See How She Fights (The Chronicles of Izzy #2)(48)
“I shall be out here if you are in need of me.” Conall bowed before closing the door. Molly gave me a quick thumbs up just as the door shut.
“Well, here goes nothing,” I mumbled as I moved toward the couch. I hoped I could induce the dreaming enough to get Aberto to come. I laid down on the hard couch and thought of Aberto. I pictured his handsome face and sad eyes. Just as I started to center myself, the air began to shift.
“You need me?” Aberto was looking down at a pile of papers as though he had always been in the room.
I jumped off of the couch quickly. My heart was in my throat as I took him in. He was in a tight black sweater that defined every plane of his body and pair of jeans that should be illegal. I shook the thoughts from my mind.
“Are you just waiting around for me to ring my metaphysical bell or something?” If I stayed snarky, I could get through this.
“In a manner of speaking, I suppose I am.” He moved toward me with more grace than should be afforded a man of his stature. He stood over me, entirely too close, and began to reach his hand up to my cheek again. I backed away. I was not interested in whatever he was selling. His hand dropped heavily to his side and his eyes took on a look of sadness that I’d become accustomed to.
“I need your help.” I lowered myself into one of the chairs, hoping he would take the hint and give me my space.
“You need but to ask,” he said, lowering himself onto the couch across from me. At least I had my space now.
“I need to learn how to soul walk, or whatever it is called when I yank my soul out of my body. It’s the only way I’ll be able to sever the connection between Xavier and the Seers that have been sacrificed.” I looked down at my nails and started picking the dirt out from under them. The way he concentrated on me set my stomach to flipping.
“Who told you that I could help you on this quest?” he asked, leaning forward.
“Conall said that you would be able to.” I never raised my eyes to his. I just kept talking to my lap.
“What of your Guardian? Has he not yet returned?”
“No, he should be back this evening, but I am sure he’d want me to learn how to do this as quickly as possible. We don’t have time to waste when people are dying.” I looked up at him infuriated. Whatever there was between Kennan and Aberto had no place here. This was about more than their ages-old pissing match.
“Are you?” he leaned back against the couch once more. He assessed me with his eyes for a moment before continuing, “I will show you how to do this, but you must trust me to help you.”
“Can I trust you?” It was something I’d wanted to know since my second marking. He had helped me and he had been there the last couple of times I’d needed him, but the secrecy about what he was unnerved me. Not to mention the way I felt when I was around him. I shared a connection with him that confounded me.
“You hesitate because you don’t have the answers you seek. I swear to you, when the time comes, I shall reveal all that I am to you. This is not that time. You must have faith that I will do things in the time they have been ordained. For now, I ask that you trust that I will guide you in this task.” His gaze captured mine and I knew that there was absolutely no room for argument here. Either I trusted him and learned what I needed to, or I left the Seers to eternally be stuck between planes.
“I will trust you in this.” I wanted there to be no misunderstanding. I trusted him to help me but nothing further.
“That is all I ask.” He leaned forward once more and captured my hand in his strong grasp. “For now.”
He stood up, letting go of my hand in the process. I never quite knew how to act around him. Everything that came out of his mouth was riddled with subtext and mystery. He left my head spinning.
“What do we need to do first?” I asked, standing up so that I was eye to chest with him. These men were insanely tall. I hadn’t noticed before, but I thought he was probably taller than Kennan.
“You need to lie down on the couch,” he said, moving to the other side of the room.
“Then what, Old One?”
What? If he wanted to be a man of mystery then I was going to prod him about it a little bit. It was driving me insane.
“Then,” his glance held the hardest edge I’d ever seen, “you will try and separate your soul from your body.”
He said it like it was the simplest thing in the world. As I lowered myself back against the pillows, I wondered if it was. I tried to think back to how I’d done it when I was getting the tattoo. Then it had been involuntary. The pain of the tattoo had caused me to split. I knew how to pull my soul back to my body. That feeling was familiar, but this was entirely foreign to me.
“The last time I did this I was in a lot of pain. Could you punch me?”
“I will not injure you,” he said with no trace of humor. It seemed Old Ones didn’t come with a sense of humor. “Clear your mind, Izzy. Center it on your soul. Think only of your soul. Picture your soul in a separate space from your body. They are two halves to a whole. Remove the ties that bind the two together.”
His voice held such a pleasant cadence that I found myself working to comply with his commands. I sought out the ties holding me together. I mentally tried to untie them and for a brief second I stood just outside of my body, looking down before I was pulled back in. I felt as though a bungee cord had snapped me back into place. As I opened my eyes a wave of nausea threatened to pull me under.