“What of your Guardian? You would leave him distraught if you were to perish. What of your friends? What of me?” He held me in place with his fiery gaze. “I have existed for over five thousand years, Izzy, and never in that time have I cared what happened to a single entity. My existence is to oversee and make sure the balance is maintained. I am never to interfere. All I am permitted to do is provide guidance and instruction. But you, you are different. You always have been. I couldn’t let you die.” He walked away from me unable to look at me any longer.
“Aberto, if this is my destiny, then I will not fight it. I’ve spent the last year of my life wallowing in self-pity. It is time I face what is coming for me. Hiding, running, it won’t change what is happening. Ren and the other Seers have taught me that my purpose is much bigger than any of my selfish desires. I’m not my own person anymore. I won’t run any longer. I won’t hide.” I was growing tired once more. I moved to sit back on the bench breathing deeply. “I’m not afraid of what is too come. What I am afraid of is losing Kennan, of never being able to tell my friends how much they mean to me, of not being enough to protect them. But, I’m not afraid of dying.”
“I fear for you.” Aberto moved to crouch in front of me.
“Promise me you will not interfere to protect me.” I was taken aback by my sudden exhaustion. I felt the pull of sleep dragging on me once more.
“I cannot,” Aberto said, reaching for my face. “I will not.”
“Then the world may very well perish because you are too selfish to let me go,” I said as sleep pulled me under. I fell to the bench as Aberto screamed my name.
**********
I stood in the dreaming, looking around the fog. There in the distance stood the same red robed figure from the night before. He moved towards me slowly.
“It seems you have protection from on High. He won’t be able to stop what is coming. None of you will,” the man said slowly.
“I can.” I knew the moment the words left my lips that it was the truth. I could stop whatever was coming. I had to do it. It was what I was born to do.
“We shall see.” The figure moved away in the fog suddenly.
“Izzy, no!” I heard Aberto scream from my side. I turned to look at him confused and then down at my leg. I couldn’t understand it. The robed man had not touched me at all. How was there another rune carved on my body? What the hell good was that stupid protection tattoo doing?
Aberto came towards me quickly wrapping his arms around me and pulling me from the dreaming.
**********
I lay on the bench with my leg on fire. I could hardly breathe. I looked down at the leg of my pants to see it blood soaked. This stupid group of people owed me a new wardrobe. They were ruining all of my favorite clothes. I stared down at my leg and my resolve hardened. This would not be the end of me. I would be the end of them. Prophecy or not I wouldn’t sit idly by while they screwed with my world. I tried to sit up only to fall back to the bench.
“I think I might need some help getting back to the house,” I said to Aberto. I seemed to be completely drained of all energy.
He moved toward me, lifting me up into his arms.
“Hold on tight,” he said before darting back to the house. He moved so quickly my head was left spinning. The world passed us in a blur of green. We got to the office door and Kennan burst through it, accusations burning in his eyes.
“I tried to keep her here. Their pull was too strong. She needs to have it treated,” Aberto said, moving past Kennan into the office to lay me on the couch.
Kennan rushed over to me. “I should have been there. I should have been with you. When I saw Aberto with you I thought you would be safe.” He brushed my hair from my face.
“I’m fine Kennan. It’s just another mark. I will be okay. I promise.” I smiled up at him before a wave of pain rocked my leg. I grimaced, closing my eyes tightly. With each new mark I got the pain grew. “What did I get that stupid tattoo for? It doesn’t seem to be working,” I griped, causing Aberto to laugh.
“This is not funny, Old One,” Kennan snapped at him.
“Perhaps the circumstances are not humorous, but she is. Izzy, that tattoo is keeping you alive right now. If it weren’t for that mark on your back you would be in a comatose state, and your soul would be residing in the dreaming. It takes a great deal of force to pull you into the dreaming as they did last night and today. I can give you additional marks that will prevent them from pulling you there altogether. I am sure they will find a way around them eventually, but they should protect you for a time.” Aberto looked at me thoughtfully.
“I’ll take them,” I said as another wave of pain racked my body.
“First, we must clean and treat your wound. You need to remove your pants,” Kennan said, looking around the room at Aberto and Conall.
“I’m not all that worried about anyone seeing anything Kennan. I’m wearing granny panties,” I whispered to him, causing him to snicker.
“Okay. You will have to clean the mark yourself. The more you get the more the bridge is formed and they are able to siphon energy from them. We think they were using the souls of the Seers to feed their bridge as well. Since you cut off that energy source they have upped their game with you.” Kennan looked down at me thoughtfully as Conall moved towards us with the medical kit.
“It’s happening again, isn’t it?” He looked down upon me with fear in his eyes. I could tell he was seeing Cait as he looked at me. I couldn’t handle the pain written there. I reached up to grab his hand.
“It will all be okay. It won’t happen again,” I promised. I knew there was a very real chance that I would not be able to keep that promise, but I couldn’t stand the thought of him having to relive those memories again.
“You’re damn right it won’t happen again. I won’t let it. They aren’t going to take you,” Conall swore, tossing the medical supplies on the table and walking away.
“We need to treat your leg, Izzy,” Kennan said, looking down at my now red jeans. I nodded lifting my hips up off the couch to slide my jeans down. My thighs now had matching marks. At least it wasn’t a new one. Well, an unknown rune at any rate. I swallowed deeply and resolved myself to clean the gore away so that I could bandage it. I tried to sit up but a wave of dizziness struck me, knocking me back to the couch.
“Permit me?” Aberto asked Kennan. Kennan looked to me and then back to Aberto nodding once.
“Won’t you feed it though?” I was sure that whatever power made up Aberto’s existence was much stronger than anything else in the room at the moment. He was over five thousand years old after all. Yeah, that hadn’t passed my notice. I just hadn’t really a chance to properly process the information. I wondered if he would finally tell me what an Old One was. He had promised no more secrets.
“I exist on a different plane than you. My power is made up of a different sort of substance. It cannot be taken, only given.” Aberto leveled me with his gaze and I knew what he meant. He had chosen to give me part of himself. Part of his power now rested inside of me. I wasn’t quite sure what that meant.
“Well, okay then. Could we maybe get this show on the road? It is kind of drafty in here,” I said, causing Conall and Kennan to snicker before quickly regaining composure.
“As you wish.” Aberto looked down upon my leg with great concentration. He cleaned the mark and spread the salve on it. He took a bandage and wrapped it around my leg as he chanted something I could not understand. I often wondered what language he was speaking. My leg instantly felt better. I looked down at him as he finished wrapping the wound.
“Thank you.” I hoped he knew my thanks was for far more than just wrapping the wound.
“I am ever at your service, Milady. Now I must go to get what I need to mark you for more protection.” Aberto bowed before disappearing from sight.
“Freaking Old One,” I mumbled, pulling my pants back up. I needed to go change. I sat up on the couch and started to stan
d when a wave of dizziness threatened to knock me over.
“Here, let me help you.” Kennan rushed to my side, lifting me from the couch. He carried me toward the door before I stopped him.
“I need to walk.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, you are in pain. Let me carry you.” Kennan’s brow furrowed in confusion.
“Not for me, I need to walk for them. They need me to be strong, Kennan. I have to lead these people now.” I knew he would understand.
“Alright, but you can at least take my arm.” Kennan lowered me to the ground so that I could walk, holding out his arm for me to loop mine through it.
“And mine,” Conall said, rushing to my other side. “We will just look like your escorts. Put all of your weight on us and we will carry you.”
Kennan nodded his thanks to Conall as I looped my other arm through his. They practically lifted my weight up as we made our way to the stairs. People bowed at us on the way. I nodded my head back at each of them, pretending to walk the entire way. We arrived at our room and I thanked Conall before moving inside to change. Kennan lingered outside to talk to Conall for a moment.
**********
TWENTY SEVEN
I moved into the room in search of a pair of leggings. I didn’t want something rough rubbing against my fresh rune. I went to the bathroom to pull them on in case Conall decided to come in or Aberto decided to poof back into existence. I walked in and stopped to stare at my reflection. My face looked different and it took a moment to see what had changed. I moved closer to the mirror, staring at my tired reflection. Looking back were eyes that were not my own. In the place of my normally hazel eyes were a pair of eyes swept by a furious storm. They swirled with blue in the hazel, constantly shifting between colors. How had Kennan not noticed this? I was still staring at my reflection when Kennan came into the room.
“What are you doing, Izzy?” he asked, moving toward the bathroom. I guess I had forgotten to close the door behind me.
“Did you not notice this?” I asked, gripping the sides of the sink tightly.
“Your eyes?” he calmly asked.
“Yes, my eyes. What the hell is happening to me?” I fell to my knees trying to catch my breath.
“I don’t know, Izzy. I don’t know what he did to you.” Kennan lowered himself to the floor and gathered me in his arms.
“He breathed part of his soul into me. He said it was the only way he could have saved me,” I said, letting tears stream down my cheeks. No matter how much I had prepared myself for the idea of dying, something about seeing my eyes change and knowing that so much more was probably shifting inside of me caused me to feel off balance.
“But, it is forbidden,” Kennan breathed.
“Yeah, he mentioned something about that part. What is going to happen to me?” I swallowed and burrowed my face into Kennan’s chest seeking out his comfort.
“I don’t know Izzy, but we will make it through this,” he swore, kissing the top of my head. I turned my face so that I could meet his lips with my own. I kissed him furiously with tears running down my cheeks. I knew that whatever was coming, there was a very real chance I would have to let him go. I would have to leave him. I couldn’t bear the thought of the pain I would leave behind. I threw myself at him with the passion of someone saying goodbye.
“Whoa, Izzy. Stop,” Kennan breathed out. “What’s going on?” he pulled back to look in my eyes. His brows were furrowed in confusion.
“He told me the prophecy,” I said with tears tracking down my cheeks. It seemed once I had allowed the flood gates to open there was no damming them back up.
“It is not certain. Do you understand me? I won’t let you go, Izzy. You will not die for this world. It doesn’t deserve that kind of sacrifice. We will stop this,” Kennan said furiously. I knew that there was nothing he could do to stop what was coming for me. Nothing could. Not Aberto, not Conall, not Ian or Molly, and not even Kennan could change this future. It was written in stone. My fate was sealed.
“You’re right. We can find a way,” I said, hoping to soothe his mind. I wouldn’t admit to him what I had to Aberto. I couldn’t tell Kennan that death did not scare me. I would willingly sacrifice myself to ensure he was kept safe. He would never understand that. “I should change. Aberto will probably be back soon to mark me again.” I wiped the tears from my eyes standing up. I pulled my jeans off and tossed them in the trash with my shirt from the night before. I looked over at Kennan and saw him warring with himself.
“I don’t like his interest in you, Izzy. It makes no sense. He has not cared for a single person in his entire existence. He has always sworn to maintain the balance.” Kennan stood towering over me as I pulled my leggings on. “He wouldn’t help us save Cait when he could have. So why is he willing to risk banishment to save you?” The animosity between Kennan and Aberto was finally clear. Kennan blamed him for what had happened all those years ago. He hadn’t saved Cait, but he had me. I couldn’t understand it either.
“I don’t know, Kennan. I know even less than you do.” It wasn’t entirely true, I knew Aberto had feelings for me. But I also knew that Kennan didn’t need to know. Aberto had sworn not to interfere and I believed him. I swallowed deeply and reached my hand out to Kennan. “Let’s get back downstairs.”
Just as I started to walk out of the bathroom Molly came bursting into the room. She stared at me and then looked down at my leg and back up. “They are still there? They haven’t gone away?”
“You know, we could have been indisposed when you came barging in,” I said with a snicker to which she put her hands on her hips.
“Stop deflecting, Izzy. What is going on?”
“Nothing. I’m fine, really, just a few more runes popping up. But it is going to be okay. We will figure this out like we do everything. Don’t worry about me right now. You have enough on your plate. Speaking of, how are you?”
“I keep trying to go kill her, but Ian won’t let me,” Molly grumbled, moving into the room.
“Is there something else that can be done, aside from the death bit? Some form of Seer punishment?” I had an idea forming in my head and wondered if it could be done.
“No, well not in a very long time. There used to be judgments when Seers would go against their calling. Seers would be stripped of their powers. Only an Old One can do it though. And getting them to help is like pulling teeth,” Molly finished as the light bulb lit over her head. “But you have an Old One.”
“First, I don’t have an Old One. What a ridiculous thing to say. Second, I am not even sure he would help,” I mumbled.
“Help with what?” Aberto poofed back in, carrying his leather sack of tattoo pain.
“Cheese on a cracker, could you stop just appearing. Maybe ring a bell or something. Do a loud announcer voice before you appear? You scared me.” I looked over at him trying to catch my breath.
“My apologies. Perhaps I could tie a bell to my person so that you are not so easily startled,” he smiled his crooked smile and moved toward the bedroom door. “Shall we adjourn to the office?”
“Yes,” Kennan said, moving to loop his arm in mine.
“Want to come? I’m getting more tattoos,” I smiled at Molly.
“More? Sheesh, between the runes and your tattoos you will look like a circus attraction. I don’t really have anything else going on. Might as well come along. Maybe I can even get your Old One to agree to help us,” Molly whispered the last in my ear.
“He is not my Old One,” I shouted at her in my head. I knew she could hear it. Apparently so could Aberto because he turned his head back to look at me.
“Told you so,” Molly said in my head.
“What marks will you be giving her today?” Kennan asked Aberto. I hadn’t even thought to question what sort of tattoos I would be receiving. It seemed my trust in Aberto was growing.
“I will be warding her from the dreaming. She won’t be able to be pulled in without her consent.” Aberto opened the door
to the office and held it for us to enter.
“Will I be able to see her in the dreaming again, or is that block still in place?” Kennan asked. I had forgotten about him being unable to come and get me out of the dreaming or my visions.
“I fear that is entirely up to Izzy. She is the one blocking you,” Aberto said, pulling his tools from his bag.
“I am not,” I yelped. I had not intentionally done it at any rate.
“Yes, you are. I believe you are subconsciously working to protect your Guardian and you are blocking him out without your knowledge. You must focus your talents, Izzy. If you do not learn to use them, they will use you,” Aberto chided. It looked like I was back to being the petulant child again.
“Well, then teach me what I am doing wrong. Don’t just tell me I am doing it. How do I lift the block?” I asked, moving toward the couch.
“Are you sure you want to?” he asked.
“Yes. Oh, and while I am irritated with you, what is going on with my eyes? Am I going to morph into some creature from the black lagoon?” I furrowed my brows at him. That would show Him of Old-manness.
“What do you mean?” Aberto asked, moving towards me.
“Oh yeah, they are kind of freaky. I didn’t want to say anything, but it is super weird,” Molly said, dropping herself into a chair in the room. I was so glad I could be a source of entertainment for her. The jerk.
Aberto stood over me and tilted my head up so that he could see my eyes.
“What is happening to her?” Kennan asked.
“I do not know,” Aberto said slowly. He stared down into my eyes as if they would reveal to him the answers he sought.
“Well, that’s just peachy,” I sniped. “You are telling me you have no idea what is happening to me? Hasn’t an Old One done the whole life-breathing thing before? I mean, surely you are not the only one.” I pulled myself to a stop when I noticed everyone staring at me. “What?”
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