“Yes, the island,” she said in a daze. “Maura. Wait, where’s Maura?”
“I’m here, Billie,” a voice returned. Maura was sitting on the ground next to an older woman, assisting her.
Billie took a deep breath. “We escaped the island, came seeking help. We nearly died today, all of us. But someone saved us. I don’t know who. I don’t how we got here.”
Escaped, Meghan thought. Why did she need to escape the island? What exactly was going on back there?
Nashua, the leader of the Tunkapog, alongside Curtis Bevins, the temporary leader of the banished, arrived to assess the situation. Arnon and Kanda arrived just behind them.
Meghan made the introductions.
It had been a long time, but most everyone actually remembered each other from their life on the island.
Noah Flummer and his wife came striding over, standing at his side. “We know how confusing this must be,” he told everyone. “We are equally confused, but there are pressing issues we must discuss. Is it possible to be granted a meeting with Amelia Cobb?”
“I’m afraid that is not possible,” said Curtis. “She’s no longer with us. Dead,” he clarified. “For reasons I shall not enter into right now.”
“Dead. Oh. I’m sorry,” said Noah, not sure of what else to say.
“Your arrival here is at an odd time. A time of transition,” Curtis explained. “But you’re welcome here.”
Nashua stepped forward, dressed in his white-skinned wolf-like furs.
“Why don’t you take time to recover, treat your wounded. We can speak in two hours’ time.”
Noah nodded that he agreed. The news that Amelia was dead had caught him off guard. It appeared that the island was not the only place in a transition, as the man named Curtis had said. It seemed that the entire magical community was in peril.
Meghan assisted the new arrivals, pointing them in the direction of the large meeting room near the center of the village, as it was being set up as a triage of sorts to help the new arrivals get cleaned up and recover from what must have been a harrowing experience.
When they had all gone, she noticed Ivan not too far away and raced over only to stop in her tracks. He was kneeling down holding the ankle of a girl Meghan recognized.
She bit her lip and tried to look away but Ivan caught her. She lifted her eyebrows towards Maria as if trying to send him some secret message.
He replied with a frown.
Maria looked up and saw Meghan. Her smile dropped a little.
Meghan knew it right then. This girl, Maria, liked Ivan. And he had more or less, admitted that he liked her too.
Meghan marched right up to Maria and extended her hand.
“Hi. I don’t think we have officially met before. Your name is Maria, right?”
Maria took her hand, her smile returning. “Yes. I am. That’s right. And you’re Meghan Jacoby?”
“I am. Are you injured badly?”
Ivan replied on Maria’s behalf. “It’s not bad. It happened after she got off the ship.”
“Caught a root,” said Maria, her cheeks turning red with embarrassment.
“Well, you are in the best hands,” said Meghan. She thought to herself, you know, this is a great opportunity to show Ivan the good side of having a little sister. I can get a good word in for him. So she added, “I happen to know for a fact, that Ivan’s hands are the best at just about everything he does,” she cut herself off and made a face that said, ick!
Ivan shot her a look that said, WHAT are you doing?
“Um, I meant to say, Ivan will take great care of you. Did I mention that Ivan and I are related? No...” Meghan felt her own face turning hot. Dumb! Guess I need practice at being the little sister.
Maria nodded, and shook her head, in a very much confused manner.
“You’re related?” she asked, as Ivan helped her stand and test her ankle. “How is that possible?” she stopped herself. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to pry. It just surprised me.”
“You, me and him,” retorted Meghan. “Believe me when I say it is a really long story. Ivan, maybe you can tell her all about it sometime.”
Meghan tossed him a smile that said, You’re welcome.
His icy stare pleaded that she stop.
“You know, you handle strange really well,” said Maria to Meghan. “I’m afraid I’m still rather confused. I barely know where I am. One minute, we were sailing, I should say, sinking, on the ocean, and the next minute, we’re here.”
“I do handle weird a little too well,” agreed Meghan. “I think it just means I’m adjusting to my impossible-to-deal-with, screwed up life.”
“Oh,” Maria replied, clearly bewildered.
Meghan looked closely at Maria’s kindly face. A while back, when Meghan had guessed that Ivan had a thing for Maria, she had thought she was sixteen. It would make her about eighteen now if she’d been correct. Perhaps she had been wrong though. Maria had a grown up look about her. An old soul sort of look. Meghan wondered if Ivan knew her birthday, and if she could trick him into admitting it.
“Maria, when’s your birthday?” she asked boldly.
“It’s Meghan’s birthday today,” noted Ivan, thinking she was just fishing for happy birthdays; that, or he realized she was trying to get him to slip up and answer it on Maria’s behalf, admitting that he knew, which he could have.
He eyed Meghan suspiciously.
Meghan wore a wide toothy smile in reply.
Maria beamed watching the two of them react to each other. “Happy Birthday, Meghan,” she said. “What birthday is this?”
“Sixteen.”
“Sixteen is a good birthday. I celebrated nineteen a few months back myself.”
Meghan had been off by a year. And Ivan hadn’t fallen for her trick. She’d have to be sneakier. Setting up someone was not easy!
“Well, bye for now,” said Meghan. “I hope your ankle feels better.”
“It’s much better already, thank you.”
Meghan turned and walked away, saying no more and leaving Ivan to assist Maria in rejoining the ship’s crew. He wanted to ask what had happened, but Ivan didn’t want to confuse Maria any more than she already was. He worried she had some unseen injury and wanted her to get checked out, first.
They’d all learn what had happened on the ship, soon enough.
Ivan made his way to the large meeting hall near the center of the village. It was the only space large enough to accommodate so many people.
Ivan made sure Maria got inside and comfortable. She slid his coat off her shoulders and handed it back to him. He tried to tell her to keep it, but she refused.
“It is freezing out there. But it’s nice and toasty inside.”
He conceded and put it back on.
“Thank you, Ivan,” she whispered softly. “I cannot express how relieving it is to see a familiar face.”
“I understand how you feel,” he replied.
“Maybe, after everything calms down, you could actually tell me a little bit more about what is going on.”
“Sure,” he answered, his throat scratchy. Maria saw that familiar Ivan itch to get away. This time, though, it made her smile. She liked the idea that she made him nervous.
Ivan left with a quick gait, once again with the need of getting more air. This time, the feeling in his heart wasn’t pain, but nerves sending shivers down his spine.
Meghan found him just minutes later.
“Wow! Can you believe it? Billie. Noah Flummer. Maria.”
“What exactly were you trying to do back there anyway?” he stammered.
“Oh, yeah, sorry. That did not come out like I intended it to. I was just trying to put in a good word for you. You know. She just happens to be the one gal you like, and you literally whisk her off a ship.”
“That was your idea of helping?”
“I said I know it didn’t come out right, geesh! I think I made up for it.”
“Meghan, they just ar
rived here, out of thin air, in some part assisted by your brother; they are clearly battered and confused. And all you can think about is setting me up?”
“Well, why not?”
“I don’t know as I will ever understand how your brain works,” he grumbled. “It had to be you,” he added under his breath, stalking back towards the ship. She shrugged, not seeing the big deal and followed, assuming they would return once the chaos had calmed.
CHAPTER 29
Colin stepped gently into the lighthouse so as not to awaken Catrina. He closed the door, suddenly unwilling to move. She was not on the sofa where he had left her. The blanket was in a heap on the floor.
“Catrina,” he called out. She did not answer. “Perfect. I left. She woke up, probably freaked out because I wasn’t here.”
He darted through the lighthouse calling out for her. She wasn’t in the kitchen or the dining area. He knocked on the women’s restroom door but there was no answer.
“Maybe she went up to the top of the light?”
He raced up the spiral staircase two steps at a time, expecting to see her up there searching for him. But it was empty. His heart skipped a few beats.
“Catrina,” he shouted more forcefully, racing back down the stairs.
She was not there. She was nowhere.
He stepped back into the room where he had left her sleeping.
“I shouldn’t have left her. I knew it was a bad idea.” Horror reached into every fiber of his being, like a wrecking ball had hit him straight in the gut. He had made a terrible mistake. An error beyond forgiving.
In his hurry to save Billie and the ship, he had forgotten to leave Catrina cloaked. He had taken the protection cloak with him, leaving her vulnerable and easy to find.
Someone must have traced the magic and taken her.
His head swam with too many equally terrifying thoughts.
“What have I done?” he called out in a panic. “I have to find her.”
His heart thumped and his thoughts strummed at full pace, threatening to overwhelm him. He struggled to catch his breath, each one coming out harder and more ragged. He turned in circles, unsure of where to start his search.
He fell over, his legs faltering, and he half walked, half crawled, out of the lighthouse back onto the beach.
He needed to keep control. This was not the time to lose it. He stood up but almost fell over, his legs jelly. Muscles screaming to find control again.
Anger stirred. Fear. Desperation to know where she was.
He let out a primal scream that shook the entire beach.
Sand flew into the air, leaving a deep trench from the lighthouse to the water’s edge.
His thoughts begged for her to appear at his side, but she did not. Why could he not wish her back to him? Something was very wrong.
He stood up filled with determination to find her.
“Whoever is keeping her from me, will pay with their life.”
He rushed back inside, searching for any clues he might have overlooked, trying to keep his mind calm and stay on task.
“This was not here before,” he said, grabbing hold of a leaf floating in the air just above the sofa, as if waiting for him to find it.
He glanced around. All was quiet. He was alone.
He reached up to touch the leaf but backed away when a sinister voice suddenly emanated from it.
“If you ever want to see your girl alive again, you will follow the trail I left for you, and you will do it fast. It fades with every moment you waste.”
Colin had never traced magic before, but he did not hesitate. He gave the order in his mind and felt the magic within him searching for the trail.
A path started to form in the shape of hazy wisps of white, streaming out of the lighthouse. Colin followed it without question or worry over what awaited him at the end of this trail.
If someone had Catrina, he would do anything to get her back.
Mireya Mochrie had fallen asleep in her bedroom’s hidden crawlspace again. She sat up with a rush, fearing she had overslept. Her foot knocked over a glass vial filled with a pinkish liquid. She leaned over and grabbed the vial, thankful she had put the stopper in, and exited the crawl space into the bedroom’s loft.
After shutting the little door that led to the crawl space, she shoved a couple pillows up against the door, blocking it from view. She spread out some blankets to make it look as though she was sleeping in the loft.
She climbed down the ladder plunking herself onto the edge of her bed. She wasn’t late. Good. She set the vial of pink liquid next to her.
It was quiet. Too quiet. Almost painfully quiet.
She had never had a room of her own before and now that she did, she did not care for it. Mainly because this meant her brother, Jae, was gone and would never return. His bed remained made, never to be slept in again. At least not by her brother.
Mireya had turned fourteen just a month before he died. He missed her birthday party. He had been missing a lot of other things too, like skipping classes, or skipping school altogether. He wasn’t hanging out with his old friends anymore, he’d made new ones, like Darcy Scraggs. A girl he had once considered a bully. An enemy.
Mireya bounded off the bed in a flurry to get dressed.
“No point in dwelling on it now,” she chided herself.
She grabbed a thick coat hanging by the bedroom door; she needed it for two reasons. One, it was a cold day. It was always cold now in Bedgewood Harbor. And two, she had cut into the liner inside the coat and sewn in a hidden pocket.
She grabbed the glass vial with the pink liquid, shoving it into the hidden pocket, and took it, and herself, down the stairs. She didn’t need to look out the window to see that it was another gray day. It had been this way for weeks.
Since Jae had died, nothing had been the same.
Because Juliska Blackwell had lied to them all.
She had betrayed them all. She was responsible for her brother’s death, amongst others, like Garner and Ravana Sadorus.
Some Svoda were still missing, presumed dead.
The gray of the outside might as well have been the color of the inside of her house. It fit her mood today.
She hung her coat over the back of a chair, sat down and pulled on her boots.
She was not preparing for school.
Or to play with her friends.
Playing was no longer permitted in Bedgewood Harbor. In fact, very little was permitted.
“Morning, Mom,” she spoke softly as she entered the kitchen.
“Oh, good morning, dear. Breakfast is on the table. I’ve just brought your father his.”
Mireya did not respond. If she looked right now, her father would be in the same spot he had been in since her brother’s death. And that he would not have touched a bite of his food.
“I’ll eat later,” Mireya told her. “Can’t be late, you know.”
Sheila Mochrie threw her daughter a wide, blank smile. “Have a good day, dear.”
Mireya shook her head as she put on the thick coat. Both my parents have completely checked out.
In a way, she could not blame them. It was easier than dealing with their son’s death. It was much easier than dealing with the manner in which he died. It was also much easier than dealing with the current conditions of the island. But it left her to fend for herself and that was something she’d had to get good at, fast.
Before leaving, she stopped to say an obligatory goodbye to her father. It always gave her a start to see him now. His face was sunken in. His eyes glazed over, staring endlessly out a window, for what, she did not know.
“I’m leaving now. Bye, Dad.”
He did not respond to her. Not even a movement in her direction. Her dad has just vanished, deep inside himself, somewhere out of her reach.
Irving Mochrie might have been strict with her brother, she’d seen it a hundred times. Sometimes overly so, but she never doubted, especially now, how much he had loved his son. H
e just wasn’t good at showing it. And now, it was too late.
For some reason Mireya could not get Jae out of her thoughts today. It would lead nowhere good, to dwell on what she could not change.
She had chosen to remember Jae for the good brother he had been, and nothing more. She missed him. Now more than ever. Now that her parents had checked out, now that Ivan was gone, now that Jae was gone, now that Meghan and Colin Jacoby had gone... her once vibrant household had been reduced to a shadow of its former self.
Mireya left her father and stood at the front door. She was not permitted to leave until 9:01am, and she had to be at her destination by 9:15am. This left a few long minutes for her mind to keep wandering. She was almost glad it was a workday; she needed to keep busy.
It made her sick to think of that first day after her brother’s death.
After Juliska Blackwell had killed Garner and Ravana, in the process revealing that she had created the Scratchers. Juliska ordered an attack on that first day, against her own people.
Mireya was not sure in the end how many Svoda had died or how many had been taken prisoner.
Many prisoners were released a few days later, after the Stripers had arrived. Adults were put under house arrest. They were not permitted to leave their homes. Ever.
School was permanently canceled. Businesses closed.
Children under the age of sixteen were the only ones permitted to leave their houses, and that was to work. Each had been given a specific job in order to keep the island operational.
The worst part though, were the sessions.
Each Svoda, no matter how young or old, had to attend mandatory sessions in that first week. One by one, they were lined up and taken to the school building; only it wasn’t a school anymore.
The Stripers had used magic to change the school, turning the classrooms into prison cells. In these cells, Svoda were subjected to a magic, she, nor anyone on the island, knew little about.
Mazuruk stones. Nicknamed Mazy Stones.
Mireya had studied the war behind the stones, but as the stones were believed extinct, that is where the lesson ended.
No information about how to destroy them.
The Spell, The Stones, and The Treasure (Fated Chronicles Book 3) Page 23
