See How She Awakens (The Chronicles of Izzy #4)(13)

He didn’t want to see it. He doesn’t really want to help you.

“You are wrong. He brought me here to help.”

He doesn’t care about you, he cares about the prophecy. He brought you here to get you to fulfill the rest of the prophecy. But you are too weak. You aren’t the Seer.

“He thinks I am strong. He will help me.” My steadfastness wavered as doubt began cascading in. What if he couldn’t help me? What if the black filled my eyes, completely overtaking me?

Even you don’t believe him, the darkness snickered.

“Stop!” Flames coursed over my skin as the fear took over. I had to find a way to stop the darkness from overtaking me.

If you end it, you won’t be able to harm anyone. I will eventually overtake you. You are powerless to stop the inevitable.

“It has been stopped before. Aberto changed me to change fate. If he can do that, then I can win. Besides, I can’t die. So even if I wanted to end it, I couldn’t.” Anger gushed through my veins as I struggled to push the darkness back. Pain ripped through me as the darkness screamed out.

A dark laugh echoed in my mind as the darkness pulsed. You can be dispatched; perhaps not dead, but there is always a way. Your strength will waver. Time is your enemy.

“Maybe, but today I win,” I whispered, pulling the fire into myself so I didn’t burn my new home to the ground. Bracing myself against the back of the desk chair, I took several steadying breaths before I turned back to my reflection. I may not be able to control the darkness within me for long, but I could at least control how I looked. Calmly, I sifted out and back in, imagining myself put together, as if the world weren’t falling apart around me. When I reappeared I looked more myself. The bags remained and the darkness danced in my eyes, but I no longer resembled a swamp witch.

Something in my periphery caught my attention, drawing my gaze down to the desk. The piles of papers strewn about the surface called to me. The mystery of what they were, of who had written them had me lowering myself into the chair before my brain could fully process what I was doing. My fingers brushed across the surface of the papers before falling to rest on the one that had drawn my attention. I knew this writing. The same careful forms etched my body, marked my soul. This was Aberto’s writing. My eyes devoured the paper, scanning every word.

Izzy,

Though you may never read these words, I feel I must write them. I feel compelled to tell you all I cannot. At least in this moment, I am fully honest. The darkness is coming for you. It has sought you out, actively shifting and turning the world so that you might not realize your full potential. From your first breath, it has fought to control you. Though the Seers and Guardians were prepared, it will never be enough. It will overtake you and you will lose all that you hold dear. I’ve seen it. The fall of the great Guardian, your protector.

When I entered this plane, amongst the first of my kind, a vision played out before me. A strange place, a battle, destruction and fear reigning all around. A figure shining bright as the sun stands before a monstrosity, powerless to move. Then the Guardian moves, refusing to allow his sun to be extinguished. Yet his light is taken. The Sun moves, broken by the truth, and all is black. The sun no longer burns brightly, the brilliance of its luster swallowed by the inky darkness.

I long to warn you, to tell you that it is coming. The heavens will not allow it. The future must be of your making, not of my telling. Once it has all played out, you will never forgive my deception. I must live with that, as you must carry your loss.

If only there were some other way.

Yours eternally,

Aberto

My eyes consumed word after word, page after page. Every piece of paper strewn across the desk was a letter written to me. Page after page of regrets. One telling me of Xavier and his plan, one painting the death of my parents, one of the Seers being sacrificed, on and on they went. He’d seen every bad thing that was coming for me, had known I would lose so much.

Then why didn’t he help you?

The pain in each word pushed through me. He’d known but had been powerless to stop any of it. My course had been laid out, and nothing would stop it. But he had. When I’d almost died trying to save the Seers, he’d broken his oath to the heavens and intervened. He’d taken part of his soul and used it to save mine.

I ripped through the pages, looking, searching for something about that night. The night he’d changed the course of my life forever. There were hundreds of letters, to the child I’d been, the teenager who’d lost so much, to the woman who hadn’t known what she truly was, but no matter how hard I searched, I couldn’t find the answer. Exhaustion pulled at me, beckoning me to sleep, causing the words to blur before my eyes. The letters would wait.

He left them here on purpose. He is trying to trick you, Izzy. To use your emotions against you.

“Maybe, but the words on these papers are the truth. Nothing can change that, not even you.”

Leaving the pile of papers at the desk, I moved back to the bed. As I curled under the blankets, I thought of what Aberto had said about Kennan, and why he hadn’t told me. Logically, I knew he was right, but my heart still felt betrayed. Thoughts of Kennan swirled in my mind as sleep pulled me under.

“Izzy, try to remember!” Kennan’s voice pleaded with me in the void.

“I don’t want to remember, I want to stay with you.” I pleaded.