New world, meet magic.
Things were going to get crazy.
CHAPTER 28
Colby and Jae finally found a moment and got away. Back into Grimble though. Not home, not quite yet. Back to finish one last job. They walked, hand in hand, in a somber, but satisfied silence, to where they'd hidden the The Magicante and The Book of Doorways. Possibly the smartest thing they'd ever done when they'd created the fake versions of them, just in case Katana tried anything.
It was hard to imagine how things might have turned out had they not done it.
It gave Colby an icy shudder to think of Jae if he'd been infected with the Projector's magic. Bleeding out because of the stab wound was bad enough. Jae squeezed his hand, almost as if he had read his mind. They passed an understanding smile and minutes later, had arrived at the old mill. They went to the rock wall and without using magic, moved the rocks to uncover the books.
The books, they'd keep. Locked up and safe. The dagger though… Jae reached into Colby's pocket and took out the dagger. He balanced it in his palm, waiting for Colby, who spent a few long minutes staring at it.
"Funny, isn't it? How such a small thing can do so much damage?"
"I don't know as I'd go with funny," Jae teased.
Colby found Jae's amused eyes and smiled. "Yeah. Bad choice of words." He looked back down at the dagger, and watched Jae close his hand over the blade. A moment later, it was nothing but dust in his palm. Almost too simple to destroy, for something that held such tremendous power. Colby took a step back while Jae closed his hand around the dust.
"No one else will ever abuse this power again." Jae thrust his hand open, tossing the dust into the air. He shot a spell into the dust, burning up every grain before it flew away or landed on any surface.
Gone. All of it. For good.
Even with all that had been won already, another heavy weight lifted off both the young men. It was done. They'd both won their futures. Their freedom.
"Now what?" Colby asked in a quiet voice.
"Home." Jae smiled and yanked Colby in close. "Now, we go home."
Colby sighed, trying to come to terms with that. "I know what everyone keeps saying, in that I'm welcome and all, but… I'm the bad guy. What if that's all they ever see me as?"
"If they can't accept you, then we find a new home. Because wherever you are, that's my home, Colby. I refuse to live a single day more by anyone else's rules or expectations. I won't live a life of secrets. Or lies. Or regrets. Or hiding who I am. Or who I love. It has not been an easy lesson to learn—" he wrapped his arms around Colby. "But I think in the end, I won the best prize, and I'd do it all again to get right here, exactly where we are."
Colby's eyes crammed closed. He was going to cry again, dammit!
"I still don't know how to react when you do that."
"Do what?"
"Be so perfectly you. I'm still not sure I deserve it."
"Then my job isn't close to done yet. But one of these days, weeks… years… I'll make you believe every word."
Years… Colby liked the sound of that.
EPILOGUE…
Fifteen years later…
Meghan waited with nervous excitement in the MA office—the headquarters of the Magical Administration. Located in what used to be the Banon's office. A roll and title no longer used. Retired, to history and the old days of magic. Long gone were the days of one leader with a court that served that leader. Now, were the days of an administration, made up of all magical communities—something that had also changed in the last fifteen years as there were a lot more magical clans in existence since magic had started waking up.
And, there was an elected department head, and that is who Meghan was waiting to see. Sebastien tossed her an amused smile and she forced herself to stop pacing and take the seat next to him.
Mireya popped her head out of an office a moment later.
"He can see you now," she told them, her lips forming into a gigantic smile.
"Thanks," whispered Meghan. Sebastien gave Mireya a nod. She served on the administration too, as a personal assistant to the department head. They stepped into the office and Ivan hopped up from behind his desk to greet them.
"Mr. Crane," Meghan greeted in a tease.
He rolled his eyes. "Don’t call me that."
"But we're on official business today," Sebastien reminded.
"No one in my office calls me Mr. Anything…"
"Whatever," his sister retorted with a smile. "So, how's Maria? Mom driving her crazy yet?"
Ivan had to hold back a laugh. "You think she'd get used to having grandkids by now."
"At the rate you and Maria are popping them out, it's a good thing Sebastien and I don't have any."
Ivan just smiled. Happily. "Number five is coming any day now."
"You’re the one who wanted the big family," reminded Sebastien.
"I did say that, didn’t I?" He scratched his head wearing a ridiculous grin. Although, he hadn’t expected his wife to have twins, twice. One set of girls, and one set of boys. This time though, it was only one baby coming. However, they’d decided to wait and be surprised on whether it would be a boy or a girl.
"I can tell by that stupid grin on your face," started Meghan, "that you’re counting down the minutes."
Ivan laughed lightly. He’d take every hour of exhaustion lost to taking care of his kids, over, and over, and over. "I love every minute of it." He took a seat behind an official looking desk.
"Five is a lot though," agreed Mireya in goodhearted glee. "I'll stick to my two little terrors with Joseph and call it enough, thank you very much."
No one bothered to nudge the subject of kids when it came to Meghan and Sebastien. They'd made it quite clear they were not interested.
Another head popped into the office. "They've just pulled up." The head disappeared just as fast. And that's when the reality began to sink in and the good humor in the room sank into a bittersweet blast of memories, and hardships, and friendships… the never-ending struggle to rebuild the new world of magic. While the old world—Jurekai Fazendiin—refused to disappear, completely. Until today…
Meghan felt a hand wind in her own and turned her head to see Sebastien. Her husband. Her best friend. And in his eyes, she saw the worth of it all. And today, what would be the last of it all—at least in regard to her father.
She and Sebastien had spent the last fifteen years trying to track him down—in between her job as a Seer for the new Magical Administration.
And last night, they’d finally done it. They’d finally found Jurekai Fazendiin.
Aged. Wasting away. Decaying into nothing.
In all these years he spent in hiding, he'd never fully recovered. He simply didn't have enough magic. He'd lost most of it when Colin destroyed it. And he'd lost his immortality when the Stone was destroyed.
He'd managed to live off what borrowed time he had left, as an aged Vetala. The life-force he took in was never enough to bring him back to his glory, but merely string him along in life.
And yet he'd persisted.
Even as he wasted away to nothing, he persisted in that he'd come back and reign once more. And this time, he'd not fail. His rumblings had made no sense. His mind a vast tendril of insanity. He would leave this world a broken, delusional man who still believed he could come back from the brink, and win.
However, above all of this, it was what they discovered while there, in her father's final hours.
That head popped in the doorframe again and told them the carriage was ready.
Ivan came out from behind the desk and handed Meghan a small stack of papers. He grasped her shoulder in the bittersweet understanding of the moment.
It was over now.
It was really over now.
Without much fanfare, and thankfully, no more loss.
And there just might be some good to come out of it.
"Do you want me to come with you?" Ivan asked Meghan and Sebastie
n.
"No. You go be with Maria," Sebastien offered. "We got this."
"Well then, if you need anything, you know where to find me." Most likely, on the living room floor playing with his kids, rubbing his wife’s aching feet, or tumbling around in the grass in the backyard if the younger kids had lots of energy to burn. It was ridiculously perfect and made Meghan ridiculously happy. "And if I'm not at the hospital with my wife giving birth, I'll see you both at the party tonight."
She and Sebastien went out to meet the carriage. This was an old tradition she didn't mind had stuck around. The horse driven carriage rides were a pleasant way to cross the island, if she wasn't in a hurry and needed Nona to take her somewhere.
"Do you regret not having any kids?" Meghan blurted out to Sebastien.
He stopped, surprised for a moment.
"Um—no." He worried this was not the answer she wanted to hear.
"Okay. I guess I just needed to make sure your mind hadn’t changed."
"No. I’m still good with that choice. I like us, as we are."
"Well, now that my father is out of the picture, life is going to get a little less… busy."
"And less dangerous," he added. He grasped her shoulders. "Have you changed your mind?"
"No. No, I haven’t. It just feels like everyone else is doing it, and moving on in ways we haven’t."
"We still have time, you know. We’re not that old."
She chuckled. "Yeah. How about forget I brought it up and let's talk about it in another five years. Because I kind of like us, as we are, too." She leaned in, kissed him, and pulled away when a young girl’s teasing laugh floated over to them.
Meghan and Sebastien couldn’t resist smiling at the adorable young thing. She was something, this little one. Gifted. And about to go to her new home. She was all of six years old but sometimes, her eyes, her voice, it called out someone much older.
"Can we go now? Please?" she begged with nervous excitement. "I can’t wait to meet my new parents. They are dying to meet me too, you know. They just don’t know it yet."
"No, they don’t, Grace."
The truth was, her new parents did not know they were coming with this surprise. More frightening, is that they'd made it pretty clear more than once they were not interested in having a child. Ever. And no one could blame them really. Not after all they'd all gone through. But in this case, as it turned out, their home was possibly the best home this child could hope for. And the one Grace absolutely insisted she belonged in.
Two more faces broke through the shadow of the carriage.
Colin and Catrina had wanted to tag along for the ride. They'd left their own daughters, aged seven and five, with Catrina's parents. But their lap space had been taken up by Nona, who was enjoying a stretch in the sun shining inside.
"Yes, let's get going shall well," Catrina teased.
Colin just grinned. This was going to be a real shocker.
"They’re going to love me so much," Grace told them as Meghan and Ivan hopped into the coach with her. "And I already love them too."
They shook their heads. Yup. This little girl was something.
A voice shouted to wait. It was Mireya. "Sorry, I was going to try to catch up, but seeing as you didn’t leave yet…"
"Yeah, get in. You should totally be there for this," Sebastien agreed.
"Wouldn’t miss it."
The carriage driver shouted down. "Everyone ready?"
"Yes, we are. Thank you," Sebastien returned. The driver returned with a nod and a second later the carriage was rolling along the cobblestone. The island had been rebuilt. Even using magic, it had taken some time. Many years of that time just to safely dismantle Fazendiin's vast estate. Stone by stone, they took it apart. And now, where it had once adorned the island, instead, was a lovely statue and park memorial. A dedication to all who'd given their lives over the years to make this peace, possible. And it had been named Sadorus Park, after Garner and Ravana, two of the many who'd sacrificed themselves.
And while the island's population was healthy, after magic had started returning to the world, new magical colonies had started to pop up. And many of the Svoda and the Tunkapog now had jobs out across the globe, training new magical families. Introducing them into the new world that magic was creating.
It was doubtful that magic would return across the entire globe.
However, the world of magic had increased in size, exponentially.
So much so, that even the B.O.D. Guild kept an office locally. They were a tightknit guild that kept to themselves. They'd never really been a part of the magical community and didn't consider themselves part of it now. However, their job was to protect magical doorways and now that the world of magic was so much larger, having access to certain doors was a boon to keeping the peace and lines of communication open.
Colby and Jae had long ago returned the Book of Doorways to them, for safe keeping.
Plus, another unexpected side effect of magic returning, was that even more doors were found. Unfortunately, this was only discovered when people began disappearing and a new offshoot of the Guild was created to venture into the doorways and seek out those lost. Most were found after some time passed.
One who wasn't, was Oliver Stamm. The now retired doctor's son with the penchant for trouble while in school, and a nervous stammer when he got frightened. At seventeen, Oliver vanished alongside a new Guild intern named Devon, around the same age—and also the son of the current head of the B.O.D. Guild, who was set to retire soon.
Rumor had it though, that the two now grown men, had been spotted from time to time. And the stories got crazier with each sighting. Many thought it odd that Dr. Stamm never seemed too concerned over his son's absence, which only fueled the rumors even more. That Oliver and Devon were on some long-kept secret mission no one ever spoke of, or admitted to.
But even with all the chaos of new magic in the world, there had been little in the way of violent disruption. Things seemed to hover in a wonderful state of peace. Chaotic peace at times. And the further away the memories of the past got, some worried the mistakes would be doomed to repeat themselves. The history books were rewritten—the truth now required reading.
And the source of their material, was none other than Juliska Blackwell, herself. In ghost form, of course. It had been a tenuous relationship as she assisted. But she wanted to be certain that nothing of importance was lost, even at her own humiliation. The start of her penance, as she reminded others. She even offered to speak to students… it wasn't an easy thing for either side. But it served as a strong reminder, and also helped the living heal and move on. And allowed Juliska to work to earn her redemption.
Along the way, she and Eddy slowly ingrained themselves into their son's life. Again, it wasn't always easy. But neither would it have been if they'd been alive. Colin was thankful to have the chance, as were his parents. And though the past was not so easy to let go of, they did their best to take advantage of the future they had. As with all things, it became easier with time, growth, and wisdom.
Catrina devoted much of her time to teaching. And to everyone's joy, Colin still had a great magical gift—endless curiosity. A gift that never caused any problems—well, unless he was working on some new experiment. Which had led to many improvements from potion making, storing magic, and how they tracked magic. A bigger necessity now that there was so much more of it in the world to keep track of. But he was sure to name the new system after Corny. The Tibbitt Magic Tracker—TMT for short.
Meghan enjoyed the sun sneaking into the side of the carriage. It was a welcome warmth. She opened her eyes to see Daveena waving at them. She was just opening up her bakery for the day, and man—the smell of that fresh bread about to finish baking... she knew her way around an oven, that woman. Well, she'd better, they all thought. She was feeding a bear of a husband.
It always gave them a good laugh though, when her hired help made an appearance.
Dulcy Hadrian. Th
e once, not so eloquent sidekick to the not so dearly departed Darcy Scraggs. Dulcy had mellowed some. And Daveena had a good time ordering her around.
Also, as it turned out, the Jackal Sisters had two much younger cousins. And just as prone to mischievous debauchery as their elder cousins had been. They reopened the Jackal Lantern. And it was as moral-filled and gossipy as ever.
They passed by the Balaton office where Arnon Jacoby was just coming down the stairs alongside Curtis Bevins, the head of the department. He was neighbors with Colby and Jae, who had a special kinship with the man he'd been a prisoner with so many years before, in Amelia Cobb's camp.
When they'd first started to rebuild, some had wanted Curtis to lead them. They saw him as a neutral party. But he didn't want anything to do with that job. And in the end, a group had gathered to do it together, and in this, the Magical Administration had been born.
Arnon always hopped in for a visit when he was on the island. Which was often. Kanda was with him too and they caught sight of the carriage and waved.
"We'll see you soon," Colin called out to them.
"Tonight!" Kanda hollered back.
"Wouldn't miss it," Arnon shouted.
Meghan and Colin and a few others had planned a party for that evening. In hopes of a celebration. They'd find out soon enough. Although, just with her father's passing, it was reason enough to celebrate. And move on with life.
The carriage rolled by the school. The statues of the Scratchers were long gone. And the school had been renamed. The Robert Motley school of Magical Learning. He'd have gotten a kick out of that, Meghan liked to think.
They left the main streets of the island and veered off. Meghan let out a chuckle when they came to Billie's place—the house built out of a ship. Billie and Maura were out trimming hedges and working in their garden. A shame that summer would be ending soon. Although, autumn was beautiful in its own colorful way. It was just the long, bitter winter that followed that was hard to endure. They all waved from inside the carriage, and Billie shouted a greeting and that they'd see them tonight. It was possible the entire population of the island, plus some, might attend.
Ascend (The Last Oracle, The First Seer's Gift, and a Prophecy Fulfilled) (A Fated Fantasy Quest Adventure Book 11) Page 19