See How She Fights (The Chronicles of Izzy #2)(61)

“I am going to fix this,” I said through my tears. I pulled the stylus out to begin the marks when I felt Aberto’s hand on my shoulder stopping me.

“We must know what happened before you free them. She was protecting Isadora. We must find out why.”

I looked to the body that had been hidden under Ren’s. Isadora’s eyeless face stared into the distance. Her mouth was set in a silent scream. I moved towards her, trying to see if she moved at all. As soon as my hand touched her I recoiled. She felt like stone.

“What happened, Ren? Tell me quickly so that I can free you,” I said, moving back to her side.

“It came again. It came and I protected her. I put a petrification mark on her so she would be preserved. It didn’t get her. I stopped it,” Ren gurgled, taking an eternity to get her words out.

“What came?” Aberto asked, suddenly at my side.

“You know what,” Ren said before wincing in pain.

“We can’t leave them like this Aberto. If you have everything you need I’m going to let them go. Enough is enough.” My tears were starting to blur my vision but I could not sit idly by while they suffered.

“I have all I need,” Aberto said angrily. The heat in his words caught me off guard but I knew they weren’t meant for me.

“Then I will begin. Can you undo what has been done to Isadora?” I asked him as I started to draw the mark on Ren.

“I can,” he said, moving toward her body.

I went to work drawing the symbol on the Seers that were strewn about the gruesome pile. With each mark I drew, a relieved expression washed over the Seer’s face. I could see a glimmer of the women they used to be before this all began. With each mark I grew more and more fatigued, but I pushed on. I would not let these women down. They had already suffered far more than they deserved and it had been my fault. If I had finished Xavier the first time, none of this would have happened.

“She is ready,” Aberto said, moving towards me with Isadora on his arm.

“I’m so sorry I didn’t stop it in time.” I wrapped my blood soaked arms around her and cried into her shoulder.

“My child, this is all as it was meant to be. None of us could have stopped it. Before you mark me I must ask you a favor. Tell Conall I love him and I am so very sorry for leaving him. Take care of him for me, Izzy. Make sure he finds happiness,” she breathed into my hair for a moment and pulled back. “It is time to finish this. Old One, before she does this you must know that the darkness is coming.”

I looked down at her arm and back to Aberto. I was running out of steam, but I knew that this had to end. I didn’t have time to focus on her last statement. I needed to get this over with. I hoped that when I made the last mark on Isadora, the others would be free. As I began her mark, the pull on my soul felt unbearable. It felt as though my heart was being ripped from inside my chest. I gritted my teeth and focused on the mark. I had to get this right. I thought of severing the ties that bound Xavier to Isadora and pushed through the pain. As the last of the mark etched itself into Isadora’s arm, the stylus fell from my hand, and with it I began to sink to the ground. I felt empty. Everything that had once made me was no more. Where I had once been, there was now a gaping void.

Before my soul could fall to the ground, I was lifted in an arm cradle. I turned my head to find Aberto staring at me. He muttered words I could not understand and lowered his head so that his lips brushed along mine. Warmth began spreading through my body as he breathed the words against my lips. The void was filled with peace and a love unlike any I had ever felt. The fear and pain dissipated as he uttered the last words.

I pushed against him so that I could get down. I didn’t understand what had just happened. What had he done to me? I knew that I had taxed a great deal of my soul while trying to mark the Seers, but whatever he had just done felt like it mended the holes I had made.

“What have you done, Old One?” Isadora’s voice was filled with hesitancy. I knew whatever had just happened was not something that should have.

“I did what I promised. I kept her safe,” he said, never taking his eyes from me. “Now we must finish. It is time to return to your Guardian and find Xavier.” He reached his hand out to me and, stunned, I took it.

“What about the Seers? I thought they would be free by now,” I said, looking over to the women who were now stirring.

“They will be free once we mark Xavier, but not until then. We must hurry. He will know that something has changed.”

With that I was ripped back into reality to find Molly, Ian, Conall, Eleanor, and Kennan all hovering around my body. Their eyes were filled with tears and concern. Kennan looked furious. I pulled my soul back into my body and began to slowly mend myself together.

**********





TWENTY THREE


“Why is everyone in here?” I asked as I opened my eyes. I winced at the pain that settled in my chest. It was in the same place the pull had been while in the dreaming. I lifted my hand to rub it when Aberto appeared in the room.

Kennan got up and shot towards him. “You promised. You swore to protect her. She died, Old One. She died and I was helpless to do anything about it.” Kennan was as close to Aberto as space allowed. His angry face looking up into Aberto’s calm one.

“I swore, and as you see, she still lives. Do not accuse me of not keeping my word, Guardian. You know not what I have done to protect her.” Aberto moved away from Kennan and made his way toward me. The hesitation in his eyes reflecting my own. I didn’t know what had happened back there. But apparently, I had died. So that was a new one for me.