Control (Book Seven) (Fated Saga Fantasy Series) (16 page)

Daveena gasped.

She hadn’t put out the usual fresh loaf.

The fresh loaf that enticed the Stripers to
it
, rather than to the kitchen or the loaves she didn’t want discovered.

“What? Nothing for me today?” the cart driver grunted.
He started to make his way into the kitchen. Mireya tossed a towel over a loaf still cooling; there were two vials hidden inside.

“Sick of standing out here sme
lling all this bread baking,” the driver said. “Give me a loaf,” he added in an ungrateful tone.

Mireya and Joseph just watched,
knowing that the loaves currently cooling each contained something inside.

Mireya tossed Daveena a look that shouted
what do we do?

But Daveena didn’t bat an eye. She turned and grabbed a loaf that
had already cooled and handed it to him.

“I want the freshest one,” the driver grumbled
. “This one’s cold.”

Joseph eyed Mireya to follow him.

They stepped over to the pile of sacs and crates ready for delivery, picking one up and spilling the contents, food sprawling everywhere.

It wasn’t much of a defensive move, but it was all they had.

The guard turned to them.

“Don’t know if I’ve ever seen a boy
clumsier than you. Always falling, dropping stuff. What good are ya?”

“Sorry,” said Joseph. “I’ll clean it up.

He leaned in to grab something and
slipped
on an apple. Falling onto the ground with a thud and a wince.

Mireya raced to help him up.

The guard just shook his head in an irritated manner. “Stupid kids,” he mumbled under his breath, adding something about needing a new job and how was he lucky enough to get stuck working with these idiots...

When he turn
ed back around the guard jumped.

Daveena was standing right behind him with a cut in half loaf, slathered in melting butter.
She wore a wide toothy grin that sent shivers down the guard’s spine. She stood face to face with him. Tall enough to stare him right in the eyes.

His face crumpled
into a mix of disdain and unease.

The
loaf was so fresh, steam trolled, wafting its enticing smell throughout the house.

“Fresh enough?” Daveena
asked him in a surly tone.

The guard grabbed the bread
, eager to get away from Daveena. He stepped back outside to his cart, stuffing his face with the bread.

Daveena let out a throaty sigh. Mireya and Joseph rejoined her in the
kitchen, not believing they hadn’t been caught.

“That’s one less vial
though,” whispered Joseph.

“Actually, it’s worse,” replied Daveena in a low voice.
“Figures the one I’d grab is the one they need the most.”

“The key?” questioned Mireya softly.

“Yup.”

“Dang,” Joseph let slip out under his breath.

“Put it in the meat,” suggested Mireya.

“Gonna look obvious
,” warned Joseph.

“No other choice,” agreed Daveena. “I’ll make it a meat roll, tie it up.”

“Do it quick!” reminded Joseph. “Mireya, let’s get loading.”

“Yeah, keep
prying eyes out of here.”

Minutes later
, Daveena came out with the wrapped piece of meat, hoping no one would notice it if they decided to inspect the sacks closely. She had cut a thin layer into the meat and hidden the key inside, and then layered it with herbs and rolled it, tied it up and wrapped it.

A short while later they had the food loaded and ready for delivery.

Daveena, Mireya and Joseph stayed with the cart to make the deliveries. The rest of the youngsters started cleaning and prepping for the next day’s work.

They didn’t notice a small movement
in the kitchen.

They made so much noise cleaning they never heard the shuffle
of footsteps as it moved stealthily against the back wall. Even if they had heard something, and looked up to investigate, they would have seen nothing.

The formless shape slippe
d through a back door unnoticed.

With each step
thereafter, a woman’s body started to materialize.

KarNavan’s second in command
, Ardon, cast a smug gaze back towards the house she’d just left.

##

Meghan stood in Kanda’s kitchen, watching coffee percolating. Days had passed with no new progress made on how to free her grandmother from the glass prison.

Nona strode into the kitchen.

“How’s Catrina?” Meghan asked.

“She’s
doing well all things considered.”

“How’s Colin?” Meghan asked quietly.

“He is in the living room, looking like he’s about to bang his head through something.”

“This sucks so bad, Nona. I really thought we’d have gotten somewhere by now. We’ve gone through all of Kanda’s books, but there’s just nothing helpful
here. We’re at a dead end.”

Ivan sauntered
into the kitchen, grabbing a mug for coffee.

“Actually,
” he said, “I think I might have come up with something.”

“Anything, at this point
, would be better than what we’ve got right now.”

He poured coffee, ignoring Meghan’s insistence that it wasn’t finished
percolating yet. She followed him back into the living room.

“Ivan thinks he has an idea,” announced Meghan.

Sebastien and Jae looked up from the books they were shuffling through and Colin spun around from a window, eager to hear it. He was rubbing his hands together, reminiscent of someone coming down off a drug.

“So what’s your idea?” asked Meghan.

“I’ve been thinking it might be time to pay our mother a visit.”

“I hadn’t even thought of that. I don’t know what she knows about Fazendiin or his mother, but she’s bound to know more than we do.”

“It’s at least a place to start,” said Sebastien.

Jae slammed his book shut. There wasn’t anything useful inside anyway; he’d been turning the same pages for days.

“It’s settled then,” Colin said decidedly.

He was ready to get a
move on. “Meghan, you’ll need to let me in your head for a minute, so I can see where to take us.”

“Done,” she replied into his mind.

Meghan had barely shown him where to go when, voila, she opened her eyes and the group no longer stood in the living room of Kanda’s house, but rather just inside the cave where Isabella Crane resided.

Meghan
held out her hands as if to steady herself, although she didn’t really feel dizzy, more overwhelmed by the sudden movement.

Sebastien steadied her. “Okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, fine.”

She didn’t know why it was any different than when Nona did it. And with Nona, it was actually freakier, seeing as they needed to step into a fire. Something no normal human would ever do voluntarily. Perhaps she just could not imagine that all this power came from Colin. That he did it as if it was second nature.
He wished it and it happened. No big deal.

“So where’s your mother
?” she heard Colin asking.

Ivan motioned for them to follow.

Meghan nodded for Colin, Sebastien and Jae to follow Ivan, and she and Nona brought up the rear.

“How do I protect someone who
is so much more powerful than I am?” Meghan wondered. She heard her Catawitch’s thoughts mixing with her own.

“
Your protection doesn’t come from magic,” Nona said. “Your protection comes from love. He will always be your brother.”

“Love can’t protect him, Nona.”

“Love can go a long way,” her Catawitch replied. Nona felt another distress in Meghan’s mind, one she did not have to vocalize aloud or through her thoughts. “He scares you. Not always. But sometimes he does.”

Meghan did not reply; she didn’t wish to think about it.

Ivan
came to a stop.

Isabella Crane awaited their arrival, greeting them at the door.

“How did you know we were coming?” asked Ivan.

“I have my ways,” she winked in reply. “Although,
I have to admit I was not expecting you to return so soon. Alas, I must also admit, I am not disappointed to see you again so soon.”

Meghan bounded forward and hugged her mother. Sebastien, Jae and Nona greeted her. She introduced Colin. Everyone turned to see Ivan still standing in the doorway.

He was staring at the place his mother called home. He had not seen it yet. Isabella gently grasped his arm and asked him to come in.

He did, but
said nothing.

Isabella already had a teapot whistling and she bustled about getting everyone a beverage. Meghan decided to get right to the point.

“We are hoping you might be able to help us with something. We have a problem and it has to do with my father’s mother. My and Colby’s grandmother,” explained Meghan.

A questioning gaze flitted across Isabella’s face. “Aloyna Fazendiin?”

“Is that her name?” asked Meghan.

“Yes.
”

Meghan was pleased that they had come. Just finding out her grandmother’s name was already more than they had to go on previously.

Seeing their hopeful faces, Isabella added, “I don’t know as I’ll be much more help on the subject of Aloyna. It’s not a subject Fazendiin ever spoke of in any depth. Apparently, even a man, if you can still call him a man, as old and powerful as Jurekai Fazendiin still mourns his mother.”

“Who’d a thunk it,” said Sebastien in a mocking tone.
“The leader of the Grosvenor, a mama’s boy.” It caught a few under the breath chuckle-filled replies.

“A funny sentiment indeed,” continued Isabella. “Still, my only information about Aloyna comes from Colby. He spoke of her a few times when I still
had contact with him...years ago. Told me she was nice, strict, especially when she took over his school lessons in Fazendiin’s absence. Poor boy didn’t have much of a childhood. No friends. Other than a glass grandmother.” Isabella shook her head in dismay.

Meghan felt a pit growing in her stomach.
The pit had might as well just move in and get comfortable
, she thought. Lately it rarely ever left. How could Colby be anything but messed up, she wondered? He had grown up with Fazendiin as a father. He’d had no regular childhood, no friends his own age.

Not that she and Colin had either. But they had at least had each other, and eventually, Sebastien. Plus, they had their Uncle Arnon taking care of them. It might not have been perfect, but it was far better than anything Colby ha
d ever experienced.

It was hard to hate him. Even for everything he had done or might do... it was hard to hate her brother, knowing she’d had it so much better than he did. Even so, it changed nothing. Not really.

All she could do was show him there was another way to live. One that didn’t include hurting or killing people, just because he judged them to deserve it.

Isabella
looked up, a question forming in her eyes. “Why do you want to know about Aloyna?”

Meghan explained their predicament.

Isabella was just as stunned by Freyne’s request to have her freed as anyone else. If she feared it might be a mistake to free her, she kept it to herself.

“I
did ask Colby,” she explained. “I asked him if they’d ever discussed how Aloyna got into the glass. He told me he had asked, but she refused to speak of it.”

Another dead end
, Colin thought to himself.

The
teakettle whistled again. Isabella hustled to the stove, sliding it to a cool spot near the back. “More tea, anyone?”

Me
ghan said yes, she’d already drunk most of hers. Everyone else declined. Isabella directed them to sit and get off their feet. Meghan and Colin sat down at the small table, with Isabella, Nona lounging at their feet. Sebastien sat atop a large round stump positioned near the stove. Jae slipped into a chair opposite the table, while Ivan refused to sit and leaned near the fireplace.

“What about
using Firemancy?” he asked after a bit. “Something Jae said a few days ago has been stewing around my brain. Can you force a vision, one that could go back far enough in history to see how Aloyna was cursed into the glass?”

Jae’s face lit up. Had his
far-fetched idea actually been a good one?

Isabella turned stoic, disappearing into her thoughts for a minute
before answering.

“Is it possible to go that far back
in history? Yes,” she answered hesitantly. “However, to force a vision, that’s not so easy... it could take weeks, months, years even.”