“The bond can be broken and you can be cured, Jae,” Isabella said.
“How?” Jae asked. “What do I need to do? I’ll do anything to fix what I’ve done.”
“Anything?” she asked him. “The magic used to create the Scratchers is some of the most powerful and dark magic in existence.”
He swallowed hard, having trouble finding his voice again.
“Yes. Anything,” he affirmed, though shakily. “No matter the cost, I have to. I don’t want to go back to her. I won’t hurt for her. I won’t kill for her. I may be an idiot, but I’m not a killer. I can’t live like this. I need to get rid of this thing inside me. It wants out, all the time... I’m afraid whether under her control or not, I will eventually hurt someone.”
She nodded, seeing his determination.
“There is only way one to break this type of magical bond. The creator of the magic must die.”
Jae nodded, unable to vocalize what he was thinking.
“We have to take her down anyway,” said Meghan, her voice higher than usual. The thought of actually killing someone, or even working towards actually killing someone, turned her stomach. Juliska was evil. There was no doubt about this fact. But shouldn’t she stand trial and be judged by all? Shouldn’t she be forced to face up to and pay for the crimes she committed?
“I know she’s evil,” Jae finally spoke somberly. “Juliska Blackwell frightens me more than anyone I’ve ever known. Before she did this thing to me, I would have done anything she had asked of me, even died for her if I thought it would be for the greater good. But now, even after what she’s done, the thought of her dying for some reason just makes me feel sick.”
“It is sick,” said Sebastien. “And sad. She has wasted her life filling it with hate. And we don’t even know why. She was a good person, once. Like Amelia, she wasn’t always crazy either. But I think Juliska is beyond saving.”
“Everything she’s done set aside,” started Meghan, “do we even have the right to decide her fate? She’s hurt so many people. Not just us.”
“She deserves to die,” said Ivan, as if he were ready to deal Juliska a deathblow that very second.
Isabella sighed, her eyes saddened. “Juliska’s death cannot be by your hand, Ivan.”
At first, Meghan thought she had said this because Isabella feared that Ivan was latching on to any new purpose; that he needed to have one to feel whole. But Isabella’s gaze landed back on Jae.
“Juliska’s death alone will not cure you.”
Jae’s already sickly face turned green.
“Her death breaks the bond only,” she continued.
Jae opened his mouth but nothing came out.
Ivan asked the question Jae could not muster the courage to ask. “What must he do? How do we cure him completely?”
“You don’t,” she said to Ivan. “If you truly want to be cured, Jae Mochrie, you, yourself, will have to be the one that takes her last breath. You will have to kill Juliska Blackwell.”
CHAPTER 2
Colin Jacoby sat on the ground next to Catrina. She had her head leaning against his shoulder. They were sitting just a few feet away from the tree where Jasper Thorndike had been buried. Colin was deep in thought about how he would get Jasper’s copy of the Magicante back from Freyne Rothrock, the Grosvenor who had stolen it just before his death.
“Freyne,” Catrina heard Colin mumble under his breath.
When it was followed by a resentful groan, she sat up, asking, “What is it?”
Colin’s eyes switched from thoughtful, to outraged, in a flash. He glowered right past Catrina to something else.
She turned, gasped, and stuttered. “Oh. Freyne.”
Freyne Rothrock was just a few feet from them, judiciously working his way towards the tree trunk that now resembled the face of the late Jasper Thorndike.
“Don’t worry, he can’t see or hear us,” reminded Colin. “The cloak is still in place.”
“Good,” she breathed out, adding, “What is he doing here?”
Colin did not answer. Instead, he stood up, following Freyne.
The Grosvenor eyed the tree greedily, taking each step cautiously, looking over every detail carefully.
“Stupid boy,” Freyne croaked. “Powerful perhaps, but stupid! Didn’t even erase the magic he used here. So easy to trace.”
Colin’s eyes widened and he threw Catrina a questioning gaze.
“I didn’t know you could do that,” she said.
“I thought they could only trace me when I let down the cloak. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! There’s so much I don’t know.”
Catrina reassured him. “Now that we know it can be done, we’ll figure out how.”
“It’s too late now,” Colin responded miserably. “Let’s find out what Freyne is doing here. Maybe he has the book with him and I can end this whole thing right here and now.”
“Colin, no,” argued Catrina softly. “You cannot confront him like this. You’re not prepared.”
“Maybe not, but it’s not like I can die,” he returned arrogantly.
“No. You can’t. But,” he cut her off.
“Maybe now is the perfect time. I can catch him off guard.”
“And then how will we find out what he’s doing here?”
Colin’s determined look dropped slightly.
Catrina reached out her hand and grasped his.
“We have to be smart, Colin. We need to take our time. You need to take your time. Rash moves don’t always end so well.”
Colin glanced at Jasper’s tree. “You’re right,” he admitted dolefully.
He kept the cloak firmly in place, watching Freyne’s every move. After a moment he stopped, eyeing Jasper’s bark-etched face.
“I learned a little secret,” Freyne whispered to the face, as if somehow Jasper could hear him. “Your services will be much appreciated.”
Freyne stepped back and lifted his arms over the ground, his palms facing the space where Jasper’s body was buried. The ground began to rumble.
“What is he doing?” asked Colin, aghast.
“Oh, no! I think I know.” Catrina’s face turned white as the realization hit her. “We need to leave. I’m sorry, Colin. You might have been right after all.”
“Why?” he asked, but she didn’t answer him.
The ground where Jasper was buried started to shift, the dirt rolling back; something started to lift out of the ground.
“Are those...” Colin gagged, unable to finish.
“Yes. Bones. He’s digging up Jasper’s bones.”
“Why would he do...” he paused again, looking more closely at the bones, which were abnormally bright white. They looked just like... “The dagger. The dagger that stripped Jasper of his powers... it was made from the bones of a dead Projector.”
He took a step back, taking Catrina with him.
“He wants to steal your powers,” Catrina said. “Like Colby did with Jasper. He’s going to use the bones to make his own dagger.”
Colin felt immense hatred filling him.
How dare Freyne disturb Jasper’s grave. How dare he steal his bones?
Catrina knew that this might be too much for Colin and she urged him to stay calm.
“We should leave, Colin. We are not prepared to fight this. Maybe he can’t kill you, but he could take your powers.”
Colin’s head was swimming in thoughts. Vengeful thoughts. Things he’d like to do Freyne Rothrock.
“Maybe if he did take my powers it wouldn’t be so bad,” Colin suddenly blurted. “Or maybe I’ll just kill him before he has the chance.” His speech was coming out in indignant waves, flooding his whole being with the desire for vengeance. “He can’t kill me. I’m immortal. He might get in a spell or two, but I can definitely hurt him!”
“Colin, please,” Catrina begged. “What would Jasper tell you to do if he were here? Would he tell you to reveal yourself and fight without a plan?”
“I am supposed to live
in the moment,” Colin snapped his answer. His thoughts felt as though they were in overdrive. “So maybe that means I need to kill him now.”
Catrina took in a calming breath and grabbed hold of both his hands, forcing him to look at her. “Stop this, right now, Colin Jacoby! You know darn well that Jasper would tell you to calm yourself. And not make any rash decisions. We just talked about this! Besides, you can’t kill Freyne, he’s immortal, too.”
He let out a dissatisfied grunt.
However, a mere moment later they were no longer standing behind Freyne. They were now standing in a few inches of beach sand.
Colin let go of Catrina and fell to his knees, the sand taking the brunt of the blow. She leaned down but he said, “Give me a minute. Please.”
She stepped back, taking in their surroundings. Even though darkness was setting in, the sky was obviously overcast, and it was too cold for fog. Water crashed against the shoreline, but the waves were moderate, the weather calm.
At the end of the beach was what appeared to be a closed down restaurant, built inside an out-of-use lighthouse.
“It was the only place I could think of so fast,” Colin explained, joining her. “I don’t know if I took us far enough away. But we were cloaked so I know he can’t track us here.”
“Are you okay?”
He did not reply, but she saw disappointment in his eyes.
“It’s all okay,” she told him. “We’re taking this one day at a time, remember?”
“How about one hour at a time. Maybe one minute at a time. I’m sorry,” he added. “I didn’t mean to get so worked up.”
“I know. Why don’t we see if we can get inside the lighthouse? Maybe if we’re lucky we can stay here for the night, figure out where to go next.”
He nodded. “I don’t know how, but we will need to stop Freyne.”
“Yes,” she agreed. “But we’ll prepare first. We’ll be smart about it. And even though it’s disturbing, we do at least know what he’s planning so that should make it a little easier.”
“I don’t know as it makes it easier,” said Colin, as they trudged through the sand.
“No, I suppose not.”
Colin stopped, an odd look on his face.
“What’s on your mind?” she asked.
“Something I said. I was angry, but, maybe I should let him take my powers. I’m not Jasper. He can’t kill me. I don’t think.”
“Why would you want to do that?”
“I could be normal. More normal. I’d still have that whole immortality thing but I’d just be Colin Jacoby. No more boy wonder. No more being hunted.”
“You’d also be letting an evil man get a hold of something he should not have.”
“True. Okay. But is this what our entire life is going to be like? Day after day, month after month, year after year, of running and hiding? What kind of life is that? How can I ask that of you?”
“Colin, we’ve already been through this. You know how I feel.”
“I know. I’m sorry. It’s a stupid idea. Wishful thinking, and we both know where that gets me.”
“The idea isn’t stupid, Colin. The outcome of it, on the other hand,” she said with a tone of sarcasm. “C’mon. It’s getting colder out here.”
“Yeah, those clouds overhead are rather ominous. Could be in for the first snow of the season.”
“Wouldn’t be a terrible thing, if we were snuggled up somewhere nice and cozy... so, where exactly are we?” she asked. “I assume you’ve been here before.”
“It’s a lighthouse. Not anymore. It’s a cafe now. When I used to summer here in Cobbscott we would come here. I knew it would be empty this time of year. No one keeps businesses open in the winter. No tourists this time of year.”
“It’s nice,” Catrina said, shivering.
Colin noticed and within a few steps, sun-kissed warmth hit her skin.
“Another reason to keep your birth given powers,” she said with a smile. “Who else could warm me up so fast, on a cold winter’s day?”
“Forget I even brought up the idea,” he said, stepping up to the lighthouse door. “Just a passing thought.” He used magic to break the lock. Once inside, he used magic to light the stove in the kitchen, its heat warming the place in minutes.
Catrina meandered through the kitchen and called out, “There’s still some food in the cupboards.”
“I’m not really hungry,” Colin replied.
She shot him a look that implied, I’m making something anyway and you’re going to eat it. He heard the clanking of pots and pans as she moved about the kitchen and then heard something sizzling.
An enticing smell wafted under his nose. He hadn’t felt hungry, but between the smell, and the sounds of sizzling food, his stomach growled intensely.
He waited, staring out a window across the abandoned beach and off into the distance, watching the waves crash ashore. He could see for miles, even as the night set in. Nothing but blue-hued waves with wakes of spongy white as far as his eyes could see.
The smell of food stole his attention. He darted into the kitchen. “Let me help.”
“Um, grab some plates,” she said, while flipping a pancake. “And I saw some maple syrup in the cupboard too. Fridge is empty, there’s no butter.”
“S’okay,” Colin replied, returning with plates and syrup. Catrina stacked a pile of steaming cakes onto the plates. Colin slathered his in syrup and took a bite. He felt the food land in his gut and expand, almost like it was filling in all the holes his fears had created inside of him.
“I guess you were hungry after all,” teased Catrina, watching him take bite after bite.
“I guess this is why my uncle always called pancakes comfort food. We didn’t have them often. And Meghan always made them,” he trailed off after speaking her name, but then added, “I don’t know if her pancakes ever tasted this good.”
“You’re welcome,” Catrina returned, accepting his praise and taking a bite of her own.
After finishing and feeling quite full and satisfied, Catrina decided to stretch out on a sofa near the entrance, meant as a place for guests to sit and wait for a table.
“Pancakes also make you very sleepy,” she noted, yawning.
“You should rest,” insisted Colin. He magicked a blanket and covered her with it.
“You should too,” she told him sleepily.
“I’ll try, in a few minutes,” he promised. He leaned against the arm of the sofa, once again peering out of the window, staring into the great nothing that was the ocean.
He felt movement and saw feet slide down beside him. Catrina had sat up and was listening to something. She lifted the blanket and went to the window, scrutinizing the beach.
“What is it?” asked Colin.
She motioned for him to be silent for a moment.
“The underwater creatures, they all just started singing. Just now. All at once.”
She closed her eyes, listening as Colin joined her by the window.
“That’s part of being a Song Spinner?” he asked. “You can even understand what underwater creatures are saying when they sing?”
“I guess so. It’s the first time. I think my gift is changing a little. I’m hearing music in things I never used to.”
“What do you mean?”
“How do I explain it? When we were out on the beach earlier and you were thinking the first snow might come. The wind was singing that very thought as well.”
“Wind, has thoughts?”
“It’s not like that, exactly. It’s just, I’m learning there’s music in so many things I never realized before. If I listen close enough.”
“That’s kind of neat. So what are the underwater creatures singing about?”
She continued listening, Colin content to watch her. But her features hardened. And his contentment faded.
“It’s a warning,” she whispered. “They are warning their kind to stay away. Something is frightening them. They are all leaving.
”
“Something in the water?”
“Yes. Something is scaring them all. Even the largest of the whales is fleeing.”
“Maybe there’s a bad storm coming?”
“No. This terror is below the water, not above.”
Colin shuddered.
“Poor things. They’re so frightened.”
Colin didn’t want her to worry about things they could do nothing about. “C’mon. Nothing we can do about it,” he said kindly. “Water is not really our terrain.”
He tucked her back into the blanket, kissed her, and within minutes, she had fallen asleep. Colin was glad. She needed the rest. But try as he might, and even with a stomach full of carbohydrate heavy sleeping potion, he just wasn’t tired.
Instead, he was curious as to what was in the water scaring away even the largest of the sea creatures. He quietly went over to the front window, gazing out across the vast ocean. Fog rolled in, which seemed odd. Wasn’t it too cold for fog?
It was completely dark now, signs of the sun setting, long gone. Colin glanced upward; the sky was still overcast and there wasn’t a single star in sight. The water looked calm though, no massive waves, just the soft sway of the tides.
And yet there was something eerie about it all.
He tried to shake it off. It was probably just that it was so desolate. And gray. Winter was never his favorite season.
He returned to the sofa and slid down to the floor, leaning his head near Catrina. He stroked her silver hair gently, so as not to wake her, hoping to surrender to sleep. All the while, this strange foreboding expanded in his chest, and he had no idea why.
CHAPTER 3
Jae Mochrie didn’t know whether to run back into the shack or run into the woods and never stop running. He opted for stepping into the woods, to get away from everyone. He knew running away was pointless.
“Jae,” called out Meghan softly.
He motioned for them to stay. He needed a minute alone to process what Isabella Crane had told him. Not only would Juliska Blackwell need to die, but die by his hand, for him to truly be free of the monster inside of him.
He had killed before. He had killed Darcy Scraggs. But that was in self-defense, he had told himself. To keep her from hurting or killing his friends.
Control (The Blood Vision, The Immortality Stone, and The Woman in Glass) (A Fated Fantasy Quest Adventure Book 7) Page 2
