Seeing is Believing (4 page)

“But they said the darkness will still fall, Ian. Doesn’t that seem like everything we’ve done has been for nothing? I just can’t believe a loving God would allow all of that sacrifice to be done in vain.” Giving voice to the thoughts that had plagued me since we got the news sent a chill down to my bones. I hadn’t wanted to face my anger or my fear. I’d wanted to plow on like Izzy. But I wasn’t her; I was a freaking empath.

“It isn’t solely up to the Gods. We are in a battle against much darker forces, unimaginable beings. The Gods could not combat them alone; that is why we were created. We are meant to maintain the balance.”

“This doesn’t feel like balance to me, Ian,” I replied around a yawn. The day had been one of the longest of my life. Bone tired, I climbed into bed next to Ian. I didn’t care if I was still in my gross clothes from tromping through the swamp. The only thing on my mind was sleep.

“We will try tomorrow to make sense of all of this. For now, sleep.” Ian whispered words sending me into the one place I absolutely did not want to be – the dreaming.

Please don’t let there be Revenants, please don’t let there be Revenants. I chanted to myself, hoping when I opened my eyes I would be alone.

Slowly peeling my eyelids apart, I found myself alone in the fog. The fog didn’t feel right though, it was far denser than I remembered. Finding a blue light glowing in the distance, I turned to move towards it. The fog pushed against me, resisting every motion I made in the direction of the glow. Everything in me screamed I had to find it, whatever it was. The light was the answer.

“Son of a bitch. I am walking towards the light,” I half laughed to myself, until I heard a muttered curse off in the distance.

“Just. Let. Me. Through!” a frustrated voice gritted each word out. I made my way towards the voice, slowly plowing through the dense fog.

“You aren’t real,” the light whispered. “I want to float. None of this is real.”

“I am real. Do not abandon me, Izzy. You cannot turn your back on the world, we need you!” the voice shouted towards the light.

“That’s what Kennan said, but he is gone. He isn’t real either,” the light murmured.

“Izzy?” I shouted, finally realizing the light was none other than the one person we all needed the most. Izzy had to come back. I had to get to her. With every step I took, the fog pushed me farther back. The resistance was almost unbearable. An immovable force opposed my every action, preventing me from reaching the one thing we all needed.

“Who are you?” the other voice shouted, straining against the same force that was keeping me at bay.

“It’s Molly. Who are you?” I gritted, still pushing against the fog. My shoulder dug into the fog. I’m sure I looked like some deranged woman doing football drills against invisible pads.

“Aberto,” he gritted. “She will not relent. She believes us to all be figments of her imagination. Nothing she says makes sense. Perhaps you will have more of an impact.” His voice came from ahead. I could only imagine the strain he must be under. Now I knew why he hadn’t come when I’d called him earlier. He was trying to get to Izzy.

“Where is she?” I strained to keep my voice steady as the pressure surged.

“She is in the void. The one place where the past and future bleed into one another. If we fail to reach her soon, she will go mad,” Aberto panted.

“Izzy! Izzy, it’s Molly. We need you now more than ever. Come home! Please!” I begged, tears running down my face.

“You are dead. Everyone is dead. I’ve seen your bodies. Or have I? You aren’t real.” Izzy’s voice echoed through the fog, an eerie whisper. The madness was taking hold of her. Aberto was right. If we didn’t reach her soon, all would be lost.

“I am real, Izzy. I am! If you don’t come back to us, that will happen. All of us will burn. We need you. You have to end this.”

“I’ve given too much. The debt has been paid. The sacrifice has been made. No more.” The last words pushed the fog out, forcing me to stumble back to the point where I’d started.

Aberto landed beside me on the outskirts of whatever barrier Izzy had created for herself.

“What are we supposed to do? How are we even supposed to get to her?” my voice broke as the impossible task pressed down on me.

“We will find a way. You must return to your world, Molly. Speak with Mona; ask her to bring forth Uriel. Perhaps he will have the information we need to break this barrier. Every action I have taken has failed. I cannot reach her. I have failed her.” Aberto’s eyes glossed over.

“Shut up.” I was so tired of everyone giving up so easily.

“Pardon?” Aberto turned his face towards me. Fire blazed where the tears had whispered only moments before.

“You heard me. I said, shut up. You whining is not going to get her back. I need you to sack up, got it?” I stood, dusting the nonexistent dirt from my bottom.

“Sack up?” Aberto looked truly confused. Sometimes I forgot he was thousands upon thousands of years old.

“It means be a man. Stop wallowing in your pity pool and get our girl. You are what she needs right now. Your love is the only thing that might snap her out of this. The two of you have a long history, something none of the rest of us can rely upon. So you keep trying, and I will go talk to whoever this Uriel person is. Deal?” Aberto stood, towering over me. I often forgot how much taller than regular Guardians he was. I wondered if he made himself appear smaller when he popped onto our plane.

“We have an accord,” Aberto responded, determination replacing despair.

Reality came rushing back in. Like a spring, I sat up abruptly, doing my best to stabilize my breath. Every part of me screamed out in pain. It seemed whatever Izzy had done to me in the dreaming had transferred over to this plane. The sound of her voice echoed in my head as I tried to gain my bearings. She sounded so lost, so despondent. I couldn’t leave her there, not like that.

“Molly, you’re bleeding.” Ian lifted a damp cloth to my face, wiping away what I could only assume were tears of blood.

“How long?” I wasn’t sure if it had happened as a result of Izzy pushing at me, or if it were a remnant of my earlier trip to the dreaming.

“The minute you fell into the dreaming, it started. I need to block you from the dreaming before this gets worse.” The strain in his voice brushed against my soul, causing a shudder to rack through my body.

Jumping up from the bed, I put as much distance between Ian and myself as I could. “Like hell you are going to block me. I have to get her back, Ian!” My voice cracked as my despair came rushing back in.

“Molly, you aren’t going to die trying to save her. I won’t let that happen.” Ian moved to stand in front of me, gripping my shoulders so I couldn’t move away again.

“I can’t live knowing I didn’t try. She’s the only family I have left. I can’t leave her there.”

“She isn’t the only family you have. You have me.”

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it,” I sighed looking up into his eyes. He was just trying to protect me, but in doing so he was asking me to leave someone I loved in peril.

“We don’t even know if she can help us with what is happening now. Even if we manage to get her out of wherever she is, it might not do us any good.” Ian’s grip loosened on my shoulders, as if he were resigning himself to the truth. I wouldn’t stop until she was back on this plane.

“I can’t explain it, Ian. I have this feeling that if she stays there all will be lost. We need her to fight what is coming. She knows something, something that will help us stop this,” I pointed to my eyes as normal tears began to fall.

“How do you know?” Ian lifted his hand to my face, brushing the tears away.

“I feel it here.” Lifting my hand to my chest, I knew it was the truth. My drive to find Izzy wasn’t just to get my friend back; it was more. We were missing something. In the very depths of my existence, I knew only Izzy had the answers.

“What happened? In the dreaming this time? It seemed as though you were fighting something. Your body kept jumping.”

“I found her,” I whispered, looking down at my toes.

“Where is she? What’s wrong?” Ian’s voice rose as anger began to lace each syllable.

“She has us blocked out. Aberto said she is in the void, whatever that is.”

“No,” Ian hissed.

“I need to find Mona, Aberto sent me back with a task.”

“What is he doing? Why didn’t he come back here to help?” Ian let go of me to walk across the room, forming a million plans to destroy Aberto.

“I told him to get to Izzy. He is the only one that will be able to get through to her. They have a long history, Ian. More than any of us has with her. If anyone can get past her defenses, it will be him,” I sighed, wishing I hadn’t told him of their history. Izzy had confided in me when she’d found out Aberto had always been around.

“What do you mean, they have a long history?” Ian growled.

“I mean he has been there since she was a child. Always lurking in the shadows, keeping her safe. He has watched over her since the beginning. When he breathed his soul into her, the memories came back. Everything he’d blocked from her past came rushing back in. Like I said, history. Right now, that history may just save her. But for now, I have to find Mona. We can talk about this later.” I moved toward the door, only to be intercepted by a tower named Ian.

“I don’t like it when you keep things from me.” Ian stared down into my face, a fire burning behind his eyes.

“I don’t owe you anything, Ian. Besides, it wasn’t my secret to tell,” I huffed, moving around him quickly so he wouldn’t be able to stop me again.

“One of these days you are going to stop running from this.” Ian’s threat vibrated down to my toes. Of course he was right; I was running. I hated depending on anyone for anything. Everyone I’d trusted or loved in my life had turned out to be a liar. The only person that hadn’t let me down was Izzy. As I walked down the hall, Ian shouted, “I will catch you.”

“Not today,” I muttered as I reached Mona’s door.

“That took you long enough” Mona said, opening the door before I even had a chance to knock.

“Creepy.” Unable to stop the word from rushing out, I clamped a hand over my mouth.

She smiled at me, ushering me in the room. Apparently my outburst didn’t bother her. Then again, she was probably used to people thinking she was creepy.

“I am, dear.” She moved across the room to sit in a chair.

Stupid old Seers and their mind reading abilities. I wondered if I even needed to tell her why I’d come or if she would just hop right to it. I still had no idea who Uriel was, or what Aberto thought he could do for us.

“It is always better to be asked out loud. Thoughts can be deceiving, their meanings unclear.” Mona said, nodding to the chair across from her. I guess I was expected to sit there. Crossing the room, I felt the presence of a very irritated Guardian enter behind me. Looked like Ian had decided to join us.

“Well, Aberto said I needed to talk to Uriel. Who is Uriel? Do you have his phone number?” Lowering myself in the chair, I began fiddling with my hands. Being nervous was the worst, I could never hide it; no matter how hard I tried.

“In a manner of speaking, I suppose I do have his phone number.” Mona’s laugh spoke of an inside joke only she was privy to.

“Well, Aberto thinks he is the only one that will be able to help us get to Izzy. We found her, but she is in the void. She has a barrier set up, forcing everything back. I think she might be going insane.” Tears threatened to break free again as Izzy’s voice echoed through my mind.

“The void. I should’ve known she would go there.” Mona’s gaze slipped off into the distance, thoughts racing behind her eyes rapidly. “Right, Uriel it is. Let me see if I can get him to show up.” She settled back in the chair, her gaze going blank. An empty stare replaced the intelligent eyes that had been there seconds before.

“Is she okay?” Eyes wide, I turned to Ian hoping he could answer.

“She is trying to get Uriel,” he answered simply, as if it made total sense.

“What knowledge do you seek, Seer?” a voice came booming from Mona that was decidedly not her own.

“Uriel?” Well, this was freaky.

“My time is precious and better spent on other tasks. If you seek answers, you must first ask the right questions. Do not waste my hours on frivolous thoughts.”

“Right, okay.” I paused, trying to shake of the discomfort of the encounter. “So, Aberto says you might be able to help us get to Izzy. She is in the void.”

“Do you have a question?” Mona’s head tipped to the side, the person – or whatever he was – looking through her eyes challenged.

“What can we do to get her out of there?” If this Uriel person wanted a direct question, I could deliver.

“Sacrifice and love,” Uriel stated simply before fading away entirely.