Control (Book Seven) (Fated Saga Fantasy Series) (13 page)

F
allen leaves crunched under their footsteps, the sound almost deafening. Meghan was suddenly overly aware of each breath she took and how loud and raspy it sounded.

“
Do you ever miss boring?” asked Sebastien, out of the blue. “Just hanging out at the lake, sitting around the campfire...”

“Stuffing my face with blackberry dumplings and homemade ice cream,” Meghan added, her eyes lighting up.

“Whoopie pies,” said Sebastien, his mouth watering. 

“Listening to Kanda tell stories,” Meghan added, her eyes lighting up.
“Good thing Colin’s not here, he’d never let me hear the end of it! Me, wanting to learn something.”

“Who wants
to learn anything in the summer?” joked Sebastien.

“Not us,” she said back.

Sebastien stopped and shook his head. “How pathetic is it that I would die to have just one good old boring day like that again? What am I? Fifty years old?”

Meghan grinned widely at the thought and a giggle escaped. She didn
’t even get upset about it. The giggle turned to laughter, which got louder and louder. “Sorry,” she squeaked, unable to control it.

Sebastien
sucked his lips into his mouth trying to hold back his own laughter, but a moment later, he had given up and joined in.

Meghan shook her
self, trying to stop. Her body refused to cooperate. Why couldn’t she stop laughing? Nothing about their lives was remotely funny! If anything, things were getting worse by the day. And yet, she kept laughing, Sebastien right along with her, unable to control himself anymore than she could.

Meghan and Se
bastien heard something strange behind them.

It sounded like a low garble stuck deep inside a cavern.

She turned and stared at Ivan.

“W-was that you?” she stuttered.

He
stiffened, shaking his head, no, but a disgruntled snort escaped his lips.

“That
was
you!” Meghan replied, in a stunned tone. Her own fit ended, replaced by astonished awe.

Something exploded from Ivan’s mouth.

It came out in a torrential flow of uncontrollable force that he could not stop.

“I didn’t even know
that you knew what laughter was,” said Meghan, in total disbelief.

“How do I stop this?” choked out Ivan.

“Stop it? Dude, just let it out. You’re way too uptight,” said Sebastien.

This infuriated Ivan even more, and yet the laughter would not stop. It was coming out if him now almost as if being forced. It was beyond laughter. More like completely cracking up.

“
Okay, you’re freaking me out a little bit now,” said Meghan.

“Yeah, I was just kidding,” said Sebastien.
“Well, sort of,” he added so only Meghan could hear. She shrugged, unable to disagree. Ivan wasn’t one to be overly or publicly emotional.

Ivan doubled over, having a hard time catching any air.

“You are so not okay,” said Meghan.

Ivan fell to his knees, unable to keep his balance.

“G
o away,” he pleaded. “Please, just go.”

He was no longer laughing but still struggled
to take normal, controlled breaths.

“
Definitely losing it,” Sebastien whispered.

“Maybe you should go,” Meghan
told him.

“Yeah. Okay. Um, if you need
anything, I’ll be at my parents’ house.”

“Thanks,” she mouthed as he departed.

Meghan heard Nona’s concerned thoughts enter into her mind but asked her to stay away, too. She could handle this on her own.

She
helped Ivan lean back against a tree and took a seat next to him. He turned away, refusing to look at her.

“
And stubborn Ivan reappears.”

“Is it impossible for you to just leave me alone
?”

“Can’t do that. You’re clearly not okay.
Actually, I think you might be having a panic attack.”

“I don’t have panic attacks.”

“You do now.”

Ivan groaned. “You’re going to be even more of a pain now
that you’re my sister, aren’t you?”

“Don’t have
a choice, do I? We’re family.”

“I
don’t
have panic attacks,” he reaffirmed.

“Maybe you haven’t before,” she agreed. “But
Sebastien has a point.”

This was the wrong thing to say. He started to
get up. She pulled him back down.

“I’m being serious, Ivan. You do have
a tendency to bottle things up.”

“Maybe I don’t have the need to share every little thing I feel with everyone I know!”

Meghan kept her temper in check, even though she wanted to shout back at him.

“Ivan, ha
ving a panic attack isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If anything, it makes you more human. It shows you care about something so much, that it literally hurts to think about it.”

“That’s not me,” he said.

“Again, maybe it wasn’t you. But it is now. Look at everything you’ve been through! You watched Jae commit suicide only to find out he’s still alive but has this horrific task ahead of him.
You
can’t help him. It’s all him. You found out you have a sister and she, I, have some terrible choices ahead that you can’t make for me. You found out your mother is still alive! Everything you were working towards was all based on lies... What you’re feeling right now, Ivan, is helplessness. Nothing is going the way you thought it would. Everything’s changed. It’s going to keep happening. And there’s not a damn thing you can do about it!”

“And what, now that you’re my sister I’m just supposed to share everything
I feel with you?” he looked partly angry and partly disoriented.

“There’s no rule that sa
ys you have to, but you can. I’ll always listen. I may not have helpful advice, but I’ll always listen.”

“
As the older sibling, shouldn’t I be taking care of you?”

“
Ivan, we’re not little kids. We can take care of each other.”

“I don’t know if I can do that,” he spoke honestly. “I don’t know how to do that.”

“You already do it. Obviously without realizing. You’re the only reason I survived the last year with any stitch of sanity remaining. All the rest of it... don’t let it bottle up so much. You’ll turn gray before you’re twenty-five! Strike that! You’ll go bald before you’re twenty-five!”

“Speaks the girl who
worries about everything.”

“Red head,” she reminded. “No graying here, I’ll go straight to white.”

She could practically see his eyes rolling in reply, even though he had leaned his head onto his hands.

His breath
ing normalized.

“So, just how much time does it take for new realities to sink in?” he asked.

She frowned. “This isn’t something you can just rush through. There’s no guide to surviving life’s little surprises. If there was, I’d be the first one in line. Besides, you were being a great big brother before you even knew you were one. You’ve already got that whole worrying-about-everything-I-do-thing down, really well.”

“Y
ou are
not
going to be any less of a pain, are you?” he asked, sounding deflated.

“Oh, heck no! If anything,
big bro
, I’m going to be even more of a pain. And you can’t do anything about that because we’re family, and you have to love your family, no matter what!”

He thought about that for a minute.

“Do you believe that? Completely? Because the other side of your family, Colby and your father, things are going to get... complicated.”

“
See, you’re doing the big brother worry thing already!”

“Guess it’s just my nature,” he replied dryly.

Meghan sighed. “Can I just pretend the other side of my family doesn’t exist? I suppose I can’t, can I,” she answered herself. “I think there is some underwritten rule that says you have to love your family, no matter what, but I don’t know. I don’t know.”

“And what about long lost brothers?” a voice called out from the darkness.

Meghan and Ivan stood, searching for a face to fit the voice.

“Colin? Is that you?” Meghan
barely dared to ask, fearful it was a sick joke or she was just hearing things.

A shape emerged just feet from them.

“Hi, Sis. Miss me?”

She did not answer
.

Ivan watched next to
her, speechless.

Colin stepped out of the shadows
.

He had
changed. He was taller; still short for a teenage boy of almost sixteen. Meghan realized he might already be sixteen. His birthday was no more accurate than hers had been.

Co
lin’s hair was longer and disheveled. He no longer donned sweater vests and khakis, opting for a black jacket and boots. Most surprising, was the earring. Or was it a tattoo? It was hard to tell in the darkness.

There was
dark intensity in his eyes; but the Colin she knew was still present.

Meghan opened her mouth to speak. She already knew the first words she would say to his face were
, “I’m sorry,” but he stopped her before she could say them.

“Don’t.
I already know you’re sorry. And there’s a part of me that will always be a little angry with you, but I’m over it. I know you were just looking out for me. It’s what you do.”

Meghan rushed forward wrapping her arms around him, catching him off guard just for a moment. But he didn’t stop it. He wrapped his arms around her too.

“I know you don’t want to hear it again, but I am sorry, Colin. You have no idea how sorry! And I missed you so much. I worry about you all the time.”

She heard Ivan let out a grunt but ignored him. The rest of
their
conversation would have to wait.

“I...
I missed you too,” Colin replied, letting go of her. They separated from each other, unsure where to begin.

Colin saw Ivan approaching Meghan. He came up alongside her, taking what seemed to be a prot
ective stance.

“You think I might hurt her?” Colin
asked, a tinge of animosity in his tone.

“No
. Just a new habit,” Ivan told him, once again the epitome of calm, cool, collectiveness.

“I guess we have a lot to
catch up on, Sis,” said Colin.

“You
have no idea,” Meghan told him, gently nudging Ivan in a meaningful way, which Colin did not understand but apparently, Ivan did.

“Why don’t I
let you guys catch up. I’ll find you later,” he said, eyeing her with a question that said,
You’re sure?

“I’ll be perfectly fine.
Don’t
worry about me.”

“Thought that was my job now,” he mumbled, begrudgingly walking away.

She tossed him a snooty look and turned back to Colin.

“So what, you guys are like friends now or something?
Are you dating him?”

Meghan let out a puff-filled chortle. “Um, no
, definitely not dating. That’s a really gross thought. We do have a lot to talk about.”

“You know we don’t actually have to talk it all out,” reminded Colin, tapping his finger to his head.

“Talking would take hours,” agreed Meghan. “So we open up the door again? Take down the block...”

“Yes. Tim
e is sort of the essence,” he added, with no further explanation. Colin kept his concerns hidden. It might not have been on his own terms, but he actually did want to reconnect with Meghan.

However, a
long family reunion just wasn’t in the cards, Catrina was still being held prisoner by Freyne Rothrock.

He opened his thought
s to Meghan, allowing them to infiltrate her mind. She did the same, transferring all her memories to him. Within minutes, each relived most of what had happened to the other since their separation.

After it
ended, they reset the block firmly in place, cutting off the connection.

Meghan just stared at her brother in disbelief over the things he had been through, and survived.
It had only been minutes in each other’s minds, but she felt as though she’d just finished a race and needed to catch her breath.

Colin
really was the Projector.

She had heard it. And she had believed it.

Witnessing it through his experiences and feelings put a completely new spin on that reality. He was powerful. Much to her dislike, in a way that was a little too reminiscent of Colby.