Divided - Book Five in the Fated Saga | Page 3

But who did they need protection
from? And what had happened to their mother? Did she really die in an accident like
they were told? And where was their father?

4
The cloaked woman knelt over the cradle, again hiding the infants from view. She
sniffled, as if trying to hold back tears. “I will return soon.” She stood, slipping the
hood off her head, revealing her face. “I love you so much,” she said with a pained
voice.
Meghan eyes widened, her heart beating fast. She looked on, watching the vision as
if unable to look away. “No...” she let out in a raspy breath, feeling as though she
might faint. “It’s … it’s not possible...” It was something she had dreamed of.
Something she had thought of often. Something she had hoped deep down in her soul
to be true... but it could not actually be!
The woman that Meghan Jacoby believed to be the twins’ mother was younger than
the woman she knew now, but her identity was unmistakable:
Juliska Nandalia Blackwell. Leader, Banon and Gypsy Queen of the Svoda Gypsies.
The vision ended.
Meghan could not speak. She sat on the floor watching the flame on her brother's
candle fizzle and die. Nona, her loyal catawitch, had been snuggled up on her feet,
but was now upright and statuesque, as she had seen everything Meghan had seen,
through their shared thoughts.
Neither spoke. There were no words that seemed fitting. Meghan's journal sat open
on the floor a few feet away. She leaned forward dragging it onto her lap, with pen in
hand, but she couldn't even write the words she was thinking.
“Is it possible?” Meghan eventually asked no one, shaking her head, no, as if to
answer her own question.
“From what you saw,” Nona spoke cautiously, “I- I think that yes, it is possible,
however unbelievable it may be.”
“No one has mentioned that Juliska ever had any children,” Meghan said, finding
her voice.
“I don't imagine that would be a topic one would often speak of,” the catawitch
spoke wisely. “Especially if those children were believed dead.”
“Yeah, you're probably right, Nona. But if that was really us, how did we get out of
the fire? How is it that Timothy died, but we didn't? And why would we have been
there in the first place? Why did Uncle Arnon tell us our parents were killed in an
accident?”
Nona had no reply.
Meghan's thoughts strayed now to whom she could ask. Jae Mochrie? Ivan Crane (she
shuddered at the thought). Billie Sadorus? She had once mentioned she kept records
of Svoda history. Or perhaps the Kalila sisters? They owned the Jackal lantern,
reporting the news, surely they would know. Perhaps she could just ask Juliska
herself?
Exactly how did you walk up to someone and broach such a difficult subject? She
would have to give it some serious thought.
There was a knock on the door to her bedroom.
“Come in,” she answered absentmindedly.
It was Jae. “Hi. You ready?” he asked her.
Meghan had nearly forgotten. It was the first day of school. They had been back in
Bedgewood Harbor, otherwise known as the Svoda Island, for nearly a month, and it
was decided just a week in that school would reopen as soon as possible.

5
“Sorry, I lost track of the time,” Meghan replied. “Give me just a second, I'll be
right there.”
“K, I''ll be downstairs... actually, I'll just wait outside,” an inflection in his tone said
he'd rather not be inside this house. Nevertheless, this was Meghan's home now. Her
bedroom was just down the corridor from Juliska Blackwell … did she now need to add
mother to this list?
Meghan pushed the thought into the back of her mind. She supposed she could
understand why Jae would be uncomfortable inside the Banon’s home, seeing as he
had been in trouble, and punished by Juliska, previously.
She hurriedly grabbed the Colin shaped candle and stashed it into a nearby trunk,
alongside two other candles she had not yet finished creating; one in the shape of her
Uncle Arnon and the other in the shape of Sebastien Jendaya.
She dropped her journal