Control (Book Seven) (Fated Saga Fantasy Series) (24 page)

Neither Mireya
nor Joseph recognized the name Browne. The couple must have traveled with a group other than either of theirs, before returning to the island.

“
Everyone else got away,” Scarface he continued. “The potion you gave me worked. It cleared the pathway of our footsteps. They can’t tell which way we ran.”

Mireya grinned. Erasing their footsteps had been her idea. She realized they’d be easy to track, even without using magic, simply by following the trail of escaping footprints.

“We cannot thank you enough for your bravery,” Scarface expressed.

“Just go,” encouraged Joseph. “We’ll keep doing whatever we can. Go take care of them.”

“Thank you,” he said again, speeding away. “And be safe.”

Mireya blew out the candle and grabbed it. Joseph grabbed her hand and raced back to her door. She slipped inside but he did not follow.

“I’ll see you in the morning,” he whispered. “I guess more like a few hours from now.”

Neither would sleep.
Their nerves too peaked to even bother trying.

“We did it, Joseph.
We actually did it.”

“I know. I only hope they can stay hidden long enough for help to come.”

“Do you really think it will?”

“It has to. It just has to,” he told her. He shut the door and slipped away in the darkness back to his own house.

##

“Three
minutes,” a faceless voice warned.

Ivan knew
they could not win this battle. They were outnumbered.

He figured Sebastien could hold his own, but bringing Jae had been a mistake. It ha
d put him directly in harm’s way; his body was designed for a fight. This temptation might prove too much.

Ivan
was confident they were surrounded by Stripers, all with the advantage of blending in and disappearing into the background, which made fighting them nearly impossible.

There was a reason
Stripers were talented treasure hunters, and Ivan understood why Juliska used them as her new guard. Their ability made them a deadly force.

Ivan knew if
it came to a fight, they’d most likely be injured. They would very possibly die. Then nothing would stop the Stripers from taking Colin, Colby and Meghan, even though Meghan and Colby were not who they were there for. They’d come for Colin and Catrina.

Inside Kanda’s
house, Nona and Elisha paced in a circle, staring each other down.

“You have no fire to
escape with,” Nona reminded Elisha. “You can’t create it.”

Elisha knew Nona was right but refused to
back down. “I’ll find a way. We cannot win this battle. I won’t let anything happen to my master.” She lunged forward and took a swipe, missing Nona.

“Elisha, please,” begged Jae. “If you try to take Colby while he’s still in the spell, he might g
et stuck inside a memory.”

The front door opened and Ivan slipped inside.

“We’ve got about a minute until a war breaks out!” He saw Elisha and Nona ready to battle each other. “Enough!” he roared angrily. “If we don’t work together... We. All. Die!”

There was
a ferocity in his voice they had never heard before.

Elisha backed down, Nona followed.

“Nona, Elisha, out front with me. I need you to use your ability to see the future, and tell me where the spells are coming from. Jae, stay here and guard them. If you can somehow, try to wake them up. Sebastien and I won’t be able to hold the Stripers off for long.”

“I can help,” insisted Jae.

“No. Stay. Keep away from the battle. And no matter what, do not transform,” he ordered, running back outside.

Nona and Elisha followed.

“Times up,” a voice called out. “Will you willingly hand them over?”

Ivan jumped down the stairs and planted himself, poised to fight.

“I think you already know the answer to that!”

Elisha shouted, “Right side!”

Ivan turned right and used a deflection spell. It hit the incoming spell straight on, lighting up the night sky in streams of silver and gold.

“Duck,” shouted Elisha
.

Nona sat next to her, her white eye swirling back and forth trying to catch a glim
pse of anything aimed their direction.

Ivan ducked as a bird flew over his head. It was Sebastien. He transformed mid-air, blocking another spell
, which came in from the left side. Before his feet could touch the ground he had transformed back into the bird and surged upward, just missing another spell aimed directly at him.

“Right!” shouted Nona, at the same moment
Elisha shouted, “Behind you.”

Ivan dove to the ground, shooting a defensive spell to the right. He skidded and rolled onto his back,
sitting up, shooting off three blasting spells in quick secession towards the side of the house.

One of them hit
something. He heard a scream and something falling in the bushes.

Two more spells blasted over his head hitting the house.

Inside the house, Jae sat on his knees, rocking back and forth.

The sounds of battle called to him.

Hearing someone scream made it even worse.

“Gotta stay calm,” he whispered through heavy breaths.
“Wake up!” he pleaded to the three memory travelers. “I’m not going to change. I’m not going to change,” he repeated over and over.

His desire to fight was overpowering his need to remain calm.
His new body didn’t prefer calm, it craved chaos. It wanted to get angry. It wanted to kill.

He didn’t need a mirror to see that his eyes were darkening.

His breathing grew harder, each breath drawing through his throat like thick water. He fell forward, his fingernails extending and sharpening, curling like talons.

“You need to wa
ke up!” he pleaded.

Jae didn’t know what would happen if he allowed the monster out. He didn’t know how fast Juliska Blackwell would find out he was still alive. He didn’t know if he would instantly be forced to kill his friends.

Jae jumped up, his arms outstretched as fangs slipped down over his lips. The monster needed to fight! He knew the consequences. He knew Juliska Blackwell would find out he was alive. It didn’t matter.

Outside,
Sebastien had joined Ivan on the ground. They fought, back to back, listening for Elisha and Nona to shout warnings.

S
treams of magic were raining on them now from nearly every direction.

Ivan shouted out in pain.

Seba
stien turned to see him falling; blood spurting from his shoulder.

Nona started to call out a warning but it was too late.

Sebastien took a direct hit to his thigh, sliding down next to Ivan. He crawled closer, dragging his injured leg along to check on Ivan.

“I’m okay,” Ivan
said. “It’s deep but I’m okay.”

Spells were now pounding the house. The protections they had placed around it would be gone at any moment. They had fought
off the Stripers as long as they could.

From inside the house, they heard a strange noise.

It sounded like snarling.

“Oh, no, no, no, no,
” said Ivan.

Sebastien flicked his head from Ivan to the house.

A spine tingling shriek blasted their eardrums.

The spells stopped.
The Stripers’ ended their attack.

Everyone went quiet.

All eyes were glued on the house.

With a thwack and a bang
, the rooftop of Kanda Macawi’s house shot into the air, wood flying in all directions.

Wings thrashed overhead, straightening and taking flight.

Jae Mochrie had fully transformed.

The Stripers could not hide from him. His Scratcher eyes could penetrate their blending
ability, finding their silhouettes. He lifted his wolf-like head and let out a battle cry, diving towards a shape below.

The Striper that had taunted Ivan materialized, mid run.

He was fast.

Jae was faster.

His monstrous wings snapped against the cold air, his body lowering as if to land. Jae outstretched his wings, engulfing the Striper. He let out a deep growl, letting go. The Striper slumped to the ground.

Jae
didn’t know how much time he had before Juliska Blackwell would be alerted to his sudden reappearance into the land of the living, and call him home, to her.

He raised his head
into the air and let out a shriek that shook the tree limbs.

Striper
s materialized out of their hiding places, now in full retreat. This was not something they had expected to fight. To their knowledge, all Scratchers were under the strict control of Juliska Blackwell.

##

Colby pounded his fists together angrily.

“I want out. Now! I’m done watching this mockery of a memory!”

“Colby, please listen to me. I had no idea what really happened but this memory is real! I brought you along to help me free our grandmother. I had absolutely no idea that our own father had put her there.”

“You’re lying!” He shoved his palm out as if to use magic, once again forgetting that he could not.

“Going to try and kill me again?” she screamed back at him.

“Enough of t
his!” said Colin. “I need to save Catrina. We are going to free Aloyna. Now.”

“And what if I don’t let you?” returned Colby.

“Then I’ll do it. My blood will work just as easily as yours, Colby.”

“My father did not
do this,” he replied. “He did not put her into the glass. I refuse to believe it.”

“Wake up,” they all heard. The voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere.

“What was that?” asked Colin.

“It wasn’t part of the memory,” said Meghan.

“I don’t care what it was. I want out. Now. I’m done here.”

“Not until you swear that you’ll help us free Aloyna,” said Meghan. “If the memory is wrong and our father didn’t put her there, he should be
nothing but pleased that you freed her.”

“What if breaking the glas
s kills her?” he shouted back. “We don’t know that it will actually work!”

Meghan reached up and felt her head.

“Ow. Feel’s like something just hit me.” She felt dizzy.

“Great!” said Colby. “Seer’s freaking out, we’re all gonna get stuck in here now.”

Colin went to Meghan. “What’s happening?”

“It’s f
rom the outside,” she said. “I think they’re in trouble.”

They had learned everything they could from this memory.
It was time to return to the real world.

The next thing she knew,
they were back in the real world, awake, and Colin was helping her sit up after removing a piece of wood that was lying on her head.

She heard Colby shouting for Elisha who came dashing through the rubble. Colby spit out a fire,
in which he and Elisha instantly disappeared.

“What happened here?” muttered Meghan, feeling lightheaded.

“I don’t know. C’mon.” He wrapped his arm around her and got them out of the demolished house and into the front yard where they froze upon seeing the scene outside.

Sebastien was
on the ground next to Ivan, both covered in blood.

A dead body lay on the ground just feet in front of them.

A Scratcher, with wings outstretched, blocked an army of Stripers, who were running away.

Sebastien helped Ivan sit up.

Ivan clutched his arm, trying to keep the blood from gushing out. Nona jumped onto his shoulder and used her paw to push away his hand. She licked at the wound, hoping her healing power was strong enough to work on a wound this size.

“Jae,” pleaded Ivan. “Turn back!
”

A
growly voice replied. “It’s too late. I’m sorry.”

Jae heard the voices of the other Scratchers calling him home.

They were in his head, speaking to him; pulling him towards them. He fought the pull. He didn’t want to go.

Another voice entered his mind.
A voice he could not ignore.

“Well well well, see who’s still
alive.”

Juliska gave
the order he was expecting.

Jae
took to the sky, flying towards the one woman he didn’t ever want to see again. The one woman he had to see again, if he were to ever free himself of the monster.