See How She Awakens (The Chronicles of Izzy #4)(2)

“GO AWAY!” I screamed to the fog, praying the voices would fade. I longed for nothing more than to forget. I was alone; that was enough.

“Izzy, you can’t remain here. They need you. You must return. You promised me, Izzy. You promised you would live.” Kennan’s voice bounced through the fog, heading straight for my soul.

“You promised we would have our forever!” My throat felt tight as his voice brought forth all I was trying to forget. My other half—my future—was gone.

“I did what was necessary to protect you. Don’t let that be for nothing,” Kennan’s voice admonished. “Now live, damn it!”

“Why would I ever leave when I have you here with me? If I go, I will lose you forever,” I reasoned, my voice barely above a whisper.

“The world will burn,” a voice called from the fog. I knew they were coming; it always started the same. I’d given all, and still it wasn’t enough.

“Darkness will prevail.”

“Act now or all is lost.”

“You aren’t real!” Sparks ruptured from my center, sending a blinding light outward. I could keep them at bay. Nothing would ever touch me again.

“Izzy?” A strained voice pressed against my barriers, summoning something in my soul. There was comfort in that voice. Familiarity. A home. No, my home was gone. He’d died. This was the betrayer, the one who’d let my home slip from my fingers.

“Listen to him, Izzy. Let him in,” Kennan pleaded.

“I won’t lose you, Kennan.”

“If you stay, you will lose yourself. This is not where you are called to be. Why can’t you see that?” Kennan’s voice pleaded.

Whispers echoed through the fog, another familiar voice. A message.

“Love and sacrifice.” The voice of my home. No, not my home, the other one. The one my soul called to. The stranger in the fog. The memory from long ago.

“No.” Kennan’s whisper cut through me, more plea than denial. “She’s not ready.”

“It. Must. Be.” The other one, the one who made me this way, called.

“Izzy, I must go, and so should you. I can’t remain here. If I do, you will be lost forever.” Kennan’s sadness ripped through me; pain seared a path straight to my center.

“You aren’t real. You are a phantom, but a phantom is better than nothing. I will stay.” No matter the other voices that hounded me, I would stay for him.

“And that is why I must go. My heart will be forever yours. Take it and live, Red.” His voice faded and with it he was gone.

“NO!” I shouted, feeling the loss of him more powerfully than I would if he were a phantom. “NO! He was real. He was here.” The fire began to writhe inside of me, the darkness rolling in waves deep in the pit of my stomach. “No, he can’t be gone. He can’t. No. No. No.” Panic raced through me as the darkness cascaded around me. The fog churned into midnight as the figures promising death and destruction moved ever closer. “No.” A whisper, a plea before all was black.





Floating, why was I floating? Consciousness slowly trickled in, thrusting me once more into my misery. Where was I? This wasn’t the void. Was I in the dreaming?

“Izzy,” a pained voice whispered. With the voice came the realization I wasn’t alone, but cradled in strong arms, moving, but where? “Izzy, I beg of you, speak. Are you well?”

“Who are you?” my voice escaped in a cracked strain.

“Do you not remember?” Fear laced the man’s voice. As I turned to look at the person carrying me, a flood swept over me. Emotions I’d longed to forget—love, fear, betrayal, truth. My already battered psyche was assaulted by everything I’d been trying to deny.

“Please let me go.” A choked sob reverberated through my body. “He’s gone. He’s gone forever now. You did that.”

“Izzy, it is not as simple as you seem to think.”

Fire coursed through my veins as the man set me down, distancing himself. His demeanor was vastly different from the last time I’d seen him. Aberto. That was his name. He’d protected me, but he’d also lied.

The Old One will lie, the darkness whispered inside of me. The voice a twisting darkness that seemed to ooze with every syllable. He will betray you once more. Don’t trust him.

“GO AWAY!” I shouted. The voice was growing stronger. I hadn’t heard it like this in the void. Why had Aberto taken me away from my refuge?

“I will never leave you again,” Aberto swore. “You may rail against me, vent your rage, tell me to leave a thousand times, but nothing will sway my resolve.” His face transformed, frightening me. The way he looked at me, as though he wouldn’t be able to survive losing me again, made me want to run. I couldn’t do this. I’d lost everything. “Izzy, I would not survive losing you.”

As Aberto lowered himself to the ground, he raised his knees, resting his arms across them so his head hung there. Defeat and exhaustion warring with one another.

He lies, the darkness murmured.

“STOP!” I screamed, curling in on myself. “GET OUT!” I could feel it churning within me, trying to stretch itself to consume the light left within me. I clawed at my stomach, trying to rip it away.