Forsaken (Fated Saga Fantasy Series Book 8) (37 page)

Everything she’d done to protect her son, and the agony that in the end she had failed.

When it ended, she collapsed.

Broken.

Emptied.

And reborn…

They would pay. They would all pay.

They would suffer and pay dearly for their betrayal.

Most especially, Amelia, for all she’d stolen from her.

The others, Arnon and Kanda and Nashua… she’d not forget them either.

But she’d bide her time. Play their game. Let them think they were ahead. And at just the right moment, she’s strike them all down. They’d each know her pain. Intimately.

Juliska strode inside the house, determined to talk Fazendiin into a new plan. It went against everything he believed in, and against the way he preferred to live his life, but she would not take no for an answer.

He met her in the front hall.

“Is Tanzea loyal to me?” She got right to the point.

“She is. And devastated by this terrible act, as am I. I thought the Svoda had changed. Learned from old mistakes. I’m sorry that I was wrong. I wish I could right all of this for you.”

“You can. The Svoda want a leader? They’ve got one. A Queen. And I will make them love me. And I will make them so afraid. They will rue the day they ever heard my name.”

Fazendiin looked down at his conquest. Gratified.

A few strings pulled in just the right way… it was perfection.

And Juliska Blackwell belonged to him at last.

“I only have one request,” she told him. “Amelia Cobb dies by my hands.”

“Agreed. She’s yours to kill as you see fit.”

“There’s only one way. With my hands wrapped around her neck watching the life leave her eyes.”

Fazendiin had his Queen.

And his three immortal children.

Now, he just had to wait…

#

Juliska Blackwell sat in Tanzea’s basement.

She’d asked the master potion maker for a very special potion.

“It’s almost ready, My Queen,” the woman told her.

Juliska nodded and waited eagerly.

She needed a bath.

A long one, to get off the stench of Svoda. It was all over her.

Their fake smiles. Putrid greetings. Gracious exaltations over her handling of the
Amelia
problem… it made her sick.

Tanzea turned around and handed her a bottle. “Here it is.”

Juliska looked it over. Such a simple looking thing. “This will create my army?”

“An army fit for a queen. An army bred to spread fear.”

“I trust no one,” Juliska told Tanzea. “I need to know this will work.”

“This potion, once drank, will bind whoever takes it, to your life. You live, they live. You die, they die. You don’t want them to live, they die. You want to free them from their servitude, you can. You will have complete control. They cannot disobey you.
Trust… in a bottle.
”

Juliska grinned. She liked that.

“So they drink it, turn into these beasts, and their wills are completely mine?”

“Yes. It’s a blood spell. Their blood tied to your blood. Your living blood guarantees the spell will work. It cannot be broken unless you yourself give them freedom… or you die…” she laughed knowingly.

“That is brilliant, considering I cannot die.”

“I have compiled a potential list of candidates,” offered Tanzea. “Being a member of the Court has provided me certain awareness, over the years. I believe there are a select few who can be recruited.”

Juliska stared at the potion.
Trust in a bottle…

“Have you decided what your next move will be? Is there anything else you’d ask of me?”

“Drink this…” Juliska handed her back her potion.

Tanzea grinned. “I was hoping you’d ask.” She drew a pinprick of blood, and added a few droplets into the potion, downing it in a single drink. “It will take a little time. And then I’ll show you your new army.”

Juliska was eager to see her beastly creation.

“I’ve already decided your first target…” she announced.

Tanzea listened eagerly.

“Ian Crane…” His son would be an orphan, and the first to know the pain of loss.

“Very good, Mistress,” replied Tanzea without question or hesitation.

“As per my other plans… I’m going to call a mandatory gathering. One meant to smooth things over, really
bring
the island back together. And during this meeting, my new army will attack. We’ll blame it on Amelia… maybe even the Grosvenor,” she laughed as if she were a child playing with a shiny new toy. “They’ll suck it up as truth and run with their tails between their legs.” She shrugged. “I’ve got a few ideas brewing. I found an interesting book in the Banon’s office, called the Book of Doorways. It’s proving inspirational…”

“Very good, Mistress.”

“Juliska eyed Tanzea. “Contact me the moment I can see your transformation.” She left to plot and scheme, and revel in the suffering of her subjects.

#

The vision came to an abrupt end, releasing Juliska Blackwell from its grip.

She fell backwards.

Eighteen months’ worth of memories in mere minutes.

Why?

Why would whoever the hell was in charge of visions finally give hers back, only to relive her past. A perverted version of it, anyway.

Her gaze rose up to Eddy’s hovering frame.

“I don’t know what you expect to accomplish by showing me this. It’s just another trick. Even beyond the grave you cannot let me be.”

“It is no trick, Juliska. It is the truth. As I said, only you can choose to believe it.” He was disappointed but not surprised. He had not expected her to just forgive, forget and see the truth for all it really was, so instantly.

It would mean admitting her entire life since then had been a lie.

That she’d been manipulated and used by Fazendiin.

That Eddy was innocent.

That Amelia, Arnon and everyone else was innocent.

That she’d killed and injured and made so many suffer for no valid reason.

That her son was still alive…

“Do you not see?” he begged of her anyway. “Can you not see the truth, even now? Our son is alive. You even know him. Despise him simply over his name… my name. The name you gave him…”

She hissed.

“Lies. All lies. You think I can’t see what you’re all trying to do. It’s a set up. Send in a magical child whose name just happens to be Colin, and then come to find out he was raised by someone named Arnon Jacoby… I’m not an idiot! I know a lot more than you think. I knew Arnon was in that damn campground with Kanda. And when those two kids showed up with Jae Mochrie…
a set up.
That boy is not my son. My son is dead. I don’t know what you’re up to, but I’m not falling for it this time.”

“Oh, Juliska…” he sighed, feeling helpless.

“You all conspired against me,” she seethed. “Amelia. Arnon. Kanda. So many of you… I bided my time. Played dumb. But I’m done now. You are a coward, Edward. You took your own life and left me to fend for our child alone.”

“You gave me no choice,” he stated calmly. “Your actions gave me no choice.”

“My actions?”

“Juliska…” his tone pleaded. “I vowed never to forsake you. And I did not. I took my life to protect our child. It was the only way.”

“To do
what?
”

“Become immortal. Like you. Like our son.”

“He was not immortal. He died! He was murdered!”

“This is a lie!”

“A truth you cannot accept, Edward. Even in death you are delusional.”

“Then how did Colin kill one of your creations? The Scratcher, tied to your blood alone?”

She said nothing. Just stared furiously.

She had no answer to that question… it had plagued her. But she’d written it off at this point.

This was a trick. Just another trick.

Juliska got up off the floor of her candle room.

Eddy tried one last time.

“You trust Fazendiin, even now, after all you’ve just seen. Even with all he’s done to you since. He promised you Amelia’s head…”

She let out a guttural scream.

“Will all of you people just stop! Stop trying to tell me how to think, and what to believe. Give up, already. You will never convince me of your lies Edward Gillivray! You and everyone else will pay for your crimes. My life is not a lie…” she stopped and looked directly into his eyes.

He saw it there. A frail seedling of doubt.

Eddy felt the pull. His time here was done for now. He hoped it was enough.

Juliska turned and stormed out of the room shouting orders to anyone within earshot.

“Gather the Svoda. Now. And bring Jae Mochrie… time’s up and I have a job for the little deceiver. It’s time the Svoda see their Queen in all her glory.”

#

Meghan Jacoby’s head snapped back and she inhaled deeply.

Stunned. Breathless.

Everything she’d just seen… the longest, most in depth vision she’d ever had.

Like she was peeking in on memories belonging to Juliska Blackwell. So many blanks filled in. So many new questions… and Eddy. Uncle Eddy… he wasn’t their uncle…

Meghan let out a shocked breath.

“Juliska did have a child, only it was definitely not me… Colin is her son, and she thinks he’s dead. She can’t see that it’s really him.”

Meghan just stared into nothing, in pure shock of it all.

Nona was out hunting for food. Meghan was alone.

She wasn’t sure how to feel. What to do. Who to tell.

What her father had done to Juliska was cruel.

Beyond cruel. A horrific lie told during a new mother’s most vulnerable moment.

To tell her that her child was dead… murdered.

Her father was a true monster.

Tanzea too. Meghan had never liked her, and it made more sense now why she’d taken such a dislike to her brother. She knew… the entire time, she knew. Was probably trying to make sure Juliska didn’t find out the truth.

And Cornell… poor Cornell.

She’d never given the grizzled old man much thought when he was alive, living with the Mochries. Perhaps his mind had healed, ever so slightly. He knew too. Maybe not that Colin was Juliska’s son, but that he was special. Unique. Cornell had sensed this in her brother. And even helped him. 

But everything that had been done to Juliska, and all that she’d done… it had broken her. Shattered her completely. Blinded her to the truth. If she’d been even a little open, she’d have seen it. There were so many signs. It was so obvious now… but Meghan understood Juliska’s blindness. The pain was too much.

And Meghan understood why everything that happened, happened. Why Juliska was evil.

And it was all based on lies and secrets and some secret plan her father had been piecing together for a very long time.

Juliska didn’t believe Fazendiin lied and manipulated her.

But Meghan could see it unfold, the seeds of doubt Eddy had just planted in her mind. But would she be able to face the truth? Accept it? Or was she broken, beyond repair?

Regardless, Meghan feared what Juliska might due in the meantime.

It took time for seeds to grow.

Tears stung at her eyes and she wiped them. She thought back to her time with Juliska. It couldn’t all have been fake, could it? Was she evil, completely? Was there any part of her that was still good? Still that innocent woman that just wanted a happy life? Meghan felt great sympathy for the woman that for a short time, she believed was her mother. A voice startled her.

“Juliska may have been deceived, more than once, but she chose her retaliation.”

Meghan recognized the voice and looked up.

“Juliska chose her future,” Eddy continued. “She could have chosen differently.”

His ghostly form hovered in a cross-legged seated position just in front of her. His eyes were sad, kind and sympathetic.

“You’re right,” Meghan agreed weakly. “It’s just… it came from love. It came from pain. The worst kind of pain. It… changes things. I don’t know why. Because you’re right, she chose her path. She could have chosen differently.”

“And yet with all she’s done I cannot bring myself to stop loving her.”

“It’s funny, but even now, I see no resemblance to you or Juliska in my brother.”

“We have the same thick lashes,” Eddy said with a feeble grin. “Hard to tell in my ghostly form. But you’re right. It might have something to do with his conception.”

“That’s why he’s a Projector, isn’t it?”