. You’ve already got that whole worrying-about-everything-I-do-thing down, really well.”
“You are not going to be any less of a pain, are you?” he asked, sounding deflated.
“Oh, heck no. If anything, Big Bro, I’m going to be even more of a pain. And you can’t do anything about that because we’re family, and you have to love your family, no matter what.”
He thought about that for a minute.
“Do you believe that? Completely? Because the other side of your family, Colby and your father, things are going to get... complicated.”
“See, you’re doing the big brother worry thing already.”
“Guess it’s just my nature,” he replied dryly.
Meghan sighed. “Can I just pretend the other side of my family doesn’t exist? I suppose I can’t, can I,” she answered herself. “I think there is some underwritten rule that says you have to love your family, no matter what, but I don’t know. I don’t know.”
“And what about long lost brothers?” a voice called out from the darkness.
Meghan and Ivan stood, searching for a face to fit the voice.
“Colin? Is that you?” Meghan barely dared to ask, fearful it was a sick joke or she was just hearing things.
A shape emerged just feet from them.
“Hi, Sis. Miss me?”
She did not answer.
Ivan watched next to her, speechless.
Colin stepped out of the shadows.
He had changed. He was taller; still short for a teenage boy of almost sixteen. Meghan realized he might already be sixteen. His birthday was no more accurate than hers had been.
Colin’s hair was longer and disheveled. He no longer donned sweater vests and khakis, opting for a black jacket and boots. Most surprising, was the earring. Or was it a tattoo? It was hard to tell in the darkness.
There was a dark intensity in his eyes; but the Colin she knew was still present.
Meghan opened her mouth to speak. She already knew the first words she would say to his face were, “I’m sorry,” but he stopped her before she could say them.
“Don’t. I already know you’re sorry. And there’s a part of me that will always be a little angry with you, but I’m over it. I know you were just looking out for me. It’s what you do.”
Meghan rushed forward wrapping her arms around him, catching him off guard just for a moment. But he didn’t stop it. He wrapped his arms around her too.
“I know you don’t want to hear it again, but I am sorry, Colin. You have no idea how sorry! And I missed you so much. I worry about you all the time.”
She heard Ivan let out a grunt but ignored him. The rest of their conversation would have to wait.
“I... I missed you too,” Colin replied, letting go of her. They separated from each other, unsure where to begin.
Colin saw Ivan approaching Meghan. He came up alongside her, taking what seemed to be a protective stance.
“You think I might hurt her?” Colin asked, a tinge of animosity in his tone.
“No. Just a new habit,” Ivan told him, once again the epitome of calm, cool, collectiveness.
“I guess we have a lot to catch up on, Sis,” said Colin.
“You have no idea,” Meghan told him, gently nudging Ivan in a meaningful way, which Colin did not understand but apparently, Ivan did.
“Why don’t I let you guys catch up. I’ll find you later,” he said, eyeing her with a question that said, You’re sure?
“I’ll be perfectly fine. Don’t worry about me.”
“Thought that was my job now,” he mumbled, begrudgingly walking away.
She tossed him a snooty look and turned back to Colin.
“So what, you guys are like friends now or something? You’re not dating him are you?”
Meghan let out an air-filled chortle. “Um, no. Definitely not dating. That’s a really gross thought. We have a lot to talk about.”
“You know we don’t actually have to talk it all out,” reminded Colin, tapping his finger to his head.
“Talking would take hours,” agreed Meghan. “So we open up the door again? Take down the block.”
“Yes. Time is sort of the essence,” he added, with no further explanation. Colin kept his concerns hidden. It might not have been on his own terms, but he actually did want to reconnect with Meghan.
However, a long family reunion just wasn’t in the cards, Catrina was still being held prisoner by Freyne Rothrock.
He opened his thoughts to Meghan, allowing them to infiltrate her mind. She did the same, transferring all her memories to him. Within minutes, each relived most of what had happened to the other since their separation.
After it ended, they reset the block firmly in place, cutting off the connection.
Meghan just stared at her brother in disbelief over the things he had been through, and survived. It had only been minutes in each other’s minds, but she felt as though she’d just finished a race and needed to catch her breath.
Colin really was the Projector.
She had heard it. And she had believed it.
Witnessing it through his experiences and feelings put a completely new spin on that reality. He was powerful. Much to her dislike, in a way that was a little too reminiscent of Colby.
She felt a moment of guilt. She had kept one memory blocked; the vision she’d had where she, with the help of Ivan, had killed both him and Catrina. It wasn’t something she was ready to share.
Colin nearly fell backwards as he separated from Meghan’s thoughts. He steadied himself with the aid of a nearby tree. It would take a few minutes to process everything.
“Are you okay?” Meghan asked him. She felt certain that for his part, Colin was on the receiving end of a much larger shock; all she really needed to do was accept what Colin was.
He was just finding out they were not twins.
That they were not even related.
But she and Ivan were.
And so was she and Colby.
That Jurekai Fazendiin was her father.
That her mother was still alive.
That no one knew where he came from.
That Bird was actually Sebastien Jendaya... he had known everything all along. He was the one that had attacked Colin in Grimble. But it was obeying orders of Amelia Cobb; the crazy woman who’d tried to control both he and Meghan, and was now dead.
Plus, that he had been right all along in regards to Juliska Blackwell.
Colin’s mouth felt cruddy, like he needed to spit out a mound of filth.
The things Juliska had done.
The things she had done to Jae.
“Colin,” called out Meghan again. “I’m sorry. This is much harder for you than me. I’ve already had time to adjust to this stuff. Not that it makes some of it any easier to swallow.”
“I’m just...” he didn’t know what to say. “I came here because I didn’t have a choice,” he sounded bewildered. “I had no idea the things I didn’t know.”
“What do you mean you didn’t have a choice?” she asked him. Something dawned on her. “Colin, where’s Catrina?”
“She’s in trouble,” he muttered.
“What can I do?” Meghan asked without hesitation.
He didn’t respond.
Meghan felt bad for Colin. He had come to her for help and she had bombarded him with many surprising and frightening things, all at once. She grabbed his arm and dragged him to a nearby bench, forcing him to sit.
“Whatever’s happened, you can count on me,” she told him. “But why don’t you just chill for a minute. You look like you’re
in massive overload mode.” Seems to be the theme of the evening, she thought to herself.
Overload was putting it lightly. Colin felt lucky that the Magicante hadn’t just raced out of control or stalled completely. It must have been that he was so stunned. So stunned he almost felt numb. His mind didn’t know how to react yet.
He heard Meghan speaking and tried to listen.
“I just want you to know, Colin, regardless of anything that’s happened between us, or that we don’t share the same parents, you’ll always be my brother. That’s not going to change. Ever.”
He sucked in a cleansing breath.
“I feel the same,” he replied, in a tone that made her certain Colin hadn’t fully heard what she’d said. “What do I call you now?”
In true Meghan stubbornness she said, “You still call me, Sis.”
“Okay. Sis.”
“Is there anything I can do? Something I can get you?”
“No. Really, I just need a minute. It’s all starting to make more sense now, I think.”
“How did everything get so messed up? My life, your life, all our lives,” she rambled. “I’m sorry about Jasper, Colin,” she added. “I’m sorry that it was my actual brother that killed him.”
“I don’t know how to feel about that. I have it in my right mind to kill Colby for it.”
“You are not alone in that sentiment,” Meghan acknowledged. “My new family has some issues.”
“And Ivan... I really didn’t see that one coming.”
“He is a good brother. His world is sort of crashing right now, but then again, whose isn’t? Just look at the prophecy if you need any more proof,” she spouted.
“I guess it’s true then,” said Colin. “Three immortal children... except, I don’t know why I am immortal. I don’t know who I belong to.”
“I wish I knew,” said Meghan compassionately. “If it makes you feel any better, knowing isn’t exactly all it’s cracked up to be, either. Look who my dad turned out to be.”
“Do you ever feel like we’re just living out someone else’s idea of what our lives are supposed to be?” Colin asked, his tone less dazed.
“More and more each day,” she answered. “It’s like we were born according to someone’s plan. We were introduced into the world of magic because of someone’s plan. And now, we have this battle ahead of us, all because someone else had a prophecy that said we would. And yet, I have a feeling that even if we tried to fight against it, somehow we’d just be dragged back in.”
Control (The Blood Vision, The Immortality Stone, and The Woman in Glass) (A Fated Fantasy Quest Adventure Book 7) Page 10