Control, Book Seven
Fated Saga Fantasy Series
By Rachel Humphrey – D'aigle
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 1
Meghan Jacoby could not remember the last time she felt happiness.
Real happiness.
Yes, there were many terrible things happening in her life, as well as to people she cared about deeply.
And yes, she was currently standing in a run down shack in the middle of nowhere, with no idea where her life was headed except that a prophecy seemed to be determining every move she made.
Nevertheless, at this moment, all she could feel was giddy relief.
In the chaos of discovering that Jurekai Fazendiin, the original and most powerful of the immortal Grosvenor, was her father, she had forgotten one thing: she also had a mother.
A mother she had finally met. A mother that had, so far, fully lived up to her expectations. Meghan also gained an older half-brother in Ivan Crane. A young man that was possibly the most loyal, albeit pain in the butt and irritating, friend she had ever had.
Without even realizing it, she had come to think of him as a big brother and now, he really was her big brother. There was something comforting about this fact. Because he was good. His mother, their mother, Isabella Crane, was good. She had sacrificed everything to make the world a better place, to keep it from becoming a world no longer worth living in.
The blood pumping through Meghan’s veins did not belong just to evil. She was not doomed to follow her father’s footsteps. She was not doomed to turn out like her brother, Colby.
Ivan had still not spoken since announcing that she was his sister. He just stared, bewildered, confused and petrified.
Sebastien Jendaya, on the other hand, wore an ecstatic grin. Whether he had believed Ivan previously or not, in his claims that he had never liked Meghan like that, there was no argument now. Of course, this didn’t mean she would just automatically forgive him; he still had a lot to make up for, including keeping secrets from her.
Like the fact that it was he who’d attacked Colin and stolen the Magicante while they were in Grimble. Or that he could transform into a bird and had been spying on them since they had first come to live with the Svoda.
And as if that was not enough to need forgiveness for, there was also the fact that he had known magic existed, and pretended not to, as part of his duties to the now deceased Amelia Cobb. He had befriended Meghan and Colin per her orders, and then spied on them after they were taken in by the Svoda. And at a time when all they wanted to do was return home and find out the fate of their Uncle Arnon.
Sebastien had known Arnon’s fate and did not share this information.
He hated himself for this. At the time, he was following orders. But why hadn’t he found some way to tell them? A secret message. Something. Anything, to relieve some of his friend’s fears.
As he thought about it, the idea of her ever forgiving him seemed like a distant idea that was falling further out of reach. Yet he could not help but feel some measure of hope, knowing that Ivan was no longer his competition.
A gangly Jae Mochrie kept his distance, but watched everything unfolding through the strands of his stringy hair, trying to make sense of it all. He was too young to remember what Ivan’s mother had looked like. He was just an infant when she died. Although she hadn’t died at all, only left. The resemblance between Meghan and Isabella was striking, especially seeing them side by side with their bright red hair, ocean blue eyes and milk-white skin.
Meghan sighed, satisfied to relish this happy moment. She wished she could bath in it, soak it in, and somehow bottle and keep it.
She heard Ivan shudder.
He staggered backwards, swaying a little.
“I think I’m going to be sick,” he stammered, sprinting out of the shack.
Meghan’s smile dropped and she moved to follow him.
Isabella stopped her. “Give him a moment.” There was a tremble in her voice. “I have shattered my son’s world. He is realizing that so many of the beliefs which forged his life are not real.”
Meghan nodded, pretending she understood, and in part, she did. Ivan had always had plans, intentions, but nothing he had ever really shared with her. She had pieced together enough to know that at least some of this regarded bringing down Juliska Blackwell, to show the Svoda that she was evil. But to what extent beyond this, she did not know.
“I should speak to him alone,” Isabella said.
“Okay,” replied Meghan. She was not ready to let her mother out of her sight but realized that Isabella and Ivan would need some time alone. As Meghan thought about it, she could not fathom what Ivan was feeling.
Meghan had only very recently discovered that her mother was even still alive, and her mother had believed Meghan dead for almost thirteen years.
Isabella Crane had voluntarily left Ivan. And even though this was to potentially save the world, she had knowingly and willingly left him and his father behind to do so.
Ivan had not ventured far. He stood just outside the shack, staring blankly into the woods, its many barren tree limbs indicating the onset of winter. Pine trees dotted the countryside, their needles still intact, giving some cover from the frigid chill, a chill that seeped inside Ivan’s bones, sending another shudder down his spine.
The shack wasn’t much of a buffer zone between the group inside and the two outside, or the November chill. The cracks and gaps in the walls, along with the missing front door, made it easy to overhear Ivan and Isabella speaking.
Nona rubbed up against Meghan’s leg, purring. Meghan reached down and picked up her Catawitch, nuzzling her as they listened in silence to the conversation outside.
Ivan didn’t turn to look at his mother but he heard her approach behind him. “I didn’t even know you were a Firemancer,” he whispered.
“It skipped a few generations and I hid the fact that I was. I think everyone started to believe the Firemancer gift had died out of my family line.”
He spun around, teary eyed, and cleared his throat.
“Why hide it?”
“Many reasons, which I will explain.”
“I’m sorry,” he said unexpectedly, bowing his head.
“For what?”
“I don’t know how to feel. What to ask you. I...” he stopped, sucking in a shaky breath. “I haven’t seen you since I was a child, barely old enough to remember what you looked like.”
“Ivan,” she said, lifting up his head. “You have nothing to be sorry for. I am the only one that needs to apologize. Although I cannot imagine a thousand apologies will ever be enough to make up for what I’ve done to you.”
Ivan stepped back, unable to keep eye contact with his mother.
“I’m not mad,” he told her. “I don’t hate you, if that’s what you’re thinking. I just...”
“Don’t understand,” she finished.
Isabella took in a deep, determined breath.
“If you’ll let me, I would like to explain.”
He nodded, his throat feeling too tight to vocalize his reply.
She began by explaining the same things she had shared with Meghan. The visions she’d had of the future, how the Grosvenors’ immortal children brought with them uncontrolled chaos and destruction, which she felt certain could be contained by bearing those children herself, instilling as much love a
nd compassion into their lives as she could. She told him about bringing Colby and Meghan into the world, giving up Colby when he was just five to his father and how she had hid Meghan in the orphanage, where she was then found alongside Colin.
“When I left you, I faked my death, obviously,” Isabella told Ivan.
“How did you do it?”
“A spell.”
“You weren’t afraid they’d do something with your body? Ivan asked her.
“It wasn’t my body they found,” she explained. “I used magic on someone recently deceased... I won’t go into specifics, the details are not important. But I used magic to make everyone believe it was my body they had found.”
“Including me and Dad,” Ivan added.
“Including you and your father. My biggest regret is that I didn’t see what would happen next. That I didn’t see your father would die so suddenly, and so soon after I left you. I left you alone. With no one. With nothing.”
“I was taken in, taken care of. The Mochries,” he said. “I’m sure you know that already. The young man you don’t know inside the shack, he is their eldest son, Jae. They took good care of me.”
“But they are not family. Not blood. And after I learned what you saw, about how your father died, I feared what would become of you. I didn’t want you to be alone. I didn’t want you to feel alone.”
“I... I started to believe that you’d been killed too,” Ivan admitted after a moment. “After I was old enough to understand what had really happened to my father, I started to doubt whether you’d actually died of an illness. It just seemed so hard to believe. I started to think that both of you had seen something, or learned something you shouldn’t have,” said Ivan. “Everything in my life after that was to prove what had really happened to you. And to show everyone what Juliska Blackwell really was. It didn’t matter that I was...” he broke off, looking for the right words.
“That you were alone,” guessed his mother. “Being alone made it easier. Having nothing to care about made it easier.”
For being absent nearly his entire life, she seemed to know her son well. He could not respond.
“I never stopped looking in on you,” she continued. “I never stopped thinking about you. Worrying about you. Questioning, sometimes by the minute and the second, if I had done the right thing.”
Ivan, the boy who had always been about doing the right thing, could not reply. He didn’t know what to say. He glanced past her, seeing Meghan’s silhouette just inside the doorway.
Isabella caught his glance.
“After your father died and Meghan had been born, I had hoped that somehow you would find each other. That she could become a part of your life even if I could not. I made sure that my locket went with her to the orphanage, hoping that one day you’d find it. You might not have known who she was, that she was your sister, but I had hoped the locket would at least bring you together. I used magic to pass along a message to you, hoping to spark your interest, so you would search for it.”
“Via the Song Spinner, Catrina Flummer,” said Ivan.
“Yes. I feared greatly what would happen to you, as you grew older. I wanted you to have something, someone to care about. A reason to live. To care. I could not keep Meghan with me, she needed to be hidden from her father, but I wanted you to find each other. Alas, as I have said, I thought she died and had given up hope that you’d ever find out the truth. I should have known she wasn’t dead. She was the daughter of an immortal after all. But I assumed that because she was so young that she could die... another regret... and then I started to see what was happening to you, Ivan. I knew. I knew you would too easily sacrifice your life for what you thought was right.”
“I was ready,” he befuddled himself by admitting. “I always expected to die. My life didn’t matter as long as I proved what really happened. And now I find out that the theories lurking in my head were just that, theories. There was no conspiracy surrounding your death, other than what you created yourself...”
“And your father was just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Isabella said. “But that doesn’t change how he died, at the hand of the Scratchers, which you found out Juliska created. You were the first to discover this treachery. Not everything was in vain. And without any interference or help from me, your sister found her way to you. Even if you didn’t know it until now.”
Ivan looked up again, Meghan had shuffled into the doorway. Nona remained in the shack along with Sebastien and Jae; they felt as though they were eavesdropping on a private conversation and wished they could leave. At the same time, the information they were learning was mind blowing.
“I think some part of me did know,” Ivan continued, his eyes never leaving Meghan. “She looks so much like you, but I just thought it was chance. I couldn’t see how it was possible.”
Meghan smiled weakly at him, firing off a look that said, “Surprise!” and “You’re stuck with me now.”
He shook his head; a bit of the Ivan she knew, returning. He rolled his eyes, mumbling, “It would have to be you.”
“Ivan,” Meghan said, letting out a nervous laugh. “If I was ever going to find out I had a half-brother I didn’t know about, I can’t imagine anyone else I’d want it to be. Even though I totally hate you most of the time and you drive me completely crazy!”
She stepped outside to see him better.
He lowered his head for a moment, amused, but when he looked up, he shrugged his shoulders, looking lost. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do now.”
Sebastien and Jae stepped out behind Meghan.
Nona trotted in the woods nearby, keeping her ears and eyes open to anything unusual.
“I don’t know about you,” said Meghan, “but there’s still the matter of a mad woman named Juliska Blackwell who needs to be dealt with. We must find some way to help Colin, and,” she turned to Jae, “we need to find some way to fix you.”
“Then there’s just Colby and Fazendiin and the Immortality Stone, and the rest of the Grosvenor,” chimed in Sebastien, with a sarcastic smile.
Meghan let out a frazzled sigh. “Yeah, and all of that.”
Isabella looked curiously at Jae. “What needs to be fixed about you?”
“I, um,” he gulped, his vocal chords suddenly not wanting to work right. “I let J-Juliska turn me into one of her Scratchers. She thinks I’m dead, but she will eventually find out I’m not and when she does...”
“She will force him back into her service,” finished Ivan. “We cannot allow that to happen. Jae made a mistake but, we have to find a way to fix it.”
Meghan turned to Isabella. “Amelia Cobb, before Colby killed her...” she was cut off.
“What?” said Isabella sharply.
Meghan caught herself, realizing she had not informed her mother of Colby’s actions. “Sorry. We hadn’t really gotten to explaining that yet.”
“He killed someone?” Isabella’s voice faltered as she spoke.
“Yes. He did. But I stand by what I said before,” insisted Meghan. “I still think he can be saved. And truth be told, if he hadn’t killed Amelia, someone else probably would have. She was out of control.”
“But someone else didn’t,” muttered Isabella. For the smallest of moments she held a look on her face that said all was lost. Hopeless. That all she had sacrificed to give Colby a fighting chance to be good, was all for nothing. That she had failed. She let out a deep sigh, wiping away her worry and cast a short grin.
“Don’t give up on him, Meghan. We cannot give up on him.”
“I don’t intend to,” Meghan told her. “Fazendiin’s claws are deep, but I really think there’s still hope. I can’t, won’t give up.”
Isabella nodded, clearing her throat. “You were saying something about Amelia,” she reminded in a soft voice.
“Right, um, she mentioned there might be a cure or a way to break the bond between Jae and Juliska,” said Meghan.
“There is,” Isabella repl
ied without hesitation.
Jae perked up eagerly, as did Sebastien, Ivan, Meghan and Nona.
“There is a way?” Ivan questioned, thrilled his mother might know the answer to at least one of their problems.
“The bond can be broken and you can be cured, Jae,” Isabella said.
“How?” Jae asked. “What do I need to do? I’ll do anything to fix what I’ve done.”
“Anything?” she asked him. “The magic used to create the Scratchers is some of the most powerful and dark magic in existence.”
He swallowed hard, having trouble finding his voice again.
“Yes. Anything,” he affirmed, though shakily. “No matter the cost, I have to. I don’t want to go back to her. I won’t hurt for her. I won’t kill for her. I may be a stupid idiot, but I’m not a killer... and I can’t live like this. I need to get rid of this thing inside me. It wants out, all the time... I’m afraid whether under her control or not, I will eventually hurt someone.”
She nodded, seeing his determination.
“There is only way one to break this type of magical bond. The creator of the magic must die.”
Jae nodded, unable to vocalize what he was thinking.
“We have to take her down anyway,” said Meghan, her voice higher than usual. The thought of actually killing someone, or even working towards actually killing someone, turned her stomach. Juliska was evil. There was no doubt about this fact. But shouldn’t she stand trial and be judged by all? Shouldn’t she be forced to face up to and pay for the crimes she committed?
“I know she’s evil,” Jae finally spoke somberly. “Juliska Blackwell frightens me more than anyone I’ve ever known. Before she did this thing to me, I would have done anything she had asked of me, even died for her if I thought it would be for the greater good. But now, even after what she’s done, the thought of her dying for some reason just makes me feel sick.”
“It is sick,” said Sebastien. “And sad. She has wasted her life filling it with hate. And we don’t even know why! She was a good person, once. Like Amelia, she wasn’t always crazy either. But I think Juliska is beyond saving.”
Control (Book Seven) (Fated Saga Fantasy Series) Page 1