Control (Book Seven) (Fated Saga Fantasy Series) (35 page)

His
father stared in silent defiance.

“You
talk about family as if it is something to be preserved and glorified, and yet you killed your own father! You just had Colin Jacoby wipe out the rest of the Grosvenor. Were
they
not part of your so-called family? Talk about betraying your own!”

“There is
a reason,” Fazendiin explained in complete coolness.

“
What is that reason?” shouted Colby. “I think it’s time you tell me everything! What is it you want from me? Am I just another pawn in your game? Someone to do the jobs you don’t want to do?”

His father turned away
.

“I want to show you something,
” he told Colby.

Fazendiin w
alked towards the backside of the house, saying no more and exited through a door into the garden.

Colby followed. He didn’t know why. But he did.

Moonlight lit up the garden, casting long shadows as Colby followed, the frosty air biting at his throat as he sucked it in apprehensively.

His father stopped near
the entrance to one of his private gardens, one Colby had never entered.

Tall shrubbery
made up the squared walls of the garden.

Colby peeked through the
entrance seeing nothing but darkness.

“Son,” his father
began. “I’m going to start a new family. I’m going to take a queen and together with you by my side, we will create the world in which we are meant to live, and to rule. In order for you to understand your part in this world, I’m going to show you
everything
.” He knew that only this would quench his son’s demands. And only this would sway his greatest asset to stay. He needed Colby’s invincibility. It was the most important part of his plan.

Colby nodded
tensely. He was ready. He needed to know.

His father made a motion with his han
d and stepped into the garden.

Colby followed, stepping
into the darkness, only to freeze a moment later. It was not a garden inside at all. It was a field. A vast field filled with...

“Mazuruk,” Colby
whispered, aghast at the sheer numbers lumbering in front of him.

“This is where it all begins,” his father explained. “
It has taken me hundreds of years to rebuild the Mazuruk herd... they were never completely extinct. I saved a few. Bred them. Perfected them. Made them stronger.”

His eyes grazed over the field
, greedily.

“What are you going to
do with them all?” asked Colby, sounding out of breath.

Fazendiin nodded t
o his left.

It was the Immortality Stone.

“What’s that doing here? What are you going to do, make it bigger?”

“No.
Here it will stay, in my safekeeping. It has served its purpose for the time being.”

“What?
Outlived its usefulness?”

“Quite the contrary,” said his father.
“It’s a necessity. Without the Stone, you, your sister, and that indignant boy Colin Jacoby, would not exist.”

Colby sucked in a breath. “What do you mean?”

“The Stone is how I gave myself immortality. Its magic courses through my veins, keeping me alive. But for you, it is your blood. Your very life force.”

“So you mean, we
could have our immortality sucked out of us and back into the Stone, too?”

“
Me, yes. You, your sister or that boy, no.”

C
olby just made a sound that expressed confusion.

“You were created with this
Stone’s magic in your blood, Colby. It makes you and the Stone, in essence, one. You are a part of it, and it a part of you. The only way your immortality could be stripped from you is if this Stone were destroyed. And it cannot be destroyed!” he explained darkly.

“You’re sure of that?”
questioned Colby.

“
The most powerful people have tried, and failed.”

“So what does the S
tone have to do with all of this?” asked Colby, waving his arms towards the field filled with lazily ranging Mazuruk.

“This, my son, is
our
future.” He stepped into the field. “The stones growing inside their bellies will breathe life into our new world. I’ll create a stone even more powerful than the one that gave you life. This new stone will forge a brand new magical world, in which you will rule by my side.”

“
There isn’t enough magic left in this world to create such a stone,” argued Colby. “The stones can’t steal people’s magic if there are no magical people to take it from.”

F
azendiin’s gaze churned in a mixture of deadly excitement.

“O
h, but there will be. That’s where the Immortality Stone comes back into play again. Just who do you think gave crazy Amelia Cobb the idea of using the Stone to return magic in the first place?”

Colb
y’s eyes opened wide, with a blend of both fear and amazement.

His father really was steps ahead of anyone. He had everything all planned out.

“When Amelia was going to return magic,” said Colby, “she was going to sacrifice Colin and my sister to do it.”

“Someone’s life has to be sacrificed. Do you want it to be yours?” asked his father.

“I don’t get it!” Colby replied, his voice rising. “How can you kill your own daughter? Oh, wait!
Right!
I’m asking the man that imprisoned his own mother for hundreds upon hundreds of years and murdered his father!”

“
He deserved to die and she deserved her punishment,” Fazendiin replied with poisonous finality.

“Because they did
n’t agree with you?” Colby disputed daringly.

Fazendiin ignored his son’s comment, inhaling deeply before speaking again.

“Your sister would not actually
die
,” he clarified, “she’d just be... what do the humans call it... brain dead.”

“Is that all Meghan
is to you? A carcass to feed magic back into the world,” Colby roared in disgust at his father’s ability to write off her life so easily.

“What do you care?” asked Fazendiin. “She is nothing to you.
She is nothing compared to what I offer you!” He stopped for a moment, as if unable to understand why his son was being so difficult. “Colby, I gave you
life
and
unlimited
power. The ability to have anything you could possibly imagine. An endless lifetime of everything your heart desires.”

“
Why did you pick me?” asked Colby. “Why not Meghan, or Colin even? Was it just, reach in and grab one of us? And I just happened to be the lucky winner?”

“I picked you at birth
,” his father informed him. “I knew the moment I looked into your eyes that
you
were the only one with the strength to lead us into the world I wanted to create. I. Chose. You.”

“
I still don’t understand my part in all of this. Why do you need
me
? You’re already powerful and feared by everyone.”

“
Yes, this is true. But I am not naive enough to believe that I will live forever. But I
will
see my world brought to life, and you, Colby, my chosen son, my legacy, are meant to be its King.
You
cannot be killed.
You
cannot be overthrown. You are invincible.
You.
Are. Forever
.”

Colby
looked away from his father.

It
was the first time in weeks he felt the need to let the Magicante take over. He had always been so certain. So sure. Now, doubts threatened to overwhelm him.

He had been groomed to be a king.

No, not
a
king.

The King!

He did not want to be on the losing side.

But could he sacrifice his sister to be on the winning side?
Could he sacrifice the entire world to be on the winning side?

His father had li
ed to him about almost everything. Could he trust that his father was telling him the complete truth now?

Jurekai Fazendiin grew impatient and strode into the field stretching his arms out wide, displayin
g his handiwork.

“
Did I choose wrong when I picked you?” he asked bluntly. “Your entire future stands in front of you... an endless life with endless possibilities. Or it stands behind you in a world about to die.”

Colby
looked upon his father with horrified disbelief.

Did h
e expect him to choose, right this minute?

A long blade appeared in his father’s hands.
He leaned over, placing it underneath the throat of the closest Mazuruk.

“
The new world is coming,” he declared. “Make your choice...”

##

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