Divided - Book Five in the Fated Saga | Page 5

blathered indifferently, catching his tongue. “Sorry,
that came out wrong... and it’s no bother,” he added, hoping he had not offended
her.
“Lost my appendage... that's one way to look at it I guess.” She blew off Jae's
callous remark. “It does sometimes feel a bit like I'm in a dream,” she added. “One of
those dreams where you wake up and you’re walking down the street naked, in front
of tons of people...”
“I'm sure Colin's fine, wherever he is,” Jae tried to reassure, although his words
sounded like an empty mantra, one that he had repeated many times in the previous
weeks.
“I know he's still mad, but if I could just hear his voice, get some kind of contact,
just know he's all right.”
Jae stopped at the school’s entrance and patted her shoulder. He said nothing else.
What more could he say? She had betrayed Colin and he had fled. There were only so
many times, or ways, Jae could say, “He'll be okay. You did what you had to do,”
before the words no longer held their original significance.
A shiver rained down her back, giving her the feeling that someone was watching
her. She glanced around but saw no one... for once, nobody is staring at me...
suppose it could just be those things … she mumbled upon reaching the steps leading
inside. She shuddered again, upon the sight of the two life-like statues of Scratchers,
flanking each side of the doors she would now have to enter five days a week.
Somehow, she had hoped they had been just a Grimble feature, but apparently,
someone thought the students still needed this appalling reminder; as if they could

7
forget these terrible creature’s entire lives revolved around hunting down and killing
the Svoda.
Inside the school, students were abuzz. Another group of traveling Svoda had been
tracked down and told it was time to come home; they were due to arrive in a week’s
time, when the right door back to the island would open.
The students wondered which group it would be and if they would know anyone.
Would it be friends or family they had not seen in almost fourteen years? Most of the
students were too young to even remember those traveling in other groups, but were
excited just the same.
Grownups and older teens worried about who would not be returning. They
wondered just who had survived the previous year's journeys and who had not.
Inevitably, there would be deaths they did not know about. Inevitably, over the
coming months as the groups received their messages that it was time to return
home, people would discover they had lost both friends and family.
Meghan did not care. Not that she wasn't happy for those that would once again be
reunited with friends and family, or sad for those that would find out they had lost
friends and family, whom they had not seen in as nearly many years as she had been
alive… but she had much bigger concerns to deal with.

##
##

Across the road from the school, the bird-human sat perched on a tree limb. His
dark beady eyes peered down at Ivan Crane, hiding behind the trunk of the tree. Ivan
looked up, at Bird, and then back down, speaking, as if talking to the tree in front of
his face.
“I'm sorry, but for now you're stuck here,” he told Bird. “Security is tighter than I've
ever seen it. Nothing can get onto or off the island without the Balaton knowing.
They’ve put up a protective barrier, one like I have never seen before. I don’t know
how to get through it so you’ll have to be careful. If you get caught...”
Bird chirped to reply that yes, that would be very bad.
“Plus, with you being stuck here, I've lost my last connection to the outside
world...” Ivan added, rolling his eyes at Bird, who chirped a haughty reply. “I know
it’s not your fault,” Ivan conceded. “It's just bad timing. I could have really used
someone on the outside right now.”
Bird looked at Ivan questioningly.
“Because,” Ivan continued decidedly, “I've thought over what you suggested, and,”
he sighed, resigning to his choice. “I have decided that you're right.”
Bird nodded politely as if to say thanks and your welcome all at