I lived an ordinary life. Perhaps it was life of loss, maybe even a lonely life, but ordinary all the same. Never in a million years could I have predicted the events that would unfold after that fateful delivery. Some Seer I was.
But that doesn't matter any more, that life, the one I'd thought was my reality, was nothing more than a weakly constructed facade. The lines between reality and fiction have blurred, leaving me with nothing but the cold hard facts. The world is vastly different than I ever understood. Guardians and Seers are real, and I have the power within me to tip the balance in a war between good and evil that had been brewing since the beginning of time. The fight was coming to a head and the outcome hinged entirely upon me.
I have to make an impossible choice. Would I step into my role as a Seer and face the growing Darkness head on, or would I cower and let everyone I loved suffer and die?
The Darkness will rise and the Prophecy remains, the Seer must Fall.
So Fall I will.
Friendships, love, and sacrifice will all play out transforming Izzy into the Seer of prophecy. Find out what happens in The Chronicles of Izzy.
EXCERPT
See How She Runs
I dreamt of rolling green hills.
I found myself standing on the precipice of a cliff staring down into a raging
ocean. The waves beat ruthlessly against the cliffs and I wondered what
it must be like to try and swim against such a force. The sound of my name
being called pulled me from my reverie.
“Mom?" I asked, wondering if this
was just a dream or if she were really there.
“Baby, I won’t be back again. I want
you to know how much I love you. But it is my time. I feel myself fading. I
just couldn’t leave without telling you goodbye.”
My feet carried me towards her before I
could even make sense of what she was saying. Violently, I threw myself
into her frail arms.
“Please don’t leave me!" I pleaded
with her, burying my face in her boney shoulder. “I can come and get you. Just
wait a little longer. Please mom. Please don’t leave me again, not when I just
found you.”
Fool's Errand
“The darkness will reemerge.
There are steps being taken, lies being spoken, plans being laid. The threat
shall come and you, my dear, must protect our kind.”
“How am I expected to do that
when I could not stop it the last time?”
“You will do it the same way
you did the last. There is a Seer.”
“Surely you are not talking
about that old prophecy! I believed that to be a falsehood, a fairytale of
sorts to keep Seers in line.”
“You, yourself, should know
all tales have some bit of truth in them. This is no different. She lives now.
The elders have all felt her presence for a long time, yet her power grows
every day. She must reach her potential. You are entrusted with this, Conall.”
“Who is she?” The woman’s riddles grated on my nerves. Surely she could
not expect me to seek out this Seer.
“You will know when the
timing is right. Of this, I am sure.” She smiled as I
spun her around the room, making everything else a blur.
“Do you know what is coming?” I tilted my head to the side,
wondering if the woman was altogether there.
“Of course, child. I’ve seen what is to be and
what cannot be. It is my blessing and my curse. It is why I live alone in a
city of pretenders and practitioners. But this knowledge is not yet yours for
the knowing.” Again, a smile
ghosted across her lips before her face turned serious once more. “There is something more.
Something that I feel I must tell you.”
“What?”
I sighed.
“Protect her, and she will
find the truth you seek. She will be your savior.”
See How She Fights Excerpt
“Hello?” I yelled. Even in the dreaming I knew
this was a half-baked idea. I heard moaning in the distance. I moved forward
through the foggy oblivion, the sound my only guide. The eerie noise echoed and
bounced until I could not find my way. I was lost.
I turned to run but was greeted with a new
nightmare. I looked down at almost a dozen bodies. Each one more gruesome than
the last. They reached out for me with blood crusted arms. Their wails shredded
my soul. I couldn’t breathe. Everywhere I looked, there were eyeless figures,
begging me for help. I wanted to save them. I wanted to make them whole again.
I tried to remember that it was just the dreaming. It was not real. This was
not reality. I closed my eyes and tried to steady my breathing.
“It isn’t real,” I shouted into the fog. I opened
my eyes to find them moving towards me. The sightless mob closed in around me
and as I began to scream, I heard him. I heard Xavier whisper.
“Oh, but it is real. This is what shall become of
you all.”
I screamed out as their cold fingers brushed
against my skin.
See How She Falls
As I let the inevitability sink in, I heard it. A familiar
voice called out of the fog. A voice I hadn’t heard for two months, yet there
he stood. The culmination of nightmares and fears wrapped into the body of a
cloaked figure. My future cradled in the palms of his crushing hands.
Motionless, I was rooted to my place. The unchangeable darkness, the coming
storm, it all pushed down upon me.
He moved towards me, cutting a path through the fog to
stand above me like some sort of centurion. The robe covered all but his
sneering mouth. The mouth that housed the words that would end me. “Do you see
it now? The inevitability? This world will burn for its sins, Izzy. These
people, they don’t deserve the grace they are given, or the protection of our
kind. Why not just join us? Fighting really is futile.”
The hopelessness pushed against me, prodding me, taunting
me. Swallowing deeply, I rose to my knees. I’d never been a quitter, I wouldn’t
start now. I’d been warned that the darkness would call for me, that it would
tempt me. Strength I didn’t know I possessed rose up within me. Whatever this
person was doing, I could fight it. I could fight him. Taking a deep breath, I
stood on shaking legs to face the robed figure.
“I will do everything in my power to protect this world
from whatever it is you are trying to bring.”
“Look down at your leg, Izzy. Do you really think that you
can stop us? Just two more runes and the bridge will be complete. Your fight
was lost before it began.”
At his words, the burning began on my calf, ripping deep
into my soul. I knew that when I awoke, I would have another mark. I wondered
if this one would be my undoing. My rubbery legs failed me, and as I began to
fall I heard a laugh.
Seeing is Believing
“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.
See How She Awakens
The Old One
will lie, the darkness whispered inside of me. The voice a twisting darkness
that seemed to ooze with every syllable. He will betray you once
more. Don’t trust him.
“GO AWAY!” I shouted. The
voice was growing stronger. I hadn’t heard it like this in the void. Why had Aberto taken me
away from my refuge?
“I will never leave you again,”
Aberto swore. “You may rail against me, vent your rage, tell me to leave
a thousand times, but nothing will sway my resolve.” His face transformed,
frightening me. The way he looked at me, as though he wouldn’t be able to survive losing me
again, made me want to run. I couldn’t do this. I’d lost everything. “Izzy, I would not
survive losing you.”
As Aberto lowered himself to the ground, he raised his knees, resting his arms
across them so his
head hung there. Defeat and exhaustion warring with one another.
He lies, the darkness murmured.
“STOP!”
I screamed, curling in on myself.
“GET OUT!”
I could feel it churning within me, trying to stretch itself to consume
the light left within me. I clawed at my stomach, trying to rip it away.
“What is this? What has happened?”
Aberto rose to move toward me. All emotion washed from his face. This
Aberto I remembered well. He was the one that had taught me to soul walk;
that taught me my soul was not my own. He was ruthless.
“You should’ve
left me in the void. Now everyone will perish.” Repressed tears swept forth, bringing
with them the pain and loss that had been walled up within me for God only knew
how long.
“Why would you think that?”
Aberto’s voice
softened as he cradled my face in his hands. My eyes looked up to meet his, and
I was sure he could see it. The darkness that lingered in the background,
pushing me, twisting me into something I never wanted to be.
“You see
it, don’t you?” I pleaded with my
eyes.
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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.
1 comment:
Thank you so much for being a stop on my blog tour!!!!!! I truly appreciate it! <3 You rock!!!!!!
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