Dissever (Unbinding Fate Book One) (26 page)

Tanner stopped and put his hands up just before he got
within her striking range.

“Before you say anything please listen, girlie.” He
waited until he was sure she wasn’t gonna hit him. “I had to help Gage—just
like he had to help Kim. It was the right thing to do.”

Tears welled in her eyes because she knew he was
right. Gage couldn’t let Kim die and Tanner couldn’t let her stop Gage.

Tanner took a step closer to her. “You knew he could
heal?”

She nodded.

“So you knew what was gonna happen?”

Addy pressed her palm to her right temple. “I can’t
believe he left me.”

 Tanner put his arms out and two steps later she had her
face buried in his shoulder.

“I was there, girlie. That guy didn’t wanna leave
you.”

Addy tipped her head back to look at him. “I’m sorry
for being like this. Jax told me to pull myself together.”

Tanner squeezed her tightly against him. “Screw Jax.”

“You’re making it hard to stay mad,” she said with a
sniffle.

 “That’s the plan.”

 “It’s working.”

Tanner stepped back and put his hands on her
shoulders. “Does that mean I don’t have to watch out for your right hook
anymore?”

She laughed for the first time in a week. “You’re out
of danger for
now.
”

He dropped his arms and grinned at her. Being around Tanner
made the hopelessness she’d been feeling fade a little and she was glad Jax
convinced her to come downstairs.

“What’ve I missed?” She was almost afraid to hear the
answer as they walked to the library.

Tanner told her Jax has been back on his feet for
about four days, but for the first two days he and Juliette were fighting.

“They were locked in the library for hours the first
day. We could hear him shouting at her about lying to him and deceiving him.
Your name was even shouted a few times.” The second day Tanner said Mitchell
West had shown up and the three of them were locked in Jax’s wing of the estate
for the entire day. “When they came out, it was just business as usual.”

Addy figured Jax found out some things that upset him
when he got the Overseer’s memories.

“We were right about everything. The Mesen want Jax
out of the picture so they can get more powers and our side’s been trying to
stop them. So it’s your basic good versus evil,” Tanner said, smiling. “And
speaking of good versus evil—your cat’s a
beast.
He’s been driving Stubbs’
dogs insane.”

She laughed thinking about Moose torturing the little
dogs.

“I really feel like everything I knew about the Akori
was watered down truth mixed with lies,” Addy said as they walked into the
library.

Jax looked up at her from his seat at the head of the
table, the same seat their grandfather used to occupy. “That’s because it
was
.”

Chapter 24

Jax directed Addy and Tanner to join them at the
table. He pointed to Juliette and Stubbs, asking them to describe everything
that happened leading up to the creation of the Overseer’s Stone—from the
beginning.  Juliette took a drink from her glass and started telling the story.

Andrew and Eva were thoughtful and loving to the
humans. The humans didn’t know about them, but the Akori helped them whenever
possible. Whether it was healing their sick, building their cities, or providing
them with food, Eva always tried to help. She made the other Akori help them
too. Juliette said the humans picked some virtually uninhabitable locations to
try to live, and many times, if the Akori didn’t intervene, they wouldn’t have
survived.

As with any society, dissention was occurring among the
Akori and many felt Eva used the humans as toys, watching them and guiding them
through narrow paths she designed for her own entertainment. They didn’t want
to continue helping her to help humans and a movement started to remove Eva and
Andrew from leading the Akori.

The group began trying different Akori symbols on
humans to build an army. They hoped that an army of humans would force Eva and
Andrew to step down, believing Eva would rather give up ruling the Akori than
kill humans.

The experimenting caused large numbers of humans to
become gravely ill with sicknesses they called plagues. Eventually the Mesen
were able to design a string of symbols that worked to control the humans as
well as give them strength without killing them.

Stubbs continued where Juliette left off but looked uncomfortable
as he spoke. “The Reunion Ball was in full swing. Everyone was dancing and drinking
one minute, and the next the human army marched in. They were equipped with
weapons forged especially to kill Akori.” Stubbs looked down at his hands. “Eva
and Andrew stopped them.”

“They had no
choice,”
Juliette said in Stubbs’
direction. She told them the marks on the humans couldn’t be removed and what
had been done to them couldn’t be undone. “Eva held Andrew’s hand, raised her
arm in the air, and in one swoop, every human was lying on the floor in pools of
blood. It was the worst thing I’d ever seen; extremely gruesome doesn’t even
come close to describing it.”

Images of the floor in the ballroom, where she’d grown
up practicing combat, covered in human bodies flooded her mind. A sick feeling started
washing over her and she tried to push the images away. She was pulled from her
thoughts by Tanner putting his arm around her shoulders. Addy felt bad for
Juliette and Stubbs. They seemed truly pained talking about it.

“So what happened after that?” Tanner pressed on
impatiently, ignoring Addy’s elbow to his ribs. “How’d Oren Sanders end up in
the picture?”

“Eva always watched humans,” Stubbs said. He told them
that she’d been watching a village that was stricken with the plague. Oren
Sanders saw his family and the people of his village die, but never became sick
himself. Eva felt that he was strong enough to handle the Akori power without
abusing it. That night, after the ball, she struck a deal with him that gave
him his son back, and guarantee he’d always have an heir. In return, he promised
that the oldest male in his bloodline would always live at Tremain to regulate
the Akori power using the Overseer’s Stone.

“Eva created the Overseer’s Stone which caused our
powers to be diminished to basically nothing,” Juliette said. “Oren was the
only one able to use it.”

Addy shook her head. “I’ve lived here my
whole
life—why
wasn’t I told any of this? This seems to be pretty common knowledge for
everyone outside of Tremain.”

 Jax cleared his throat. “Grandfather agreed to keep
the estate out of the fighting in exchange for our lives being saved.”  Jax
paused, looking at Juliette. “It’s only now that—
well
some things have
changed and we’re able to become involved.”

Addy started to question him but Tanner talked over
her. “I wanna know how she took all that power and jammed it into that stone.”

Stubbs dropped his hands into his lap. “The power
isn’t
in
the stone. The stone simply blocks most of the power from
reaching the Akori.”

Tanner shifted his gaze to Juliette. “What other
powers are there?”

Juliette turned to face him. “Shifting the timeline or
event shifting is a
minor
power, that’s why most Akori can still do it. Most
of us aren’t strong enough to shift an event involving another Akori though. Some
of us, the older Akori, still have enough power to do some
other
things.
We used to be able to—”

“There are too many abilities to discuss them
all,”
Stubbs said, putting his hands up.

Juliette let out an irritated huff and crossed her
arms.

Addy wasn’t exactly sure why, but she could tell
Stubbs was getting annoyed at all of the questions. Tanner either didn’t pick
up on Stubbs’ annoyance or didn’t care, because he continued grilling them.

“What’s up with the Andrew guy?” Tanner moved his eyes
around the room. “He’s always mentioned with Eva, but it sounds like she’s the
one running the show.”

Juliette still looked irritated and Stubbs didn’t respond,
so Jax fielded his question. “Andrew’s loyal to Eva and does whatever she
asks.”

“Loyal to a
fault
—he simply can’t say no to
her.” Juliette rolled her eyes. “Anything she asks of him, he just blindly goes
along with.”

Stubbs shook his head. “Andrew and Eva have been
companions longer that any of you can imagine. Understanding a relationship
like that isn’t possible for you. He has to take care of her, she—”

“It seems like Eva can take care of
herself
to
me,” Addy said, looking up at the painting of Andrew and Eva on the wall.

Jax held his hands up to the group. “Let’s get back on
track.”

Tanner quickly got in one last question. “Can the Overseer
use the powers the Akori are blocked from using?”

“No.” Jax sighed, leaning forward. “So the Mesen want
their powers back. Until we do something, they’ll continue to try to infiltrate
the estate, and kill me and—”

The door flew open, startling them all.

“
Jax
, the Akori you said to watch for just
entered the grounds,” Patrick said, walking in quickly.

 “Don’t let him speak to anyone, and bring him to the
sitting room in my wing.” Jax was already on his feet heading for the door.
“Everyone meets back here in an hour.”

Tanner and Addy exchanged curious glances.

“Let's take a break then,” Stubbs said. He stood up,
looking thankful for the interruption, and walked to the back of the library.

“How’s Molly?” Addy asked Bernard. Her voice still
cracked and sounded rough as she spoke.

He shrugged his shoulders. “She’s strong. She was
upset at first, but she’s come around to understand.”

“Understand? Her only child is gone, how can she
possibly understand that,” Addy said, shaking her head. “I’m gonna go see her.”

Bernard followed her into the hall. “Wait a minute,” he
said, stopping her. “You already knew Gage could heal?”

Winkie and Brutis were in their bed waiting for
Stubbs. They looked happy to see her, and she gave them each a scratch behind
the ears. “Yes, he healed me when I got hurt during practice and after the
Mesen attack.”

Bernard nodded. “He knew he’d Scatter, yet he healed
Kim anyway?”

“Yes.” A tear slipped down her cheek. “I begged him
not to.”

“He grew up to be a good boy.” Bernard’s voice cracked
as he spoke. “I didn’t realize you and Gage had become so close again. I’m so very
sorry he’s gone.”

She didn’t know what to say. Bernard had to be upset
about losing Gage too. He didn’t have any children of his own, and he’d spent
time with Gage practically every day since he was a child. “I’m sure you miss
him as much as I do.”

He nodded and smiled. “He’ll be back, perhaps not in
my lifetime, but surely in yours.”

Addy’s chest tightened and she couldn’t handle the
direction of the conversation.  “I’m going to see Molly.” She quickly hugged
him and headed off down the hallway.

Addy walked around the estate checking in the usual
places Molly would be. In the kitchen, she ran into one of the younger Akori
girls named Penny, and Malcolm, the guard who was usually partnered up with
Gage.

“Hey Addy,” Penny said. “I’m sorry about everything.”

“Gage is a good guy, we’re gonna miss him until he
comes home,” Malcolm said.

That’s what she’d dreaded. Everyone probably knew her
and Gage were getting close and would be offering sympathy and feeling bad for
her.

“Thanks,” she said and quickly changed the topic. “Have
either of you seen Molly?”

Penny pointed up. “She’s probably in her room.”

Addy ran up the back stairs and saw two Akori guards
standing outside of one of the doors. That had to be where Kim was. She’d been
trying not to think about her, but now, knowing she was no more than a couple dozen
feet away, Addy’s chest ached like she was the one who’d been stabbed.

Walking past them, she turned the corner and saw the
door to Molly’s room was cracked. She could see her folding clothes into a suitcase.

“Hello,” Addy said, eyeing
the luggage.

Molly turned around,
appearing surprised to see her. “You’re up and around!”

Addy entered and closed the
door behind her.
“You’re going on a trip?”

Molly stopped what she was
doing and sat down on the bed. “No. I’m actually leaving. I still have the home
Will and I lived in before he Scattered—I’m moving back there.”

 
Addy felt her stomach contract. “Why?”

“It's time. I was only here
because Gage’s father said he wanted him raised at Tremain if he Scattered.
Then I stayed on after he was grown to take care of Fate. My jobs here are done.”

She felt completely confused.
“What about
Will,
he’ll be back soon.”

Molly smiled and motioned for
her to sit. “Sweetheart, Will and I aren’t together. We were, but that’s long
over.”

“I don’t understand. You
stayed here all these years waiting.”

”I wasn’t waiting for Will.
I was obligated to his son, to make sure he was raised the way Will and I
wanted him to be. I was obligated to you too. I had you with me all day every
day for the first years of your life. Fate was busy, and he didn’t know how to
care for a baby,” Molly said, smiling over at her. “I didn’t mind and Gage…”

Addy swallowed hard.

“Gage loved having you
around.” Molly stood up and went back to packing.

She took a deep breath. “Gage
has healing abilities. Did they tell you?”

“I suspected it when he
brought you to me the day you collapsed. You were covered in blood, but you didn’t
have so much as a scratch. When you woke up and asked where your cuts and
bruises went, I knew he did it.”