Dissever (Unbinding Fate Book One) (37 page)

“You shut me out—cut me
off
,”
Stubbs said, throwing his hands in the air. “I can no longer feel what you
feel—or feel your presence. You’ve even stopped me from visiting you in your
dreams
.”

Eva appeared unfazed, as if
she was dismissing everything he said as soon as he said it. “What is it you
want from me?”

“Let’s not play games—you’re
well aware of what’s going on.” Stubbs turned his back to her. “Our people are unsettled.
They’re finding ways to steal power from each other. They’ve become quite
organized again and even tried to kill the Overseer. They want their power
back.”

 “The Mesen are no longer our
people,” Eva said, waving her hand.  “It’s out of my control regardless, what
has been done cannot be undone.”

For the first time Eva
seemed to notice the group standing there watching and her face flushed.

“It’s good to see you, William.
I can’t tell you how
disappointed
I am to find you’re a part of this.”
She turned to Juliette. “How’s Mitchell?”

Juliette left the table and walked
closer to Eva, bowing her head. “My father’s fine. We need you. There are
things going on that you need to deal with.”

Will stood next to Juliette.
He bowed his head, but he didn’t look directly at Eva. “It’s time for the
punishment to end. My own son is
gone
because he didn’t have enough
power. The situation is
unacceptable
.”

Eva glared at them as if
what they were saying was unbelievable. “You feel they’ve learned their lesson?
Even now they plot and scheme to control the power.”

 “It’s not about
control,
it never was. They wanted open discussion with us about how we were leading
them—they wanted to be free to live without having to help the humans at every
turn.” Stubbs took a step closer to the circle. “We were
wrong
not to
compromise with them when they were willing to negotiate, Eva.”

Eva tried to step from the
circle but was held back. She scanned the room and stopped on Jax. “
Release
me.
”

Stubbs put his hand up to
Jax, instructing him to wait. “Tomorrow we have a meeting set up with the
Mesen
leaders to discuss what compromises can be made.”

“Nothing can be done that
they’ll be satisfied with.” She looked down at the symbol on the floor. “Our power
cannot be restored to what it once was. The Sanders family controls the Akori
power here.”

“She’s
lying,”
Addy
said, surprising everyone. “There’s a way—Oren Sanders knew how.”

Eva whipped her head around
to look at Addy. She studied her for a minute. “I don’t believe I
know
you.”

Jax spoke up to answer Eva
before Addy could. “Her name is Addison Sanders, she’s—”

“Don’t speak for me Jax.”
Addy moved around the table to where Eva was trapped. “The power can be
restored and my family can be freed of the mess you created.”

Stubbs grabbed Addy by the
arm, pulling her to the side. Jax started in their direction, but Tanner got
there first, immediately removing Stubbs’ hand from Addy’s arm.

“Don’t touch her,
Andrew
,”
Tanner said, making him take a step back. “You’re as much at fault for this
mess as your evil twin.”

As if Tanner hadn’t even
spoken, Stubbs continued to stare at Addy. “What do you know?”

Addy slipped her arm through
Tanner’s and walked with him back to the group. The second she touched him Eva’s
eyes got big and she glared at them.

“Eva compelled Oren Sanders
to make the deal,” Addy said. “He didn’t wanna make our family serve the
Akori.”

Will exchanged whispers with
Juliette and then put his hands up, shaking his head. “There have
always
been rumors about what happened the night Eva created the Overseer’s Stone.
Rumors are not
truth
—there’s no way to prove what happened.”

Addy noticed Eva was still
glaring at her as she spoke. “What if we could prove it—
and
destroy the Overseer’s
Stone?”

Eva tried again to step from
the circle, but was held back. “What is it you think you
know?
”

“We know what really
happened the night after the ball was attacked,” Tanner said, tightening his
grip on Addy. “The rumors were true. You compelled Oren to take the oath.”

Eva studied Tanner, and for
the first time she seemed to be nervous. She glanced between him and Addy.
“You—
both
of you.”

Tanner nodded. “Yes—we
both
know.”

Addy pulled Tanner with her
closer to Eva. “Once Oren was given the power to control the stone he figured
out he’d been compelled. When he wanted out of it, you gave your power to
another Akori so he’d be strong enough to manipulate Oren’s memories.”

 “That man was difficult.” Eva
shook her head in disgust. “I gave Oren his son Jon back—brought his
only
child back from the grave. He thanked me by calling me a demon and a devil.”
Eva threw her hands up. “He said I was unnatural—that I’d be punished by his
god
for disrupting the natural order of things.”

“He was right.” Stubbs
dropped his shoulders. “We shouldn’t have been interfering with the humans.”

 “I can understand wanting
to punish the Mesen.” Addy let go of Tanner and looked between Stubbs and Eva. “What
they did to the humans was horrific. What about you and Andrew though, don’t
you want your power?”

Eva studied Addy then turned
to Jax, staring at him intently. Jax shifted his eyes to Juliette and they exchanged
worried glances.

Eva finally turned her
attention back to Addy. “Your question—do I want my powers? Of course I do, but
that’s not possible. Breaking the Overseer’s Stone comes at a higher price than
I’m prepared to pay.”

Eva reached out to Stubbs
who was again standing close to her, but she couldn’t touch him through the
barrier. There was a knock on the door and a second later Bernard came walking
in without waiting for someone to answer it.

He pointed to Tanner and
Addy. “I need to see you both—
now.”

Chapter 34

After Bernard interrupted them,
all hell broke loose in the library. Jax wouldn’t let them leave without an
explanation and they were not about to give it in front of Eva and Stubbs.
Juliette called Patrick and Malcolm in to watch the library while Bernard led
the rest of them to Kim’s room.

On the way, Addy explained
everything to Jax, Juliette, and Will. She disclosed every detail about her
meeting with Matt and her trip to the cemetery.

Jax erupted at her. “You should’ve
been telling me
everything!”

Juliette put her hand on his
shoulder. “It doesn’t matter, Jax. She may have done it in a completely irresponsible
and reckless way, like she does
everything
, but she got important
information for us.”

 “You knew Stubbs was Andrew
and you didn’t tell me.” Addy pointed at Jax. “You know a lot of things you
don’t feel like sharing!” She turned to Juliette. “And why the hell are you
always such a complete
bitch
to me?”

Juliette’s mouth dropped
open; her face quickly matched her red hair. Before she could speak, Jax put up
his hand to stop her.

 Tanner put his arm around
Addy’s shoulders. “Relax girlie, we’re gonna get everyone on the same page.”

Jax immediately shot Tanner
a pissed off look. “I told you to
stay
away
from her.”

Tanner glared at Jax,
lurching forward. “Never gonna happen.”

Addy pressed her hand
against Tanner’s chest to keep him in place and turned her head toward Jax. “Stop
trying to decide who my friends are. You copped an attitude about Gage—
now
you’re trying to come between Tanner and me.”

“Alright
children,
that’s enough!” Will scolded, looking between the four of them. “If the book really
has the information to destroy the stone, we’ll all need to
cooperate.
You
can argue after we get my son back.”

They were quiet until Bernard
opened Kim’s door and led them inside. The book’s pages were spread out on the
floor in rows. They all had words on them; the letters were larger than normal
and brown.

Addy hugged Kim and then
pointed at the pages. “How is this possible? The pages were blank.”

“Oren was very clever.” Kim crouched
down and ran her finger along the sheets of paper. “He must’ve been worried
about the book being found by the wrong person.  He wrote it using milk—an old
method of invisible ink. We had a book like this in my parent’s store once.
When you heat the pages, the fat in the milk burns, turning brown.”

“It’s exactly like Matt
described,” Bernard said. “Oren realized he’d been compelled after getting the
power. He wanted out of the deal but Eva refused, saying she couldn’t change
things.”

 Juliette bent over and
looked at the pages. “Does it say how Jax breaks the stone’s power?”

“That’s the really
interesting part, because he’s not the one who does it.” Bernard had Kim pick
up the pages and put them in order.

Jax read the pages first. As
he finished each one, he passed it to the next person. They were all quiet as
they read.

When they were finished, Kim
was the first one to speak. “Fate knew what he was doing when he called Tanner
here and marked Addy with the stone.”

Jax shook his head. “He
didn’t know about the book. I’d know if he knew—and he
didn’t.
The book
has nothing to do with the reason he summoned Tanner or the mark Addy got from
touching the stone.”

Addy handed the pages she
was holding back to Jax. “So it’s all been a
coincidence?
I have a hard
time believing that.”

Bernard tipped his head
back, mulling it over. “I have to agree with Addy.  Either we got
really
lucky—or there’s something else at play here.”

“I’m not helping do it.” Tanner
put his hands up and took a step back. “Something’s not right about how easy it
all is.”

Will crossed his arms,
facing Jax. “When I met with the Mesen they
strongly
suggested that I
get you to summon Eva before the meeting about the truce. I wasn’t sure why
until now.”

“They told you about the
book?” Tanner asked.

 “No, but they alluded to
the fact that they had some leads on how to destroy the stone and whatever it
was would lead back to Eva.”

Jax reached for the door
handle. “I’m not on board with doing
anything
yet. We better get back to
the library.”

“But if we can bring back
the Scattered Akori…” Addy started, but gave up with a sigh.

On the way out of Kim’s room,
Will leaned down to Addy. It was the same way Gage always did when he wanted to
say something only to her.

“Be patient,” he said,
patting her shoulder. “The pieces are falling into place.”

Bernard said he was going back
to his office, but he grabbed Addy and Tanner and pulled them off to the side
first.

“I translated the scroll.”
He spoke so quietly they could hardly make out what he was saying. “I know what
the symbols on the back of your necks mean.”

They both looked at him
waiting for an explanation.

“Not here,” he said, looking
around. He put a hand on each of their shoulders. “I need to tell you—
both
of you, when we’re alone.”

They agreed to meet at his
office as soon as they were done dealing with Eva.

Stubbs was whispering with
Eva when they returned, but he quickly moved to face them.

“What’s going on?” Stubbs
asked, looking directly at Jax.

 “We have a book written by
Oren Sanders detailing what happened.” Jax placed the pages on the table,
pointing at them. “It also explains how to destroy the Overseer’s Stone.”

Eva looked up, her face went
pale. “Destroying the stone comes with consequences greater than you can
imagine.”

“I thought it couldn’t be
done at all,” Tanner said.

Eva turned in his direction.
“It cannot be done with results
any
of you will be pleased with.”

“It requires both you and
Eva to be present.” Will told Stubbs. “Along with two others marked with specific
Akori Shepherd symbols. The same ones Tanner and Addy have.”

“Is that why you broke our connection
and blocked me?” Stubbs turned to Eva. “You knew something was going on?”

Eva’s face softened, her
voice was pleading. “We shouldn’t be
together.”
She raised her head and
pointed to Tanner and Addy. “Neither should you.”

Addy stepped closer to Tanner,
taking his hand.
“Why?”

She turned her palms up, looking
from her brother to Addy and Tanner. “I’ve done everything over the years to
prevent all of our lives from intersecting and yet still—here we are.”