See How She Fights (The Chronicles of Izzy #2)(30)

“Hey, why didn’t you let me stay and talk to her? I could have helped her look that stuff up,” I said, rubbing my arm where he had pulled me.

“Because, you and I need to have a very serious, private conversation.” He grabbed my arm again and started pulling.

“Ouch, you are hurting me, Conall. Stop,” I said, using one of the moves Ian had taught me to get out of his grasp.

He stopped and stared at the ground, trying to calm his breathing. “We don’t have time for your tantrums. Follow me and hear what I have to say, or keep going the way you are and die. It matters not to me either way. I would just hate to see my Brother suffer the same fate as I.” He walked out towards the field we had trained in the morning before leaving me staring at his back.

“Fine, I am coming. You don’t have to be so grabby though,” I mumbled, stomping after him. He made it to the top of the hill before sitting down. I plopped down beside him angrily. We sat staring at the house silently for a small eternity.

“Her name was Cait and she was to be my Seer,” he started as his voice caught in his throat. “I think the easiest thing would be for me to show you. Just promise you won’t go looking at anything else.”

“I swear it.” I knew that whatever I was about to see was beyond personal.

“Alright, here you are,” Conall said, reaching out and grabbing my hand. I was swept away into the past. It had to have been at least a hundred years ago.

**********

I looked around, trying to gain my bearings. I immediately knew that this was more than a memory. I was having another vision that wasn’t quite a vision, but something more. I wished I could go back to the simple ones. I was wary of whatever I would see. I knew that if it made Conall unsure that it must be something terrifying. I followed a path down to a village where I found Conall and Kennan talking.

“She has more marks, Brother,” Conall said.

“How is she getting them? I don’t understand. She is escorted everywhere, never left alone,” Kennan replied.

“I think they are coming from the dreaming. It is the only place I cannot follow her. I need you to try and get into her dreams. I would not ask if I thought there was any other way,” Conall begged Kennan.

“You know how much I despise doing that. I feel like I am twisting something meant to be good into evil.”

“You are not your brother. Xavier may use the dreaming for his own ends, but this is not about that. I can’t do it, Kennan. If I could, I would have done so already. I am out of paths to take. This is the only course that remains available,” Conall sighed, turning to pace away from Kennan.

“Fine, I will do it,” he said before walking away toward a cottage. I chased after him, flipping forward through the memory as I went.

I focused on the girl’s name in my mind and found her. She lay on a bed, shivering. Her arms had three runes dug deep into the flesh. I saw it then, the glow that Ren and Isabelle had seen on me. I moved toward her bed and leaned over her.

“You must go, you are not meant to be here,” Cait said to me.

“How can you see me?” I asked. She was still very much alive.

“Because we are bound, you and I. My past shall be your future unless you can fight what is coming. Now go, before he sees you,” Cait said, pushing me out of the memory. I was starting to get sick of people doing that to me.

I looked around and saw that I was, once again, standing on the battlefield where Kennan and Conall had fought the monster. I looked to find them standing over a fallen body. It was Cait. She was breathing her last breaths as Conall wept over her broken form. There was a blood-soaked scrap of cloth tied around his face.

“Don’t you dare leave me, Cait. I just found you,” Conall yelled at her.

“It was the only way to stop it. I was the sacrifice needed to send it back where it belonged. We both know there was no other way. You will find another, Conall. I promise you that,” she whispered as the last of her breath faded from her body. Conall screamed and threw his body over hers. Kennan moved towards him trying to rip him away. It was the same as the theater. I could see the moment the soul separated from the body.

Cait’s spirit moved toward me. She stopped just short of where I was standing and began to speak.

“You are marked, Izzy, by a great evil. Someone is trying to make you a bridge between planes. If you do not stop it, and sever the connection, this is what will come. Promise me something,” she said calmly.

“Anything,” I didn’t think I could deny her anything. She’d just died.

“Find him his true Seer. It was never meant to be me. I never found a way to really tell him though.” She reached her arms around me and hugged tightly. “Be well, my sister, and live.” With that her spirit drifted away. She was no longer bound to this plane.

**********

I opened my eyes to find myself lying in Isadora’s office.

“How did I get here?” I asked, rubbing my eyes. I heard men yelling in the background and sat up to find Kennan about to beat the hell out of Conall.

“Hey, stop it! Put him down, Kennan!” I yelled as the room went still.

“What the hell was that?” Conall asked, moving toward me. He started to crouch down in front of me before Kennan moved him out of the way.

“I don’t know, you tell me. That was your memory,” I said groggily.