“That’s kind of sweet you know.”
“You are my little sister. Kind of my job.” He grinned. An actual, volunteered, sort of insanely giddy, grin.
Meghan eyed him, many questions present and silently demanding what the heck had happened to him in the last two days. This was Ivan, but more like Ivan 2.0 or Ivan enhanced, or something.
Instead, she didn’t pester. He wouldn’t. “I um, haven’t exactly been idle while in hiding,” she informed him. “Although the first night I pretty much just bawled my eyes out for hours.” She shook her head, annoyed at herself for admitting that.
Ivan’s smile faded just a little. “We’re more alike than you realize.”
“I don’t think so.”
“You’re no better at showing your emotions in public than I am.” She opened her mouth to argue but he held up a hand to stop her. “You might never shut the heck up, and keep your thoughts to yourself,” he teased lightheartedly, “but when it comes to the heavy stuff, the real stuff,” he waved his hands around her hiding spot. “I don’t think you even shared the heavy stuff with your brother. With Colin,” he specified. “You were always trying to protect him.”
“Still am.” And Ivan was right about her. She’d never liked to show serious, real emotion in front of anyone.
“I know. But just, um, don’t hide stuff from me. I know I’m not the guy you probably think to come to when it’s just too much, but, sister or not, I um… I care about what happens to you.”
Meghan let out a surprised push of air. “Okay. What the heck happened to you? You are Ivan Crane, right? Not an imposter?”
He let out a clipped laugh. “I’m not sure I can explain it.” His smile was so genuine it almost brought a tear to Meghan’s eye.
“You are happy.” She didn’t know what to make of it. “I can see it all over you now that I’m looking close enough. Like, ridiculously happy.”
He cleared his throat and lowered his gaze.
“You were the one talking about being more open with each other a second ago, so talk mister.” But it hit Meghan what it was before he said anything. She’d seen that giddy look on her brother’s face when he ogled Catrina. It was how she felt when she thought about Sebastien. Ivan had let himself fall in love. “It’s Maria, isn’t it?”
He shrugged, the giddiness emanating off him saying enough. “She grounds me. Keeps me together. Stitched me back together.”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t be there for you. I wanted to.”
“Don’t apologize. You had nothing left to give anyone. Neither did I. I was in a strange headspace. Trying to figure out the point of my life. Since I was old enough to remember my life goal has been taking down Juliska Blackwell, and getting justice for my father. And mother. And now, it still is, just, differently so. I was feeling a little lost. Kind of completely lost.”
“But Maria fixed all that.” Meghan’s tone teased.
“Yeah, um, let’s not talk more about that. Love life, off limits. I think that’s still a line I can’t cross.”
“Ugh. Don’t worry, I don’t want to know. But it looks good on you. I like in love you.”
“I kind of like it too.”
Meghan laughed.
“It’s strange,” he explained. “How I could get through living each day with this idea in the back of my mind that at some point, it would end. I’d very likely lose my life trying to finish what I had started. And then to have my world turned upside down, by finding out I wasn’t the only one who knew after all. That there’s so much I didn’t know. And then my mother being alive, and all she suffered. I think… something just changed. Like I woke up for the first time or something. And I don’t want to go back to sleep. Does that make any sense?”
“Perfect.” And for reasons only the universe might know, seeing Ivan awake gave her this odd sense of hope.
“So now what?” he asked her.
Meghan sighed, repositioning herself so she was sitting a little straighter. “I’ve got only one thing on my agenda at the moment.”
“I hope it requires you leaving this room. Although to be bluntly honest, I can see why you’d want to stay holed up in here for a good long while.”
“That bad out there, is it?”
“That, and just,” he stopped, shaking his head. “What you have ahead of you, Meghan, I um, you’re a really incredible young woman. Do you know that? I’ve never said it, so I’m saying it now.”
“You sure I’m not just dreaming? Stranded somewhere in la la land? Stuck in some wacky vision or something?”
Ivan chuckled. “I mean it. I have never given you the credit you deserve.”
She shifted uncomfortably at the compliment. Coming from Ivan, it was like being crowned queen of the world.
He chuckled again.
“What?”
“Another thing we have in common. Not being able to accept a true compliment, most especially when it is deserved. So, what is this agenda of yours?”
Meghan sucked in and let it out in a deliberate attempt to calm her nerves.
“Okay, well,” she let go of all humor getting serious. “I found out some things I haven’t shared with anyone yet. I needed some time to process.”
“Okay, like what?”
“For starters, the prophecy about the three immortal children, it’s um, it’s not actually real.”
His wordless, crushed inward stare, said it all. Utter shock.
“Aloyna claims she made it all up to control my father’s future, to put it very simply.” Meghan explained all she’d discovered about her grandmother and the prophecy. How Aloyna had hoped her son would attempt to control it, by creating the very three immortal children she wanted, created.
When done, Ivan sat there staring into nothing, deep in thought.
After some time, he shook his head. “Something doesn’t add up.”
“I know. So much left to chance. I mean, who’s to say we wouldn’t all get raised by evil. Or were just plain born, evil. Or unwilling, or, yeah, just, something doesn’t add up. But Aloyna was yanked away by Colby before I could fully question her. I am certain there’s more to the story.”
“Where do you think he took her?”
“My mother.” She corrected herself. “Our mother.”
Ivan huffed. “It’s weird, but I forget that kid is my half-brother too.”
“Instant inherited dysfunctional family,” she joked. “Just what you always wanted.”
“Very funny. And also very, very sad, and true.”
“So what’s going on outside my bedroom walls?” she changed the subject. “I’ve been listening in on Arnon and Kanda, and Nona’s filled me in a little to the general chaos, but she hasn’t strayed too far from me.”
“I met with Nashua and Kanda, Arnon, Billie and some of her crew, Curtis Bevins, who is filling in for the dearly departed Amelia Cobb, amongst others, and explained all that happened with the Grosvenor and your brother. Unfortunately, I couldn’t hide the fact that he killed them. And then about Fazendiin taking the Immortality Stone. And it started a massively heated debate about what to do next. The plan was to stop Juliska and attempt to save the Svoda being held there. But no one is sure how to accomplish that without massive losses on both sides. And also, how to penetrate the magical shield she has protecting the island. And we don’t know what sort of defense or retaliation she might have lying in wait.”
“Right. Hmm.”
“What are you thinking?”
“My candle penetrated the shield. Remember? Right after we thought Jae had killed himself, and we fled the island. It brought us to our mother.”
“Maybe she can explain how that worked. Might be a way to get through. Couple people at a time, though, that would be tough. Unless there’s a way to amplify the spell or something. But I’ll keep this option to ourselves until we find out more, in case it’s not an option. Maybe it let us out, but it can’t get us back in.”
“So what else is going on?�
�� Meghan asked.
“There was discussion about the prophecy.”
“I had a feeling. Like what?”
Ivan stalled, and Meghan eyed him to just spit it out.
“Not all bad, just a little harsh. Like wondering exactly how much you should be allowed to do, being you’re just kids.” Meghan huffed. “Which you are not,” agreed Ivan hastily. “But that whole thing with the Stone really got everyone in an uproar. Some of the banished, and some of the Tunkapog, see it as your guy’s fault that the Stone was lost to Fazendiin. I tried to explain it was his plan all along, that he used us to further his cause. A few seemed to get it.” He shrugged.
“Any talk of Colin?” she asked him nervously.
Ivan nodded in a manner which indicated he was just as nervous to tell her.
“Are they hunting him?”
“I can’t say for sure. They are extra confused about him. Being that he’s supposedly the third of the immortal party and all, but also this potentially dangerous thing. Nashua biggest concern was his youth, his lack of training and there being no other known Projectors. They fear he is an impressionable, hormonal teenager prone to dark tendencies.”
“Colin?” she wanted to dismiss that argument, but even Ivan was aware she wasn’t able to. They’d both witnessed some of that darkness themselves.
“I didn’t tell them,” Ivan informed her. “Not about the part of the whole Grosvenor destruction and how crazed he got. But when your uncle’s sister encountered him this morning, her explanation of the experience left a bad taste hanging around. I don’t know your brother as well as you do. But you trust him, so I will, too.”
“I do trust him. I suppose the reality is, we all have to be open to the depressing possibility that could change at some point.”
“You have been doing some serious soul searching in here,” Ivan let out raggedly.
“To levels I never thought humanly possible. Don’t they understand though, their treatment and automatic distrust of him, without real cause, is going to turn him into the very thing they’re afraid of?”
Ivan shook his head. “That’s the exact argument I made. Billie agreed. Kanda and Arnon, of course, and a few others. Nashua, I can’t ever figure out what that guy is thinking. People will always fear what they don’t understand. Fear, first. Understand, later.”
“More like, understand, too late.”
Sadly, so very true.
“In the end,” Ivan continued, “it’s all ongoing debates, and no one really agreeing on what to do next. And they have to agree to move forward. Each group alone is sure to fail. Everything is at a standstill.”
“Billie and her crew must not be taking that well. The Svoda on the island might not have much time left.”
“It was actually all Maura and the others could do to stop Billie from trying to storm in and attack on her own. Everything is kind of at an unwanted standstill. And,” he smirked, “even though I was forceful in my choice that you should not be disturbed, if anyone sees you…”
“Yeah, I get it. They’re going to want answers. Ones I don’t have. And the ones I do will not make them feel any safer, or happier, about much of anything. Do you think it’s possible to sneak out of the encampment without anyone noticing?”
“If we’re careful, sure. Where to? Mom?”
“Yeah. But only if you want to come with me. If you wanted to stay here, you know, with Maria. Your girlfriend,” she teased. “I’d understand.”
“She’s not my girlfriend.”
“I thought…”
“I fully plan on marrying her.”
“Oh.”
“And settling down once this war is over.”
“Ah.”
“And I want a family. And kids.”
Meghan choked a little. “Are you sure I’ve only been in here two days?”
“I know, I’m crazy to think like that. But she makes me think like that. She makes me want those things, and I’ve never wanted those things.” He saw the concern in his sister’s gaze. She didn’t want him tagging along on some potentially dangerous mission when he was looking forward to his future, for basically the first time, ever. “I’m coming with you, Meghan. I decided that no matter what, I want to have a life. If I’m granted that chance, I’m going to take it. But you are stuck with me until this war is over.”
“It might never be over for me, Ivan. The prophecy might not be real, but I’m still stuck in the middle of it. I’m still immortal. I can’t even grasp my brain around that idea, but I’m sure as heck trying to figure out exactly what that means for me.”
“You mean for after?”
“Yes. If we win, and let’s just say for kicks I’m suddenly free to live my life, what does that mean, exactly? I’m kind of a little jealous of you and Maria.”
“Why?”
“I am even allowed to fall in love?”
“You already have fallen in love,” Ivan returned under his breath, speaking of Sebastien.
“But can I? Am I allowed to? I mean, Sebastien’s not immortal. Can I have a family? Will my kids be immortal, like me?”
Ivan plunked his back against the wall, seeing her point. “I don’t know what to say to that. I think we need to focus on surviving the war. Those of us who are not immortal, at least.”
“Very funny.”
Ivan reached out and grabbed her ankle. “I can’t even imagine everything that’s going in that fiery red head of yours. Just know, for as long as I’m alive, I’m with you.”
And that was as comforting a thought as she was going to get today. She nodded methodically, swallowing a lump in her throat. “So many questions, and not enough time to deal with them.”
“Until this is over, and then you have forever,” he tried to tease.
“Right. But that’s pretty much the problem, and I don’t think forever, can fix it. But you’re right, as usual. Nothing I can do about it today.”
“Besides, immortal or not, you don’t need to rush into anything with Sebastien.”
“Wow, playing the big brother card, are we?”
“Totally. You are only sixteen.”
“And you’re almost twenty-one and just got your first girlfriend,” she huffed in reply.
“Yes, but, I’m still your older brother. So, you know, gotta do my job. No guy is good enough for you. Ever. Except I like Sebastien. I can’t find any reason he’s not good enough for you.”
She rolled her eyes.
“So you want to sneak away and go see our mother?” Ivan got them back on track.
“Yes. And soon, but,” she grimaced, now the one doing the stalling, and Ivan was getting better at reading her as well.
“There’s more you want to tell me?” he assumed.
She nodded. “I had a pretty insane vision.”
“That sounds ominous.”
“I now know more about Juliska Blackwell than I ever wanted to. But apparently needed to.”
“Juliska? Seriously? Wow. That could be useful.”
“You have no idea.” She filled him in on the sordid past of the Gypsy Queen and when done, let all that information stew around Ivan’s head for a time. Juliska had a son, that son was Colin, and she’d been tricked into thinking it was Eddy, Amelia Cobb, Arnon, Kanda and her brother, the Svoda, and a handful of others, responsible for his death. When really, it was all Fazendiin. With the assistance of mothball lady, Tanzea Chase. And Colin was not actually dead.
Lies. Betrayals. Trickery. Had ruined a once kind-hearted woman who’d found love when she never thought it possible. Hearing the entire story about Juliska’s younger days, the journey that changed her life when Fazendiin took her, and the treachery used to doom her to a life of revenge…
“Wow. A thousand times over. Wow.” Ivan’s mind was completely blown. “And Corny, Cornell. I remembered him from when I was a young boy, and my father was still alive. To see what really happened to him is so horrible.”
“So many despicable things,�
� agreed Meghan. “And the reality, even though there were people who played various parts, there’s only one man responsible for everything.”
“Your father.”
“Yeah. Dear old Dad.”
“You’re not him, Meghan. You never will be.” Ivan felt a need to remind her of this.
“No. I can’t even see what would have to happen in my life to go down that road. I don’t even see him as my father. We may have the same blood in our veins, but, he’s not my dad. He’s not the man who loved me, and raised me.”
“No, he’s the man who brought you into this world to serve whatever purpose he needed.” The brutal reality. But they needed to keep this vision clear in their minds. Especially Meghan.
“And regardless of what was done to Juliska, she needs to be stopped too. It sucks, the how and why it all happened, but in the end, she chose to retaliate. She chose to become the evil she never wanted to be. And she’s done some unforgiveable things. She is why your father is dead, Ivan.”
“As well as so many others. Still, I can’t help but sort of feel bad about it. Like, is there some way she can be saved, you know?”
“Yeah, I was kind of thinking the same after I first had the vision,” admitted Meghan. “In the end though, I don’t think that’s possible. It’s too late.”
“Speaking of too late, and unforgivable things, and clearing the air and all that,” Ivan began uncomfortably. “Part of me dreads telling you this because I know you’re struggling with all the secrets kept from you. Some, by me.”
“At this point, I’m just sort of numb, so you know, get it out, get it over with, so I can be mad at you and then we can get out of here.”
“Well, I suppose in the scheme of things it’s not that big. I just want to come clean about everything and this detail dawned on me when you were telling me about the Juliska vision. I hadn’t thought about it in a long time. But back when we were in Grimble, I recognized Eddy. I was just old enough to remember his face, and him being Juliska’s fiancé. But he asked me not to tell. Said it was vital for me not to. So I didn’t tell you. Or anyone. Not that it would have changed much at the time, I guess. And I absolutely had no idea Eddy and Juliska ever had a child, or that it was Colin. But, I just wanted you to know.”
The Ghost, The Dragon, and The Lost King (Fated Chronicles Book 4) Page 36
