See How She Fights (The Chronicles of Izzy #2)(15)

I turned to run but was greeted with a new nightmare. I looked down at almost a dozen bodies. Each one more gruesome than the last. They reached out for me with blood crusted arms. Their wails shredded my soul. I couldn’t breathe. Everywhere I looked, there were eyeless figures, begging me for help. I wanted to save them. I wanted to make them whole again. I tried to remember that it was just the dreaming. It was not real. This was not reality. I closed my eyes and tried to steady my breathing.

“It isn’t real,” I shouted into the fog. I opened my eyes to find them moving towards me. The sightless mob closed in around me and as I began to scream, I heard him. I heard Xavier whisper.

“Oh, but it is real. This is what shall become of you all.”

I screamed out as their cold fingers brushed against my skin.

**********

“IZZY!” I heard Kennan shout.

I opened my eyes to find Isadora staring down at me with a worried expression. Kennan looked furious. Conall and Breanan both seemed utterly perplexed.

“Is it always like that, Brother?” Conall asked with the first hint of seriousness I’d heard from him.

“Like this or worse. The visions are hard to pull her back from,” Kennan answered, never taking his eyes off of me. “I know you don’t want me here now, but they couldn’t get you awake. Isadora saw what you were seeing and she tried to pull you out. They came and got me.” He started to pull away and leave.

I reached up and pulled him back as the tears gathered in the corners of my eyes.

“Don’t leave,” I whispered. Part of me was not ready to trust him just yet, but the bigger more urgent part of me needed the comfort of his presence.

He picked me up and slid me onto his lap in one smooth motion, effectively cradling me like a small child. I often forgot how big he was. I allowed myself to melt into his arms. I sank into the comfort of his warmth and got myself back under control.

“We have a problem,” Isadora said, stating the obvious. Well, obvious to me.

“Why were they there? Were they real?” I asked as the vision of those sightless faces danced in my mind.

“They are trapped,” she said, placing a hand against my cheek.

“Would someone explain what she saw?” Conall asked with a trace of annoyance.

“Give her time, son.” Breanan calmingly placed a hand on his son’s shoulder.

“There were at least a dozen of them. If they were real, then how have you only found so few?” I asked, suddenly feeling nauseous.

“My dear that is what is to come if we do not stop what has been set into motion. You just had a vision inside the dreaming,” Isadora said as she sat back in her chair.

“How is that even possible? I didn’t think you could have visions inside the dreaming. I thought they were two separate things.”

“For most Seers they are. There have only ever been three Seers in our histories that have been able to meld their abilities. As you grow, so do your powers Izzy,” Kennan said. “Isadora is one of the three.”

“So, now I have super, super powers? Seriously, no more surprises people. If there is anything else I need to know, please tell me now,” I said, trying to move to sit beside Kennan. I realized being held like a child sort of ruined my credibility. It certainly took the edge off of my threats. Kennan was having none of it though. His arms allowed no room for movement.

“I will walk you through it tomorrow, Izzy. For now we need to focus on what you saw,” Isadora said calmly before looking at Breanan. Something unspoken passed between them. Moments later he and Conall had left the room so that only Kennan and I remained with her.

“There are rituals from our past, rituals that have not been spoken of or done in over a thousand years. They are dark magic so we have done our best to destroy all knowledge of them. About five years ago a manuscript was stolen from our private collection here at the Council. We have no way of knowing who did this. There was no footage on the security films, no alert. In fact, it may have been missing for far longer than five years. It is not a manuscript we reference often. Within this manuscript were rituals involving sacrificial magic. Rituals in which you bleed the soul out of the body. Those souls can’t move on, they are forced to walk between worlds for as long as the spell is being cast,” Isadora said as she stared into the distance. I wondered what phantoms lingered in her mind.

“So they are trapped in some sort of purgatory? What sort of ritual would do this? What is the objective?” I knew that we would never be able to figure out who was doing it unless we knew why.

“That is the problem. Without the manuscript, we do not know. There are over one hundred sacrificial rituals involving soul bleeding. Without the manuscript, we have no way to solve this mystery. I have brought my son here because he has some knowledge, as do Ian and Kennan. There was a group of Seers and Guardians about a hundred years past that split from the main Council. They wanted to use their powers for gain much like Xavier had done with his Corporation. He had involved himself with the group until he realized their objectives did not suit his own.”

“What does this have to do with the book, or manuscript, or whatever it is?” I asked, trying to get Isadora back on track.

“Patience, my dear,” she chided. “There was a great deal of fighting in those times. There were lives lost on both sides. Ultimately, the sect’s black magic was its own undoing. They performed a sacrifice so dark, it brought forth something that never should have been brought to this plane. It consumed them, and with them a great many of our own. We were able to put things back the way they were meant to be.” She finished as if she hadn’t just told me something from some other plane had been on freaking walkabout on ours. I needed that durn handbook. Seriously, there had to be one somewhere.