See How She Awakens Page 10

  Aberto wrapped his arms around me, traversing us up onto the bluff in the blink of an eye. I still struggled to move more than short distances on this plane, yet he could travel for miles unfazed.

  “What are we doing?” I asked as Aberto dropped his arms.

  “We are celebrating.”

  “Quite a party you’ve planned.” I looked around at the barren desert surrounding us.

  “Patience.” Aberto lowered himself to the edge of the cliff, allowing his legs to dangle into the void below.

  I sat down beside him, unsure of what sort of celebration sitting on a cliff would be. The sun began to lower itself on the horizon, turning the desert below into a blanket of red. Another day had passed, another day I’d been unable to save my friends. But today was the last day. Tomorrow, I would be there. I would find a way to stop the darkness. If only I could remember what Kennan begged me to remember in the void. The vision Molly showed me had been scratching at the back of my mind, bringing Kennan’s voice to the foreground. Always urging me to remember. They were connected, I just didn’t know how.

  “Stop thinking,” Aberto said from my side.

  “I wasn’t.”

  “You think quite loudly.” Aberto lifted his mouth in a crooked smile.

  “Don’t eavesdrop, it is rude to intrude on other’s thoughts.” I crossed my arms.

  “Sit and enjoy the wonders of the world, Izzy. Breathe in the air and watch as another day passes with the world still intact. Revel in the small victories of this day before it is gone.”

  Aberto’s hand reached out, grasping mine as the sky turned a brilliant orange. I’d often wondered how he’d lived so long and still retained his sanity. Then again, I wasn’t sure Aberto could ever be considered sane.

  “Izzy,” Aberto’s voice warned. He was still eavesdropping.

  “Fine. Looking at the sun, forgetting everything super important.”

  He wants you to forget your destiny. Perhaps he will push you off of this cliff and end you to save the others.

  I rolled my eyes as the darkness grew silent once more. It was becoming easier and easier to repress the voice. When it’d first taken me, I’d been broken. I’d felt alone and betrayed, but I was growing stronger. The darkness was losing its foothold. I knew the memories I’d experienced in stasis played a big role in it, but it was hugely due to Molly. She’d reminded me I wasn’t alone. Her belief in me drove me to start believing in myself once more.

  “Izzy, sunset,” Aberto half-laughed.

  “Right.”

  My mind stilled as I finally allowed myself to look at the sky as the colors faded and shifted. Blues turning to purple and pink. The time slipped by slowly as the sky shifted from day into night. The stars began blinking into existence, one by one, until the sky was consumed by the light of stars thousands of years old. Their light slowly spreading through the universe until it appeared in the night sky above me. I marveled at the ancient light, wondering how many more nights I would have.

  Movement down at the shack drew my attention from the stars. Someone was here, someone unexpected, based on Aberto’s reaction. As the dust from the interloping car settled, Aberto sifted down to the shack, leaving me on the top of the cliff.

  “Jerk!” I shouted at his back. I knew if I sifted from here, I would probably fall off the cliff. And although I would love to be rid of the darkness, I wasn’t quite ready to die, or whatever might happen to me.

  I picked my way down the steep incline, nearly losing my footing on the loose gravelly surface. He’d better not be completely gone when I got back down there. Anger fueled me as I finally made it down to a surface I felt comfortable sifting from. Within three moves, I’d made it back to the little hovel.

  Conall stood inside with an anxious looking Sena.

  Heavy footsteps paced the floor as Conall spoke to Aberto heatedly, “She is growing worse. The stasis no longer works. We must find a way to stop it from spreading further.”

  I opened the door to the shack, stepping in. Conall and Sena turned toward me, their expressions like prey waiting for the predator to land the killing blow. I raised my hands in surrender; somehow in my mind it made sense that it would calm them.

  Instead, Sena just laughed. I’d always thought I reacted inappropriately to situations, but she took the cake. I never quite knew what she would do.

  “You still crazy?” she asked.

  “Yes, but it is manageable. What’s going on?” I looked to Conall, knowing he wouldn’t sugar coat it. He never did.

  “Molly is starting to change again. About a week ago, things started to change, slowly. It is progressing much faster. If she continues at this rate, she will succumb to the Revenants within two weeks. It is time to act.” Conall moved toward me, unafraid. “It is not fair to ask this of you, but will you end this? Ian will be lost if she falls, and I cannot bear to lose another of my brothers.”

  “Conall, we were already coming back tomorrow. We can leave tonight. You know I won’t let her die. Not if I can stop it.”

  “Are you in control?” Conall’s voice was unsure, as if he didn’t know whether it were a polite thing to ask or not.

  “I understand the process better now, and I can push it back when it takes hold. I’m not sure I will ever truly be able to control it, but I can manage it well enough. I’m not a threat.” I hoped it was true. With just Aberto and I, the darkness had grown weak, but with so many others to feed from, it might become stronger, unmanageable. There was only one way to find out. “We should go.” I looked to Aberto, hoping he wouldn’t argue.

  “Are you ready?” His eyes locked on mine, looking for assurance.

  “Just stay close to me, and I should be fine.”

  “Let us depart.” Aberto pushed us through to the dreaming where I could traverse more easily. “You take the Seer, I will ferry the Guardian.”

  We grabbed our loads and spun through the dreaming, heading straight for the Order.

  With the swirling miasma of the dreaming drifting by, Kennan’s final plea trickled through my mind once more. One word had been playing over and over in my mind for days. Remember he’d said. I needed to find a way to determine what it was. I knew one historian that would be able to help—Eleanor.

  “I think I might get sick,” Sena shouted in my ear, pulling me from my thoughts.

  “Just breathe, the feeling will fade. Oh, and keep your eyes closed. That helps the first few times,” I reassured her, hoping she wouldn’t lose her lunch all over me.

  Before Sena had a chance to redecorate my clothes, we arrived. The sounds of the swamp echoing an eerie chorus as we made our way into the house.

  I’d been here merely weeks before, yet as my feet crossed the threshold, I felt different. In the days I’d spent away, I’d started to find myself again. Molly had found me, reached me when no one else could. Now it was my turn to save her. I made my way toward the room where she remained floating in stasis.

  I stepped through the doors to find an exhausted Ian leaning back in a chair next to her head.

  “Izzy?” Ian rose from the chair and made his way towards me, pulling me into a deep embrace. “Can you ever forgive me?”

  “There is nothing to forgive. You forget, the darkness lives inside of me, I understand better than anyone how it can make you feel.” I squeezed the giant brute tightly before releasing him.

  Looking back to Molly, my eyes didn’t want to believe what they were seeing. The blackened skin had expanded, covering her chest and throat completely, causing her skin to look like an ancient lava field. Time was running out.

  “I’m going to fix this,” I whispered in her ear before laying a kiss on her forehead. I’d dealt with my shit; now, it was time for me to be the badass she believed I was capable of being.

  “Where’s Eleanor?” I rose to find everyone had joined us in the room. It seemed that Conall and Sena weren’t the only ones wary of me.

  “What do you need, my dear?” Eleanor’s scol
ding eyes passed over everyone in the room as she made her way towards me.

  “I need to remember something. My mind is blocking it out, or the darkness is, I’m not sure. But it is important. Can you help me?” I held my breath, hoping she would know of something, some ceremony that would allow me to remember.

  “It requires more markings.” Eleanor looked over to Aberto.

  “Show me,” replied Aberto, ever the symbol-smith. The man reacted to marking people the way some men were about sports. He got tunnel-vision, and nothing would distract him until the marking was complete.

  “Izzy, come with us. I want to make sure you know what this marking requires before you commit to it. This one is going to take some seriousresolve.” Eleanor’s words unsettled me. Seriously, the one on my back had been pretty dang intense. If she was shying away from it, it must be bad.

  We made our way through the house and into Eleanor’s room. Lining every wall were stacks upon stacks of books; some shelved and others stacked in precarious-looking towers. Even still, there were hundreds more strewn about the floor, each opened to some page of import. It was as though Eleanor had been frantically searching through each of the books for some sort of an answer.

  I looked into each as I passed, wondering what Eleanor had been busily researching. She never rested. Since the day I’d met her, she’d been a relentless force. My gaze caught on a page of an ancient tome. It was the prophecy, but not as I’d ever seen it before.

  “You don’t need to worry about that now.” Eleanor ushered me further into the room toward an old, tattered fainting couch.

  “What is the mark?” I asked, my mind still occupied by the prophecy.

  “It must be done on your skull, closest to your mind.” Eleanor dug through her books maniacally searching for the one on her mind. “Aha!” She stood, blowing the dust from the cover and handed the giant book to Aberto. As he held it, the book fell open to a page denoting a ceremony where a person’s head was being tattooed.

  “It doesn’t go on my forehead, does it?” Not that I really cared. The one man I wanted to look good for was gone, so I didn’t have anyone left to impress. But the thought of walking around with a symbol on my face was a bit unnerving.

  Aberto looked at me, unsettled.

  “Forehead, huh?” I grimaced, Aberto’s reaction enough to tell me exactly where the mark would be going.

  “It’s a small mark.” Eleanor prompted, pointing to the delicate design on the page. The mark was minuscule, no bigger than my pinky nail. It was an intricate knot, one I’d seen carved into Celtic ruins.

  “Permanent?” Not that it mattered. I was starting to look like Aberto, covered in endless tattoos. Long forgotten symbols, ancient runes, and Celtic knots decorated my skin. It was strange to think just a few years ago I didn’t have a single mark. Now it seemed with every new challenge I faced, I ended up with a new mark.

  Aberto stood over me. I wasn’t sure when he’d gotten so close, but when I looked into his eyes I saw the answer to my question. This mark would stay with me forever.

  “Well, let’s get to it then. I need to remember, and if this will help, then so be it,” I said, holding Aberto’s gaze.

  “I will return.” Aberto brushed his fingers across my cheek before disappearing. Where in the heck did he keep his tattooing stuff? No really. Did he have another shack in another desert somewhere? Or did he have them stashed under the floorboards where I couldn’t find them?

  “Izzy, how are you feeling?” Eleanor had moved to replace Aberto while my mind was distracted, standing close by my side.

  “I’m surviving.” In truth, it was a struggle to take each breath, to not hide myself away. Although I’d gotten a hold on the darkness within me, my grief was still overpowering. I wanted so badly to be with Kennan, to see him one more time.

  A warm hand clasped mine, pulling me from my memories. If anyone understood what I was feeling, it was Eleanor. She’d lost her daughter to the beginnings of this madness. “How do you endure the pain?” I asked, hoping she might have some miraculous cure for my sorrow.

  “I’m still trying to figure that out. For now, I stay busy. I focus on what I can do to make the world safer so others don’t have to suffer as I have. That makes it more bearable.” Eleanor’s honesty was refreshing. She’d told me the truth where so many others would’ve just said “it will get better” or “time will heal.” She knew as well as I, it wouldn’t ever be better. The loss of Kennan was a permanent wound. I might learn to live with the pain someday, but it would never really be gone.

  “I appreciate your honesty.”

  “Izzy, may I ask you something?” Eleanor hesitated, seemingly unsure of whether she should even ask what was on her mind.

  “Of course. What is it?”

  “Do you love him?” Eleanor’s question took me off guard. I’d thought she was going to ask me about the darkness inside me, or perhaps the ceremony.

  “I absolutely love Kennan. Why would you ask that?”

  “Not him, my dear one, Aberto.” Eleanor paused for a beat before continuing, “I’ve seen the way the two of you move around one another. Every time I’ve been in a room with the both of you, I’ve noticed there is some sort of magnetic pull that draws you together.”

  “Honestly, I don’t know.” It was something that had been on my mind for longer than I cared to admit. Even when Kennan was alive, I’d felt the pull. I still wasn’t sure what it was that drew me to Aberto. Whether it was his soul inside of my own, or if it were some sort of trick fate had played to throw us together. “Regardless, I’m not ready to love someone like that again. Not yet.”

  “Just promise me something,” Eleanor paused, squeezing my hand softly, “don’t forget to live. Kennan wouldn’t want you to spend the rest of your life in mourning for him. He knew the truth of what was to come, and he asked Aberto to watch over you. He knew what that meant.”

  Eleanor’s words were like a punch to the gut. Kennan had asked Aberto to watch over me, I knew that, but when Eleanor said it, the context was completely different. The thought of being with someone else was unsettling. The agony I’d experienced when Kennan was ripped from my life wasn’t something I was ready to relive. For now, I would be my own person. Someday, maybe. But now—now I had more important things to think of than my love life.

  “I’m not ready.” It was the truth, I wasn’t. It wouldn’t be fair to either Aberto or me if I tried to pursue something. I’d just be trying to bury my grief under other feelings, and it would never really go away. I knew I had to come to terms with his death before I could ever truly move on.

  Aberto reappeared in the room, carrying a satchel that contained the tattooing implements. It was as though he’d been lingering on the fringes, waiting for our conversation to end. He held me with his steady gaze for a moment before moving toward me, always assessing me with his ancient eyes.

  “Are you prepared?” Aberto asked.

  “Let’s get this show on the road,” I replied, prompting a confused look from Aberto. I loved that face. I could visibly see his mind working to translate the euphemism; it all played out on his face, culminating in a moment of understanding.

  “Lay down, and we will begin.” Aberto set his bag down to pull out the stylus. I hadn’t been tattooed since I’d changed into whatever I’d become, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.

  “Will this even work?” I asked, lowering myself down on the fainting couch.

  “I believe it will.” His unsure reply didn’t do much to calm my nerves.

  You will regret doing this. Don’t open your mind’s eye. If you do, you will perish.

  The darkness had resurfaced. I hadn’t heard from it in a while, strange it would choose now to reappear. Clearly, there was something trapped in my mind it didn’t want me to remember. Something Kennan and Molly had both tried to show me.

  “I need to know,” I answered the darkness.

  “Are you ready?” Eleanor’s calming v
oice came from behind the couch. Her hand rested lightly on my shoulder. It seemed everyone around the Order was growing used to me talking to myself. Aberto still couldn’t discern when I was addressing him or the darkness. Strange, that.

  “Yes.” I slowly exhaled as Aberto moved toward me with the stylus. His eyes searching mine, testing to be sure this is what I wanted. Whether I really wanted the mark or not wasn’t important, I had to remember. Right now I was about as useless as they came. If I could remember, maybe I could find a way to stop what was coming.

  As the stylus touched my forehead, searing agony ripped through my veins. The darkness was fighting the mark, doing its best to convince me to stop. My resolve hardened as my teeth clamped down against the pain. The darkness resisted, causing my body to arc. Agony boiled in my veins with every small mark.

  “Izzy, it has barely started, are you sure you wish to continue?” Aberto asked, his voice laced with fear.

  “Finish. It.” I gritted between clamped teeth. Cold sweat broke out over my body as Aberto pressed on. The pain clawed through me as he worked to complete the mark.

  “Almost done,” Aberto promised.

  A blinding light exploded behind my eyelids as Aberto finished the mark. The pain receded, only to be replaced by memories of things that should never have been forgotten. Visions sprung into focus.

  The battlefield loomed before me. It was time to act. Kennan was gone and I had nothing left to live for. I would destroy the demon and end this forever.

  The memory played on, visions I wished I’d never have to see again loomed before me. The demon drew near, and when I embraced him, I saw the truth. The truth I’d somehow forgotten. It wasn’t the Old One that had orchestrated the uprising, it had been the Council. Their faces flickered through the mind of the demon as I pulled it under. Damali, Eric, Francesca, and…the other one. The one I’d called Brutus.

  They all stood, encircling a strange knotted ring on the ground. In the center lay a Seer, one I’d seen at the Council while I’d been there. She was staked to the ground; her arms and legs pulled painfully outward. Runes covered her, shredding her skin into a pulpy mess. Pure terror shone upon her face as the four chanted. Their voices rose until they reached a feverish chorus. A soul-shattering cry ripped through the room, silencing everything in its wake as the Seer burst into flames, her skin charring instantly. In her place was an inhuman figure with blackened skin, blood oozing from every orifice.