Billie though? She didn’t typically care about these things. Probably just small talk.
“I was visiting him. Yes. It is not what you think though.”
Billie tossed her a questioning look that morphed into a grin. “Oh… I see. I wasn’t insinuatin’ anything. He’s a good lad, that’s all.”
Meghan groaned. “Sorry, Billie. Everyone keeps reading into things that are so not there.”
“Well, people do have trouble keeping to their own business ‘round these parts,” she cracked lightly. “Still, his loss I imagine.” She winked.
“Yeah, Ivan would not agree with you about that,” Meghan mumbled sarcastically.
“It’s a lovely little cottage,” Billie mused.
“You should see the inside.”
Billie laughed. “Well, I would wager it’s hard to live in the home he once shared with his parents.”
“Yeah, I would take that wager,” agreed Meghan.
Billie stopped. There was definitely something else on her mind than mindless chatter. “Meghan, I wonder if ya might accompany me home before curfew sets in this evening. I've been meaning to visit. I have some of... Colin's things. I thought ya might like to have’em.”
“Oh. Wow, yeah, I would. I can't believe that never crossed my mind.”
“It has been rather chaotic ‘round here.”
“You can say that again.” Meghan followed Billie home.
Seeing the real version of Billie’s house was much more impressive than the magical replica they had visited back in Grimble. Its brown-shingled turrets jutted from the sides of the house, shooting into the air. There was a small, square front porch on the real version, whereas in Grimble, it had been just a path leading up to a door. The real door was made of ornately carved wood and was heavy to open.
“So, Billie, I always wanted to ask... is your house an actual old ship? Or did you have it built this way?”
“Little a both, actually. You see, the wood all comes from a ship my father used to own. However, he wrecked it one day, brought it to shore where it sat for years, until he passed. I decided I didn't want it goin’ to waste so I had it torn apart and rebuilt into my home. It’s like havin' a piece of my dad with me.”
“And your dad was a piece,” another voice spoke, heartily amused. A head poked up from behind a nearby hedge. A woman appeared, covered in clippings, a bit of green smudged on her face. Underneath the smudge, her pale skin had a pinkish glow to it, especially accentuated by her raven black hair and the black tattoo crawling up her neck.
She took off her thick gloves. “I don't think we've officially met. I’m Maura,” she said, shaking Meghan's hand. The last time Meghan had seen her, Maura had been tied to a stake and nearly burned alive.
“It’s nice to meet you,” said Meghan.
“You, too. I’m just sprucing things up before the first snow,” she added with a kind smile. “Some things are better done before winter sets in,” she quipped, her words aimed playfully at Billie. Who just waved her arm indicating jubilantly that Maura had no idea what she was talking about, but never once did either lose their smiles.
“You head inside, take care of your business. I’ll be seeing you around,” Maura noted, returning to her hedge trimming.
As they stepped into the ship-shaped house, Billie exclaimed, “You can’t believe what relief and joy it gives me to be back here on the island. And thank goodness for Maura, ‘cause frankly, I’m downright terrible ‘bout procrastinatin’!”
Meghan laughed lightly, which oddly enough, felt like little jolts of relief from all the crap and chaos that kept piling up.
They walked into Billie's living room where a small box sat on her sofa. “There it is,” she pointed with a nod.
All those jolts of relief froze, gaining immense weight. It was like looking at what remained of her brother. Of what he once was, because no matter what he was changed now.
Before Meghan had made a move to grab the box, Billie strolled over to a bookshelf.
“The most important item is not in that box.” She proceeded to lift a few stray books, grabbing one hidden behind, and handed it to Meghan.
Meghan just stared at the book, stunned.
At first, she was elated; the book was safe. Billie had hidden the Magicante. This morphed almost instantly to panic. “I thought, hoped, Colin had this with him.” He so rarely ever left it anywhere.
Meghan sniffled. The book was a brutal reminder of what she’d done. Making it all too real.
“I betrayed my own brother.”
“Ya did what ya thought ya had to. Life isn’t always so cut and dry.”
And it was useless to go down this road again. Meghan pinned her gaze on Billie, the truth of something finally winding its way to the surface. “You understand what this book is?” She must, she’d hidden it.
“I do,” a man’s deep voice answered. Meghan spun, giving a start. Eyes darting in bewildered question between Billie and her brother, Garner, who stalked into the room like he owned the place. And filled the place, the room got small, fast.
Meghan always trusted Billie. Was this some kind of trap?
When was she going to learn that nothing was ever as it first appeared in this world?
Billie huffed, planting her hands on her hips. “Oh, brother.” she tsked at his ominous entrance.
He softened some. “Sorry. Habit.”
“Huh?” Meghan responded, gaping. What happened next caught Meghan off guard completely. So much so, there was only gaping. No talking.
“I have to start with an apology,” Garner began. “My ungodly behavior to you is, was… a necessary evil. However, I’d wager you’ve been around our world long enough to figure out not all is as it first appears.”
Her words from a minute ago.
“There is a certain facade I must keep in public,” he continued, like somehow that simple explanation made sense of all this madness.
“Okay?” Meghan squeaked out. She hadn’t meant it to be a question, but…
“I asked my sister to call you here today for two reasons.”
Garner did this? Not Billie. He wanted to meet with her in private, and she was holding the Magicante. This was getting super weird.
“First, I wanted to be sure the book was returned to you. Your brother would want you to have it in his absence, even in spite of…” he trailed off.
“That it’s my fault he fled,” Meghan finished bluntly.
“That’s actually the second part of why you’re here. It was not entirely your doing.”
Mouth hanging open again. She clasped it shut. She might need some superglue if this got any stranger.
“What I mean to say is,” Garner clarified, “you did what you did, however, the outcome would have been the same. Colin and Catrina would have left regardless of the how.”
Meghan’s breath rushed out of her lungs. “How do you…” He knew far too much about all of this. She swayed a little.
“Meghan?” called out Billie.
“I’m fine,” she blew her off.
“We could sit,” offered Billie.
“You may want to,” Garner warned ominously.
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 49
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 reached 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.
The Map, The Dagger, and The Vampyres (Fated Chronicles Book 2) Page 44
