Lights were flickering on inside every house.
Curtains opening.
Faces glued to whatever was happening outside; a place they were forbidden to go if they were over sixteen, or at all, if it was after dark.
A shadow flew overhead. Wings snapped in the heavy night air.
The elderly woman screamed, tripped and fell. Her husband turned to go back for her. A foreboding shape landed in between him and his wife, blocking her from view and forcing his retreat.
“Sylvia,” he called out to her.
Two guards caught up and grabbed him roughly, securing his body with younger, stronger hands.
He called out to his wife but she didn’t answer.
Sylvia got to her feet, her body shaking. She knew what was coming. There was no stopping it. She mustered every bit of courage she could find and faced the Scratcher head on.
It leaned forward, staring into Sylvia’s aged eyes.
She didn’t flinch, even when it flashed its fang-like teeth at her.
She kept her gaze firm and straight into the Scratcher’s red and black eyes as it wrapped its wings around her body.
“You can have me,” she told it. “But you won’t win.”
The Scratcher threw its head into the air letting out a shriek that rippled over the entire island.
A moment later, her lifeless body slumped to the ground.
The Scratcher took to the air with a triumphant and deafening screech.
Harold, Sylvia’s husband, lost his balance. He knew what he was about to see, but just the same, seeing the dead body of his wife caused his knees to buckle.
“Where did the prisoners go?” a guardsman asked him.
Harold did not reply. He barely even heard the question.
The guards shook him violently, one holding up his face.
“I’ll ask you one more time, where did the prisoners go?”
He did not answer.
A guard slapped Harold across the face.
“Do what you will with me. I won’t tell ya nothing,” Harold said.
“You might just change your mind about that when I get through with you. So I’ll ask you one last time, where did the prisoners go?”
Harold flung him a determined grin.
The guard raised his arm to hit Harold again, but it was stopped mid swing.
The guard made a grunting noise and turned to see who had stopped him.
“KarNavan, my apologies,” he bowed his head. “And my Queen,” he added anxiously, upon seeing Juliska Blackwell stroll out of the shadows.
“There is no need for your kind of torture,” said Juliska, her voice cutting. “Not when I can get what I want, so much faster.”
She approached Harold, her long form-fitting jacket skimming the frost-covered cobblestone as she walked.
“What are you going to do to me?” asked Harold, his voice uncaring. “Suck out the rest of my already spent life?”
Juliska ignored his retort. “You know, you should bow to your Queen,” she said.
The guards had to fight him, but they got him to his knees.
Harold looked upon Juliska Blackwell with hate-filled eyes and spit onto her pointy shoes.
“If I’m going to die, you might as well know what I really think of you.”
“The feeling is mutual,” she replied with a bored smile. “Harold, where are the prisoners going?”
“You know I ain’t going to tell you.”
“I know. Just being polite,” she lied.
She raised her arm, holding something in her palm.
A smooth, round stone.
“You want to change your answer?” she asked him.
“Why? So you drain the magic out of me and kill me anyway?”
“This is the problem with you people,” she said matter-of-factly.
She turned and spoke as if speaking to anyone close enough to listen.
“You’re all too eager to sacrifice yourselves for the so called greater good. It makes it very hard to find out what I need to know. And I will find out. Because the thing is, Harold,” she spun back around, “that this island is completely under my control. No one leaves. No one comes. Unless I permit it. They have nowhere to go. You’re all just delaying the inevitable.”
“Help will come,” said Harold. “You just wait and see. You may think you’re the Queen, and maybe for now you are, but it won’t last forever.”
Juliska’s face turned murderous. She leaned down to look straight in his eyes. “Unlike you, Harold, I do have forever.”
She stood and turned on the spot. “Let all seeing this tonight, bear witness to the punishment of treason to your Queen.” She reached out her arm and slammed the Stone into Harold’s forehead. She didn’t even turn to give him a glance. Her eyes watched everyone else, watching her.
Harold weakened. The stone’s power surged through his body, seeking out any bit of magical ability and power he had, until there was nothing left.
Juliska pulled the Stone away.
Harold fell to the ground. Alive, but barely.
Juliska closed her hands around the stone, walking away without giving Harold a second look.
“KarNavan, come,” she ordered. As she whisked away, she said to the guards, “Clean up this mess.”
Harold, weak as he was, crawled to the body of his dead wife. It took every ounce of strength he had to reach her.
“They got away,” he told her. “They got away.” He rolled over and gazed up into the starless night. “Help better come soon,” he mumbled, closing his eyes for the final time.
##
Jasper Thorndike looked away from his beloved Aloyna, stepping back into the battle, his silhouette instantly lost in a sea of warriors.
The scene around Meghan, Colin and Colby melted away, a new one building itself around them.
Meghan got a shiver. She didn’t know if it was part of the spell, or if for some reason, in real life she was cold.
In this new memory, it was day. From the position of the sun, Meghan guessed early afternoon.
Fires smoldered. Smoke billowed. The battle was over.
They were once again on the grounds of the estate.
Eight robed figures stood in a semi-circle, just outside of the home; they held a woman between them.
It was Aloyna.
Jurekai stood in front of them all.
“You are a traitor to your people,” he spoke with a biting hatred. “My own mother.”
“I did what I must. Jasper has the Immortality Stone. It’s no longer within your grasp,” she replied evenly. “And one day, I will stop you.”
“That is where you are wrong!” he said, stalking up to her. His dark eyes peeled into hers. “You’ll pay for your sins, for the rest of your very long life.”
“I’m willing to pay that price,” she told him. “I know what you do today, will one day be your undoing. But I will beg of you, one last time, to stop. No one person should have this much power. Enough blood has been spilled.”
“Enough of this!” he said, ignoring her plea. “Take her inside.”
The eight robed figures dragged Aloyna inside the home.
Jurekai Fazendiin followed and once inside, told the robed figures to let go of his mother. His justice was swift.
With the flick of his wrist, Aloyna’s body dissolved into what looked like grains of sand. With another flick of his wrist, he swiped the sand into the glass where Aloyna’s figure rebuilt itself.
“This is where you will spend your eternity,” said Jurekai. “In these glass walls you will waste away your years, forbidden to speak of your treachery, or your relationship with Jasper Thorndike. Oh, don’t worry,” he added. “I’ll find him. And I’ll find a way to kill him. And you won’t be able to do anything about it. Then you will finally know what it feels like to be betrayed by your own family.”
“Claims the boy who killed his own father, my husband,” Aloyna whispered.
Fazendiin strode up
to the glass. “As I will do to anyone else who gets in my way. And you’ll do nothing, but watch. I’ll be here, by your side, forever guarding this glass from being broken. Get comfortable, Mother. No one from this bloodline will ever free you from your prison.” Jurekai walked away, the eight robed figures in his wake.
##
Mireya and Joseph waited at the back door. She held her hand on the doorknob, afraid to open it. Going out at night was forbidden. If she was caught, she didn’t know what would happen to her or her parents.
But she couldn’t let the prisoners down. They were counting on her and Joseph to show them the way. She twisted the doorknob and opened the door. They stepped outside, inhaling the icy November air. All was quiet except for distant voices in the direction of the prison. Mireya and Joseph crept through the darkness, hand in hand, towards the back of the yard.
There was a pathway that went all the way from the back of the school that crossed the backside of their yards, and continued into the woods, eventually coming out just across from the Sadorus estate.
A terrifying screech filled the quiet of the night.
They froze, staring at each other with the same questions on their minds; had the prisoners been caught? Had any of them died?
Joseph whispered, “C’mon,” and they worked their way to the edge of the path.
They lit a lone candle and set it on a stump. It was not bright enough to attract any outside attention. It was also not magic, so it could not be traced. But it would let the prisoners know they were heading in the right direction. If they were still coming.
Minutes later, they heard footsteps scurrying their way.
The first of the prisoners arrived.
Mireya and Joseph motioned the direction they should continue in, and pointed to two sacks stashed on the ground, hidden behind a shrub. One prisoner paused, saying, “Thank you.” It was Dr. Stamm.
They nodded back, wishing they could tell him more about his son, Oliver. But the doctor knew they didn’t really know. He fled behind the other prisoners.
Joseph quietly let them know that Daveena would be waiting for them at the second checkpoint.
The last to come was the leader of the prisoners, the one they called Scarface. He stopped just for a second to catch his breath.
“We lost two,” he told them in a whisper. “Elderly couple by the name of Harold and Sylvia Browne.”
Neither Mireya nor Joseph recognized the name Browne. The couple must have traveled with a group other than either of theirs, before returning to the island.
“Everyone else got away,” Scarface continued. “The potion you gave me worked. It cleared the pathway of our footsteps. They can’t tell which way we ran.”
Mireya grinned. Erasing their footsteps had been her idea. She realized they’d be easy to track, even without using magic, simply by following the trail of escaping footprints.
“We cannot thank you enough for your bravery,” Scarface expressed.
“Just go,” encouraged Joseph. “We’ll keep doing whatever we can. Go take care of them.”
“Thank you,” he said again, speeding away. “And be safe.”
Mireya blew out the candle and grabbed it. Joseph grabbed her hand and raced back to her door. She slipped inside but he did not follow.
“I’ll see you in the morning,” he whispered. “I guess more like a few hours from now.”
Neither would sleep. Their nerves too peaked to even bother trying.
“We did it, Joseph. We actually did it.”
“I know. I only hope they can stay hidden long enough for help to come.”
“Do you really think it will?”
“It has to. It just has to,” he told her. He shut the door and slipped away in the darkness back to his own house.
CHAPTER 17
“Three minutes,” a faceless voice warned.
Ivan knew they could not win this battle. They were outnumbered.
He figured Sebastien could hold his own, but bringing Jae had been a mistake. It had put him directly in harm’s way; his body was designed for a fight. This temptation might prove too much for the monster inside of him.
Ivan was confident they were surrounded by Stripers, all with the advantage of blending in and disappearing into the background, which made fighting them nearly impossible.
There was a reason Stripers were talented treasure hunters, and Ivan understood why Juliska used them as her new guard. Their ability made them a deadly force.
Ivan knew if it came to a fight, they’d most likely be injured. They would very possibly die. Then nothing would stop the Stripers from taking Colin, Colby, and Meghan, even though Meghan and Colby were not who they were there for. They’d come for Colin and Catrina.
Inside Kanda’s house, Nona and Elisha paced in a circle, staring each other down.
“You have no fire to escape with,” Nona reminded Elisha. “You can’t create it.”
Elisha knew Nona was right but refused to back down. “I’ll find a way. We cannot win this battle. I won’t let anything happen to my Master.” She lunged forward and took a swipe, missing Nona.
“Elisha, please,” begged Jae. “If you try to take Colby while he’s still in the spell, he might get stuck inside a memory.”
The front door opened and Ivan slipped inside.
“We’ve got about a minute until a war breaks out.” He saw Elisha and Nona ready to battle each other. “Enough!” he roared angrily. “If we don’t work together... We. All. Die!”
There was a ferocity in his voice they had never heard before.
Elisha backed down, Nona followed.
“Nona, Elisha, out front with me. I need you to use your ability to see the future, and tell me where the spells are coming from. Jae, stay here and guard them. If you can, somehow, try to wake them up. Sebastien and I won’t be able to hold the Stripers off for long.”
“I can help,” insisted Jae.
“No. Stay. Keep away from the battle. And no matter what, do not transform,” he ordered, running back outside.
Nona and Elisha followed.
“Time’s up,” a voice called out. “Will you willingly hand them over?”
Ivan jumped down the stairs and planted himself, poised to fight. “I think you already know the answer to that.”
Elisha shouted, “Right side!”
Ivan turned right and used a deflection spell. It hit the incoming spell straight on, lighting up the night sky in streams of silver and gold.
“Duck,” shouted Elisha.
Nona sat next to her, her white eye swirling back and forth trying to catch a glimpse of anything aimed their direction.
Ivan ducked as a bird flew over his head. It was Sebastien. He transformed mid-air, blocking another spell, which came in from the left side. Before his feet could touch the ground he had transformed back into the bird and surged upward, just missing another spell aimed directly at him.
“Right!” shouted Nona, at the same moment Elisha shouted, “Behind you.”
Ivan dove to the ground, shooting a defensive spell to the right. He skidded and rolled onto his back, sitting up, shooting off three blasting spells in quick secession towards the side of the house.
One of them hit something. He heard a scream and something falling in the bushes.
Two more spells blasted over his head hitting the house.
Inside the house, Jae sat on his knees, rocking back and forth.
The sounds of battle called to him.
Hearing someone scream made it even worse.
“Gotta stay calm,” he whispered through heavy breaths. “Wake up,” he pleaded to the three memory travelers. “I’m not going to change. I’m not going to change,” he repeated over and over.
His desire to fight was overpowering his need to remain calm. His new body didn’t prefer calm, it craved chaos. It wanted to get angry. It wanted to kill.
He didn’t need a mirror to see that his eyes were darkening.
His
breathing grew harder, each breath drawing through his throat like thick water. He fell forward, his fingernails extending and sharpening, curling like talons.
“You need to wake up!” he pleaded.
Jae didn’t know what would happen if he allowed the monster out. He didn’t know how fast Juliska Blackwell would find out he was still alive. He didn’t know if he would instantly be forced to kill his friends.
Jae jumped up, his arms outstretched as fangs slipped down over his lips. The monster needed to fight! He knew the consequences. He knew Juliska Blackwell would find out he was alive.
It didn’t matter.
Outside, Sebastien had joined Ivan on the ground. They fought, back to back, listening for Elisha and Nona to shout warnings.
Streams of magic were raining on them now from nearly every direction.
Ivan shouted out in pain.
Sebastien turned to see him falling; blood spurting from his shoulder.
Nona started to call out a warning but it was too late.
Sebastien took a direct hit to his thigh, sliding down next to Ivan. He crawled closer, dragging his injured leg along to check on Ivan.
“I’m okay,” Ivan insisted. “It’s deep but I’m okay.”
Spells were now pounding the house. The protections they had placed around it would be gone at any moment. They had fought off the Stripers as long as they could.
From inside the house, they heard a strange noise.
It sounded like snarling.
“Oh, no, no, no, no,” said Ivan.
Sebastien flicked his head from Ivan to the house.
A spine tingling shriek blasted their eardrums.
The spells stopped. The Stripers’ ended their attack.
Everyone went quiet.
All eyes glued on the house.
With a thwack and a bang, the rooftop of Kanda Macawi’s house shot into the sky, wood flying in all directions.
Wings thrashed overhead, straightening and taking flight.
Jae Mochrie had fully transformed.
Control (The Blood Vision, The Immortality Stone, and The Woman in Glass) (A Fated Fantasy Quest Adventure Book 7) Page 17
