“We need to discuss what our next step will be. Now that Izzy only has one mark left before the bridge is complete, we must formulate a plan.” Kennan addressed the group with the same military efficiency that he’d used at the warehouse.
“Emmanuel is orchestrating it," Aberto supplied.
“I thought he’d been dealt with. Was he not the cause of the scourge all those years ago?” Conall’s anger radiated throughout the room.
“He disappeared. None of us knew he was still walking this plane. I assure you, we had no knowledge of his survival," Aberto pledged.
“If it didn’t work last time, why is he doing it again?” I wheezed.
“Rest your voice, Izzy," everyone admonished. Sheesh, you would think a girl asked too many questions or something.
“Something is different this time.” Aberto rubbed his hand through his hair, mulling over what could be happening.
“Do you think someone is helping him?” Kennan pinned Aberto with his gaze.
“I do. The question remains, who?” Aberto supplied. “Whomever they are, they are far more powerful than the allies he amassed during his last attempt. These people have power.”
“So, what can we do if we don’t know who is behind it?” Sena questioned. I was glad that someone else was there to ask, since I wasn’t allowed to talk. I gave Sena a quick smile to thank her for doing the job of asking a gazillion questions for me.
“We can prepare," Conall supplied.
“Oh really, dog boy? How exactly do you expect to prepare if you don’t even know where they are going to attack?” Sena crossed her arms and eyed Conall who traced across the room quickly to stand over her. “You better not start peeing all over my stuff, mister," Sena muttered, looking up into Conall’s face defiantly.
“You will no longer call me that wretched name. Are we understood?” Conall’s voice came through gritted teeth. He looked down at her with anger and amazement.
“Fine. But I’m serious about the peeing on my stuff. You better not do it," Sena huffed, nonplussed by Conall’s anger.
“Why is she calling him a dog?” I whispered to Kennan.
“Umm, well," Kennan paused, trying to avoid the truth.
“It is time that she knows the truth, Guardian," Aberto said calmly. He was completely unaffected by the chaos erupting in the room around him.
“There is something that we can do, an ancient magic that calls back to our beginnings.” Kennan paused trying to find the right words. “You know how you have been manifesting new talents since Aberto breathed part of his soul into you? Well, there is a sort of marking that can call forth our ancient talents. Talents that were repressed for a reason. If a battle is coming, it is one way we can prepare to take on the demon.”
“So, what are you saying? Does Conall turn into a collie or something?” My voice was finally starting to sound a modicum of normal.
“I am not a lap dog, Izzy.” Conall glared at me as he moved away from Sena to retake his spot across the room. “Our talents are associated with our names. We were given specific names upon birth for this reason.”
“So what is your talent? What does your name mean?” I asked Kennan.
“Do you remember when I asked you not to be scared by what you saw in the visions of Cait? I was afraid you would see what I turned into.”
“What do you turn into? Stop stalling.”
“My name means ancient. One of the earliest gifts bestowed upon our kind, if you wish to call it that, is the gift of unhinged rage. Some have called us berserkers. I morph and change into a rage filled, mindless creature.”
“So, you are like the Incredible Hulk?” My eyes were wide. I wondered if he turned green and yelled “Hulk Smash.”
“Yes, but without the green. And no, I don’t say Kennan Smash.” He knew me too well.
“So, what about you?” I asked Conall.
“My name means strong wolf," Conall supplied.
I started laughing uncontrollably. Suddenly, Sena’s comments about dog boy and peeing on her stuff made a whole lot more sense. Then I got the image of a wolf wearing an eye patch in my head and there was no coming back.
“I think that she’s finally cracked, brother," Conall muttered to Kennan.
“Just give her a moment.”
“Do you still wear the eye patch when you are all wolfed out? Please tell me that you do. Oh, are you like a werewolf? Do full moons make you want to chase your tail?”
“I’m not a werewolf. Have you not listened to anything, woman? I become a wolf in the same way that Kennan morphs into a berserker. It is a repressed, or dormant, talent. So no, I don’t chase my tail at the full moon, and no I don’t wear my eye patch in wolf form.” Conall didn’t seem to find the situation as funny as I did. I couldn’t understand how he didn’t find it at least a little bit amusing. A dog with an eye patch, it was funny. I didn’t care what he said.
“Sorry," I muttered, only half meaning it. “So, that is the best plan we have? You guys get the gang back together and tap into your old school talents and fight the demon? We don’t even know where the durn thing will surface.”
“It will surface wherever you are. That is one of the few things working to our advantage," Aberto added.
“Why did you not tell us this when it was Cait’s life on the line?” Conall was growing angrier as the moments passed. I’d wondered when this would come up for some time and I was surprised that it had taken so long.
“Her destiny was sealed.” Aberto’s answer did nothing to subdue Conall.
“As is Izzy’s, yet you consistently intercede on her behalf.”
“Would you rather I let her die?” Aberto asked calmly.
“That isn’t what I mean. I want to know what makes now different than then? What about her makes you step in when it is meant to be forbidden?” Conall got dangerously close to Aberto, staring up into his face defiantly.
“When the gods speak, I listen. I was given an order to protect Izzy at all costs.” Aberto stood to his towering height and looked down at Conall. “Cait knew her destiny was sealed. She had a choice, as does Izzy, to allow the darkness to reign or put an end to it. Do not let her sacrifice be in vain. Do not allow your petty resentment to cloud your judgment and distract you from today’s goal. Yesterday is gone and can never be repeated. Things lost cannot be returned," Aberto said the last looking at me. I wasn’t sure if he was just looking at me or trying to deliver another one of his infamous cryptic messages. I’d given up long ago trying to decipher his hidden messages. Until he gave me the secret decoder ring, I was done.
“But why now? Just answer that, satisfy our curiosity. I’m not the only one that questions your motives. In a time of treachery, such as this, it is best to know everyone’s intentions.” Conall wouldn’t let it go.
“Why now? Because Izzy is important, not just to this world, but to me. She saved me from a darkness none of you will ever know and I cannot let that kind of a gift go ignored. Why her? She is bigger than all of us, bigger than anything any of us will ever be able to imagine. Her destiny has been written in the stars since the dawn of time. Why her? She is the light that shines brightest when nothing else but darkness exists. Her light matters, and I will do all in my power to ensure that it never gets extinguished.” Aberto faded in a cloud of anger, leaving us all staring at where he’d been moments before. I was pretty sure I was the only one that Aberto gave long speeches to, and mostly they were to yell at me to stop being a baby. He’d just laid down some serious stuff at everyone’s feet and vanished without so much as a goodbye.
“Well, looks like you pissed Abe off," Sena supplied.
“Thanks Captain Obvious," Conall huffed, turning to leave the room. I was so proud, it looked like I’d rubbed off on him after all. Even if it was just one phrase, I would get him there eventually.
“What? What did I do this time?” Sena threw her hands up and fell into the chair that Aberto had occupied earlier. “I really should get some
sort of filter installed up here. Do you think Abe has a marking for that?”
“I have no idea.” I smiled at Sena, wondering how I could find someone so socially inept so likeable. Oh, that’s right, she reminded me of myself.
“Well now you know why I called him dog boy.”
“How did you know that he could do that? I’ve known these guys for a while now and I had no clue.” I looked at her in wonder, there was something so familiar about her.
“Cait was my, wait for it, great aunt. The stories have been passed down through our family about that day. It is really something I need to ask you about, when you have some private time.” Sena looked down at her hands, mumbling the last part.
“Well, it seems that this meeting has gone awry, and I can’t really get up and leave. So, now works if you’ve got the time.”
“Do you think we may be able to speak privately?” Sena looked around the room at everyone that still lingered.
“You aren’t planning to shank me or anything are you?”
“No, if I’d wanted to do that, I already would have.”
“Well, that’s a comfort.” I paused looking over to where Kennan and my aunt were in a deep discussion. He looked up to catch my eyes and moved towards me.
“What is it, Red?” Kennan’s eyes were filled with concern, as if I would reject him now that I knew he turned into a big hulking beast.
“Sena needs to talk to me, and she doesn’t want to have an audience. Do you think that maybe I can talk to her alone? She promised not to shank me," I provided.
“Sure, I’ll be right outside talking with Mona if you need me.”
“I love you, big guy. Nothing will ever change that.” I reached up and grabbed his hand before he left. Even with the world at stake, he was still the most important thing to me.
Chapter Eighteen
As everyone left the room, I turned my attention back to Sena. She seemed so young, somehow, sitting there in front of me.
“What did you want to talk about?”
“The stories of you.”
“Oh, don’t believe anything anyone has told you. Or, you know, if it is good then believe that part. Listen, I’m just getting the hang of this whole Seer thing. I don’t really know what I’m doing.” I was starting to do my whole nervous rambling thing, and I knew it.
“Would you put a sock in it, already? This isn’t about the fact that you are fumbling through being a Seer like some sort of drunk person playing pin the tail on the donkey. This is about the stories, the stories of Cait and the message she sent through our family for generations to make sure it got to you.”
“Oh! There’s a message?”
“Yeah, oh.” Sena looked at me impatiently. “I need you to grab my hand. You have to flip through my memories to find it. She said that you would know it when you saw it and to let go and find her.”
“But, she was trapped there all those years. She’s finally moved on. Won’t this just pull her back to this plane?”
“No, this is an echo. She made a permanent recording in our collective memory so that you would know what she knew in the end.”
“Just be careful not to touch the runes, okay?” I held my hand out towards Sena, almost afraid of what awaited.
“Are you ready? Focus on Cait, and you should find it pretty quickly.”
Sena’s cold hand entwined with mine sending me spiraling through her history. Not just her history, but her whole family’s collective history. It was the most bizarre thing I’d ever experienced while trying to memory sift.
“Izzy," I heard Cait’s voice call out. I stopped sifting and immediately walked toward where she stood on the scorched earth. “It has taken you far longer to find me than I’d hoped.”
“Wait, I thought you were just a memory.”
“I told them that so they would not fret over me. The gods bid me to tell you of what comes. You can defeat it, if you wish.” Cait cocked her head to the side as if questioning whether or not I would stand against the darkness.
“Of course I want to defeat it.”
“You misunderstand me. The power to defeat the beast comes from within you. If you believe that you can destroy it, then you will. I believed my sacrifice would stop it, and it did.”
“So you are telling me to have faith that I am enough. What if I believe that I can stop it without dying? Will that also happen?”
“All things have a price, Izzy. You must be willing to pay the price for what you seek. The price for the eternal end to this darkness is that you must fall. If you do not, if you fail to do what you are called to do, then the darkness will once more return to reign eternal. You need to look within yourself and find what is most important to you. Is it your life that matters, or the life of those that you love? What are you willing to do to protect them?”
“Everything," I breathed out. “It has to be this way then? I must sacrifice myself to save everyone I love?”
“You must be willing to sacrifice yourself to end the darkness.” Thanks cryptic Cait. These people could seriously write books on how to be evasive.
“Is that all you have for me? Believe it and it will happen?” It sounded like some absurd self-affirmation bologna.
“I have one more piece of advice before you go. Try not to let what is coming pull you into the darkness. It is tempting to let it overtake you. You are much stronger than I ever was, you must fight it. If you roll over now, you will never again get up.”
“Okay, so drink some water and suck it up. Anything else?”
“Tell Conall to be nice to my Sena. She hasn’t had an easy road.” Cait smiled softly as reality came crashing back in.
Sena broke contact abruptly, sweat drenched her brow.
“Are you alright? Did I hurt you?” I was worried that I somehow did something wrong. I wasn’t exactly an expert at any of this yet.
“I heard everything while you were there. That was the most bizarre thing I’ve ever been a part of. And what the heck does she mean about Conall being nice to me?” Sena paused for a moment and then her eyes grew as large as saucers. “Oh no! No. No. Just no. This can’t be happening. Not dog boy.” Sena stood and started pacing the floor. Her hands shaking as she looked up towards the sky. “Really, him? It couldn’t have been a nice, normal, Order Guardian?”
“For what it’s worth, he isn’t that bad. You could always dress him up like a pirate on Halloween. That would be a perk.”
“Oh, you’ve got jokes, do you?” Sena plopped heavily back in the seat, her hands shaking. “Well, what am I supposed to do now? He doesn’t even like me, for crying out loud. I always thought I would end up in some romantically charged match like you and Kennan have. Are you telling me that I am cursed to the platonic playground for the rest of my very long life?”
“I’m saying that you probably need to talk to him and figure it out. I wouldn’t exactly write it off just yet.” I remembered Conall’s face when he’d first seen her and I knew, undoubtedly, the feelings brewing beneath the surface were far from platonic. The look he’d given her was definitely not of the familial persuasion.
“Talk. I can talk. Not well, and not with a filter, but I can do it. Now, back to the other parts. How was she there? It was just supposed to be a recording of a memory.” Sena pinned me with her gaze, effectively redirecting the conversation.
“My visions are funky. They never are simple.” I pulled myself up in the bed doing my best to shake off the exhaustion pulling at me. “I need to get up and get dressed. Can you help me?”
“What, like a nursemaid?”
“Or a friend?” I suddenly missed Molly. Had she been there with me, she’d already have me up and moving to get dressed.
“I think I can handle that.” Sena smiled brightly. I wondered just what had happened to her to leave her in such a state. “Are you even up to moving about though? I’m pretty sure your Guardian is going to give me a royal beat down if I come out of this room with you.”
�
�Nah. He is a big old softie. Well, apparently not when he turns into a rage beast, but otherwise we’re good. Besides, you heard what she said. If I don’t get up and shake off this darkness weighing on me, I will succumb to it. If I let the darkness win then I won’t be a whole lot of good to anyone and all of this trouble will be for nothing.”
“True. Alright, so are sweatpants and a t-shirt enough? Or are you thinking dressy casual?” Sena hovered over my suitcase, assessing its meager contents.
“Sweatpants. Let’s take this whole shaking off the darkness thing one step at a time.”
“Okay, then. Up you go.” Sena brought some clothes over to me so that I could get dressed.
“Why are the smallest things so hard right now?” I groused.
“Probably because you are marked from head to toe with soul sucking runes," Sena supplied matter-of-factly.
“Do you always state the obvious, or is this just something you do with me?” I asked, wondering if there was a way I could install a filter in the girl’s head.
“Nah, I do it with everyone.” Sena helped me get dressed, which turned out to be a very slow process. What with the circus acrobatics required to avoid touching my runes and the exhaustion pulling at me with every breath I took. I was surprised we managed it at all.
By the time we’d finished, I was ready to climb straight back into the bed. The only thing that kept me from doing it was Cait’s warning ringing in my head. If I wanted to end this, I had to fight what was happening to me.
“Alright, let’s go find everyone else. Do you think you can act as my crutch? I’m not so good with the coordination thing on days when I’m not falling to pieces. Which really just means I’m bound to face plant if I don’t have someone holding me up right now.”
“I gotcha.” Sena grabbed my elbow, supporting my weight as we made our way to the door.
Kennan grabbed ahold of me as soon as we made it through the door, helping to steady me.
“Whoa, there. Where exactly do you think you are going?” Kennan raised a brow at me like I’d lost my ever loving mind.
See How She Falls Page 11