See How She Fights (14 page)

“Where did you get those?” Molly
asked, nodding toward my arms.

“Aberto came and did them. Speaking
of Aberto, do you know what an Old One is?” Maybe I could get some answers
while I worked.

“It is not her place to say,”
Conall piped in.

“Sheesh, what’s with all of the
secrecy?” I wondered if I was the only Seer on the planet that did not know
what he was.

“Honestly, Izzy, I don’t know what
an Old One is anyway. Only Guardians are given that information. It is one of
those need-to-know type things they think we don’t need to know.” Molly rolled
her eyes and went back to transcribing the paper in front of her.

“Will I ever find out what he is?”
I mumbled to myself.

“Unless he tells you himself, you
will not.” Conall lowered himself into the seat next to me, taking up writing
once more.

“You people and your secrets are
infuriating,” I growled.

“They serve their purpose,” he said
with a raised brow.

Stupid Guardian.

I huffed at him and went back to
writing. If I wasn’t going to get any answers about mister man-of-mystery then
I would just go back to solving our current issue.

**********

We stayed in the library until none
of us could keep our heads up. My hand felt as though it would fall off at any
moment. I couldn’t remember the last time I had written so much in one sitting.
I stretched, cracking my back as I did. Molly winced and yawned simultaneously.

“I think it’s time to call it a
night,” Ian said from the shadows. I wondered how long he’d been there. He was
dressed in a pair of jeans and a sweater. The most subdued I had ever seen him.

“I think you might be right,” Molly
said as she moved towards him. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and
kissed her on the top of her head. I had to swallow back my tears. I knew
Kennan would be back soon but the familiar gesture was just a blatant reminder
of his absence.

“Well, goodnight then,” I muttered
before getting up to leave. I was intercepted by an eye patch wearing mountain.

“I shall accompany you,” he bowed.

“When will you stop with the
freaking bowing?” I griped as we made our way up the stairs.

“You are the head of the Council
now and as such you deserve the respect assigned the office. So, I shall not
stop bowing. I know that I promised to do so before my mother left, but the
situation is now altered. If we who are closest to you do not show you the
respect assigned the office, then others will take that as a sign of your
incompetence. You don’t want people to find you incompetent, do you?” In the
short time he had known me, he had found my buttons. He knew how to push me.

“Fine, but please don’t call me
‘Milady’ in private. When it is just us, call me Izzy. I feel like enough of an
imposter as it is.” We came to a stop in front of my room. “Well, goodnight
Conall.”

“Um, Izzy?”

“Yeah, what is it?” I paused.

“Kennan made me swear not to let
you out of my sight. I was instructed to stay in the room with you. I will, of
course, slumber on the floor.” Conall looked as uncomfortable as I felt.

“Slumber, who even says stuff like
that? Well, you better come in. If Kennan finds out you balked at your duty we
will never hear the end of it. But don’t get all chatty. This isn’t a slumber
party. I won’t be painting your nails.” I moved into the room.

“I would appreciate it if you did
not paint my nails,” he said with a smirk. Oh, the temptation was so strong. I
could just imagine mister prim and proper with bright pink nails.

I snickered as I made my way into
the bathroom with my pajamas. Luckily I’d been the one to pack my bag this time
so I had sweats and t-shirts to sleep in, much to Kennan’s chagrin. I came out
finishing the braid in my hair to find a shirtless Conall settling into a bed
he’d made on the floor. His back was to me and there were scars crisscrossing
the entire expanse. I sucked in a breath.

“It happened when Cait was lost.
The day I lost everything,” Conall said never turning to face me. 

“I’m sorry.” I didn’t know what
else to say. It seemed entirely inadequate, but at the same time, I meant every
bit of it. I was sorry for the pain he’d had to endure. I knew if I could take
it away I would.

“It was a long time ago. Let us
sleep.” He lay down and removed his eye patch. Underneath was a mess of scar
tissue left from the carnage of long ago. I turned away and headed toward my
bed. I had seen enough for one day.

As my head hit the pillow I heard
Conall mumble a good night. I turned the lamp off next to my bed and let the
dreaming take me in.

**********

“Where have you been? You tell
me not to pull you here but then you just quit showing up. What is on your arms
now? What in the hell are you doing to yourself? You are glowing blue all over
your arms and back. Haven’t you figured out how to get that rune off of your
arm yet?” Ren spoke so quickly, I hardly had a moment to adjust to my
surroundings.

“I’ve been trying to find a way
to get you out of here. We know where they are now and we will be moving in
soon,” I said, sitting on the ground. I was exhausted. Dreaming or awake, I was
worn to the bone.

“Moving in. What are you some
sort of commando?” She sat beside me looking on with her eyeless face.

“Don’t be snarky tonight. I
don’t have the mental fortitude to deal with you.” I rubbed my hand down my
face and immediately thought of Kennan. This was the first night in months I’d
slept alone. I didn’t like it one bit. “The glowing blue marks I am assuming
are the ones that Aberto put on me so that I could lift the veil on the smoky
woman.”

“Wait, that was Aberto? The man
who gave you the one on your back was the same guy, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Holy crap. You had the oldest
Symbol-smith in existence give you your marks. That is insane. You know he is
an Old One, don’t you?” She was positively giddy.

“What is an Old One?” I asked,
knowing full well I probably would not get an answer. Just like that, Aberto
appeared in the fog. Neat trick.

“I am an Old One,” he said
lowering himself beside me. “Hello, Ren. How are you this evening?” He was far
nicer to her than I was.

“Still stuck.”

“I am working on it. Sheesh, I
am not a freaking genie you know. I can’t just wish you free,” I lowered my
head between my legs. “What are you doing here?” I asked Aberto.

“I came to see if the marks
worked the way you had hoped and I heard you have been asking about the Old
Ones.” He was always so formal. It kind of unnerved me. Even as old as Kennan
and Ian were, they’d adjusted to modern times and language. This man seemed
endlessly trapped in the past.

“Well, yeah. You just poof in
and out and are all man of mystery and vague. I don’t know anything about this
world that I am a part of. Not to mention that nagging feeling that I somehow
know you. Color me curious. Oh, and yes, the marks worked famously. Thank you,”
I looked up to find him staring at me intently. “Well this is fun and all, but
I think I may need actual sleep so if you don’t have any information to give me
I will be on my way,” I stood up and started to leave.

“Get me unstuck woman. I’m
bored,” Ren said before moving away in the fog. I wondered if she had been this
unpleasant in real life.

“I swear to you there will be a
day when all that you seek shall be found. Today is not that day.” Aberto rose
and placed his hand on my cheek once more. I stared up into his cerulean eyes
and wondered at the sadness there. What did he know?

“Okay, then. I think I need to
sleep. I am going to go and wake Conall up to put the whammy on me now. I’m
sure I will see you around.” I started to pull myself from the dreaming only to
have Aberto grab my arm and hold me there.

“Where is your Guardian? Why is
Conall there?” The command in his voice was unsettling.

“Kennan went to gather the
Division. We need all the help we can get and he doesn’t trust anyone else,” I
said, trying to pull away from his strong grasp. Something about Aberto
unnerved me. It wasn’t just the fact that I had no idea what he was. It was the
way he looked at me. There was a sense of expectation in his looks.

“So it begins.” Way to go. Eight
cryptic points to Aberto. “I shall block the dreaming for you,” he said,
placing his hands on either side of my head before I could get away. “Sleep
well Izzy, dream of your home.”

With that I was thrown into a
fitful sleep filled with dreams of Kennan. My home.

**********

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

I was stirred from my restless
sleep by Conall moving around the room. I wanted to throw a pillow at him. I
was exhausted.  I felt as though I hadn’t slept at all. My night had been and
endless cycling through my entire history with Kennan. It was wonderful and
exhausting simultaneously. I awoke missing him fiercely.

“Why are you up so early?” I whined
into my pillows. I wanted to kill whoever invented morning. It was a stupid
time of the day.

“Izzy, it is already half past
nine. If you slumber much longer you shall waste the day away. We have tasks
that need our attention. So, you should get up, get dressed and eat something.
Kennan mentioned that I should remind you to eat. As such, I am waking you up
and we are going to go have breakfast,” he said, moving to put his shirt on.
How did all of these men get so ripped? Was there some sort of magical protein
shake they all drank?

“Fine. But I am doing so under
duress.” I was somewhat surprised he hadn’t asked me to go and break my fast
with him. The way he talked. It was almost as bad as Aberto. Stupid mystery man
making me dream of “home.” I hated the lot of them today. I just wanted Kennan
back and for this whole nightmare to be over. I knew that I would have to take
over the Council eventually. I just hoped they would give me some sort of
training grace period where I could retreat to Alabama and recuperate from this
whole debacle.

“Get dressed,” he said, sitting
down in the chair to pull on his shoes.

“You are bossy. I hope you know
that,” I groused as I gathered some clothes from my suitcase. Getting dressed
while exhausted did not make for wise fashion choices. I moved into the bathroom
and brushed my teeth quickly. I unbraided my mess of wavy hair and got dressed
hurriedly. I needed coffee.

“Ready?” Conall asked, moving
toward the door. It appeared I would be ready whether I was or not.

“I suppose,” I grumbled.

“Are you always this chipper in the
morning?”

“Only when Old Ones pop into my
dreaming and then send me off to dream of ‘home’.”

“You saw Aberto again last night?”
There was a tone of surprise hidden in his question.

“Yeah. I was asking Ren about Old
Ones and poof there he was. Then he gave me the whole spiel about seeking and
finding or something. Then off to dreamland to dream of Kennan I went.” I
yawned loudly as I made my way blearily down the stairs.

“He made you dream of Kennan? I
thought you said he sent you to dream of home.”

“Kennan is my home,” I said, moving
toward the coffee pot. Must. Get. Caffeinated.

“Hmmm.” Conall, ever the eloquent.

“Hmmm, indeed. I just wish that man
would stay out of my head.”

“Kennan?” It was a banner day for
confusing Conall. I should get an award.

“No. Aberto. He is the unnerving
one.” I smeared a giant glob of cream cheese on my bagel as I talked. I knew
from experience I was less than eloquent in the morning. I was surprised Conall
had been able to follow me thus far.

“When you’ve been around for that
long it is bound to happen,” Conall muttered.

“How old is he?” Maybe someone
could at least tell me that.

“Not going to happen, Izzy. Let’s
just say he is off limits conversationally and leave it at that.”

“Fine.” I shoved a giant bite of
bagel into my mouth and chewed sullenly. I was tired. Kennan was gone. Seers
were still dying. Life sucked.

“Don’t mope, it is not becoming,”
Conall said.

“Good morning, Izzy.” Molly lowered
herself across from me.

“She might bite you if you get too
close,” Conall said to her.

“Oh, I know not to fully engage her
until after breakfast. I learned that back at the lab.” Molly flinched as she
finished. I knew she must’ve been thinking about her mom. I couldn’t imagine
how she was holding up as well as she was. I wouldn’t have been. It seemed
everyone I loved had some sort of devious relative. I wondered if I had an evil
twin out there I didn’t know about. I dismissed it and went back to angrily
chewing my bagel. I would decimate it. At least that was within my control.

Eleanor approached our table as I
set about murdering my helpless bagel. She looked drawn and exhausted. I
wondered when she had last slept well. From the look of her face, it had been a
long while.

“I have found what we need,” she
said.

“Well, what is it?” Molly asked
impatiently.

“We must find a soul walker to
sever the connection.” Eleanor sighed heavily and laid her head on the table.
She looked utterly defeated. “This is useless. We will never be able to stop
them.”

“What is a soul walker?” I asked.
The food and caffeine had finally entered my system enough to make me cognizant
of the present.

“Something so rare it has not been
seen since the time of the Old Ones.” Conall tilted his chair back and rubbed
his hand over his head. “Perhaps we could just kill Xavier. If we can’t set the
souls free, then that is a price we will just have to pay. We cannot allow him
to wander this earth any longer,” he said with resolve.

“Right, but what is a soul walker?
What can they do?” I had the beginnings of a terrifying revelation.

“A soul walker is a person that can
separate their soul from their body and walk in alternate planes. They do not
need to maintain a corporeal form to stay alive. So say a Seer is a soul
walker, they can take their soul out of their body and both would still stay
alive. In fact, even if the Seers body were to die, the soul would live on and
be able to regain corporeal form when it transitioned back to this plane. But
like Conall said, they have not been around since the time of the Old Ones.”
Eleanor looked so distraught I had to say something.

“I think I am one,” I mumbled as
everyone turned to stare at me in unison. “What?”

“What do you mean you think you are
one? Shouldn’t you have mentioned this talent sooner?” Conall leaned towards me
with such an intense look on his eye it unnerved me.

“Well, how was I supposed to know
it wasn’t normal? You people never tell me anything. Okay, so Ren might have
told me it was weird and during the whole back tattoo ceremony I may have gone
on walkabout outside of my body, but I didn’t know that was abnormal. There.
Is. No. Handbook.” I was getting irritated. They didn’t want me to know
anything, they kept stuff from me, yet they expected me to know this stuff.

Stupid Guardians. Stupid old Seers.

“Have you done this?” Conall asked.

“Yes, during the tattoo ceremony
when the pain started to build in the beginning I left my body. I don’t know
how I did it, I just did. I was standing there, looking down at my body, and
the only people that could see me were Ren and Aberto. Which I thought was
strange at the time, but I got so caught up with everything afterward that I
didn’t think anything of it. So, this means we can help those Seers, right?”
Deflection. If I could get everyone to stop staring at me like gaping fish and
get back on task, it would be a miracle.

“We have some work to do then. Do
you think that you can contact Aberto again? We may need his help to prepare
you for this.” Conall looked thoughtful.

“Isn’t there a book I could read or
something?” I really didn’t want to see Aberto again. He was completely
unnerving. I always felt off balance with him.

“No, there isn’t enough time.
Conall is right, we need to do this and soon. Kennan should return either this
evening or tomorrow with the men. We must be ready to move as soon as possible.
You must do this, Izzy,” Eleanor implored. Her eyes begged me to put aside my
feelings and help.

“Fine. But for the record, I don’t
like putting my trust in a man who won’t even explain what he is. Just so everyone
is clear on this,” I grumbled as Molly reached over and squeezed my hand.

“I can be there with you if you
want.” Her offer to help meant more to me than she could possibly ever know.

“Thanks, but I am pretty sure this
is something I will have to do alone. Isn’t it?” I looked to Conall and Eleanor
for confirmation. Their simultaneous nods were all I needed.

“Shall we?” Conall motioned with
his hand for me to get up and walk ahead of him. I wasn’t exactly sure where we
would be heading to do this little experiment.

“Where to?” I asked.

“I believe the office would be the
best place to conduct this affair.” Something in his choice of words rubbed me
the wrong way.

“Sounds fantastic.”

Alright, fantastic might have been
an overstatement. It sounded horrible in fact. Aberto was the last person I
wanted to see. Thanks to him, I’d spent the entire night dreaming of Kennan and
not resting. I missed my Guardian and I wanted him back by my side. Things
wouldn’t feel right until he was there again.

We moved toward the office in a
pack with the other people around the house bowing to me as I went. I was just
glad that not many of the Council members stayed there often. The bowing set my
teeth on edge. We made our way to the imposing, wooden doors and entered. I looked
back at my friends as they waited outside the room.

“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.