Dissever (Unbinding Fate Book One) (21 page)

Addy shook her head no.

“That wasn’t a
question
,” he said, tipping her
chin to look at him.

“It’s just a few bruises.” Addy let go of him, taking
a step back. She looked away because she had tears building again. “I think
it’s too late for you to become a roadie.”

“I’m more of a front guy anyway.” Tanner scrunched up
his face as he looked down at the blood she’d smeared on his light blue shirt
from her clothes. “Oh wow, thanks for sharing, girlie.”

“You’re welcome,” she said, turning to the
conversation that was going on without them.

“We have Matt, Renee, and about a dozen others,”
Bernard said. “We should be able to get some answers out of them.”

Jax looked up from his conversation with Stubbs. “Addison,
I just learned we have a
dungeon
.”

“What?” Addy lived here her whole life and she’d never
heard such a thing.

“
Dungeon
is a bit of a strong word for it. It’s
a jail where we used to house Akori prisoners when necessary, located in the
sub-basement,” Stubbs said.

Gage opened the library door and came in. Addy studied
him with concern, but he said Molly looked him over and it was really just a
flesh wound. He took a seat on the chaise by the fireplace across the room from
her.

Addy was dying to ask Stubbs about the way he’d blown
the doors off the vault but Bernard started talking before she could get a word
out.

“Where’d all the Akori come from who were fighting with
us?” Bernard asked Jax.

“Good friends of the West Family.” He nodded his head
toward Juliette. ”They’ll help us protect Tremain and the stone.”

“Stubbs, that story you told us in school about the
ball where Andrew and Eva were attacked, were those Akori who attacked them,
not humans like you told us?” Gage asked him.

“No, they were indeed humans, but they were marked
with Akori symbols.” He cut his eyes to Juliette.

Like the ones she read about in the books, Addy
realized. It wasn’t just a story like Fate told her.

“It was the same group who attacked us today, they
call themselves Mesen,” Juliette said. “They marked humans with our symbols to
control them, basically building an army.”

Tanner pulled out a chair motioning for Addy to sit. “An
army for what?”

“Overthrowing Eva and Andrew,” Jax said. “Mesen killed
my and Addison’s parents, not humans.”

Addy carefully sat in the chair Tanner pulled out and
he lightly placed his fingers on her shoulders. “Did they kill the family of
Overseers that lived here before us?”

Stubbs looked up at the painting of Andrew and Eva on
the wall. “There was no Overseer before Oren Sanders.”

She’d always assumed her family just took over for
another family who had the job before the Sanders did. She figured it was
possible Andrew and Eva just ran Tremain themselves before Oren Sanders took
over though.

 “It seems like there’s more to this,” Tanner said,
shaking his head. “But I’m just the new guy.”

Stubbs got to his feet. “We best get on with this.”

Jax motioned to Addy. She painfully stood up and walked
over to stand next to him at the head of the table in front of the Overseer’s
Stone. She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do and she glanced back at Gage,
who smiled sympathetically. She didn’t really know Jax and she was in too much
pain to pretend she did.

Jax leaned down. “Behave while I’m gone.”

Addy simply nodded her head—again not sure how to
respond to him.

He scooped her up in his arms, and she sort of hugged
him back awkwardly. Her side was killing her and his extra tight hug didn’t
help matters.

A few minutes later Jax was laying his hands on the Overseer’s
Stone. There was a bright flash of blue light, and when it cleared Jax was on
the floor unconscious. For a split second, Addy thought it had killed him. He
was taken to his room where he would remain heavily guarded until he regained
consciousness.

Chapter 19

The damage to the estate was extensive, but Bernard
said the cleanup wouldn’t be started until the morning. Addy and Gage walked to
his room after the meeting. She was sitting on his couch waiting for him to
finish showering and changing his clothes. The sight of Matt trying to hurt
Gage kept replaying in her head. She could still feel Renee’s hands around her
neck. Addy squeezed her eyes shut to try to force the images from her mind as
tears streamed down her face.

 Gage crouched down in front of her. His shirt was off
and he was covered in bruises. His back also had a large bandage covering the
wound Matt, their friend, had inflicted on him. “We’re gonna sort this entire
mess out and do whatever it takes to stop these people.”

“Renee and Matt have been our friends most of our
lives—Josh helped
raise
us. How am I gonna tell Kim about Matt?” She
hadn’t seen Kim since the fighting ended. “She loves him.”

“She loves you more, and they tried to hurt us. We’ll
all help her get through it.

Addy went to stand up and winced in pain. She thought
she had some broken ribs, but didn’t wanna say anything about it to Gage.
During the fighting, the adrenaline pumping through her dulled the pain, but
hours later it was killing her.

Gage gently pulled her so she was leaning against him.
“Are you hurt?”

 “My ribs are a little sore but they’ll be fine. C’mon
and walk me home.”

Walking through the garden was terrible. Most of the
benches were overturned or destroyed. Chunks of the grass and bushes were torn
up. Once beautiful statues had pieces broken off of them or were tipped over. They
watched their new Akori allies patrolling the grounds of the estate and Addy
was still surprised at how many of them there were.

“Everything’s changed so much.” Gage looked around
them. “Between Stubbs blasting those doors down and my healing power, I’m
starting to think there’s a lot more to this. How did we
not
know
any of this was going on?”

“Jax said Fate hid it all. I understand him wanting to
protect Jax, but—
I mean
those Mesen who attacked us, they were like an
army. If Jax didn’t have those other Akori here, I don’t know what would’ve
happened.” Addy started thinking about Matt and Renee again.

Gage took her hand and they walked the rest of the way
in silence.

Once inside her place, she excused herself to shower.
In the bathroom mirror, she saw that the bruises on her left side were deep
shades of black and blue. She started a hot shower and climbed in, carefully
scrubbing her bruised and cut up body. She was in a lot of pain when she went
to find something to wear so she just slipped on a loose white cotton nightgown
that went down to her knees.

Gage was sitting on her patio. “It looks like it’s
gonna storm,” she said, stepping outside into the darkness.

He reached for her hand to pull her down to him, but
she resisted because of her injuries.

He let her hand go. “Sorry. I just thought—”

“It's not that.” She was more than sore, her ribs were
on fire. She had to see Molly first thing in the morning, and maybe even go to
the hospital.

Carefully, Addy sat down on Gage’s lap, pulling her
feet up so she was completely in his arms. She leaned against his chest and rested
her head on him. Visions of the attack were on a constant loop, continuously
replaying in her head.

Practice fighting was completely different from really
trying to hurt someone. The Mesen just Scattered when they were fatally
injured, so it wasn’t like killing them, but they still felt the pain and bled.
If she ever had to fight against other humans, she doubted she’d be able to
kill them.

 Gage started smoothing his fingers through her wet
hair. “What’re you thinking?”

The breeze was cool, but Gage’s body was hot, and the
combination made her shiver.

“I never thought we’d be fighting people in our own
home—I never thought we’d actually be fighting anyone, anywhere.” She leaned
forward and looked at his face. “I cut Matt open and pounded Renee into the
ground until she was unconscious.” She squeezed her eyes shut.

“Stop thinking about it, you did what you had to. If
you hadn’t stopped Matt, he might have Scattered me, and Renee could have
killed
you.” He placed his hand on her head, making her rest it back on his shoulder.
“We did what was necessary at the moment to make it through. We can’t second
guess it.”

It hadn’t occurred to her that she could have been killed.
Jax and Bernard were humans also. Either one of them could’ve died during the
fighting. She was thankful they were both safe.

 Addy put her hand on Gage’s chest; she could feel his
steady breathing and heartbeat. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

“Me too.” Gage ran his hot hand along her arm and
shoulder. It tingled like he was melting ice under her skin.

The last thing she wanted was to get up, but she was
in some serious pain. “It’s late. We should probably go in so you can get back
to the main house.”

It was excruciating, but she managed to get inside
without his help. Once in the light, he could see the pain on her face.

Gage sat down on the bed and gently pulled her in
front of him. He carefully lifted her nightgown to expose her side.

He made a pained face. “The bruises are horrible. You
might—”

“I’ll see your mom tomorrow, I promise.” She didn’t
want him to worry, plus she really intended on seeing Molly first thing.

Gage stood up, pulling the blankets back, and helped
her into her bed. He looked worried.

She tried to give him a smile that seemed genuine.
“Get back to the house, I’ll be fine.”

He put his hand on his forehead, staring down at her. “I
can’t leave you like this, Addy.”

He reached out to touch her and she instantly knew
what he was gonna do. It was the whole reason she’d tried not to let him know
she was hurt. Addy jerked away from his hands causing pain like she’d never
experienced to surge through her body.

She choked back a scream. “Don’t do
that!
It
uses your power. You could Scatter.”

“Hey.” He turned her face to look at him. “Calm down.”

Each breath was a new experience in pain and she was
trying to keep them even. “No more using it. Promise me you won’t!”

Thinking about him Scattering the way she had seen all
those Akori and Mesen do earlier was too much to take. Gage went to the patio
door and she thought he was leaving. Instead, he locked it and turned the
lights out. He took his sandals and shirt off and slipped into the bed next to
her.

Addy was lying on her right side and he scooted up
behind her back, wrapping his arms around her carefully. She slowly adjusted
her body until she was as close to him as she could possibly get.

“It’s just that I don’t know how I’d make it through
this if you weren’t here,” she said, closing her eyes, forcing herself to stop
thinking about the pain.

“You don’t have to worry about that.” Gage slipped his
hand up the side of her body, beginning at her hip. “I promise not to use my power
on you again—
after this.”

 Addy felt the energy flowing through her before she
could react and everything went black.

Chapter 20

Storms went through during the night, washing the
blood stains from the patio and sidewalks of the estate. The skies had cleared
and it was a beautiful morning. Addy was sitting in the sun on the balcony
overlooking the ocean at Tanner’s suite.

Gage was already gone when she woke up, but he’d
written ‘
Don’t be mad’
on her mirror
with her favorite lipstick,
which had the opposite effect.

 
Addy wasn’t mad at Gage—she was furious. She
was thankful to be healed, but he was one step closer to draining his power. Thinking
about not having him around, especially after everything that had happened, was
unimaginable. She didn’t know how they’d ended up so close again, but knew she
didn’t want to lose him.

Once she was dressed she’d decided to go see Tanner. They
hadn’t talked much after the attack, but now they sat trading stories about
their battles. He said Juliette perched him up on a statue in the garden where
he could pick off the Mesen. According to Tanner, Juliette was a beast during
the attack. He saw her take people out without even touching them, like when
Stubbs blasted the door down.

“I’m telling you, girlie, we’re not getting the whole
story about why these guys want the Overseer out of the picture so badly,” he
said, handing her a piece of raisin toast.

“What do you think they’re hiding?” she asked.

“I’m not sure. Think about it, the returning Akori who
come through your house just adjust events until their power is used up, disappear,
and re-spawn decades later to do it again? No offense but that’s pretty lame,” Tanner
said, making a face.

“I’ve always thought that too,” Addy said, smiling.

“We know I’m a different type of Akori who can track
and has mad archery skills. I saw Juliette take people out just by moving her
hands through the air, and we both saw Stubbs blast the door down to the vault.
On top of that, an Akori who could heal saved you and Jax when you were born.”

Addy tossed Tanner’s words around in her mind. “You
think they want other types of powers.”

Tanner nodded. “So we know your ancestor was the first
Overseer made by Eva, but we don’t know why. Eva made him Overseer and gave him
the stone to do
what?”

Addy thought about what the stone was used for, at
least what she knew of. “Fate used it to move the estate and protect it from
being located by humans.”

“He also used it to summon me.” Tanner stood up and
leaned against the railing. “Think it somehow stops the Akori from using other
powers?”