Dissever (Unbinding Fate Book One) (22 page)

“Jax said something the other night about some Akori thinking
they could get more power by getting rid of the Overseer.”

“He did, huh?” Tanner raised his eyebrows. “I bet that’s
it.”

Addy moved over so she was standing next to him. “So
what are we saying here—that the Overseer actually
controls
all of the
Akori’s powers?”

“I think so. We need to find out when that ball was
attacked and if it was before or after your family started running Tremain.” Tanner
walked back to the table and picked up his coffee, finishing it. “What do you
think?”

Addy frowned and dropped her shoulders. “That if
you’re right, then even more of my life was a lie.”

“Lies, truths, it’s all subjective anyway.”

“Not helping.”

Tanner shrugged his shoulders and refilled both of
their coffee cups. “Are there any records or histories kept?”

“Yes, in the library archives.”

“Let's check them out and see what’s been going on for
the last couple hundred years.”

 “After practice,” she said, looking at the time on
her phone,” we gotta go.”

Bernard and Juliette were still having them meet for
practice even though they were fresh from the attack. They all agreed it was
important to get everyone trained well before any other conflicts broke out.

Tanner and Addy strolled into the ballroom talking in
hushed voices about their plan to search the archives. She saw Kim talking to
Gage over where Molly had a few cots set up and a first aid station. She still
hadn’t talked to Kim about Matt, but by the look on her face, she already knew.

Gage looked up and his eyes darted to Tanner by her
side before looking back to Kim, who was talking.

Addy told Tanner they’d meet in the library after
practice and as much as she was dreading it, she excused herself to go talk to
Kim.

“I’m sure he didn’t mean to do it. If I could just see
him—” Kim spotted Addy and stood up. “Addy,
please!
I need to see him.”

“No,” she said, “he tried to Scatter Gage and he would
have
stabbed
me if Gage hadn’t knocked him out.”

Kim started to cry. “They must’ve done something to
him. He would
never
do those things. Gage is his best friend—he adores you.”

Addy shook her head. “Kim, you absolutely—”

“Wait, Addy.” Gage stood up and turned to Kim. “We
understand how you feel. Don’t forget, Matt was our friend most of our lives.
It’s hard for us to accept what he did too, but we have to.”

“He didn’t mean it,” Kim said, wiping her hands across
her cheeks.

 “There’s no going back. He’s
dangerous.”
Addy
couldn’t budge on the subject as much as the words hurt to say. “Kim, I love
you, but if you don’t let it go I’ll have my brother send you home.”

Kim’s face fell as Addy spoke. She started to say
something, but put her hand over her mouth and walked away quickly instead.

Addy could feel Gage’s eyes on her.

“Don’t look at me like that, Gage. Kim can’t go anywhere
near Matt.”

“That was just kind of harsh.” He ran his finger down
her arm. “I know you’re only doing it to keep her safe. You care about her and
you’ll do anything you can to protect her—even if it means
not
doing
what she wants.”

Addy was slightly impressed he’d managed to twist her
not letting Kim see Matt, into a way of comparing it to him healing her against
her will. “Nice try—but it’s
not
the same.”

He stepped closer to her and leaned down, almost whispering.
“If you’re hurting and I can stop it, how can you ask me not to?”

She wanted to tell him that no amount of hurt she
could experience would ever be worse than losing him if he Scattered. Instead
she opted to end the conversation. “I have to start practice.”

Addy started to walk away but Gage stepped in front of
her, giving her a look she knew would make it impossible to stay mad at him.

“Addison, you don’t get to be mad at me for healing
you—not unless you can tell me you wouldn’t have done the same thing for me.” He
was still talking quietly. “Can you?”

She dropped her shoulders and decided there was no way
she was going to be able to twist the conversation in her favor.

“
No
.” She circled her eyes to meet his. “But I
wouldn’t have used your favorite lipstick to write a message afterward.”

 A look of satisfaction spread across Gage’s face. “I
win.” He tugged her ponytail, and headed off.

Practicing with Juliette was a lot different than
practicing with Bernard. Tanner was right, she was tough.

“I saw you with that sword yesterday,” Juliette said,
gesturing toward the Akorian Sickle Sword Addy was holding.

Addy looked down at the sword. “I found it in the
weapons vault a couple of years ago. Fate showed it to me in a book once. There
was something about it being able to drain Akori power and let it be absorbed
by the wielder—he said it wasn’t true though.”

“It
was
true—a long time ago.” Juliette pointed
at the sword. “Eva had it forged with Damascus steel and her own blood. Akori
just Scatter when they’re fatally injured—
unless
the injury comes from a
weapon that’s made to kill them. That sword was forged to take the life of an
Akori.”

Addy felt a little panicked that she’d swiped
something belonging to Eva. “Should I put it back where I got it?”

“She won’t mind,” Juliette said, picking up a scimitar
sword covered in symbols and swinging it around a few times. “Like Fate said—it
doesn’t work the way it was meant to anymore anyway.”

Addy noticed Gage across the room. He was with an Akori
woman who appeared to be about his age. She was dressed in white from head to
toe. Her extremely long blond hair was pulled back into two French braids which
hung down her back. They were throwing knives at targets.

“Who’s that?” she asked Juliette, gesturing to where
Gage stood.

“Angelica.” Juliette answered without looking. “She
came in last night.”

Addy heard Juliette and Jax talk about Angelica before;
she was the one who spotted the Mesen coming to attack Jax the day she and
Tanner found him. “She’ll stay here now?”

Juliette glanced at Angelica briefly. “No. She’s
passing through on her way to meet up with my
father.”

Letting the conversation drop, they got back to
practice. By the time they were done, Addy felt much more comfortable with the
sword and was completely exhausted.

“How’s Jax?” she asked Juliette when they were
finishing up.

“Quietest I’ve seen him in years.” she said. “I haven’t
been able to get him to quit running his mouth since he started talking.”

Addy believed that. “When he comes out of it will you
get me so I can see him?”

“He told me to make sure you were close,” Juliette
said, breaking eye contact with her. “I’ll let you know when he’s up.”

The dog’s bed in the hall outside of the library was
empty, which meant Stubbs was off somewhere else. Bernard was the only one in
the library when she entered to meet Tanner. Addy was trying to decide whether or
not to tell him what she and Tanner were discussing, when Tanner walked in.

“Hey, girlie.” He winked at her and plopped down in a
chair at the table, looking as tired as she felt from practice. “I told Bernard
about our project during practice.”

“Oh.” Addy turned to Bernard. “So, what do you think?”

“I think you’re correct. I’ve been suspecting something
similar for some time, but you both pieced together what I was missing.”

They were lucky Bernard was on board because so much
of what they had to go through was written in ancient Akori and Addy’s brain
was about to explode from trying to figure it all out. They went section by
section pulling anything that looked like it might be relevant. They’d been at
it for hours and she really wanted to call it quits.

“I think I found something,” Bernard said, waving them
over.

Addy leaned over, putting her hand on his shoulder to
see what he was looking at.

“That entire shelf is guest books and writings about
the Reunion Balls,” he said, pointing.

Tanner reached down and grabbed a book. “Is this the
last one?” He showed it to Bernard.

Addy shifted her eyes from the writing on the book page
to Tanner. It was written in ancient Akori, yet he was somehow able to
translate it. “How’d you read that?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “I flipped through one of
the translation books—I can remember it.”

She smiled and shook her head at him. “Cheater.”

Bernard took the book and opened the cover. “Addy, go
grab the book about Oren Sanders.”

She walked over to the section of books in the front
aisle. Each Overseer had a biography written about them that highlighted their
lives and the dates they were head of Tremain. She grabbed the book and turned
to see Tanner and Bernard coming up the aisle. They met at the stone table in
the center of the room.

Tanner placed his finger on a sketch as she opened the
book on the table. “Who’s
that?”

“Jon Sanders—Oren’s son. He was the second Overseer,”
Bernard said.

“Jon, huh?” Tanner repeated under his breath and
tapped his finger on the picture.

Addy exchanged glances with Bernard then focused on
Tanner. “Yeah, Jon Sanders. Why? What’s wrong?”

Tanner shook it off. “Nothing—I thought he looked
familiar, but I probably just saw a painting or something around here of him.”

Addy studied the picture and thought maybe he did look
a little familiar. “I know what it is,” she said with a grin. “He looks just
like that actor who’s also a singer from that one band.”

 “Right, that one guy—
of course.”
Tanner bumped
her with his shoulder and laughed.

“Mystery solved,” Addy said, knowing he was making fun
of her. Jon really did look like the guy she was thinking of though.

Bernard cleared his throat and looked between them.
“Let’s get back on track.” He ran his fingers down the pages as he flipped
through the guest book searching for the date of the ball.

Tanner continued to smile and flipped to another page
in the book, but he seemed unnerved. He and Addy went through the book about
Oren Sanders looking for the date he became Overseer.

Bernard gasped and put his hand on his head. “Oh my—I
never knew.”

“What?” Addy asked him.

“It’s Will Elsegood; he was at the ball that night. I
didn’t realize he was that old. The guest list is very interesting.”

“Will is Gage’s father.” She told Tanner, who didn’t
seem to understand what Bernard was talking about. “He’s Scattered, but he
should be back soon.”

Tanner leaned over like he might be able to read the
book, but quickly gave up when he realized it was more than he’d memorized from
the translation book. “Who else was there?”

Bernard ran down the list, calling off names. She only
recognized a few like Juliette West, Mitchell West, Will Elsegood, Preston
Worthington, Joshua Kenwar, and Sade LaCroft.

Addy wondered if Gage knew how old Will was. She
couldn’t wait to tell him about his father being at the Reunion Ball. Matt and
Renee’s uncle Josh was there too, which she found odd considering he didn’t
really come across as the Reunion Ball type.

Tanner put his finger on the date that Oren came to
Tremain listed in the book. “Here’s the date he became Overseer. When was the
ball?”

Bernard looked up at him and smiled. “The ball was the
day before Oren became the Overseer.”

“You were right,” Addy said, looking over at Tanner.

“Eva must have made him Overseer to control the Akori’s
powers.” Tanner leaned over and hung his arm around her shoulders. “And
we
were right—both of us figured it out, girlie.”

Bernard pulled out his pocket watch and told them it
was after 9pm and they should call it quits.

Tanner followed Addy up and down the aisles carrying
the stack of books they’d been using. She grabbed them one at a time until they
were all back where they belonged.

 “What do we do now that we know?” Addy asked them as
she placed the last book in its place.

“We’ll wait for your brother to wake up and then discuss
it with him,” Bernard said, picking up his planner and the usual stack of
papers he carried around. “Let’s keep it between the three of us until then. I don’t
know who we can trust.”

Once everything was straightened up, they walked out
of the library together.

Pausing outside of the door, Bernard dug through his
stack of papers and pulled out an envelope. “I almost forgot.” He reached his
arm out and passed it to Tanner.

“Thanks,” Tanner said, glancing at Addy as he jammed it
in his back pocket.

“I’ll see you for practice tomorrow,” Bernard said to
Tanner. He waved to Addy as he walked away.

She looked at the envelope, peeking out of Tanner’s
pocket. “What’s that?”

“Something Bernard had for me,” Tanner said without
looking up as he checked his phone. “My band plays in an hour, I gotta roll.” He
paused then looked over at her. “You wanna come see us play?”

“Sure,” she said without hesitation.

“No convincing necessary, huh?” Tanner smiled with a
lopsided grin. “I’ll pick you up out front in a few.”

Chapter 21

An hour later, Addy was sitting at a table with a guy
and two girls who were dating a couple of the members of Tanner’s band. He
introduced them as Trisha, Aimee and Stan. The way they were checking out the
other guys at the club she decided they were using the word
dating
extremely
loosely and that they were probably more like groupies. Checking her phone, she
was disappointed that Gage hadn’t answered the text she’d sent him about
meeting her.

The jam-packed club was like a warehouse with dark
walls, floor, and ceiling. Tables were scattered around the perimeter of the
dance floor and a narrow bar ran the length of the back wall. Lights flashed
from overhead to the beat of the music.