See How She Falls (The Chronicles of Izzy #3)(29)
I dropped down to the ground where Sonneillon stood, blackening the earth beneath his feet. This wasn’t what I’d seen before. This was different, something was wrong. Surrounding the demon were a vast army of monsters. Nothing made sense as the battle raged. Surely, this was a mistake.
I stared in amazement as the monsters battled. A giant with rage filled eyes relentlessly attacked Sonneillon, repeatedly receiving blows that shook the earth but never once wavering in its resolve. Wolves circled the demon, except they were unlike any wolves I’d ever seen. These looked like they’d been jacked up on steroids and energy drinks. They moved fluidly, ripping into Sonneillon’s flesh violently. There were creatures that seemed to sift through the air, disappearing and reappearing in another space within seconds as if they were made of the wind itself. There were so many that my mind could not seem to focus enough to categorize them all.
Surely, this wasn’t a vision. Maybe the turkey in my sandwich had been bad. That was it, I’d eaten bad turkey. Which, ultimately, had caused me to have a trippy dream. The vision shifted, revealing the giant to be Kennan and the wolf to be Conall. Definitely bad turkey. I shook my head at the absurdity of it all and trudged on.
The vision wouldn’t be complete without the me dying bit. Moving past the crowd of monsters, I looked the demon in the eyes. Approaching it slowly, I tried to remember what needed to be done. I reached my arms out to embrace the demon as I had so many times before. Only, this time as my arms encircled the gargantuan beast, nothing happened. No flash of calm, no disappearing demon, nothing.
“I shall rise," The demon’s hot breath promised against my hair. “The Seer shall fall.”
The helicopter bounced, pulling me from my bizarre dream. Nothing in it had made sense. I looked over to find Aberto staring at me, concern etching deep lines in his brow. Something in my stomach flipped and I wondered if my turkey had been fine after all. Stupid, inexplicably improbable, visions.
Chapter Fifteen
Luckily the flight only lasted a little over an hour. As we passed above the murky waters of Okeefenokee swamp, I wondered where the pilot planned to set us down. From the looks of things, we may have to rappel out of the stupid thing, which I was so not down for.
“Hold on tight. This might get a bit dicey," The pilot muttered. It was the equivalent of a tattoo artist yelling “Oops” as he worked, not cool at all. I gripped the seat so tightly my knuckles threatened to break through the skin.
The helicopter dropped and rose in minute increments sending my stomach into conniptions. Finally, the earth rose up to meet us and the helicopter stilled upon what I surmised to be the only available hard patch of ground in the entire swamp.
Everything shut off quickly as the pilot instructed us to get our stuff and get out. Much to his chagrin, I was still clinging to the chair like some sort of deranged spider monkey, afraid that if I let go, the helicopter might just fall over.
“Izzy, we’ve landed. You can get off now," Kennan snickered, trying to pry me loose.
“What?” I looked around trying to gain my bearings. “Oh, right, we aren’t dead. Awesome.” I still hadn’t been able to shake that stupid vision, and the bumpy landing had done nothing to calm my nerves. Now, I had to face my aunt and that completely mental sidekick of hers, Sena.
“It took you long enough to get here. Do you know how long the Grand Seer has been waiting?” I wondered if just thinking of Sena had summoned her from the swamp’s murky waters.
“Well, you did say in person. We were in Illinois. Travel takes time," I grumbled, slinging my backpack over my shoulders.
“Fine, excuses later. Let’s get a move on.” She barely paused to see if we were following before making her way down a narrow boardwalk through the swamp. I looked out at the still waters with trepidation. The probability of getting eaten by gators and being unable to fulfill the prophecy was uncomfortably high.
I started to follow her, but caught Conall in my periphery staring at her, aghast. I’d only seen that look on one Guardian before, and I knew exactly what it meant. Conall had just found his Seer.
“Really?” I sighed. “Her? It couldn’t have been a tame, mild-mannered sort?” I huffed, grabbing his hand to pull him in my wake. I had no time for these shenanigans.
“I can’t belong to someone in the Order, Izzy. Something must be wrong," Conall whispered as he dropped my hand. He continued to follow me with a look of terror on his face.
“The universe is a mysterious place," Kennan muttered, leading the way behind Sena.
When we finally arrived, after what seemed like miles of hiking through swamp, I finally got a good look at the house I had previously visited in spirit. The house was some strange hybrid of cabin and plantation home that had been weathered. Grayed wood rose up out of the swamp on a peninsula that looked ready to sink into the water at any moment. The rusted tin roof would surely crumble at the slightest touch. I wondered how a bird hadn’t just fallen through upon landing, yet. Even with its dilapidated exterior, the house was a bizarrely beautiful place. The ruin had a life, and that life spoke to something deep within me. If there was ever a haunted house, this one would be it.
“Hey, Aberto, when we walk in, can you say ‘Boo’?” I was sticking with the whole Aberto was a ghost train of reasoning. Sena snickered, making me like her instantly. Maybe she wouldn’t be so bad after all.