Taken (The Blood Spell, The Fugitives, and The Firemancer's Son) (A Fated Fantasy Quest Adventure Book 6)

by Humphrey Quinn

  Everyone just stood and stared at the book as the pages flipped back and forth, finally stopping. A shimmering leaf lifted off the page, its edges glimmering in silver. It landed in Colby’s hand.

  “What is this?” he asked.

  “My offer to you. Seeing as you have not had any proper training and also that you are not wired for this power, I offer my services. I am curious to see just what you’re capable of.”

  Meghan cast a worried look at Ivan and Sebastien. Was this okay? Should they allow this to happen? The book answered their questions before they could voice them.

  “As it just so happens, I am an asset to any Projector. I am what keeps a Projector’s abilities from overpowering them, and I daresay you are in need of my help and in no position to turn it down.

  “No doubt, young Mr. Jacoby has already received this help; therefore, I am free to offer you mine. You see, I can give you all my expertise and knowledge, carry the burden of your streaming consciousness and help you learn control. You will need this! Otherwise, you will not be able to do this on your own. No Projector can!”

  This idea seemed wise. Keep Colby from losing it. On the other hand, giving him access to all the knowledge inside of the Magicante, and therefore giving it to Fazendiin as well, did not seem so wise. Equally, did they have a choice? It sounded like this second soul thing was something Colin had already done and something that needed to happen to Colby as well.

  “I’ll do it,” agreed Colby, before anyone could debate the issue.

  “Wonderful,” said Magicante, in a voice that if the book had had hands, it would be maniacally rubbing them together.

  “Are you sure about this?” Meghan asked Colby.

  “I don’t think I have a choice, Sis,” Colby replied. “It’s this or go crazy.”

  “He speaks the truth,” said Magicante. “He will not be in control without the help of Magicante. It is what I was created for.”

  “Okay,” said Ivan. “It sounds like there is no choice. How long does this take? We should probably not stick around here for too long in case there’s more of those Trackers out there.”

  “It takes but a moment,” said Magicante. “You must repeat the words on the leaf.”

  Colby read it aloud. “Become my second soul.”

  “Okay,” said Magicante.

  “That’s all I have to say?” asked Colby. “Seems like it should be a little longer or something.”

  “When I said okay, I meant you’re finished. No need to say it again, it’s done.”

  Everyone looked at each other.

  “Why is it that everyone always thinks there’s going to be thunder, lightning or some magical phenomena when this spell is performed,” said Magicante with its normal impatient banter.

  “So what now?” asked Meghan, ignoring the book. “Is he just okay now?”

  “Not exactly, but I’ve now bonded with his soul and can therefore assist and train. Now if you don’t mind, you must take me with you,” reminded the book as the leaf lifted off Colby’s hand and reattached itself to its page. Colby leaned down and picked it up, closing it. A wide grin spread across his face.

  “My father always wanted this book and now, I finally have it. Wasn’t my plan when I came here but it’ll definitely do.”

  “So what? You’re just going to crawl home to Daddy now?” droned Meghan.

  “Yes. Minus the crawling part. You could come with me,” he suggested charmingly.

  “Um. How about, no? Did nothing we discussed make any difference to you?”

  “I could ask you the same. I admit it. I’m a little mad at him, but so what! He’s still going to make me the ruler of the world,” he claimed like the deed was already done. “He’s my father. He’s given me a great gift. I won’t turn away from him now, or ever. You’re going to have to choose sides, Meghan. I’m in this for life. So are you, one way or another. Our, very, long, lives.”

  And there was that problem, but she’d worry about that another day. It wasn’t something he could use to cloud her judgement. Just because someone was blood didn’t automatically make them right. And just because someone was not, didn’t either. She really was stuck in an ugly gray area she wasn’t sure how to climb out of.

  Meghan folded her arms, sticking with defiant. “I will never choose your side and I will find a way to stop you... him. Both of you.”

  “How? You can’t stop us. My father made me the most powerful person in the entire world, even more powerful than your brother, or whatever he is. Colin’s got nothing on me. Especially now that I have this.” Elisha jumped up, sitting atop the Magicante, hissing at them.

  The book was now Colby’s possession.

  He waved tauntingly, casting an arrogant smile as he and Elisha dissolved into thin air leaving Meghan, Nona, Sebastien, and Ivan alone again.

  “I don’t know if we are better off or worse off than we were before all that just happened,” said Meghan. “I guess since I’m not still his prisoner and that he left me here with you, makes it slightly weighed to the positive side.”

  “What exactly happened, anyway?” asked Ivan. “You were gone for a week.”

  “A week! I had no idea how long it had been. It felt more like hours.” She took a few moments to explain, the best that she could, about how his thoughts worked and the memories they relived.

  “These last few days just feel like a terrible nightmare. But I don’t think Colby is a lost cause. He’s not all bad. He has done some very bad things,” she conceded.

  “Perhaps this experience will somehow prove a good thing,” hoped Sebastien. “The truth, as much as it sometimes sucks, has got to be better than the not knowing. Maybe the Magicante will help him? Maybe take him on a better path?”

  Meghan didn’t reply. She didn’t think any of them actually believed that. The Magicante seemed way too eager to see what exactly Colby was capable of.

  “So, what now? We are back where we started,” noted Meghan. She turned and looked into the distance and the cave entrance.

  “No time like the present,” said Ivan. “Why don’t you go ahead and we will wait here.” He tried not to sound annoyed by the fact that they would be waiting, again.

  Meghan agreed, but had taken no more than a few steps when she gasped, doubled over and fell to the ground. She felt a pull, coming from somewhere far away, yanking her to some place she didn’t want to go. Was it Colby? Was he not going to leave her behind after all?

  Nona saw and felt exactly what Meghan was experiencing and shouted, “Make a fire, I’m not leaving you this time!”

  Ivan and Sebastien acted quickly, taking hold of Nona, determined not to be left behind this time either.

  Meghan snapped her fingers and threw the fire onto the ground where dead brush burst into flame. Meghan shoved her hand into it and then fell to the ground, lying partly in the fire. Her eyes popped open and Nona cried out.

  They were white. Pure white.

  Meghan’s body dissolved, vanishing. She was gone. Again. Nona cried out her name but she did not answer. Nona hopped into the flame with Ivan and Sebastien in tow, blindly following to where ever Meghan was being taken.

  CHAPTER 15

  Freyne Rothrock watched from the shadows as his Trackers were easily destroyed by the boy, Colby. He watched everything unfolding as the book, called Magicante, answered his biggest question: to what extent were the boy’s powers? And the answer: he was a Projector! And not born that way! Fazendiin, that scheming excuse for a Grosvenor, had discovered a way to steal these powers and transfer them using the bones of a dead Projector. A secret Freyne was now aware of, and already scheming his own evil plans of how to use this to his own advantage.

  And a secret sister... this Meghan Jacoby.

  “How quaint,” Freyne murmured, watching them all disappear. He let out a disgusted grunt. “Fazendiin may think he’s already won, but he is far from it.”

  His trackers showed him what he really needed to know. How powerful
the boy truly was, and that he had a sister, and that there was another way to gain more power.

  “The only problem is, I need a dead Projector’s bones, and a living Projector, and the young one isn’t quite ripe yet.”

  His dark silhouette began to swirl into streams of black smoke and disappear into the darkness.

  ##

  Colby made the obligatory blood sacrifice and entered the gate to his father’s vast estate. He hastened to the front door. He stepped inside and abruptly halted.

  “Hello, Son.”

  Colby froze. “Hello, Father.”

  “I see you have survived and returned. I assume you have questions.” He took a patient stance, waiting for the expected onslaught.

  Colby felt something welling up inside him. Something he’d never experienced before. Anger and defiance against his father. He’d dampened it in front of Meghan a little. Heck, she was part of the reason it still lingered.

  “Why did you do this to me? Did you know I’d get help? Did you know what would happen to me? Did you know I would be okay?”

  “You’re angry.” His father only stated the point, not that he cared or believed Colby wouldn’t get over it.

  Elisha sent to her Master, “You were so confident earlier. And you’re so much stronger now.” Colby refused reply, keeping eye contact on his father. Searching for what? He wasn’t quite sure.

  “I know you want me to be strong, Father, but what if I hadn’t gotten help? I’d be out there destroying everything I came into contact with!”

  “I would not allow it to come to that.”

  “Okay. And why is it, you don’t trust others with magic? Why do you want to destroy it all? And why give me this power? I thought it was meant for you.”

  “Ah, the crux. People are a funny breed. Magical, or non-magical. Reckless. Stupid. And greedy. When they are given a little, they inevitably want more. They have proven time and time again that they cannot be trusted with power, or magic.”

  Colby thought about it. This was true. He had learned about many battles over magic and the desire for more of it. But some of that history belonged to his father, too. And wasn’t it exactly what his father was doing now? Searching for more power?

  “Someone has to be at the top,” continued his father, seeing Colby was not going to relent so easily this time. To be expected. He was a growing boy who needed to test his own strengths. “Someone has to take the lead. Make sure this problem is solved and does not return. It continues even today, this very moment. The magical community is at war, and over what? Magic, and the control of it. Magic needs to be stripped from them, for good. Problem solved.”

  “Except for us though?” questioned Colby, clarifying.

  “Son, I think you’re ready to see everything I have planned for us. He motioned for Colby to follow him into their secret, safe room. Once inside, Fazendiin waved his arms and the stained glass began to change, the colors shifting, forming into Fazendiin’s vision of their future.

  Colby saw the world, a world where the people no longer controlled any magic. He saw graves of the remaining Grosvenor, his father the lone victor. And himself on a throne by his father’s side.

  “This is why I gave you the power. If we are to rule, side by side, I must make you as invincible as I possibly can. I must give you the strength, both physically, and mentally, to rule. I also believed that you would return, unharmed, after you stormed out. Am I not correct that you solved your own problem?” He nodded toward the Magicante.

  “Yes, but...” he didn’t know what to say. “How can you be so confident in me? When I’m not in myself.”

  “This is how you learn, Colby. This is how you find that confidence. I wouldn’t be a good father if I just handed you, everything. You have to work for it. Earn it.”

  Colby gazed around the glass. Seeing himself sitting on a throne, ruling over the entire world didn’t seem like such a bad thing. And yet, it was kind of a huge amount of crazy to imagine himself like that.

  “I wasn’t alone,” Colby admitted.

  His father threw him a questioning look.

  “I found my sister.”

  A look of understanding spread across Fazendiin’s face.

  “And what did you think of her?”

  “I... she’s not terrible.”

  “Not terrible,” laughed Fazendiin darkly. “Well there’s a raving review if I ever heard one.”

  “I think I can win her over,” Colby added, believing that was what his father really wanted to hear. “She likes to argue a lot, and she really thinks she knows everything.”

  “It’s a trait that runs in the family,” said his father, raising his eyebrows.

  “I guess we are a bit alike, but even as stubborn as she is, I really do think I can win her over.”

  “Do try, Son. There’s more to my plan that just sitting on a throne. I want to start a new family. Restore our bloodline.”

  “You mean my mother will be returning?” And didn’t he sound a little too excited about that, but his father paid no mind.

  “No, that is not an option. Do you remember the Immortality Stone we spoke of before?” he added, bypassing the subject of his mother.

  “Yes, I remember it.”

  “Good. Now that you have the powers of a Projector, you can sense the Stone. Locate it for me.”

  “I thought we didn’t need it anymore, now that you made me a Projector.”

  “No, we no longer need it for that; however, I will be taking a new queen. I wish to give immortality to her, to reign alongside us as a mother to a new generation of our bloodline.”

  Colby couldn’t hold back the regret over the fact that his real mother would not be a part of his father’s plans. “Who is this new queen?” he asked daringly.

  “Later,” be blew it off. “For now, you must focus on finding the Stone. And about your sister... you must know that if you fail in your quest and she refuses to join our family, she will have to be killed.” Or used for another purpose, which was his true intention anyway since killing his daughter wasn’t actually an option anyway. But his point was clear. His father turned and departed the room leaving his son alone.

  “Killed... but she can’t be. Can she?”

  Something about that idea hit some invisible chord he never possessed before.

  Kill his sister? Sure, he’d only just met her and found out she even existed. But it was like somewhere deep inside, he’d always known she did. Like something had been missing and he just didn’t know it was missing, until he’d found it.

  Still… he stared at the stained glass mural, which showed him sitting on a throne.

  Power. Control. Freedom... would it really be freedom, he had? Once he and his father became kings. As much evil as he had seen already in his life, was his father’s plans worth all the suffering that was sure to come with them? Did he really want to rule the world? Did he have a choice? Could he possibly turn his back on his father?

  And Meghan. If he didn’t succeed in bringing her to their side, was her sacrifice worth sitting on a throne? There was something about her that was infuriating and tiresome, but at the same time, completely perfect. Like she was someone who understood how his mind worked, almost better than himself. Like he’d never have to explain himself, she’d just understand him. He’d never experienced that before.

  Not that he’d ever tell her any of this. Or his father.

  “And like you’d abandon your father and join her side?” meowed Elisha hotly. “Your sister and her pathetic band of do-gooders? You disobey your father, and you might as well kiss your life goodbye.”

  She had a point. His sister and her friends had no true power. Yes, Meghan was strong, probably stronger than she yet realized, but definitely not on the winning side.

  Was being on the winning side all that mattered in the end?

  What did he stand for? How would he rule as a king? Would everything be only as his father wanted? Would destroying all magic except for th
eir own really solve the world’s problems?

  The book strummed through his thoughts, catching them before they could overwhelm him. He was grateful for this. Meghan had been right about that, her friends had not turned him away, they had helped him. Not that they’d had any choice in the end. It was that or let his new powers go berserk on everyone.

  “You must give yourself more credit,” urged Elisha.

  “Yes,” agreed the Magicante, speaking up. “You did not ask for this power, but you have it now.”

  “Yeah. I do. I do,” Colby repeated. “I do have it, so why not use it?” He turned in a circle, eager to see what he was capable of. “If my father wants the Immortality Stone, I’ll find it for him,” he decided.

  Elisha meowed in elation of her Master’s decision.

  “Magicante, help me track it!” Colby said presumptuously.

  “Very good, young Master,” replied the Magicante. “Very good indeed.”

  CHAPTER 16

  “We are out of food and water,” informed Billie Sadorus. Everyone already knew this as they had eaten the last of it that morning, for breakfast, but it needed to be said aloud. They had scrimped everything, making it last days beyond its original intent, but it had at last, run out.

  “If we use magic to get more, we’ll be caught for sure,” said Noah Flummer.

  The group had successfully used magic to bring themselves food right after their daring escape, before their magic could be traced, but had not dared since seeing as using it now would leave a trail of traceable magic, leading their captors directly to them.

  “Never mind that it seems near impossible to collect any magic to use, anyway,” pointed out Maura.

  “It’s got to be Juliska,” said Billie. “She must be using the same weapon the Striper’s used against your group, Maura, when they drained your magic and left you,” she stopped. Maura patted her shoulder.

  “It was not a pleasant experience,” she said. “I don’t know what this weapon is, I don’t know how they got it, made it, or found it, but it’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I have no doubt she’s somehow using it now. We don’t have long before we won’t be able to make any magic at all.”