See How She Awakens (The Chronicles of Izzy #4)(31)

“Conall, we were already coming back tomorrow. We can leave tonight. You know I won’t let her die. Not if I can stop it.”

“Are you in control?” Conall’s voice was unsure, as if he didn’t know whether it were a polite thing to ask or not.

“I understand the process better now, and I can push it back when it takes hold. I’m not sure I will ever truly be able to control it, but I can manage it well enough. I’m not a threat.” I hoped it was true. With just Aberto and I, the darkness had grown weak, but with so many others to feed from, it might become stronger, unmanageable. There was only one way to find out. “We should go.” I looked to Aberto, hoping he wouldn’t argue.

“Are you ready?” His eyes locked on mine, looking for assurance.

“Just stay close to me, and I should be fine.”

“Let us depart.” Aberto pushed us through to the dreaming where I could traverse more easily. “You take the Seer, I will ferry the Guardian.”

We grabbed our loads and spun through the dreaming, heading straight for the Order.

With the swirling miasma of the dreaming drifting by, Kennan’s final plea trickled through my mind once more. One word had been playing over and over in my mind for days. Remember he’d said. I needed to find a way to determine what it was. I knew one historian that would be able to help—Eleanor.

“I think I might get sick,” Sena shouted in my ear, pulling me from my thoughts.

“Just breathe, the feeling will fade. Oh, and keep your eyes closed. That helps the first few times,” I reassured her, hoping she wouldn’t lose her lunch all over me.

Before Sena had a chance to redecorate my clothes, we arrived. The sounds of the swamp echoing an eerie chorus as we made our way into the house.





I’d been here merely weeks before, yet as my feet crossed the threshold, I felt different. In the days I’d spent away, I’d started to find myself again. Molly had found me, reached me when no one else could. Now it was my turn to save her. I made my way toward the room where she remained floating in stasis.

I stepped through the doors to find an exhausted Ian leaning back in a chair next to her head.

“Izzy?” Ian rose from the chair and made his way towards me, pulling me into a deep embrace. “Can you ever forgive me?”

“There is nothing to forgive. You forget, the darkness lives inside of me, I understand better than anyone how it can make you feel.” I squeezed the giant brute tightly before releasing him.

Looking back to Molly, my eyes didn’t want to believe what they were seeing. The blackened skin had expanded, covering her chest and throat completely, causing her skin to look like an ancient lava field. Time was running out.

“I’m going to fix this,” I whispered in her ear before laying a kiss on her forehead. I’d dealt with my shit; now, it was time for me to be the badass she believed I was capable of being.

“Where’s Eleanor?” I rose to find everyone had joined us in the room. It seemed that Conall and Sena weren’t the only ones wary of me.

“What do you need, my dear?” Eleanor’s scolding eyes passed over everyone in the room as she made her way towards me.

“I need to remember something. My mind is blocking it out, or the darkness is, I’m not sure. But it is important. Can you help me?” I held my breath, hoping she would know of something, some ceremony that would allow me to remember.

“It requires more markings.” Eleanor looked over to Aberto.

“Show me,” replied Aberto, ever the symbol-smith. The man reacted to marking people the way some men were about sports. He got tunnel-vision, and nothing would distract him until the marking was complete.

“Izzy, come with us. I want to make sure you know what this marking requires before you commit to it. This one is going to take some seriousresolve.” Eleanor’s words unsettled me. Seriously, the one on my back had been pretty dang intense. If she was shying away from it, it must be bad.

We made our way through the house and into Eleanor’s room. Lining every wall were stacks upon stacks of books; some shelved and others stacked in precarious-looking towers. Even still, there were hundreds more strewn about the floor, each opened to some page of import. It was as though Eleanor had been frantically searching through each of the books for some sort of an answer.

I looked into each as I passed, wondering what Eleanor had been busily researching. She never rested. Since the day I’d met her, she’d been a relentless force. My gaze caught on a page of an ancient tome. It was the prophecy, but not as I’d ever seen it before.

“You don’t need to worry about that now.” Eleanor ushered me further into the room toward an old, tattered fainting couch.

“What is the mark?” I asked, my mind still occupied by the prophecy.

“It must be done on your skull, closest to your mind.” Eleanor dug through her books maniacally searching for the one on her mind. “Aha!” She stood, blowing the dust from the cover and handed the giant book to Aberto. As he held it, the book fell open to a page denoting a ceremony where a person’s head was being tattooed.

“It doesn’t go on my forehead, does it?” Not that I really cared. The one man I wanted to look good for was gone, so I didn’t have anyone left to impress. But the thought of walking around with a symbol on my face was a bit unnerving.