See How She Awakens (29 page)
Read See How She Awakens Online
Authors: MIchelle Graves
“I have you to blame for that,” he said with a chuckle.
“Pardon?” I wasn’t sure if he was mad he had changed, or if he liked it.
“I’m forced to be more than I once was. The first time you remember meeting me, the day we tattooed your back, I was cut off from the world. I had spent so long in the dreaming, separated from anything real or tangible, I’d forgotten what it was to feel. The more time I spend here, with you in this world, the more I remember.”
“Do you miss it? The solitude, being numb?”
“It was a lonely existence. I much prefer this one.” Aberto clasped my hand in his, and we stayed that way, slowly swinging back and forth watching the fog roll over the mountains.
I knew the town we lived in now was only a temporary reprieve. Soon I would have to face my destiny. Soon I’d have to be what humanity needed me to be. For now, Aberto and I could be the weird tattooed newcomers to the people of Damascus.
It was enough.
I finally understood the truth of my existence. The past years had shaped me and molded me in ways I never could’ve predicted.
I’ve loved, I’ve lost, and I’ve mourned.
I fulfilled an impossible prophecy.
I fell, just as it said I would, and I awoke, irrevocably changed.
I’ve evolved. Into what, I’m still not sure.
Someday soon I will have to face the world again. I am all that stands between the dawning darkness and humanity.
The truth I’ve learned is simple. I know who I am.
I am the balance.
My name is Izzy Boone, and I will never die.
It has taken years for me to recover. I’ve spent them in the embrace of the mountains. Hiking, reading the books Eleanor had sent with me, and getting to know Aberto.
I learned many things in those years. I figured out I wasn’t supposed to exist. A being of my makeup was an anomaly. I like to think God knew what he was doing. Perhaps He knew humanity needed something more, or maybe He just wanted to see what would happen. Either way, I refused to believe I was an accident.
I no longer felt like a pawn in a game. I’d taken my life back, and with it, I’d taken on the task of preventing the darkness from pressing in on the world. Every step I took, I took to prevent the darkness from finding its way in again. I would never let another Seer suffer through what I had to endure, not if it could be stopped.
As for the new Council, well that is simple. Molly, being the brilliant woman she is, swept in and took over easily. I still wasn’t sure if she’d put the whammy on the Seers and Guardians to get them to fall in line, or if they’d just done it because she was so durn likable. Either way, more good was being done now than had been done in thousands of years.
The new motto fell in line with that of the former Order. If a disaster was looming and a Seer saw it, they could act without first having to seek permission. Sure, stuff still fell through the cracks, but I’d been able to fill in those cracks for the most part.
As for those that abused their talents, there was now a no tolerance policy in place. If a Seer or Guardian was found abusing their gifts, they were immediately stripped of their powers and sent into exile. In the first days, many of those ceremonies had to be performed. Sadly, it seemed the Council’s reach was much further than we had initially anticipated. The darkness struggled to find a foothold even now.
What I’d become had allowed me to be in tune with the very darkness that had once tried to ruin me. I could feel it pressing in on the world and predict when it would come at us full force. A restlessness has begun to grow inside of me, and I knew it was the darkness in me. It knows the balance has been tipped in our favor, and it is afraid. As it should me.
As for Aberto and I, well that one is more complicated. It has been over a hundred years since Kennan died. I still miss him every day, but the truth of it is I’m ready to love again. Aberto has been there, by my side for a hundred years, longer even.
We were always inevitable, he and I. I wouldn’t fight it any longer. I was stronger with him by my side. He helped me be who I needed to be most. Made me want to save the world.
I loved Kennan. Nothing will ever change that. But the thing I’ve learned over the past years is we are capable of loving again, and I am finally ready to take that leap with Aberto. I can give him my heart now, knowing nothing will hold me back. Sacrifice and love had saved me, but love is what will buoy me for the rest of my very long existence.
Michelle Graves is a self-proclaimed nomad, moving every two to three years with her husband the Army man, her beautiful daughter, and a fat tailless cat named Torri. When she is not writing away trying to purge her mind of yapping characters she can be found entertaining her daughter, attempting to craft (whilst trying not to injure herself with the glue gun), baking yummy treats, or reading. She admits to having a restless spirit and forces her family to go out on adventures whenever possible. They lovingly play along.
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