Stripers… Fazendiin's army.
The borders had been breached and war would follow.
A young woman's voice shouted out and everyone parted to make a path for her to get through. Mireya Mochrie froze as she got closer.
"Jae?" He was covered in so much blood. "It's my brother." She reached him and fell to her knees in an instant panic that he was dead.
"I'll be damned. He made it." It was Curtis Bevins, Jae's old cellmate from when they were imprisoned by Amelia Cobb. Curtis had also served as interim leader of the Banished after her demise. He was down on a knee examining Jae's injuries and using magic to stem more blood loss. His gaze met Mireya's. "He's lost a lot of blood, and he's taken one hell of a beating, but his hearts still beating."
She nodded in grim optimism as they prepared to move him to the medical tent.
"Elisha?" another voice called out. It was Catrina who recognized her. Elisha, relieved to see a familiar face, explained what had happened as they gently moved Jae. They were just at the medical tent when they met up with Kanda, Arnon, and Nashua. Kanda followed inside and assisted with Jae's care, while Arnon left to seek out Jae's parents so Mireya could stay with her brother. Sadly, he didn't have to look far as they were also patients, and unfortunately, unable to understand that their son had been found. Or was seriously injured.
Curtis remained outside to speak with Nashua.
"Is it true?" he got right down to business.
"Afraid so. Exactly what we feared. They found a way in."
Nashua deflated in grisly acceptance of what Curtis said, and a moment later called an emergency meeting. It wasn't long after, that Kanda located Arnon and Curtis to let them know Jae was out of immediate danger and stable, although still unconscious. They made their way to a crowd of hundreds, gathered to listen to Nashua. They slipped through until within distance to see the Tunkapog leader and came across Milo and Kay Jendaya. They passed a tense greeting as Nashua began to speak.
"Our borders have been breached," he informed them all. "Our lands are no longer safe." He passed an understanding stare to his sister and hardened himself in determined acceptance. "There is no more time for debate. Or planning. We must work together, or we will all die together." There was a rush of reserved agreement from the crowd. "Get ready," Nashua warned in stoic acceptance. "Fate is coming for us all."
CHAPTER 11
Ivan and Sebastien stormed through the dusty remnants of the magical bomb. They needed to find Meghan and figure out how to get off the island. The Stripers started their attack again, blocking their path to the front gate of the estate. And even more worrisome, they still didn't see Meghan.
Nona appeared out of nowhere a few feet away, riding the flames still burning from the battle.
"Come with me!" She bit her tongue at what she was about to say next, because it was a blatant, but necessary, lie. "Meghan's out. She sent me back for you."
The young men didn't hesitate. They let Nona rescue them off the island, only to arrive back on Tunkapog lands to the sounds of chaos and orders being shouted in all directions. It only took a moment to understand they were preparing for an attack.
"Where's Meghan?" Sebastien asked Nona.
"I'm—I'm not sure." She made to saunter away.
"Probably with Colby and Jae," Ivan guessed. "Let's find out—" he stopped himself and cocked his brow. "Nona?" The Catawitch had been trying to sneak off, but stopped with a guilty twitch at her mouth. "Since when do you not know where Meghan is?"
She meowed something under her breath, shouted, "Sorry," and darted between people scurrying about in attempt to get away.
"Nona!" The fury in Sebastien's voice stopped her in her tracks. She dropped her head in obvious guilt, and dismay. "Where is Meghan?" he demanded to know.
"You already know," Nona replied in a meowy whimper.
"Take us back to the island," ordered Ivan. "Right now."
"It's too late."
Sebastien scrubbed a hand across his face trying to keep the anger from coming out in a way he could not take back. Ivan was right there with him.
"Nona—" he started, but she cut him off.
"She has a plan. We have to trust her."
Ivan let out a dark laugh. "It's not about not trusting her!"
"Then drop it and go be useful somewhere else!" The Catawitch defended. The young men looked aghast at her chastisement. "She is doing what she must. And if I can leave her side, to let her, so can you."
Ivan and Sebastien glanced at each other in partial surrender.
"You're not wrong, Nona." Sebastien shifted uncomfortably. "And like Ivan said, it's not about not trusting her. And you understand as much as we do, how hard it is to let someone you love go off on a mission like this."
"It's that she's off trying to handle it alone," Ivan finished. "We know the risks but we would have helped her anyway."
"Perhaps she realized your efforts were best spent here, protecting the other people she, and you, both love. And did you stop to think that maybe, just maybe, she is not alone…" Nona trotted off to let that idea sink in. And before she accidentally gave away too much of the plan.
Sebastien and Ivan almost had to check their faces to make sure they hadn't been smacked by the stupid patrol. It didn't make sense to them yet, but like they kept being told, they were just going to have to trust Meghan and let it all play out.
In the meantime, there was a battle to get ready to fight.
A familiar voice meowed out at them not three seconds later. "I've been looking all over for you!" The strain in Elisha's voice had them even more rattled—if that was possible.
"Where's Jae and Colby?" Sebastien questioned. Perhaps Colby might have some insight on Meghan's exact whereabouts, or plan, if his mind connection to her was open and she was responding. He had to stop himself, and from the looks of it, Ivan had been thinking the same thing. They had to let Meghan do what she needed. Without their interference.
"Jae is clinging to life—they're trying to save him as we speak. And Colby—" she choked out her words. "It all went wrong. We made it here. They should have been okay but… everything went wrong."
"What do you mean? Where's Colby?" Ivan jammed out.
"A Striper was hiding. The one called Ardon. She found the portal to get here. She threatened to kill Jae and took Colby. I couldn't stop it and now the borders are breached and…" there was no need to say more. All hell had broken loose and war was about to break out. They'd rushed in to save Colby and Jae, and not for nothing, because they'd gotten Jae. But Meghan and Colby were both with their father, and he'd not hesitate to use them against each other. So far, this plan was the worst thing ever.
"I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that this was not part of Meghan's plan." Sebastien didn't know what to think or do now. He was trying like hell to keep himself from interfering, but this mess up might have already done so.
"We have to stay here," decided Ivan.
Elisha wasn't sure what to do. She had no way to get inside the estate without Colby. And her mind was shaken with the panic he was poorly keeping at bay. She didn’t speak to him for fear it would just break her. Or him.
"There must be something we can do," she meowed desperately.
"It's not like we can just storm the estate," Ivan said. "Well, technically, I guess we can since we both got the Stone inoculation."
"What is this?" Elisha asked. "I overheard one of the doctors treating Jae speak of it. They were giving it to him when I left to find you."
"It's a magical inoculation that blocks the power of the Mazuruk Stones," Ivan explained to her. "Once you've taken it, the Stones will have no effect on you. No one can steal your magic. Plus, Meghan's blood was used to make the potion, and her blood—"
"Gives access to the estate," rushed out Elisha.
"It still doesn't mean we can storm the estate," Sebastien dredged gloomily. "Two people and a Catawitch against an army of immortal Stripers…"
&nbs
p; They were right, but Elisha was not about to give up. Now that she had a way in, she'd find another way.
CHAPTER 12
Colby had yet to utter a word. Neither had his father. But it took no words to see, or feel, the disappointed aura that shrouded Jurekai Fazendiin as he stared down his useless excuse for a son.
How was it his own bloodline managed to be such a disappointment?
He blamed their mother. This was her weak bloodline, not his.
Colby had returned in the full knowledge that once he stepped foot inside, he'd probably never set foot outside, again. His father didn't do forgiveness, or patience. He'd fake those things if it served his purpose to do so, but he'd never mean it. And Colby had no free passes left. His father had wordlessly disowned him.
All of this was acceptable, as long as Jae was okay. Nothing else mattered.
Colby lifted his head in attempt to appear brave. A bravado that faltered too quickly upon seeing the loathing in his father's features. But if this was his last chance to ask, there was only one honest answer he wanted from his father. One truth he needed to hear. The thing that Juliska had hinted at—the thing he needed to hear his father speak of, to see the truth as it was spoken.
"What was the real reason you picked me?" Colby pushed down the fear that he might not answer him. He'd barely found the strength to ask.
"You know why. I didn't raise an idiot. Only a coward."
Colby had his suspicions, but he still wanted to hear his father say it.
"Is it—" he pushed out his doubt. No need to prove his father correct by being a total coward. "Is it because of Jae? Because of—what I am?" He berated his own inability to just say what he meant. But then he thought of Jae and what he'd do if he were here. He'd tell him to have no regrets and be himself. "Did you pick me because I'm gay?"
Fazendiin's stone cold façade didn't phase one bit.
"Yes."
One simply worded answer that changed everything. And nothing.
"I don't understand why that matters. Mattered," Colby corrected. Because it didn't matter anymore, not enough anyway. Whatever believed benefit there had been no longer held the same value.
Fazendiin sighed in impatience.
"If I'd chosen your sister instead, what one thing would she have in her future that you would not? Well, there are ways, but I never saw it in your future."
Colby swallowed the sickening reality. "Meghan would have wanted children. And me being with Jae…" Yeah, it made sense now. It would have been far less likely that he'd ever have a child. It wasn't something he could ever fathom wanting. Not now. Not if he was anything like his father. That wasn't a cycle he wanted to continue. "It was just another way you were trying to control the future. No more immortal offspring. They would have been like me, or my sister. We would have outnumbered you. Overpowered you." It all made perfect sense now.
"You wanted the truth. There it is. Why else, on all that's magic, would I have recruited someone as substandard as Jae Mochrie?" Colby's head shot up. What had his father just said? "I told Juliska to bring him into the fold—for you. I didn't want you to be unhappy, however hard that is for you to believe."
Colby couldn't catch his breath. He was falling right back down to zero. It was all his fault. He was the reason Jae's life had been ruined. The reason he'd been cursed. It wasn't anything Jae had done… He had been tricked, but so much more so than he ever realized.
Juliska was right. Jurekai Fazendiin would never hesitate to use any situation to his advantage. He'd never hesitate to use loved ones against loved ones. He'd used Jae before Colby had even known him.
"You destroyed Jae's life… for me?"
"I didn't destroy anything. I gave him a great gift. One he was severely underqualified for. I did it for you."
"It's not a gift I ever asked for." Colby had to hold back the bile from spilling out of his gut. "I only ever wanted your approval."
His father scowled, because, like that would ever happen.
"Jae made it easy for me," his father said instead. "He had that little incident where he got left behind. It made the planting of that little seed too easy—that need for more, that burns like a fire that can't be put out, or a thirst that is never quenched."
"Something I'm sure you know better than anyone," Colby retorted bitterly.
His father offered a thin smile in reply. "Jae surprised me in the end, not so easy to do. There was a time when he wanted all I had to offer."
Colby held his tongue because his father was just trying to goad him. And this wasn't anything he didn't already know. Jae had already admitted this. It was pretty much the moment Colby had fallen for the guy.
His father's abhorrent admission cut the cord Colby was still clinging to, in that there had to be some part of his father that loved him. However small.
He didn't.
And he never would.
Colby finally moved from thinking it, and knowing it, to believing it deep inside his soul. And it cut that cord and let him move from still clinging to that hope, to accepting fully that it would never be. And allowed him to put the people he did love, in the forefront of all that was important to him. He hadn't been sure he could go up against his father before. But now, he was ready and willing. And understood the necessity of doing so.
Fazendiin shook his head in disappointment. "I thought I'd done enough. I thought I'd changed him. Made Jae perfect for you. Your happiness was important to me."
Was… Colby scowled at the audacity.
"That's bull. My happiness is never what mattered. Only my cooperation. Only knowing my place. Jae was a means to an end. That's all anything ever is with you. That's all I am to you. All I will ever be to you."
"You could have been a king. I was going to give you the world."
"I don't want your world."
"I know. You want—love." He spoke the word as if it were poison. "Which is why I've had to change my plans." Four Stripers strode into the room, two grabbed Colby, each on one side of him, the other two in front and back to make sure he didn't get away. Colby didn’t put up a fight. He wasn't an idiot—one true statement his father got right.
Colby understood where his father was taking him—what his new position was to be. He would take his sister's place. His father was going to use him to create his new Power Stone, not her. But if this was going to go down as he suspected, it meant his sister was probably on her way to fight their father.
"Meghan…" he reached out to her through their mind connection. One thing his father had never discovered.
"Colby! You're okay!"
"I guess you could say that. But not for long. Our father is moving his plans forward as we speak. He's going to make his new Power Stone."
"What? How? He doesn't have either of us."
"Um… actually… long story, but I got caught."
No reply except for panic and curses.
Meghan didn’t want to give away too much or her plan might dissolve before she had the chance to see it through.
"I'm coming for you," she told him. "I won't let him use you. I promise."
Taking a cue from Jae's handbook, Colby replied back, "Don't promise. You might not be able to keep it. But it's enough to know you mean to try."
"I will die trying if I have to." And from the unspoken emotions swirling and mingling in their minds, Colby understood it was because she loved him without condition. He sniffled and shook his head. Always with the damn crying… but it also sparked something inside of him. Hope. The courage not to give up. That he was not alone in this world. That he'd accepted who he was. And who he was not.
They broke the connection as Colby was marched through the estate. Some broken piece of him mending itself. Followed by another. And another. The disconnected mess that kept him from creating any magic, rebuilding itself. So strongly, it almost sent a noticeable jolt surging through him.
He hid the smile growing in his mind.
He might not have any clue how
to live in the real world, and he might not see the light of day again, but he was ready to fight to make sure his father didn't either.
CHAPTER 13
It had all gone down pretty much as expected—after the unexpected sidetrack of having to save Colby and Jae. Meghan had managed to pull it off and get back on track with the plan she and Jasper had put together, and—well—get herself caught in a real a manner as possible. And actually, the unexpected rescue mission was almost too perfect as a cover story. Her father hadn't even bothered to greet her. Not that she expected him to.
Instead, she'd been dragged up a flight of stairs and unceremoniously thrown into a bedroom and locked inside. If she wasn't mistaken, it was the same room once used by Juliska Blackwell. Which meant an illusion also kept the occupant from escaping—this magic, Meghan had counted on and planned for. As for what else awaited beyond this room…
"One magical problem at a time," she decided.
She bravely opened the door and stared down the hallway in each direction. Just like in the vision of Juliska's time here, the halls went on and on in either direction. Bare, stone floors created an endless path that went nowhere except right back to this bedroom door.
Meghan let a tight smile twist at the corner of her lips and marched to the right. With a wave of her hand, a few whispered words, and a pinprick of blood, the endless cold stone dissolved into a combination of warmer wood floors, stone walls, and thick rugs—but most importantly, with a defined end.
She'd done it. Gotten inside her father's estate. But from here on out she'd have to rely on intuition, guts, and all the information she'd gathered from visions, Colby, the First Seer, and Grace. She didn't for a moment take in any false hope and think it would be easy.
Although, part of this plan's success depended on her father's overconfidence when it came to his personal space, which she assumed, like everything else, was protected by his own blood—the strongest form of magic. And this her best hope at undoing any magic in this place without getting caught, before she had the chance to finish what she was here to do.
Ascend (The Last Oracle, The First Seer's Gift, and a Prophecy Fulfilled) (A Fated Fantasy Quest Adventure Book 11) Page 9