Dissever (Unbinding Fate Book One) (38 page)

“But what the book said
would
work;
the power would be restored if we did it?” Addy asked. “The
Akori who are Scattered would return?”

 “The Scattered Akori would
return and the power would be restored, but not as it was.” Eva pointed to Jax.
“If we sever his connection to the stone he’ll die.”

Juliette dropped her hand on
top of the wrinkled pages. “We’re not doing it then.”

Eva sighed, placing her hand
on her chest. “Andrew tried to warn me, but I was blinded by my anger and grief.
The night of the ball I was determined to bind the power to protect the humans
from the Mesen. I thought Oren would
welcome
my help. Compelling him was
just a way to ease him. I never expected him to want out of the deal. When he
asked me to break the oath I couldn’t, so I had his memories altered. It was
difficult and I regretted what I‘d hastily done, but there was nothing I could
do to change it.”

Tanner let go of Addy’s hand
and crossed his arms. “Cut to the chase. Besides Jax kicking over, which I’m
still on the fence about being a
bad
thing, how would the power be
different?”

“There’s no way to—” Eva was
stopped by a loud commotion outside.

Ash Worthington and his
father Preston walked in followed by a group of Akori and humans. They were all
dressed in white uniforms from head to toe.

“Eva,” Preston said, “I didn’t
believe it when I heard you were being summoned and trapped.” He gave her a
sympathetic look and bowed his head.  “How
embarrassing
for you.”

“Preston, you’re not welcome
here,” Will said, stepping in front of him.

Ash raised his hand casually
and made a sweeping motion. Will flew through the air into the stone wall.

Jax started to move but
Juliette stopped him. “We don’t know what we’re dealing with.”

“You’ve got that right.” Ash
stopped in front of Addy. He ran his fingertips down her arm, causing her to
shudder. “It’s
very
nice to see you again.” He leaned close and
whispered in her ear. “You’ve eluded me twice, but I have a feeling the third
time’s gonna be a
charm.
”

“Get
away
from her,” Tanner
said through clenched teeth.

Ash raised his hand in Tanner’s
direction without taking his eyes off Addy. “Don’t make me silence you, Shepherd—I’ve
been told it’s
quite
unpleasant.”

Preston walked over to stand
in front of Tanner. “You honestly don’t remember us,
do you
? Perhaps we
should—”

“Leave the boy
alone
,
Preston.” Eva interrupted him from where she was trapped across the room.

Preston tipped his head and
began slowly walking around the group. “I can’t believe after all this time I
finally have all of you in the same room. It feels wonderful when a plan comes
together.” He paused and turned to his son. “Ash, we’ll need to clear the room
of
unnecessary
individuals.”

Stubbs moved to stand by
Eva. “What do they want?”

“Preston is the one who
removed Oren’s memories,” she said, closing her eyes, “and he’s the only one,
outside of me, who knew everything.”

“Not the
only
one.”
Preston corrected her. “Have you forgotten about—”

“I’ve
never
forgotten
anything that happened—or what you did,” Eva said.

“That’s why we’re all
together today, and believe me when I say I’ve worked
very
hard to get
to here,” Preston said. “When the children were separated, I didn’t know if
this would
ever
be possible. It was very clever of Fate to place his
grandson with Mitchell West—I didn’t suspect a thing.”

“Preston, you were once a
good friend to us.” Stubbs shook his head and turned his hands over. “What
happened to you?”

He tipped his head and
studied Stubbs. “Andrew,
my friend
, do you really believe I’m the one
you should be so concerned about?”

Panic flashed in Stubbs eyes
and he diverted them.

“Ah yes—so you know about
him too.” Preston’s face broke out into a sick grin. “He’s who you should be
worried about—
not us.”

 “Who are you talking
about?” Addy asked, looking between Eva and Preston.

“He’s gone—no one’s seen him
in nearly a century,” Eva said as if Addy hadn’t even spoken. “If he’s why
you’re doing this then—”

 “A
century
?” Ash
turned around and gaped at Eva. “Try last week—he’s
never
been gone,
just waiting. Watching,
always watching.”

Eva looked pale and
immediately turned to Andrew, whispering.

Ash began following his
father’s orders. He pointed for his people to remove Will, who was unconscious.
Then he turned to Juliette.

“You still look fantastic,
Jules.” He flipped his hand and sent her out the door.

Jax lunged at him, but Ash
calmly put his hand up and stopped Jax in his tracks.

“
Sit down
,” Ash said,
pointing at him.

Jax moved to the closest
chair and plopped down, saying a few swearwords.

Ash’s face twisted into a
devilish smirk. “
Stay
.”

Jax let several more swearwords
slip out of his mouth as he pounded his fist on the table.

Addy looked at Tanner,
covering her mouth and whispering. “He must be really strong if his power works
on Jax.”

Ash turned to Tanner and
Addy. “We need you both—
stay put.”

 “That was pretty cool,” Tanner
whispered.

 She rolled her eyes at him.
“Can you move?”

Tanner tried to lift his
foot but it was glued to the floor.

“Still think its cool?”

He looked at her out of the
corner of his eye. “Will you be
mad
if I say yeah?”

Preston sauntered over to
Eva. “Well, it appears as though we’re ready to begin.”

“You don’t understand what
you’re doing, Preston.” Eva shook her finger at him. “Andrew and I will be gone;
the power
won’t
be restored like it was.”

“Those pathetic Mesen may be
concerned about the power, but you know that’s not the case with me, Eva.” Preston
let out an
incredulous laugh.
“So I’m willing
to
chance
it.”

More noise came from the
hallway and Akori in Team Jax gear, as well as Mesen wearing the blue combat
uniforms, came rushing in.

Matt and Renee were the
first through the door. Addy still couldn’t move and wasn’t sure if they were
there to help or make things worse.

“Don’t just
stand
there,” Renee said, shouting at her and Tanner. “Help us stop them!”

Addy felt a wave of relief that
they seemed to be on the same side.

Tanner pointed to Ash who
was flinging Team Jax and Mesen around like toys. “
We can’t
.”

Eva was shouting at Jax over
the noise, yelling for him to free her. He was trying to reach the Overseer’s
Stone, but he was still stuck to the chair.

Matt ran to the table and
slid it in front of him, slapping him on the back. ”The enemy of my enemy is my
friend, man—at least for
today.
”

Jax grabbed the stone. He
placed his fingers on the symbols and a bright flash of blue light caused Eva
to be freed from her blood-smeared trap.

Eva grabbed Stubbs by his hand.
They directed the small amount of power they had together, attempting to free
Jax, Tanner, and Addy from Ash’s hold. Addy could feel the surge flowing
through her and finally she was able to move.

The symbol on her neck started
burning and she pressed her hand against it.

“Does yours burn?” she asked
Tanner.

“Yeah.” Tanner reached up
and touched his, glancing at Addy. “No pulling this time though.”

“Weapons,” Jax said, standing
up.

After kicking off her
flip-flops, Addy was right behind Tanner and Jax heading for the door. They met
substantial resistance and did a lot of fighting on the way to the vault.

“There’s so many of them,”
Addy said while trying to catch her breath. “Some are
human.”

“Doesn’t
matter—
an
enemy’s an enemy.” When they rounded the corner into the vault, Jax stopped and
turned to them. “Do
not
hesitate to kill them because they’re human—they
won’t hesitate to kill you.”

They each grabbed their weapons.
Jax only had one sword because his other hand was still injured.

Addy passed Jax as they ran
up the stairs. “We need to get back to the others.”

Before either of the guys
could respond they heard Juliette’s voice. She was shouting for Jax as she put
her phone in her pocket.

“I’m here,” he said,
spotting her.

She looked like she was
about to cry and hurried over to him. “I thought they
killed
you.”

“Suck it up,” Jax said,
surveying the area around them. “Where’s Ash and Preston?”

“They slipped out of the library
with a few of their people, but they haven’t left the estate. The rest have
been forced into the ballroom,” she said.

“Why are the Mesen here fighting
on our side?” Addy asked.

“My father was contacted by
the Mesen,” Juliette said. “They had information that the Worthingtons were on
their way to Tremain and offered a truce to deal with them together.”

“It looks like we lost a lot
of people,” Jax said, adjusting the bandages on his arm. “Ash is so damn
strong.”

 Juliette reached over and
helped get the bandage back in place. “Angelica is on her way here with help,
we just have to hold them off.”

“Who do you think they were
talking about back there?” Addy asked as they began walking toward the ballroom.
“The man Preston said they should be more concerned about than him?”

Jax pulled his sword out,
swinging it in front of him. “I’d like to know too.”

“Preston plays mind games,”
Juliette said, shaking her head. “Bringing up some old enemy of Eva and Andrew’s
is a good way to shake them.”

Tanner pulled his bow off
his shoulder as they turned the last corner to the ballroom. “How many Akori do
you guys think Ash Scattered to get enough power to do those things? That was
incredible.”

“That was
nothing.
” Juliette
readied her sword. The fighting was visible just head of them. “You should have
seen what
Andrew and Eva
were capable of doing.”

In the ballroom, Matt and
Renee were fighting back to back, Scattering Akori, and killing the humans. It
was awful and Eva was in tears watching the humans die. It took a lot of power
out of them to free Addy, Jax, and Tanner from Ash’s hold. She and Stubbs were backed
into a corner. Juliette and Jax took position in front, shielding them from the
Worthington’s people. Stubbs was gripping the Overseer’s Stone.

Addy and Tanner battled with
fluid movements as if they knew what the other was going to do before they did
it. She knew to drop as he shot arrows past her, and he instinctively ducked
out of the way when she swung her sword. It was like they could see what the
other saw even with their backs turned. They were faster than everyone and
hardly broke a sweat fighting off anyone that came at them.

Three large men converged on
Addy. She sliced through two of them as she jumped up and grabbed one of
Tanner’s arrows out of the air, stabbing the third with it. Without stopping she
swung around, launching the arrow back in the direction it was originally
headed, Scattering a woman who was taking a swing at Renee.

Tanner’s eyes were huge as
she turned to look at him. Addy didn’t have time to say anything before she was
back to swinging her sword.

It was the first time she
and Tanner hadn’t been separated while fighting. The mark on the back of his
neck was glowing brightly. Addy noticed some of the others, including Jax,
watching them as they moved from one opponent to another.

Eva began shouting for them
to come over to her.

Addy and Tanner moved closer
to Andrew and Eva. Once Renee and Matt were able to take up a position in front
of them, Jax and Juliette joined them.

“Andrew, if Preston wasn’t
lying and he’s still alive—if Ashford
saw
him…” Eva gave him a pleading
look. “We must destroy the stone.”

Stubbs gazed at her and took
her hand. “If that’s what you think must be done then we’ll do it.”

Tanner looked between them,
taking a step forward. “Who the
hell
has you so freaked out that you’re
suddenly on board with breaking the Overseer’s Stone?”

“Someone
dangerous
—a
threat to all Akori.” Eva blinked back tears. “I crossed lines that weren’t
mean to be crossed—did things I had no business doing.”

“Once the stone is gone
there won’t be anything to be concerned about,” Stubbs said, trying to reassure
them. “Everything will be as it should.”