The Ghost, The Dragon, and The Lost King (Fated Chronicles Book 4)

by Humphrey Quinn

  Joseph grabbed Irving’s glass of water, which normally had to be shoved down his throat, and helped Mireya get some into his mouth. He swallowed, with some difficulty. Then, like a burst of clarity came over him he knocked the glass away and grabbed hold of his daughter’s sweater.

  “Get away. If you get the chance to escape. You go. You do not try to save me, or your mother. You just go.”

  Mireya stared, eyes wide. He was aware, somewhere deep in that mind that was withering away. “I don’t think there is any escape.”

  “Just promise me. If a chance comes to you, take it, without looking back. Promise me!”

  He shook her a little.

  She whimpered, and could not say it aloud. But she nodded.

  “I’m sorry for what I’ve become.” Irving’s eyes started to flutter like whatever dark pit he was stuck in was trying to drag him back down.

  “Dad! Dad! Don’t go back there. Please.”

  “Mireya,” he breathed out. “I’m so proud of you. I never said it. Not to your brother, either. Tell him. Please, tell him.”

  She nodded. “I will.” It wasn’t really a promise she could keep, but she’d try. Most likely, it would be the last thing she said to her brother before he was ordered to kill her.

  “I… I…” he was getting lost in the darkness again. “Love.” His head drooped, his eyes glossing over again.

  Joseph picked Mireya up off the floor and they just stared for a minute. But he was lost to the depths again. Joseph’s parents were only a hint better at this point. More like Sheila, in the kitchen, aware, but not present. In a haze that would soon turn into the same darkness.

  Mireya stumbled her way up the stairs. Joseph made sure she did not fall. Once at the top they went into her room, but did not stop there. They continued up to the little cubby of a hole in the wall; the only place they felt safe.

  It wasn’t. Not really. But it was the best they had.

  Once inside they leaned back against the wall, and Mireya proceeded to lose it. Joseph knocked away a few tears, himself.

  “You were incredible today,” he told her. “I don’t know how you kept it together until now.”

  When they’d been paraded into that gathering and Juliska had shown them her prisoner, Jae Mochrie…

  Somehow, Mireya had kept it together like she had some kind of super power.

  But none of them had any choice. Giving into the emotion and the moment is what Juliska wanted. But it had been quite the shock to discover Jae was still alive. And clearly, just as much a prisoner as any of them. Even though he was also under Juliska’s control as one of those Scratchers.

  But they were in the safe room now. The only place they allowed any break for their minds.

  “There isn’t much hope, is there?” Mireya whimpered out after a few long minutes.

  “Never really was. But that doesn’t mean we stop trying. We can’t ever stop fighting. If we give in, she wins not only our magic, but our will, too. She can’t have that. We can’t let her have that.”

  Mireya agreed. But it was getting harder to see any point in trying to fight. What future were they fighting for?

  CHAPTER 34

  Meghan and company landed just outside the cave belonging to Isabella Crane. They wasted no time getting inside and as expected, this is where Colby had brought Aloyna. And strangely, she wasn’t surprised at seeing the two of them looking rather chummy. Not if what Meghan was beginning to piece together was true, which meant Aloyna and Isabella already knew each other in some fashion.

  After some awkward greetings all around, they got settled into seats, with Ivan pacing as usual; that hadn’t changed even with his new lease on life. It was getting late in the day, but Meghan didn’t care, and as hoped, Aloyna got right to topic.

  “You’ve come for answers.”

  “Yes. But I also have a few things to share first.” She explained to them, and Sebastien since he had not heard any of it, everything she’d just confided to Ivan. And when she was done, Meghan stared down her grandmother. “I have a feeling a lot of this does not surprise you.”

  “No. You’d be right about that.”

  “All of this explains so much,” Isabella added. “I thought I knew a lot, still so much I did not. But,” she tossed an apologetic look at her daughter.

  “You knew more than you told me, too?” Meghan guessed.

  “It’s so much more complicated than a simple yes, or no.”

  “Isn’t everything?” Meghan responded testily. “I’m willing to overlook all of that. But I want answers. I need to know everything you have not told me.”

  “No.”

  “What?” Ivan responded, shocked at the sharp, one-worded answer from Aloyna.

  “Yeah, what he said?” added Sebastien. “Meghan deserves to know. She needs to.”

  “Yes. She does,” agreed Aloyna. “And we are nearly at that moment when all will be revealed.”

  Meghan made a series of noises, none more coherent than a grunt. And then she gasped and grabbed her head.

  “What’s wrong?” everyone asked at once.

  She raised one hand motioning them to wait.

  A second later she let go, and stared at the doorway where a large silhouette materialized.

  “Colby.” Meghan wasn’t sure what to make of his presence here. But his mind had opened to hers when he’d announced his impending arrival (only to her, and in her head), and she’d been battered by conflict. It reminded her of ticking time bomb that had just started a countdown to doom. And then everything had flattened, like he’d pushed it deep, and buried the trigger.

  It wasn’t so unlike what she felt in Colin’s mind when he was trying to get his emotions in check, to keep his magic from going all haywire. At least the Magicante Colby was using seemed to be helping him. She was glad of that, because good, or evil, or anywhere in between, Colby was dangerous without the assistance. He hadn’t come by his powers naturally, and no one had any clue what that might end up doing to him.

  Elisha wound around his legs like she was pacing and eager to leave already.

  Nona plodded over to Meghan, hissing at the other Catawitch. The two of them becoming friends was about as likely as Colby and Meghan doing so.

  Isabella’s eyes became covered in gloss over the sight of her son. He only briefly gave her any recognition. Meghan got the sense it was too hard for him to look at her. A combination of guilt, and missing her. He gave Aloyna only a blink longer of his time. She smiled kindly at the grandson who’d freed her. But he came no closer and motioned for everyone to keep their distance.

  He was here to see one person.

  Meghan.

  He had something he wanted to tell her.

  “You could have just shared your thoughts. Why come?”

  He said nothing. But the answer was there in his features. He was trying to figure something out, needed to see her with his own eyes, in order to do this.

  “Colby, why are you here?”

  It hit her mind like a tidal wave. He showed her, everything.

  All the things his father had revealed to him these last days, weeks, months, and years. His plan to trick Amelia into returning magic and harvest it in order to create a larger, more powerful Stone. To make Colby, a King. The manner in which he planned to use herself as a magical conduit, that would more or less, destroy her, mentally and physically. Though not kill her. He showed her everything his father had ever taught him.

  Meghan thought this is what being jacked into a computer might feel like. Information overload. So much, getting shoved in all at once. When it stopped, she had to take a minute to catch her breath. She and Colby never broke eye contact the entire time.

  “I think I remember,” he put into her mind.

  “Remember what?” She kept the conversation private and between the two of them.

  “Us. Together. That’s not possible, is it? We were in the womb still. It’s not possible to remember that.”

  M
eghan certainly didn’t have any such memory.

  He let her see it, as he did.

  They were so tiny. Their foreheads against each other. Something happened to make her shudder, some spike of fear. And his little baby hands reached out to touch her, and she calmed.

  “I didn’t want you to be afraid. I don’t understand how that’s even possible.”

  For the first time in her life, Meghan saw Colby as her brother. Like their bond as twins had been broken, but was repairing itself. It didn’t finish, his mind broke apart from hers before that happened. The connection severed, the block on his thoughts, reaffirmed.

  “I wish you’d stay,” she whispered aloud, already knowing he would not. And hidden in between her words was the silent thank you, he’d never accept. Because he wasn’t pleased with himself for doing this. For needing to come here. And he didn’t fully understand the meaning of why, he’d had to.

  He and Elisha vanished without so much as a goodbye. Leaving everyone else staring at Meghan waiting for answers.

  She took her time. A snide comment fired off in her brain, not to tell anyone anything, to see how they like it. But that wasn’t her way.

  “What just happened?” Isabella questioned softly.

  “He showed me everything his father has ever shared with him, including some pretty disturbing plans.” She decided to leave off the part where this included her in any way. They’d only worry more.

  “That’s an unexpected win,” Sebastien noted, dumbfounded. “I think,” he added after seeing the spark of maybe, maybe not, in Meghan’s features.

  “Why did he do it?” asked Aloyna.

  She gets it, realized Meghan. The much more important question really. Why?

  Is Colby lost? Can he be saved?

  “He doesn’t fully understand why he did it,” she explained. “In this strange way he can’t quite comprehend, he loves me. I think he feels our bond as twins, and just doesn’t know what to do with that. Because it goes against everything his father wants, or himself, really. He cares about you,” she aimed at Aloyna. “You were his only friend in that house. And he misses you, Mom, even though he’d never admit it. But this thing he’s feeling, for me, is new to him. I hate to have false hope, but I do anyway.”

  “So what did he show you?” asked Ivan.

  “Pretty much all the sick things you’d expect. My father truly believes he is ten steps ahead of this game. That he’s going to win. He plans on letting magic return, just like Amelia Cobb wanted. He was the one to put the notion in her mind in the first place. And then he’s going to harvest that magic.” She left out the parts that included using her in his insane schemes so as not to worry them even more. “He replenished the Mazuruk, and spent the last day slaughtering them all.”

  “He’s building another Stone,” Aloyna put together. “All this time I spent his prisoner, I could never discover his plot. He plans on taking all that magic, and if he succeeds…”

  “He will never be stopped,” stated Sebastien.

  “I have a plan,” Meghan informed them, more certain than ever it would work. “It hit me. While Colby was showing me all of this. We are family. The same blood runs through our veins.” Meghan gazed intently at her mother, the Firemancer.

  “It was staring us in the face, all along.”

  “What?” asked Aloyna.

  “The blood spell.”

  “Like the one you used to surf through my memories, which led to freeing me,” realized Aloyna.

  “Yes. The same.”

  “You mean going back into the memories of your father?” Ivan put together.

  “We could potentially learn everything. Exactly what he’s been doing all these years. And what he’s got planned for the future.”

  “But didn’t Colby just tell you all we needed to know?” questioned Sebastien.

  “Yes, all he knew. He didn’t trust that his father told him everything. And, maybe if I can see how he’s been doing it all, I can see how to stop it. Maybe we can jump across the playing board and skip a bunch of turns and get ahead of him. It will work. I know it.”

  “Maybe it is too easy?” worried Isabella. She deferred to Aloyna. “Would he suspect such a thing? Does he know about this ability? For Firemancer’s to travel back through their bloodline’s history?”

  “We cannot assume one way or another. Not with my son. However, even with the knowledge of the gift, I do not see how he’d be able to stop it. Blood is blood. It’s the most powerful form of magic there is.”

  “What’s the worst that could happen?” Meghan asked. There were a few eye rolls and don’t say that, looks. “It doesn’t work, and we come up with a plan B,” she followed up. “And this is by far, the safest plan we can come up with. It’s a trip through memory lane. All I can do is try. And I want to try.” She peered at Ivan and Sebastien poignantly. She needed two anchors.

  They nodded without apprehension. They trusted her judgement.

  “You’re right,” Ivan conceded. “It is the safest option. And the information we could potentially glean might prove invaluable.”

  “Okay, then,” said Isabella. “I’ll get things ready.”

  It didn’t take long. Meghan’s nerves itched under her skin a little. Nona wasn’t helping any. She was not up for this plan one little bit because like last time, it meant being away from Meghan. Her mind would be traveling through a dream-like history, and she’d be stuck here in the present.

  “But you’ll be keeping watch,” reminded Meghan.

  “Yes. I still don’t like it when our minds lose each other.”

  “It won’t be for long.”

  “It took many long hours last time, and it was just a short period of history you were searching for.”

  “We won’t let too much time pass,” promised Ivan. “Assuming it’s possible to tell?” he aimed at Meghan.

  “Not really. But if we can’t find what we need, or it feels like it’s taking too long, we’ll come back out.”

  “We could always do sessions?” suggested Sebastien. “It is a crazy amount of years we need to surf through.”

  “That’s not a bad idea,” Isabella said.

  “We’ll see how it goes,” decided Meghan. “Okay, ready?” she asked Ivan and Sebastien. They responded by taking a seat, one of them on each of her sides. They had gotten seated comfortably since they’d be unconscious for quite some time while traveling through the blood history.

  Meghan did the obligatory blood sacrifice to bond her anchors to herself, and stared into the flame, and as before, streaks of fiery lines forged across her skin. She focused all her thoughts around her father, waiting for his silhouette to appear in the flame and tell her she’d connected with his history.

  But it didn’t happen. She focused and focused. Waiting. Waiting. Searching. But nothing.

  “Sorry, I must be more nervous than I thought.”

  “We could wait,” her mother suggested.

  “No. No. I can do this.”

  She breathed deeply, unwilling to give up. She let her mind wander deeper into the flame.

  Still nothing.

  And then, hideous laughter, which filled and echoed around the cave dwelling.

  “What is that?” Ivan asked.

  “I don’t know,” Meghan said. “We haven’t sunk into the visions yet.”

  The laugh got louder and Isabella gasped when a bolt of lightning sparked around the room. Ivan jumped to his feet, palm at the ready for an attack. But the strobe light and laughter made it impossible to focus.

  “Something’s wrong,” Meghan shouted. Something didn’t feel right. Like the spell was starting, but it was way different than the last time. Sebastien grabbed onto her, yelling something she did not hear.

  Aloyna was saying something to Isabella, who was groping through the light bombs. The laughter dissolved into an eerie echo: Fazendiin.

  “Naughty, naughty,” he taunted. “Daddy’s blood is off limits.”

  Me
ghan got to her knees but keeled over, a painful tug ripping at her insides as if she were being hurled through space. Sebastien gripped her, unwilling to let go. She looked up and caught his gaze, but they were not focused on her, but rather the light bombs throbbing around them, and the light merging, encasing the two of them.

  Ivan tried to get back to them but to no avail. He hit the light shield and bounced backwards. Nona tried as well, but the same outcome.

  “Meghan!” Ivan shouted, but there was no response.

  She and Sebastien were flickering in and out of view.

  “What’s happening? What is this?” He spun to see Aloyna and Isabella pass a knowing glance between each other. “You know. Both of you.” He marched over to them. “You expected this. When does it stop? When do the lies stop?”

  A bright light grew, Ivan saw it expanding out of Meghan’s locket. The light encased both she and Sebastien and then, BOOM. They were gone. The room plummeted into darkness.

  In a moment, light returned. And Ivan’s gaze hammered into his mother’s. The woman he’d only recently discovered was still alive.

  “What. The Hell. Is going on? No more secrets!” He’d hit his limit. And finally understood what Meghan must have felt like these last couple of years.

  “You’re right,” said Aloyna. “No more secrets. Sit. I’ll tell you everything.” She was far too calm considering what just happened.

  “All I want to know is where did my sister just go?”

  Nona purred out an angry hiss in agreement.

  “Exactly where she needed to.” Aloyna motioned for him to sit, wearing a compassionate smile. One Ivan was not ready to accept yet. And his mother, his own mother… why did he expect anything less? The woman had faked her own death and left him with his father, who’d died not long after.

  He took the offered seat, but would only listen with a skeptic heart, and mind.

  “What is happening here?”

  Aloyna cast a glance at Isabella, then to Nona, and back to Ivan.

  “Meghan is exactly where she’s supposed to be. I promise.”