Caged by Damnation (Caged #2)(25)

Out of pure boredom, Kit released himself from the confines of my body to roam. I watched my feline counterpart prowl the area, attacking fireflies and tracking bizarre scents. Kit always found this place interesting because he had never come across anything like it during his life. His senses were constantly tantalized by something unique when we came here, and it was one of the few places he could run freely without worry of someone seeing.

Izzy's gaze left mine to follow the panther’s tracks. Until now, she had been solely focused on me, but Kit had attracted her attention. Her previous behavior told me that she considered me a threat, which made the change strange.

Kit approached to nuzzle against my arm. Smiling, I scratched behind his ears and watched as Izzy's eyes narrowed in suspicion or confusion. I couldn't be sure, but Kit seemed to invoke curiosity when nothing else had. Her lips parted to allow a melodic resonance that reverberated against the surrounding trees to create an echo. The sound that misted through the Divine gave the impression of millions of voices merging to create an iridescent song. Once Izzy sang her score, the trees followed and passed her song on to their brothers and sisters, who continued the effect.

There was an absence of lyrics, but the melody invoked enough emotion that I didn't need them. I felt as though I had been given the ability of an empath and Izzy was feeding my gift. She radiated a sense of longing, confusion, and a pinch of what seemed to be recognition?

A single tear slid down Izzy's cheek, as her voice quieted and came to a close. She used the tree behind her to help her stand and slowly moved her gaze from Kit to the ground at her feet. Her lips parted, releasing a cry, and another tear joined the first.

The weeping Izzy that stood before me did not physically resemble the Izzy of past, but the connection that developed during her song made me ache in the face of her pain. I remembered Death's warning that Izzy was dangerous this soon after her change, but she no longer emanated the hissing lethal creation that had emerged from the ash.

I rushed toward Izzy without allowing myself to falter, but paused before throwing my arms around my agonized friend. Izzy cringed in my presence, turning into the tree, while her cries increased in volume. Kit's head bumped against my legs, forcing my body closer to Izzy, and giving me the courage to comfort her. The circumference of her wings made it difficult to pull her back onto my arms, but I managed to squeeze my frame into the space between them. She didn't shrink from my arms as I wrapped them around her shoulders and pulled her back into a hug. I was ready for a negative reaction, but what I received was a complete collapse of will.

Izzy leaned into my hug, while her body quivered from the emotion coursing through her. In her rebirth, she had possessed a commanding strength that now drifted off her skin and was absorbed by the earth below. Izzy's new form had brought with it the infancy of absolved deeds through erased memories. Though her true vulnerability was carving a path through the Divine and transforming it into my version of Hell. It was a Hell that I felt powerless against. The inability to truly communicate with the majestic creature that was my Izzy, had become an unbearable torture I could not withstand.

Throwing caution to the wind, I pulled Izzy away from the tree and began the trek towards the threshold. I had no way of knowing if she was ready to take the leap from this reality to the next, but I felt certain that remaining here any longer would be a grave mistake; for her and myself.

Izzy's tears had dried up as I guided her through the Divine, but her expression was flaxen. It was as though she had worn away the threads that tied her to the living and was now in a waking dream that required no response.

Kit leapt and made a midair connection that fused our souls together, bring a comfort I was grateful for. I hoped that once Izzy was in familiar surroundings, her memories would come back and she would return to her usual bubbly self. Though each moment I spent with her in a catatonic state, the harder it was to imagine her ever being my Izzy again.

My only comfort in Willow's absence had been the knowledge that I would still have Izzy. Given it was true that she would have been a transparent version of herself, but I would still have a friend. Now, I was trapped in an existence, surrounded by the memories of the people I had lost, and left with the uneasy feeling that it would only get worse.

Home was quieter than expected; the doors loomed around me, while the shadows clung to the surrounding walls. I had expected Ash and Liam to be waiting at the house, but all was still. The wooden floor was stagnant beneath my feet and I wondered at the odd feeling. This house has always seemed to have a soul of its own, as if each creak of the floorboards were a sigh of breath. The draft that permeated all that was within had been an odd source of comfort, but now seemed a warning. If the house were truly a living manifestation, I felt certain that it was alienating me, forbidding me from entering further.

Izzy, suddenly alert, halted at the base of the stairs. She was no longer frozen in the badlands of her mind and I wondered if she sensed the same malicious presence that I did. Could I be misinterpreting her body language due to my own paranoia? I wasn't willing to take the chance.

Maneuvering Izzy towards the front door, trying to escape the lurking darkness before it could descend upon us, I silently thanked the house for its warning; even if it was only imagined.

We were three steps away from the door when a low hum burned its way through the house, shredding the curtains and scalding the walls. The floor was no longer silent, but quaked and howled, as the foundation cracked. The basement beneath us cried in anguish as something tore through its belly and squeezed out its last breath.