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“Tory! You need to stop!”
Hex’s voice sounds like an echo underwater. I feel his hard grip on my shoulders as he continues to call out my name. I can feel and hear him trying to separate me from the body of Azharus.
Too soon… I need to take it all in.
I want to yell at Hex to stop, but I’m too deeply submerged in the sea of agony to reach out. Instead, I cling harder onto Seer’s stiff hand, determined to take in every bit of poison in Seer’s body.
Suddenly, I feel a rush of relief and then a dizzying wave of weakness. I fall, my head slamming hard against the ground.
“Tory!”
I feel Hex’s strong and comforting arm around me, but not nearly enough to abate the numbing pain that seems to have engulfed my body.
I let out a raspy breath and let go. I am powerless against the consuming darkness that overwhelmed my soul.
* * *
Iglance down at my watch and back up at the mysterious silhouette that seemed to materialize magically from the engulfing darkness of the night.
It’s exactly 11:05 pm. She’s right on time.
“I had a feeling it was you,” I say to the younger Abner woman as she stops directly in front of me. “You are Seer’s sister?”
“Seer,” she slowly repeats as if testing the name on her tongue. “Is that what you call him? I guess that makes sense. Anyway, I’m Dana Abner. And yes, I’m Nicholas’s sister.”
“I guess there’s a reason you want to meet like this? Do you know what we can do to help Seer?”
“Sadly, I don’t,” Dana replies. “But I might have an idea of who is behind it all.”
That got my attention. “And who might that be?”
“Edward,” Dana, I watch her shiver as she says the name. “Nicholas’s twin brother.”
I realize again how little I know about the man who’s been my best friend for years. There’s so little I know about Seer, if anything. “Seer is a twin.”
It wasn’t a question but a reconfirmation of facts, my way of processing this new bit of information.
“I guess there’s a lot you don’t know about him,” Dana comments. “Anyway, Edward thinks Seer doesn’t deserve the gift of the sight–his father doesn’t either. You see, Nicholas left home thirteen years ago without a word to anyone. He was supposed to use his gift to help our family increase its power and wealth, but I guess he wanted none of that. Ever since then, Edward has sworn to take the sight away from Nicholas. You see, Nicholas’ sight can be stolen. But in order to steal it, he has to die. Father and Edward have chosen my son, Harry, to have the gift next.”
When I got the note it had struck me as odd that Dana would go through all this trouble to help a brother she hasn’t seen in years, but now I realize this is her way of protecting her son from carrying the burden of the gift.
I’m understanding the reason Seer ran as far as his legs could carry him.
“Edward left home three months ago on a mission that only he and Father know about,” Dana continues after a pregnant pause. “I knew Father and Eward resented Nicholas for running away with his gift, but I never thought they would resort to dark magic to get it back. It’s against everything the Abner family stands for. Or maybe in a way it’s exactly what we stand for now. Our morals rarely prevail over our greed. If you want Nicholas to get better, find Edward.”
“Where can we find him?”
“You can’t,” Dana replies with a dark snort. “Edward is excellent at covering his tracks. He is as dangerous as he is cunning. He can be in and out of a place before anyone knows it, leaving a trail of blood and death behind him. Edward is an expert at getting what he wants… And he doesn’t mind if it is his twin brother’s head rolling in the dust.”
* * *
Igaze into the deepest set of brown eyes I’ve ever seen, ensnared by their alluring warmth and mysterious depths.I wonder where I’ve seen those eyes before…
I raise my lids slowly, taking in the face of the strange woman seated by my bedside, gazing into my face with a blank expression. I blink, more than a little disoriented. I try to search my head for any memory of her or how I ended up in my this position, but I come up blank. My head feels muffled, like I’ve been asleep for too long. I remember storming out of the meeting after Pocus denounced me as his vice president. I wonder if I came into my room to sleep after that.
That must be why I feel so much better.
I don’t feel any of that burning pain behind my eyes or the heavy ache in my temples that’s been plaguing me for days. It’s an unusual feeling. The pain has been with me so long it has been a part of me.
