Divided (Bloodlines, The Immortal, and The Dagger of Bone) (A Fated Fantasy Quest Adventure Book 5)

by Humphrey Quinn

  Meghan’s eyes widened. “None of what you’ve told me is the real reason I’m here, is it?”

  “You are more observant than I thought,” Garner admitted in approval.

  “Been told that before. But I will stand. Don’t want to sit.”

  Garner nodded. “The reason I needed to speak with you,” he stalled, the words freezing on his lips for a moment. “For starters, Billie and I, and a few others I shall not name, assisted your brother and Catrina in their escape.”

  “Okay. Why?”

  “The short of it, Catrina Flummer is of great importance. We had feared her dead upon leaving Eidolon’s Valley, and when the alarm sounded and the guards were coming for him, Colin informed us he had been hiding her all along.”

  “This is because she’s the Projector, right?” Meghan assumed. And why so important if she was going to become dangerous?

  “Catrina is not the Projector, Meghan,” explained Billie, her voice low. “She’s a Song Spinner.” She and Garner went into detail about what that was, and that they hoped Catrina would be able to give them important information long forgotten, by using her gift to interpret the stories behind the music they’d been playing for many long years. Vital details that might help in a war about to break out.

  “More like a war that started long ago and never ended,” Billie finished.

  Meghan’s head was spinning. Maybe she should have sat down.

  Not only was Ivan and Bird in on some secret agenda, with Juliska spying on her all this time, and possibly her mother, and Jae was some kind of lost cause, and now Garner and Billie were basically telling her they were waging their own battle.

  Over what?

  And what was her part in all this? Or Colin’s?

  “Wait a minute…” she put up her hands, flexing her palms. “The Stripers claimed they tracked the power of the Projector to the Svoda. They said it disappeared after Catrina and Colin... Oh…” She took a step back, falling against the wall for support. “Are you sure? Really sure? Like super sure, no chance you’re wrong, sure?”

  “I’m so sorry, Meghan.” Billie looked near to tears.

  “We did not realize when we helped them escape. Not that we would have stopped them, there was no other choice at the time. We could not permit Juliska to get her hands on Catrina. We needed her safe and for now, she is. But as Colin's powers increase…”

  Meghan raised her hand stopping Garner. “Please don’t say it.” Do not tell me my brother has a death sentence he cannot get out of. Her horrifying vision tunneled back in… this is the why. This is why Ivan and I conspire to kill my brother. Meghan backed her way out of the room.

  Garner called out her name and she stopped but refused to look at either of them.

  “Whatever happens, whatever you learn, whatever you see, there is one thing I can tell you with complete certainty.”

  Her head twisted to the side.

  “Put your trust in Ivan. If he tells you to do something, do it, without question. If tells you to run, do not hesitate.”

  “Ivan. How do...” she stopped when Billie shook her head, no. Meghan understood they could say no more.

  “Just heed those words, my brother speaks the truth,” Billie reassured.

  “Okay,” Meghan mumbled incoherently. She got out of Billie's in a daze, more like a murky haze that threatened to suffocate her. She walked right past Maura without a glance, falling into another trance-like walk. Minus the fiery fury this time. The fire, numbed with… nothing. Because nothing was real. Nothing in this world held any ounce of sanity.

  Apparently, the one exception being Ivan Crane.

  And somehow, deep in her veins, she’d already known this. As infuriating as he made her, or her, him, there was no one else she’d ever seek out if she was in trouble. How had that happened?

  Meghan forced everything she’d just learned about Colin deep inside an invisible vault until she could process it all. The fact that her little brother… God, he’d barely grown any taller… she’d never be able to think of him as something deadly or dangerous. He’d always be her little brother who needed saving from bullies and… she locked it away.

  Tomorrow morning, she and Ivan were setting out to free Bird.

  She wanted all of the crap laid out all at once.

  Once Bird was free, Ivan would explain, everything. No more secrets!

  And she’d not give up on Colin yet. She’d find some way to save him. There had to be a way. It could not be a death sentence, especially not one carried out by her own hands.

  She wanted all the truth and hurt done with. And after, she prayed she had the strength to face it all, and move on.

  CHAPTER 16

  Colin had spent the previous week since getting his second soul, with Jasper Thorndike testing his reactions to certain emotional triggers. Mostly, Colin handled them fine. At one point, Jasper had literally resigned to trying to spook Colin into a reaction and jumped out at him just after dusk, from behind a shrub growing on the backside of his boat deck.

  Colin had lost his balance and nearly fell over the side of the boat into the marshy river below; however, while falling, he realized he didn't have to and suddenly stopped himself mid fall. He proceeded to walk up the side of the boat and back onto the deck.

  Jasper nodded in approval and headed toward the front of the deck where Catrina had just made iced tea.

  “We might be protected on this boat of yours, Jasper,” she said, “But the muggy Bayou heat is almost more than I can take.”

  Colin joined them, accepting a cold tea from Catrina, inwardly debating something. A smile lit across his face.

  “What?” she asked him.

  A perfectly crystallized snowflake landed on her nose.

  She looked up laughing in delight. “You're making it snow. It is winter, this seems much more realistic.” It fell a little heavier, a cool breeze blanketing the boat. Catrina got up and twirled around, soaking up the break from the heat. The flakes stopped falling a few minutes later and the heat bubbled back up.

  Colin bent around to see Jasper wearing an odd expression. Was it… hope?

  “I don't want to sound too excited by your progress, Colin, because we do still have much to learn, but I admit I am pleased that you have bonded with the second soul so easily. I’ve seen it take many months, if not years, to adjust to the intrusion into one’s mind.”

  “Oh, well, that’s probably because I'm used to intrusions in my mind.”

  “How so?”

  “My twin sister, Meghan. We can read each other’s thoughts. Since we were little. So the Magicante is really just like having another sister in my head.”

  “That's a very lucky skill, Mr. Jacoby, although, I find it rather odd that you haven't mentioned your sister. Not once until now.”

  Colin's heart went cold at the thought of her. And so did the air on the boat, but without the fluffy flakes dancing downward. “There’s nothing to talk about.”

  Catrina’s teeth chattered, the sudden icy air sinking into her bones, zapping away the heat.

  “She’s your sister, surely you miss her?” Jasper needled.

  “What’s to miss?” Colin’s fingers tapped against the tabletop. His leg shaking up and down, teeth grinding together.

  Jasper continued his assault. “I find it hard to believe that after all the time you’ve been here, you don't want to talk about your sister. How she, the one who always protected you… every single day of your life… betrayed you... because she believed Catrina is the Projector. A dangerous, evil girl who was stealing away her brother.”

  “I said I do not want to talk about it!”

  “Meghan is not an it, she’s your sister.”

  “Not anymore! A real sister would never betray her brother.” He’d never forgive her. Never. She could beg all she wanted but he’d never forgive her for betraying him and Catrina.

  It hurt. To depths he didn’t even know existed inside him.

  The hurt rea
ched to the surface, trying to escape the black hole Colin had buried it in.

  He missed Jasper giving Catrina a slight nod meaning to give him some space. She bit her lip, wrapping her arms around herself, unable to interfere in this exchange and worried what would happen if Colin didn’t calm himself.

  How could she?

  How could Meghan do it?

  Why?

  The fury flew out of him with nothing more than a cry of anger. The world around him obeying some silent order he hadn’t even vocalized. Like a meteor had landed right where he was exploding the earth around him, a blast ricocheting away from his body.

  With the flick of his wrist Jasper froze everything before any real damage was done. He, Colin, and Catrina the only moving objects in a frozen world of wood and plants cracking open and splintering apart around them. She dared not move. Jasper held his gaze on Colin who’d fallen to his knees, rocking back and forth.

  “And here we get to it at last.” Jasper had found the right trigger.

  With another flick of his wrist the boat returned to normal, like no near catastrophic accident had just happened. Catrina still dared not move. Colin was unraveling right before her eyes. Which she guessed it was Jasper was trying to do.

  The stream of anger, and the need to understand why Meghan had done what she did, bubbled to the surface like a steam kettle on full boil. He didn’t want to calm down. He wanted to get angry. He wanted to yell at her and tell her he’d never forgive her. He wanted her to suffer in some way that made her understand the hurt… the stream of pain wound and wound and wound, upward until it was too much and threatened to explode right out of him.

  This time, in a manner much more dangerous than shattering the boat. Like maybe the entire river. Would Jasper’s magical cloak of protection keep them all safe from this?

  The Magicante, his second soul, stretched to its limit and struggled to keep up with the rush of thoughts surging through Colin’s mind. The connection weakened. Jasper was saying something, he tried to listen but all he heard was a hum building in his ears.

  “Latch on to one thought,” instructed Jasper. His words rang clear in Colin’s mind. Somehow, he’d shoved them to the top of all the muck. Colin wanted to shout how in the heck he was supposed to do that, but speaking wasn’t an option.

  So many memories were flying through, all of his sister. All of the reasons he trusted her, and why her betrayal hurt so much. But he obeyed Jasper and latched on… it was sort of like jumping off a cliff with no visual to what awaited below.

  The memory slammed into his mind, another painful reminder he did not want to focus on. It was the memory of himself and Meghan standing outside the Mochrie house with his arm around her shoulder. Right before their time at Grimble was ending and they were… happy. Accepting of their new life.

  She did not deserve to be happy.

  The furious wail that came out of him sent a shockwave of energy outward which shook the boat and pulsed against the magical cloak protecting them from the outside world.

  “Colin!” Catrina shouted. “Listen to Jasper.” She landed her gaze on the man who was staring at Colin with doubt in his eyes.

  Find a new thought, determined Colin.

  No. His rattled brain denied.

  It would only be more of the same.

  All the times Meghan had come to his rescue. Because he needed her to. Because he wasn’t big enough to fend for himself. Not strong enough to stand up for himself. He’d always needed her. And she had always been there and promised she always would be. And then she broke that promise.

  With a final stutter, the Magicante stalled out, unable to keep up with Colin’s ravaged spiral of anger. His thoughts went haywire until everything just froze. The hum hovering on one single realization.

  He wasn’t that small, helpless boy any longer.

  He climbed to his feet. Body heaving in breaths raggedly coming out of him.

  He stared right through Catrina and Jasper like they were not even there. He was blind to everything but this one thought.

  I am not that person anymore.

  I don’t need my sister to fight my battles.

  I don’t need anyone…

  Jasper charged to his feet. He recognized that look.

  The translucent bubble of magical energy, cloaking them and the boat from the outside world, started to crack. Catrina gasped. Jasper flicked his wrist intending to fix it.

  “No.” Colin stared down Jasper.

  “Colin, stop this at once,” the man warned. “Do not make me hurt you.”

  “You can’t.” It wasn’t Colin speaking. Not really. It was like he’d been replaced by some cold, non-human version of himself.

  “Colin?” Catrina called out softly pleading.

  The pulsing increased, the cloak flexing outward like an invisible hand pushed against it.

  Jasper had not expected this outcome. It was too soon for this kind of power. He’d only wanted to show the boy what it felt like to have the Magicante struggle to keep up. And how to rebuild the connection if broken. A vital lesson. This… something had snapped inside the boy.

  It was too soon. It shouldn’t be like this.

  “I’m sorry, Colin.” Jasper had to end it.

  “No,” Catrina cried out.

  Too many things happened all at once.

  The pulsing energy field exploded outward into millions of tiny bursts of light. The protective cloak, blown to smithereens.

  Catrina flew backward out of the boat. Jasper flew in the opposite direction but was able to react fast enough to stop himself mid-motion, as well as stop Catrina from hitting the riverbank in an impact that would have killed her.

  A blink later she was back on the deck, gasping and steadying herself.

  They both stared blankly at the spot Colin had been.

  He was gone.

  “What happened?” she pushed out. “Where did he go?”

  “I have no idea,” said Jasper, his face a canvas of impending doom. “I… he… this should not have happened.” He gazed overhead, befuddled by the protection cloaks demise. “This is very, very bad.”

  CHAPTER 17

  Colin materialized in a place that looked familiar, but he did not recognize it right away. His emotions were stuck rolling over this same reality… that he was in charge of his own life. That he did not need Meghan, or anyone, to come to his rescue.

  His breath came out in heavy torrents.

  Where had he come to?

  It was familiar, and yet it wasn’t clicking into place.

  How had he gotten here?

  Where was here?

  He wheeled around in numb motions, eyes blinking hard, thoughts still racing like mad.

  He let out a gasp.

  He’d returned to where it had all started. For him at least.

  The first place and time he’d ever used magic.

  The old twisted oak tree in the Cobbscott Campground. When he had saved his sister.

  This, at last, was the one thought his addled brain latched and held onto.

  It seemed like another lifetime ago that had happened. She’d gotten sick, they didn’t know why. Ends up it was because she was a Firemancer. But he had saved her, gotten her home using magic he didn’t even know he possessed. Because the thought of her dying and leaving him was the most terrifying thing he’d ever experienced.

  Her betrayal had felt like that. Like she’d taken herself away from him. She’d chosen to leave him, and let him fend for himself. She abandoned him when he needed her the most.

  And that was a hurt he could not simply wish away.

  He fell to his knees, a sudden exhaustion coming over him.

  The Magicante sensed the change in him, the calm returning. It took over filtering all the crap out of his polluted mind.

  He had not believed she’d do it. It had cut him open and he wasn’t sure how to repair the wound her betrayal had left inside him.

  This had all been a test. Jasper
had tested him. And he had failed, miserably.

  What had he done?

  And how was he going to get back to Jasper and Catrina, and damn it, had he hurt them?

  There was a loud pop behind him and he spun around.

  “Colby?” he called out in surprise.

  “Gotcha,” Colby grinned wickedly.

  Someone else popped in next to Colby. Colin recognized him as the Striper leader named KarNavan.

  “What’s going on? Why are you here?” Colin expected an answer, but they just smiled, smugly, like they were waiting for something.

  Colin considered fighting it out with Colby, but in his current state of mind that might not be the smartest idea. The best idea was to return to Jasper. He would reform the magical cloak and they’d go back into hiding. He needed a lot more practice before he was ready to venture into the world.

  The smug silence was getting on his nerves.

  Before he returned, he wanted to know why they were here… duh! He already knew why. They were tracking the Projector. They were tracking him… well they were not going to catch him!

  Colby’s smugness was wearing off, a look of hurry up already shooting out at Colin.

  “You waiting for me to strike first?” assumed Colin. “Not going to happen. I’m not fighting you today. And I don’t have that book you’re always trying to steal so you’re wasting your time.” He had no fight left. Instead, he focused on returning to Jasper and Catrina. Picturing himself on the deck of the boat. An odd sensation of being carried away with the wind was interrupted by Colby sneering, “See you soon.” And smiling wretchedly.

  What did he mean by that?

  Whatever. It didn’t matter. A blink later his feet were firmly on the deck of the boat.

  He’d done it. Gotten himself back.

  “Colin!” Catrina rushed forward, wrapping her arms around him.

  Jasper sighed in massive relief. “You really had me scared for a minute there, kid.”

  “I don’t understand what happened. I thought I couldn't leave the boat.”

  “Yeah, we need to talk about that. First things first though…” he waved his arms over his head beginning the repair of the magical cloak.