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

by Humphrey Quinn

  Meghan gasped and clutched her chest.

  Jasper and Aloyna spun to make sure she was okay.

  Sebastien grabbed hold of her. This was it. Meghan knew it. She’d done what she’d come to do, the rest was now up to them. And her, once she got back home. To make sure all of this sacrifice was worth it.

  “We won’t let you down,” Jasper promised solemnly. “We’ll be ready.”

  She wanted to yell out to him about the day he died. To try to do something that would stop it from happening. But it was too late. The silvery light entombed her and Sebastien again. She hoped, to bring them home to their time.

  CHAPTER 45

  Meghan and Sebastien hung on for dear life as they were hurled through time once again.

  She heard gasps and voices and they opened their eyes to see Aloyna and Isabella, Ivan and Nona, rushing them.

  They were back. They were really back. And at first glance, everything was as it should be.

  Meghan got herself stable and standing, and proceeded to connect her gaze with her grandmother, who was looking for confirmation that the final piece of the puzzle had fallen into place.

  Ivan made to get up and demand to know what happened, but the stare going down between Aloyna and Meghan was hard. Unbreakable. Speaking a hundred different silent topics. Reading the acceptance all the years had brought with it.

  She approached her grandmother, one short step at a time.

  “Now, at last, you understand,” was all Aloyna said. Albeit, sympathy was thick in her words.

  Meghan nodded. She slid her gaze to her mother.

  “My brave daughter. I’m sorry, I didn’t come clean about everything.”

  Meghan held up her hand, stopping her.

  “You couldn’t, because this hadn’t happened yet. If you’d told me you always knew I was alive, my father would know this too. And he needed to believe the lie. That he was the only one who knew I was alive. He could never find out about what I just did.”

  “From here on out, Meghan,” Isabella began, “we are walking on new ground. No one knows the outcome.”

  “But because of your bravery,” Aloyna added, “we have had many long years to prepare for this moment.”

  “Are we ready?” Meghan asked them both.

  Another figure materialized into the room.

  Meghan and Sebastien gasped at the sight.

  “How?” she cried out.

  Jasper Thorndike joined Aloyna’s side. They cast each other a loving gaze, they were together again, at last. He gazed respectfully, and yet sadly, at the two young people just returned.

  “Robert.”

  His one-word answer held so much emotion. Meghan had told Robert what happened, but still…

  “My friend never told me about my death. The one secret he kept all his life. Robert did live. You never saw him in any of your visions, or in the present, because he was in hiding. With me. Up until a short time ago he’d been helping me prepare for this battle. And then a few years ago I met Colin at the Blue Moon Festival. Just like I was meant to. And I saved him and Catrina, just as I was meant to. And began his training.”

  Jasper took a minute to let the emotion cool itself down.

  “The day I was supposed to die, Robert contacted me. Claimed it was urgent. I went. It was early, before Colin or Catrina were awake. Robert tricked me. Hard to do, seeing as I’m a Projector and all, but he did have a few hundred years to prepare for it. He knocked me out good and cold. Took my place on that boat. Used himself as a decoy. Took on my appearance. And they’d never question that it wasn’t me since he was also a Projector, and that’s what they were after.”

  Meghan dropped her head, overwhelmed.

  “He thought you needed me, more than him. Robert was, in some ways, always looking for a way out. Definitely not afraid to find one.”

  “Perhaps,” thought Meghan. “But I think it was you, and Aloyna. He loved you both. He was broken when I told him you didn’t make it, and you never got to see her again.”

  Jasper handed her an envelope. “He left you this.” Meghan took it. She’d read it later. But she paid the mind-reading teddy bear a silent moment of respect. She’d known him such a short time. It was strange how sometimes someone could enter your life for such a short period, and yet change you in some major way.

  There was a massive sense of relief that Jasper was here. Maybe there was hope for Colin yet. She’d give almost anything for her vision of him not to come true. She did not want to kill her brother.

  “I’ve been tracking Colin,” Jasper revealed. Her eyes widened. “In secret. Until this moment had passed, and I could come out of hiding again. He’s being hunted. I, um, intervened on an attack by Tanzea Chase not too long ago. But he’s okay. Catrina too.” The worry in his tone was noticeable, however. He wasn’t completely certain, either.

  Meghan nodded. “Thank you. Thank you both. All of you. For agreeing to my harebrained idea of a prophecy. And seeing it through.”

  There was another moment of silence in respect for reaching this moment.

  “So…” she wasn’t sure where to start. “What have you and Robert been up to all these years?”

  “We have not been idle. We’ve been preparing for the war. Starting with,” he held up a vial, “what we hope is an antidote to the Mazuruk Stones’ power.”

  “Seriously?” Sebastien blew out.

  “We hope so. It needs one final ingredient.” He eyed Meghan. “A bit of your blood. You’re immune. We hope adding your blood to the mix will make others immune as well.”

  “Take what you need.” She offered a vein, freely.

  “There’s more,” Jasper warned, a grin widening.

  They waited. Breathlessly.

  “I know how to destroy the Immortality Stone.”

  “What?” came out of everyone.

  “A well-kept secret I’m not even sure Fazendiin is aware of, that took me many long years to figure out.” He eyed Meghan. “It’s you.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Do you recall that part about fire, purifying the Stones?”

  “Yes. But it’s a really, big stone. You couldn’t even destroy it.”

  “No. And that’s saying something. There’s few things I cannot do if I really put my mind to it. However, destroying that Stone would have destroyed me, and most likely, a lot of other things too. It would have brought out a serious amount of uncontrolled magic. Fazendiin is a precocious and bloodthirsty opponent. However, in leaving the Stone in my possession for such a long, in his mind, me on Stone-sitter duty, Robert and I were able to do a lot of experimenting.”

  “Okay. And what about the me, part?”

  Her mother came forward then. Jasper had already explained this to them. “Why do you think it had to be a Firemancer who was your mother? It wasn’t just about the visions Jasper had to show me.”

  Meghan thought on that for a minute. Her breaths a little ragged as it all came together. “My fire can purify the Immortality Stone? Is that what you are saying?”

  Is it possible the answer was so obvious, all along?

  “Yes,” Isabella answered. “And only your fire. Because the Stone is a part of you. And you, of it. It was also vital that one of the Grosvenor be your father. We assumed Fazendiin would do as expected, and bring you into the world, himself. And because he did, you are also Vetala. Vampyre.”

  Aloyna took over. “It’s a power that is only beginning to rise inside you. You’re young yet. But I can teach you how to access it and use it, now. Because you will literally suck the power out of Stone, just as the Vetala did, to make themselves immortal. Then it will burn up in your veins.”

  “Um, hold on a second,” Sebastian stopped them all. “What happens to her after she does this?”

  Nona was desperate to find out as well.

  “Nothing,” Meghan answered, surprisingly, on her own behalf. “The fire will burn it all up. Right?” she aimed at the others.

&nb
sp; “That is our belief,” Jasper confirmed. “There’s no reason to think otherwise. It is still dangerous, and potentially life threatening in many other ways.”

  “Because we’ll be fighting Fazendiin to even get our hands on the Stone.” This time, it was Ivan joining in. He’d been told all of what was going on, but still struggled to believe it all.

  “We are working on theory,” Jasper offered. “But ones I’d wager my own life on.”

  “Wait a minute, so, if we are able to get to the Stone, and I can do my little circus act, and burn down the house, so to speak, it will leave the Stone, useless, and me… no longer immortal? Just a Firemancer?”

  “That’s the theory,” Jasper explained.

  “Wow. Um. Okay. I can work with that.” Her eyes narrowed. “That means, Colin and Colby would no longer be either, right?”

  “We believe so.”

  “What about my father?” she asked.

  “That’s the one thing we are not totally sure of. He’d lose his immortality, no doubt, but something tells me he might be prepared for that outcome. Which is why we also have a Plan B.”

  Jasper’s eyes twinkled.

  Just what did he have up his sleeve now?

  Meghan’s mind was racing a thousand miles a minute.

  “Not all of Babiin Balick’s followers perished during the Stone War. We have an army, ready, and trained to fight. But our greatest weapon stands before me now.”

  All eyes landed on Meghan.

  And for the first time in her life, she agreed. She was the greatest weapon in this battle. And she was ready to fight. And win. She was not going to allow her father to return magic to the world and create this even more powerful Stone. She was going to destroy the original Immortality Stone. And she was going to save Colin, and if possible, Colby.

  For the first time in her life, she knew exactly what she was going to do. And it was her choice to do it.

  CHAPTER 46

  Everything had turned instantly into a bittersweet chaos.

  The very people they’d been dying to save had shown up on their doorstep.

  Battered. Beaten. Broken. Some, barely shells of people still living.

  While the banished and the Tunkapog did their best to wade through and assist those in need of the most care, a girl was running through the crowd shouting something. She had a young man with her.

  Arnon Jacoby heard his name being shouted and watched the girl spinning and hollering and searching.

  “Young lady,” he called out. He motioned her over.

  “I’m looking for someone named, Arnon Jacoby. Or Kanda Macawi. Or Billie Sadorus. Please, it’s urgent.” The young man with her nodded in his agreement.

  “I’m Arnon Jacoby.” He hollered to someone nearby. The woman came over. “Kanda Macawi,” he introduced. She smiled kindly at the young woman.

  “My name is Mireya Mochrie. This is Joseph. I have a message for you from my brother, Jae.”

  “He’s not with you, then?” Arnon confirmed. That was a shame.

  “No. He sent me with a warning. You’re not safe here. None of us are safe here. We need to move. Fast.”

  And didn’t that take the wind out of their sails. They’d already had this conversation after Colby had shown up and found them. They’d added extra protections, but it wasn’t enough.

  “I’ll go find everyone,” Kanda informed Arnon. “Stay, help. I’ll return soon.”

  Arnon nodded and peered down at the young woman. He gave her a kind smile. She had old eyes. Had seen a lot, he imagined. How sad that the young would suffer the most.

  “Where is your brother, Mireya?”

  She didn’t have the heart to answer. Joseph did on her behalf.

  “Still on the island we think. Mireya said someone named Colby did all of this.” He motioned around him.

  “Colby? Really?” He could not help but let his shock show. Perhaps the kid was not lost after all. “I’m sorry about your brother, Mireya. We will do everything we can to save him.”

  The poor girl didn’t hold onto much hope. She excused herself to go find her parents, and she and the young man took off to search. He turned around only to freeze as even more bodies appeared out of nowhere.

  “Meghan.” He breathed out a massive sigh at the sight of her, amongst quite a crowd of her own. She smiled in return, then frowned, seeing all the chaos. Arnon went over to her and they hugged in greeting.

  “You’re back.”

  “And you are relieved,” she guessed.

  “More than you can even imagine. It looks as though we are about to pack up and find a new place to park the encampment.”

  “What is going on?” Ivan asked. He was seeing faces he recognized, and it hit him. “The Svoda. They are here. How?”

  Arnon quickly explained what had happened. And saw the immense relief in the news that Colby had done this. And disappointment that Jae was not among the new arrivals, however.

  Arnon smiled at some of the others, his gaze pausing on a woman whose face he recognized. One he had not seen since, well, since she had died!

  “Isabella Crane?”

  “Hello, Arnon. It’s been an age.”

  “I confess myself so very much confused.”

  “Oh, right, um, introductions,” said Meghan. “Uncle Arnon, this is my mother.”

  “Isabella Crane is your mother. Right. Okay. I’m with you.” Although he could not have sounded more stunned at seeing the woman believed dead, alive. Meghan introduced him to Aloyna, and Jasper.

  Sebastien tossed her a quick goodbye, and a, he’d be back soon. He needed to find his parents in all the chaos. Ivan was trying to remain calm but she could tell he was dying to locate Maria.

  Meghan shot him a, go already gesture, and he fled like there was no tomorrow. Somehow, amongst all this chaos, good things were happening.

  Many scary things still lay ahead.

  But that was tomorrow. In this moment, things were looking up.

  “So, Uncle Arnon. I can see there’s a lot going on, but as soon as the encampment is moved, I need to call a meeting. I have a lot to talk about.” And for the first time ever, she was looking forward to it.

  Arnon saw the confidence in her stature and he had a fleeting thought that maybe, just maybe, everything was going to turn out okay. They might even win. And yet it made him sort of sad to see her all grown up like this.

  Meghan stepped away for a minute to escape the chaos. She leaned back against a tree and took it all in for a moment. Colby had saved them. A shock, and yet not. At least not after what he’d shown her, and the conflict she’d seen. She wondered where he was now and attempted to reach out to his mind, but there was no answer. So that had not changed. But she’d not rush him.

  She pulled out the letter Robert Motley had written her.

  She couldn’t even fathom what it might say, and it took a minute to find the courage to rip open the envelope and read the letter.

  She unfolded it and fell into a laugh.

  “You kissed that fool yet?”

  No greeting, or, hope you’re well.

  “I wanted to pass along a little advice. I’m pretty good at it, seeing as I can read people’s minds. Don’t worry about the future. In the end, whatever happens will happen. Live for today. Always, for today. Don’t turn away love if it’s offered freely, and willingly. I saw the fear in your mind. The hurt, in your heart. I can guarantee you a thousand lifetimes over, that boy is the one thing you can count on never to do that again. Whatever he did in the past, let it go. Your path is a dangerous one. You’re going to need him. And my best advice: don’t be afraid to need people. And damn it, just go kiss the boy already and put him out of his misery.”

  Meghan shook her head.

  “I wish you all the best, Red. I hope you like my gift.”

  Jasper… he was one heck of a gift!

  She fought back the tears wanting to surface. She’d not let them. Not today.

  Robert hadn�
��t even bothered to sign his name.

  These things he said were conclusions she was starting to draw for herself, but he’d hit it on the head. She’d always been afraid of needing people. She’d started to let Ivan in. And he’d started to do the same. She’d broken down a few walls, for Sebastien. But it was time to let them all fall. She caught a glimpse of him. He’d found his parents and they were elated to see him. They were heading out into the chaos to help the others.

  Sebastien caught her gaze lingering on him, and he smiled.

  Letting all the walls down was not going to be easy, but that smile knocked a few more down right then. She wished Colin was here. Colby even. It would almost seem more complete in a way.

  She had no idea where Colin was right now, other than in hiding. She could try to reach out to him, but in the end, he was where he needed to be. For now. And he had Jasper, thanks to a crazy, mind-reading teddy bear she’d met only briefly hundreds of years ago.

  Robert Motley was right. These were all future problems and she needed to live for today. She rejoined her mother, Jasper, and Aloyna, who set into assisting the Svoda who were in bad shape. They called for an official evacuation a few minutes later. It wasn’t going to be an easy move. There were a lot of people and many of them not well.

  Nashua and Kanda were having a heated discussion. She headed over to listen in.

  “We’ve never done such a thing before,” Nashua was saying. “It’s taking one hell of a chance, Sister.”

  “What choice do we have, Brother?”

  “And if Fazendiin finds us, and we lose our home? What then?”

  “We find a new one. It’s not the end of the world. But it’s the safest place for everyone. Many of these people need help, and time to recover.”

  Nashua sagged. She was right, and he needed to accept it. He spun around to a few of his guard standing close by. “Get to the river and prepare the boats. We’re taking everyone to our lands.” He saw Meghan, and hardened his stare again.

  Kanda just rolled her eyes and greeted Meghan.

  “Welcome back.” She didn’t bother to question her, and took off to assist in the movement of all the people.