Sacrifice (The Wayward King, The Projector's Mother, and A Prophecy Reborn) (A Fated Fantasy Quest Adventure Book 9)

by Rachel Humphrey - D'aigle

  “No, she won’t.” His hand lifted to his chest, sliding over his heart. “But once I kill my family, there will be nothing left, of me. I will be dead, in here. My body will continue on, carrying out her sick orders. But it won’t be me. Jae Mochrie will cease to exist. All that will remain is an empty vessel, forced into a life sentence. Juliska’s puppet. Nothing more.” He’d turn into whatever shell of a human his father had. That’s what his father had reminded him of, sitting out there, pushed around in a chair by Mireya. Like his soul had been sucked out of him. Jae expected that’s exactly what he’d turn into, too. A soulless monster.

  Katana strode right up to the cage, fixing her eyes on him.

  “Do you want out of this cage?”

  Jae said nothing. He wasn’t falling for her tricks.

  “I’m your only hope, brooder-man. And you don’t have much time.”

  He turned away from her and she did something he did not expect then. She walked right into his cage!

  “How did you do that?” Stripers could disappear and blend in with their backgrounds, but not walk through them.

  “I’m gifted. But you’re missing the point, Jae.” She got right up in his face. “Whether you want to accept it or not, Juliska will track down those people she’s looking for. Is your stubbornness and pride a good enough excuse for your father, mother, and sister, to lose their lives at your hands? Are you prepared to live out the rest of your life as a murderer of your own family?”

  Jae stared, eyes wide.

  Reality was rearing its brutally ugly head.

  “Why would you care? Your people are thieves. Hired guns to the highest bidder. And I don’t know where Colin or Catrina are. I could not tell you even if I wanted to.”

  “So give her what you do know.”

  He pushed right back into Katana’s face. “And what makes you think for a minute she won’t order me to kill my family just as soon as I tell her everything she wants. Or all I do know.” There was a hint of a snarl pushing out of his throat. The monster lurking dangerously close to the surface. “This isn’t a game. You can play nice, and pretend to be my friend. The one Striper out of all of them who cares. You can pretend to be whatever the hell you want. I’ve learned my lesson. I will never trust anyone else with my future. I only trust me. And there is no way I come out of this alive.”

  Even if Juliska made him kill his family, and kept him as a slave, he’d never live. He’d never be alive. He’d be a thing, a monster, living out someone else’s whims. Unless he killed Juliska. That was the only way to win his freedom. And if what he’d learned while imprisoned on her pavilion atop the fortress, was true, she was immortal. Fazendiin had given her immortality. Making his own prison sentence, permanent.

  “I’ll never give up my friends.” Jae backed away from her, as far back as his cage allowed. “I do not trust anyone. And least of all, will I ever trust you.”

  “Not even for your precious sister’s sake? I heard Juliska’s plans for you. She will have you kill your family. Your sister will be first, you know. Juliska will make you kill her, first, in front of your parents. And everyone else. So think about that, Jae Mochrie. Because it doesn’t need to happen. I’m not my father,” she made claim. “And I’ll be back once you’ve had a while to think about why you should trust me.” And with that, her body shimmered into the background, and she left his cage.

  Jae didn’t for a minute believe she’d gone. He remained vigilant in his stance. He wasn’t giving into these pricks. Not until Juliska forced him to do it.

  ##

  Joseph said his goodbye to Mireya and went into his house. Where he proceeded to exit straight through the back and crawl along some bushes under the cover of darkness until he reached Mireya’s back door. She quickly opened the door and he slipped inside.

  They waited, breathlessly, to make sure no one had noticed, just as they’d done so many times before. And just like usual, even though the day had been anything but usual, they crept into the house where Mireya’s mother, Sheila, stirred a cup a tea that had gone cold hours before. Her stare went off into nothing. And her father continued his post in his wheelchair, still unmoving or speaking.

  Even after the events of that morning.

  It was difficult to understand how they could just freeze up, and give up, and get lost to this craziness happening around them. Then again, all the adults were kept weakened by the Stripers, and Juliska, when she used the Stones to steal their magic. It was messing with their minds. They were reaching a dangerous level, it seemed, where some just might not be the same in the head any longer.

  Mireya gave her mother an obligatory hug and kiss goodnight, and headed to see her father, before her new routine of sneaking up the stairs with Joseph at her heels. She got down on her knees to better see his face. Nothing had changed. She thought for sure when she came home today, something would have changed. His son was alive! That had to change things.

  “Those Stones are destroying them,” Mireya whispered. “At first, it was losing Jae. But now…” Joseph lay a comforting hand on her shoulder. They were all running out of time. Mireya kissed her dad’s cheek and gave him a hug. She’d do just about anything to get him back.

  She got up, lamenting the day. It was all about to hit, hard. The events of the day. But not yet. She could not let it yet. She went to follow Joseph but stopped when there was a tug at her arm. She spun around.

  “Dad?” She leaned back down. He wasn’t fully there. He might never be again. But there was a spark, deep in his gaze. “Dad, it’s me, Mireya. Can you hear me? Can you understand me?”

  “So long… so long…” The first words her father had said in months came out airy and coarse.

  “Dad?” Mireya didn’t know what else to say.

  “It took me so long to get here. Dark hole. Far to climb.” He gazed at his daughter as if he recognized her, and yet, did not.

  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 in
credible 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 5

  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.”

  Meghan 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?”