"We will have words about this later," he aimed at his sister.
"And you think it would have mattered if he'd been here, or somewhere else?" she threw back at him hotly. "At least here, under our watch, we have some warning. Some idea about what the heck is going on."
Hard to argue that point. But Nashua didn't have to be happy about it.
"You're not necessarily wrong, Sister. But you withheld his presence here and endangered others without my knowledge, or consent." A pointed reminder of who was in charge.
Her hands landed on her hips.
"You're right. I'm sorry. But the reality is, you need to deal with the fact that you cannot control everything. You can't control every damn outcome, no matter how much you plan, and debate, and stall. Your people need you to lead them. They trust you to do the right thing, as do I. But we are out of time, Nashua."
"We are not people of war." The crux of his problem. "How can I send them into this? Some will perish. I thought—" he stalled. "When we first agreed to this, I thought I could do it. But now that the time is here…" Up until now, the conflicts had not been serious. Not serious enough that he feared for his people's lives, not like he did now.
Reality was raising its ugly head. War was brutal. Volunteering the people, you loved, for such brutality, was taking its toll on the leader.
Kanda caressed her brother's cheek.
"You love your people. I've never doubted this. But we no longer have the option to sit on the sidelines. Our nature may not be to fight. But we have trained and prepared. We're shifters. We are strong. Willing. And ready. You must be too."
"All of our lives are in danger, Nashua." Arnon came to Kanda's defense. "Magic might perish, and then where will any of us be?"
They were right, but giving in was not so easy for the stubborn leader. And he wasn't so off base in his worries, either. His hardened stance softened some at the strength in her features.
"You're right, Kanda. Thank you for setting me straight. I was in despair. And—" he stalled again. "I am—sorry about the boy. I know you love him, like he is your own son." Nashua aimed his compassion at both his sister and Arnon. "I'm sorry. Truly."
Kanda nodded weakly, with Arnon in silent unease by her side. Colin was his son, not by blood, but he'd raised him as such and would always see him as such.
"We won't lose him," promised Kanda.
"You can't guarantee that anymore than I can." The truth was a savage beast.
They and Nashua came to a silent agreement. None of them were in a situation they wanted to be in, but they had no choice but to move forward, fight, and defend themselves.
Nashua assisted in rousing the village, gathering all able-bodied people as hurriedly as possible, sending them to the center of their village.
Jasper and Aloyna returned, dressed for battle. She, with a magic belt slung over her shoulder with stored up magic—just in case. They joined Arnon and Kanda, and the ever-expanding group joining in to fight, if called upon.
Billie Sadorus, Maura, and Noah Flummer found them seconds later.
A smattering of silver hair flew inside—Catrina—eyes wide, with troubled understanding. Her skin paled when she saw the battle preparations, and her heart almost broke in two when her gaze caught Jasper's and he had no way of holding hers. The regret, killing him. It was bad. Whatever had happened, this was the big bad they'd all feared might come. And not even she could do anything to help her beloved Colin.
Nashua was determining who would stay behind to protect those here, and who would go to the island. It was easy in the end—those capable and willing, filed to deploy to the island. And an equal amount vowed to stay and protect the borders, just in case.
Turns out when the magic hit the fan, they could work together and make quick choices for the betterment of all.
Many were filing in and getting filled in on what was going on and making hasty choices of where their talents would be best utilized. Many wondered where Jasper's army was and why they were not here to fight, but no one questioned even though they all wanted to.
They had to trust that those in charge knew what they were doing. It was too late to question now.
"Jasper," called out Aloyna.
"Yes."
"I'm staying behind. My presence on the island tonight would only infuriate my son further. It's not time for me to face him yet." Jasper did not question her judgement. He embraced her, their silent encouragement passing to each other. He left her alongside Kanda and Arnon, who also agreed to stay. They wanted to help, but also feared they'd end up in the way when it came to Colin—their minds, clouded by their love for him. Not what needed to be done.
A raucous was breaking out in the Billie camp. She and Maura were arguing with Mireya, and her friend, Joseph. They wanted to join the fight, but were met with grim replies of, "you're too young." Daveena was with them too. But being seventeen, she was told she could make up her own mind.
In the end, they reached a compromise. Mireya and Joseph could join those protecting the borders on Tunkapog lands. They begrudgingly accepted those terms.
Daveena thought hard about it, and joined her friends—with a telling smirk.
"Can't let you get into trouble now, can I?"
"We can protect ourselves," Mireya insisted. Although, she and Joseph didn't mind Daveena on their side. She was a fierce ally.
"We stick together," Daveena stated decisively.
"I agree," said Joseph. They were a good team.
A young man approached them. Tunkapog shifter, around Daveena's age they guessed.
He smiled in greeting. "I'm told you guys are with me."
They stared up at him. Even Daveena, which was saying something because she came in at a curvaceous, five foot ten. He was easily six inches taller. Broad shouldered. And by the looks of the furs he wore—they surmised when he shifted, he was a hefty wallop of a bear.
"And you are?" Daveena snapped out. Like she was going to let her friends go off into the night with some stranger.
He grinned. A rather stunningly handsome sort of grin that would have knocked any interested woman's socks off. "I've heard about you. I was hoping we'd run into each other."
Her already fierce features warned, you might shift into a bear, but I can break you in two so do—not—mess with me.
"We—are getting off on the wrong foot." He cleared his throat. "My name is Micah." He looked over the three, but his gaze landed back on Daveena, and held an unexpected, respectful admiration. "I heard about what you guys did on the island. That was—impressive. What you three did…" Mireya bit her lip, because, even though Micah was speaking of the three of them, his gaze seemed permanently trapped on Daveena.
"We did what we had to." Daveena was in no mood to accept praise for helping save her own people.
Micah pushed out an expectant sigh. "Right. Sorry. I wasn't trying to offend. Only pay a compliment. One, the way I heard it, is well-deserved."
A pinkish hue painted Daveena's cheeks—well—how about that—there was a first for everything.
And the barely noticeable reaction seemed to please Micah. His eyes lingered. She lifted her arms and crossed them, her stare indignant with challenge.
Mireya and Joseph held back a laugh. If this guy, Micah, was heading in the direction they were thinking—he was in for a roller-coaster of a pursuit.
"Well, um—shall we take our posts?" He spun around to lead them off.
Before Mireya and Joseph followed, Daveena twisted around and did the most un-Daveena-like thing, they'd ever witnessed.
"Oh. My. God. He's so hot!" She mouthed it in complete teen girl giddiness, before spinning back around, completely her normal rigid self again.
It was all Mireya and Joseph could do to keep their composure as they fell in line behind them.
Many groups were filing out, off to take up patrols of the borders.
Tunkapog shifters taking on their animal forms, if required.
Maria came
screaming in a moment later, asking where she could best help. She'd already said goodbye to Ivan. Billie suggested gathering all the young children, and Maria agreed at once. She twisted only to run into an out of sorts, out of place, Catrina Flummer. Her family had strictly forbidden her to join in the fight, but she'd snuck out anyway because she'd been so sure this had to do with Colin.
"Will you help me with the children?" Maria asked her.
Catrina let out a breath she'd been holding and gave her a tight nod. But not without one final pleading gaze at Jasper—which only confirmed what he'd already silently told her. Don't come… and she trusted the man to do what was best for Colin.
She joined Maria. It would keep her busy, and keep her thoughts from jumping from worst case scenario after scenario.
The tension hung thick.
Nashua was ordering those going to the island to the boats.
Jasper, Billie, and the others joined them.
The boats departed with a gentle push.
There was no more delaying, and debating, and trying to come to some sort of agreement. The war was starting.
CHAPTER 25
Juliska Blackwell stared out across the island from the rooftop of her fortress. Her life spread out before her like the waves rippling farther and farther out to sea. How had it come to this? How had she gotten here? What was the pivotal moment when her life had changed, forever, to the point of no return?
Even now, with all she’d learned, with her eyes wide open and her heart cracking down the middle and an angry burn, like lava, pushing out of it, there was no escape from what she’d created. What she’d done. What she'd become.
There was no, oops, sorry—I was wrong. My bad.
There was no do-over. No rewind.
There was only forward.
She was stuck in the middle of war in which she could not take a side.
The side she’d crushed under her own desire for revenge would never have her, and they shouldn’t.
And the side who’d deceived her, the story she’d fallen for… as much as it had destroyed her when she thought her son had died, and she promised revenge—this had flipped upside down and now she wanted Fazendiin to pay for what he'd done, and her son, free of it all. Of the magic tearing him apart. Of the legacy, she was forcing onto him. But the only way he lived, at all, was if she remained loyal to Fazendiin and talked her son into joining them. An unlikely scenario.
Surely, this wasn't the only option?
Her son was immortal. She could be again too. But it would take ten lifetimes to make up for all she’d done.
She stopped herself. Berating the very idea of bringing her son into this mess any further than he was already. There would never be enough lifetimes to make up for all she'd done if she dragged him into this life.
She pushed out a breath and sucked her lips inward.
If it was the only way to protect her son, then she'd have no choice but to do so. Everything she'd done had been for, or because of, Colin. Things had gotten mixed up and messed up along the way, but that's where it had all started. Her son. And somehow, it's where it would all end.
She heard the door to the rooftop swish open and close. Her body let out a silent moan. She recognized the footsteps. Fazendiin. But not alone.
"Have you considered my offer?" He got right to the point.
"Considered, yes," she replied flatly.
"Your Lord is addressing you. A proper greeting—"
"Gavriella, my Queen," Fazendiin rebuked gently. Juliska twisted to see him. Gavriella deferred with a sly simper.
They were out and about in public now. Fazendiin must be close to his end game, she guessed. In part, thanks to her own efforts.
"Juliska?" There was a hint of impatience hanging on his breath.
"I do not believe my son will join me," she stalled. "You've seen to it that he hates me. And you. And all you stand for."
"As you did once, long ago."
Another sickening truth, back to a woman who didn't exist anymore. She wasn't that naïve young woman—she'd mistakenly never thought of herself as naïve. She had underestimated her desire to learn about her past, and about herself and her abilities, and Fazendiin had needled his way in and manipulated that to his advantage.
She might not have been a silly woman with silly ideals, but she'd been blinded and saw what she'd wanted to. And this is where it had gotten her. The son she'd tried so desperately to protect was once again in danger.
Colin might be immortal, but Fazendiin wouldn't let that stop him. He always had a plan. And a backup plan. And a failsafe if that didn't work out! The man was a regular bag of never ending tricks. A reaction for every possible outcome.
"Juliska?" The impatience barked out a little thicker. "There is a choice to be made, and you are running out of time."
A low hum buzzed into their ears. They threw a few curious looks about. The hum grew louder and careened ominously closer, becoming a roar of electric power that whipped its way onto the island. The sharp edge of powerful magic was unmistakable.
Fazendiin cleared his throat and eyed Gavriella, who got his silent message. Her body began to contort into the disguise that sickened Juliska. That of the elderly mothball woman, Tanzea Chase.
"Strike what I said, Juliska," Fazendiin called out. "You are out of time. Your son is here." And like he'd been requested, down below across the island, shouts and spells were thrown around at some unseen opponent.
Juliska whisked her gaze downward, eyes blazing out across as a flurry of magic wove its way closer. The Striper army was fighting at full steam at some blur of an enemy— crack—the air ripped open with his arrival atop the fortress. A magical tank on two legs, shrouded in an ominous intensity aimed only at one being—Fazendiin.
"Colin." His name breathed across Juliska's lips, but there was no acknowledgement of her presence, whatsoever.
"You don’t want to try this, Son."
Juliska was about to demand the Grosvenor never call him that when Colin did it for her.
"I am not your son. And you cannot stop me. I am more powerful than you."
"Ah, yes, but you see, like all superheroes, you have a weakness." And I know your weakness, he let float silently between them. Well actually, Colin had a few—Catrina being one. But the one at the Grosvenor's disposal was the worst kind.
"What? Going to cower behind some old bones?" Colin badgered him. He had no doubt Fazendiin had more Projector's bones made into some sort of weapon.
The Grosvenor ventured closer. Arms spreading wide in invitation. "Go ahead. See what you can do."
Juliska's heart sank down through the stone floor and straight into the ocean.
His backup plan.
Down below, out across the island, another round of magic erupted.
"Ah, you've brought friends," Tanzea noted, gazing down over the side.
Jasper, Nashua, Billie, and the rest of the fighters engaged the Striper army. It wasn't going to be an easy battle, or one they could win without great effort, seeing as Fazendiin had turned them into his immortal army. Plus, they could become invisible on demand if they blended into their background. But they did have a Projector on their side, one in control of his powers, so that had to count for something.
"So—the Projector lives. Interesting…" Fazendiin wondered exactly who he sent his son to kill. And why his future selves, or his oracles, Grace and her mother, hadn't revealed this news to him. But the reasons would have to wait.
A fire surged out of nowhere with three bodies and a Catawitch popping out of the flames.
"Colin!" screamed Meghan. It had taken them a moment once on the island, to figure out this is where Colin had come to.
He didn't hear her calling his name.
His entire being focused purely on the Grosvenor he planned to injure.
And hurt.
And kill.
This man was responsible for all he'd lost. All his mother had lost. And his father. Never mind th
e countless others like his own children, parents, nameless faces no one even probably knew of.
A sinister aura haunted Colin, a halo of hostile energy that hovered and surged all around him, waiting for its command.
Fazendiin's response, a pompous, silent dare.
A spell whizzed by Sebastien's head and he transformed into his bird form just in time for it to miss him, while Ivan pivoted and shot off a spell of his own.
Meghan smelled the culprit before she'd seen her. That vile old woman needed to die already! Nona hissed at the woman. Who grinned such a conniving grin, Meghan wanted to burn it right off her face.
Tanzea's body began to contort, wings sprouting out of her back. A Scratcher was going to be difficult to fight unless Colin snapped out of it. Or Juliska suddenly switched teams—ha! Neither was likely to happen.
##
Colin and Fazendiin were in a stare down of epic proportions, each daring the other to make the first move. Neither willing to admit they were the weaker opponent. Both fully believing they were the stronger of the two. And in seemingly no hurry to act, but thriving on the intimidation.
##
Meghan closed her eyes and caught her breath. She had no idea how to reach Colin—the real him. She forced them open to witness Sebastien transform back into his human form, and shoot off a spell at the fully formed Scratcher that had been Tanzea.
Between him and Ivan, they'd keep her busy. Meghan hoped.
But she was no match for this showdown between Colin and her father—who, hello! Hadn't even reacted when his own daughter made an appearance—and like that should even matter! Stupid thing to be pissed off by and—brought her right out of the moment, instantly sickened, as she thought of all the vile things this man had done to Colby. A big part of her wanted to cheer Colin on. And hoped he kicked her father's butt right off the fortress!
Across the rooftop, Juliska's intense stare billowed in conflict. And that's when it hit Meghan—his mother, she might be the only thing to stop him. Give him pause. At least long enough for the real Colin to surface again.
And if Juliska was not willing to try, Meghan would force her to.
The Queen, The Mirror, and The Creation (Fated Chronicles Book 5) Page 18
