Read Online Control (Book Seven) (Fated Saga Fantasy Series) by Rachel Humphrey - D'aigle - Free Book Online

almost sounded interested.
    “Yeah. She is really good at that.”
    “I don’t like the idea of being knocked out,” he replied.
    “Well, if we get desperate enough, at least it’s an option. Regardless, I still think you’re nuts for standing out here all night. What were you doing?”
    He shrugged. “Walking. Thinking. Oh, um, happy birthday, by the way.”
    “ Nice change of subject,” she rebuked. “Thanks though. I’d completely forgotten about it.”
    “You don’ t look any different,” he said with a slight teasing tone.
    “Funny,” she retorted.
    An unusual sound caught both their ears and they listened for where it was coming from.
    “You can hear that, right?” Meghan asked Ivan, just to be sure.
    “Yeah. What is it?” He shook his head as if trying to get the noise out of his head.
    Meghan felt the need to do the same. The no ise was powerful. Overwhelming. Like the sound was suffocating them from inside their own heads.
    A crack rent the air and out of nowhere, a ship appeared, nestled between two trees as if it had always been there. The thick tree trunks kept the ship from falling to one side or the other.
    The ship was damaged badly, the wooden hull cracked underneath and great chunks of the ship missing completely, as if torn off.
    Villagers emerged from their dwellings, with a mixture of curiosity and confusion. When each saw the ship they froze, not sure what to think or how to react.
    Meghan wanted to go closer but held back.
    There was someone familiar close by.
    Someone knocking at the locked door in her mind... Colin?
    He did not reply to her. He allowed his guard down only enough to let her know he was near. She h eard the words, “I needed to make sure they were safe.” His block reformed itself and he was gone.
    “Ivan, I don’t know what this is, but Colin brought it here.”
    “Colin did this?” he confirmed in a tone of astonishment.
    “Yeah.” She had never seen anything like it. A ship now ported in the middle of the woods, nowhere near the ocean it must have been plucked from. How had Colin accomplished such a thing?
    “Did he say anything else?” Ivan asked her.
    “No. Just disappeared. D idn’t really talk to me directly. It was more like, just letting you know this was my doing.”
    They, along with a growing crowd of onlookers, edged closer to the ship, only to gasp simultaneously as shapes moved on the deck.
    A face lifted over the edge, peeking out. Whoever this was, they clearly had no idea where they were, any more than the villagers had any idea who was on board the ship.
    “Um,” said Meghan, recognizing the face peeking over the edge. “Billie?” she rushed towards the ship now. Ivan at her heels.
    Billie stood up, making a motion that it was okay for everyone to join her. She looked stunned and there were numerous tears in her clothing.
    “Meghan? Ivan?” Billie responded, her voice shaky. “Jae Mochrie,” she added, stunned at seeing him.
    Jae sidled up alongside Meghan and Ivan. Meghan noted, somewhat jealously, that Jae looked rested.
    “You... You’re dead, ” stuttered Billie to Jae.
    A man Meghan recognized as Noah Flummer appeared , holding someone appearing to be unconscious. “We need help,” he said. “She’s injured badly.”
    V illagers raced forward to help the weary and stunned travelers. Seemingly, the fact that Meghan, Ivan and Jae knew these people and were not afraid of them, meant they were friendly and it was okay to help them.
    Ivan climbed up the side, offering help to a young woman trying with all her might to hold someone up. Her long dark locks were a tangled mess. When she turned, she nearly dropped the man she was holding. “Ivan Crane?”
    “Maria,” he replied, equally shocked. He cleared his throat and grabbed hold of the man.
    “Thank you. I didn’t think I would be able to hold him up much longer. He was stabbed in his back,” she explained, adding, “What are you doing here? Wait, strike that.