See How She Awakens (The Chronicles of Izzy #4)(26)

“Where are you going? You only just brought her back!” Mona’s voice echoed.

“She does not yet know how to repress the darkness fully. Much work must be done before she can put an end to the darkness. I brought her because she felt compelled to show Ian, to save him from what he could become. I will not let her linger here where she is at risk of absorbing the rest of the darkness from each of you. Cleanse yourselves. We will return when the time is made known.” Aberto’s voice boomed as he pulled us through the dreaming. I knew somewhere in the back of my mind he was right, but I wanted to stay. To be around the people I loved the most in the world.





Floating, the world pulsed around me. The only thing audible was my own heartbeat in my ears. Memories suffused me as we traversed the dreaming, I lingered somewhere between consciousness and sleep, never really staying in either. My veins felt as though they were on fire as the darkness expanded within me. I’d done the right thing by helping Ian, I knew I had. If I’d waited, I would’ve been too late.

The movement stopped. With a deep sigh, Aberto lowered my body onto the bed. I knew the feeling well, we were back in the desert.

“Gods give me the strength to save her.” Aberto’s plea felt so broken. He’d always been a pillar for strength, and yet fear for my safety had brought him down hard. I wanted to comfort him; to tell him all would be well. If only it weren’t so hard to stay awake.

Resist me no more. If you submit the pain will end.

As the words echoed through my mind, excruciating pain ripped through me. Every bit of me ignited from within as the darkness grew stronger. Reveling in its power over me, it pushed harder than it ever had before.

I was stronger than the darkness. I had a reason to stay, to fight. I couldn’t forget that. The vision of Ian haunted my mind. If I didn’t gain control over the darkness soon, I would be stuck here, unable to help anyone. I knew I wouldn’t be able to absorb the darkness from all that were affected, but I had to find some way to help.

“Izzy?” Aberto moved closer as I struggled to regain control of my soul, of my very being. I would not lose this war.

“It has grown stronger.” My voice came out a broken decree.

“Gods give you the strength to fight.” Aberto’s hand brushed the sweat dampened hair from my face. I wanted to curl into the safety of him. Aberto would never let harm come to me, but I knew this was one battle he could not fight for me. I had to do this on my own.

“I think they have forsaken me.” My eyes felt glued shut as I struggled to open them. The darkness was still pulling me under.

“You would not still live if the gods had forsaken you. You will fight, and you will win.” His voice wavered at the end. He and I both knew there was no certainty. I’d barely been able to contain it before I’d absorbed more.

“This has to end. I have to find a way to stop this from overpowering me.” The fire burned within my veins. Every attempt I made to regain consciousness, to take power over myself, was met with resistance.

“You will.” Aberto’s voice reassured me as he whispered old words in my ear. Words my soul recognized, even if my ears did not. “Rest.”

Darkness embraced me. The pain was no more and the dreaming was a far off memory. I was nowhere with nothing that could touch me. Time seemed to slip away as I floated. But the peace would not last. Memories began to surface. A parade of images played out before me as though I were watching a movie of my life.

My mother was a mere arm’s length away. I could reach out and touch her. But this was no memory of my own, this was something entirely different.

“She is the Seer. Keeping this from her will do her no good,” Mona scolded, appearing just feet from where I floated.

“I will give her a life that belongs to her for as long as she can have it. No good will come of her knowing her entire life will be filled with loss and misery.” My mother’s face was covered with the stains of her tears. The desperation in her eyes belying her heart breaking within.

“What of her future? Should she not be prepared for the insurmountable tasks ahead of her?” Mona pushed at my mother, never relenting.

“If I do not hide her, take her away, do you think the darkness will ever allow her to live, to be able to do what has been asked of her?” Anger began to replace heartbreak as she stood taller, facing off with her sister.

“Fair point. But she will find out, and when she does, she will resent the lies. What good will she be when the doubt has been seeded within her. You take a dangerous chance sister, allowing the darkness a way in. She will doubt our kind, never fully trusting us.”

“She will be strong enough to know the difference.” My mother promised looking down at a bundle in her arms I hadn’t noticed it before.

“I pray you are right.” Mona faded taking the remnants of the memory with her.

The inky black once more suffused everything surrounding me. My aunt’s words echoed in my mind. I had been questioning everything. The darkness knew my weakness and had used it to warp how I perceived everything. I’d long ago accepted that what my mother had done, she’d done to protect me. It didn’t make it easier, knowing my whole life was lived under false pretenses, but it did help me to understand.

I’d found an answer in their words. Perhaps that is what Aberto wanted of me. I still didn’t understand where I was, or what he’d done, but I felt less burdened. The darkness couldn’t reach me here. But that peace would not last, it never did.