A smile touched her face and just as quickly vanished. She took a page of names from my hand and examined it. "I believe I know what these people are—or were."
"Foreseers," Elyssa said, pressing her curvy hip to mine and sandwiching me between the two women.
I took a deep breath, trying to concentrate on the paper, instead drawing in a heady dose of female-scented air. Brain number two perked up along with the insatiable incubus inside of me. I frantically shifted my train of thought to baseball before something embarrassing happened.
Kassallandra took the page with numbered sentences on it, hopefully unaware of the hormonal war raging in my bloodstream and said, "Underborn was tracking down these people, trying to piece together the complete prophecy?"
"I think so," Elyssa said with a nod.
"How interesting." She shifted sideways so she could view both of us at once. Her eyes, now a muted amber hue, searched our faces for a moment. "Does this foreseeance have something to do with Thunder Rock?"
I shrugged. "Underborn said it might be connected to the events here."
Kassallandra eyed the page in her hand, eyes narrowing with every passing second. "This speaks of momentous events and an important choice." Her gaze met mine. "Are these fragments of Foreseeance forty-three eleven?"
My eyebrow quirked. "You've heard of it?"
"Only by chance." She ran a finger down the page. Her eyes snapped up to meet mine over the edge of the sheet. "This is about you, is it not?" Her voice was heavy with accusation.
I scooted sideways a bit, pushing Elyssa with my hip as my body tried to get away from Kassallandra's stare. "Vallaena and Underborn seem to think so."
"Vallaena is so convinced she tried to put Justin under her protection," Elyssa added.
Kassallandra pushed her hair behind an ear. "How intriguing."
I was tempted to snatch the sheet back from her. "Well, what does it say?"
She ran her finger to the top of the page. "As the alliance splinters into factions, so come the destroyers. None shall be strong enough alone to withstand their might. For they once ruled here and once again shall they rule. Unless the half-damned soul reunites the dissolution, all shall once again descend into the shadow of the light."
Elyssa pressed a hand to my thigh and leaned over. "That's exactly what's happening now. The Conclave—the alliance it mentions—is falling apart."
"And I'm supposed to unite it?" I said, my voice going up an octave.
"Perhaps," Kassallandra said. "There is more from a different seer." She smoothed the sheet against her leg and continued. "I see not one, but two half-damned upon this plane. One is wreathed in the dark, the other in the light. Both gather their armies for the fight. In the end, two choices will be decided, but only one will matter. And the sacrifice must be made."
"Two half-damned?" I pressed my face against my hands as a hollow space formed in my chest and pressed outward, threatening to consume me. "Am I really half-damned because of my Daemos half?"
Kassallandra touched my hand and offered a grim smile. "Those who believe in damnation because of our lineage are fools. Just because we are the progeny of those who come from another realm does not make us intrinsically evil or condemned."
"Then why do they say it in the foreseeance?"
"The seers are merely human, their visions tainted by subjectivity. It is in their nature to condemn that which they do not understand."
Elyssa gripped my other hand and grinned. "Besides, they don't want nerds in Hell."
I tried to push down the dread consuming my chest in a hot blaze. Maybe I really was doomed to a pit of fire all thanks to my dad's side of the family. "Yeah, you're probably right." I offered up a fake chuckle so Elyssa wouldn't think me a wimp. "Anything else?"
Kassallandra resumed her recitation. "One comes in the name of Moses to sweep the land of the gifted and unmake that which was freely given to man." She ran her finger down to the next one. "The cleansing flood will wash away the infestation."
"Moses? A flood? This sounds like someone was reading straight out of the Bible." I looked on the list and found the number corresponding to the last sentence. Incomplete recollection was scrawled next to the name.
"The rest of these all say something very similar," Kassallandra said. "Except the last two."
I stared at the writing. "What, do they say it's gonna rain frogs?"
She held out the page so we could both see it and read. I couldn't help but notice the author of these particular snippets was someone by the name of Beulah T. Atkinson and wondered how parents could curse their child with such a name.
Kassallandra raised a red eyebrow at the name and read the passage. "In the year of plague comes the Unmaking or the Remaking. The half-damned will make a choice. Each will ally with a harbinger. Should the light prevail, all will be cast in shadow. But should one light the flame in the dark, the shadow may not rise. With either choice comes the end." Kassallandra opened her mouth to read further but froze, her eyes wide and alabaster skin growing paler.
"What?" I asked, looking back at the sheet.
Kassallandra swallowed with some difficulty. "The last sentence reads, 'I fear my vision shows a great smoky shadow engulfing the Earth as all light is drained. We have no hope of salvation.'"
Chapter 5
My own heart solidified into a lump of lead at the words on the page. "The seer said she sees the light drained from Earth? We're screwed no matter what?"
"I am as in the dark as you," Kassallandra said, apparently unaware of her own grim pun. "Though foreseeances are usually anything but clear."
"I think I see how the pieces fit together," Elyssa said, rising and taking a few steps, her brow pinched. "The first part is about the alliance splintering into factions. The alliance must be the Overworld Conclave. It's pretty obvious this part is happening with the Templars and Daemos at each other's throats, and now the vampires and Arcanes."
"When did Thunder Rock happen exactly?" I asked, trying to form a mental timeline.
Elyssa braced her chin on her fist. "You and I were about three. So, about fifteen years ago."
"The foreseeance known as forty-three eleven came to light nineteen years ago," Kassallandra said.
I raised an eyebrow. "How do you know that?"
"I assumed the dates next to the sentences were when the seers had their visions."
I glanced at the page. "And they're all around the same time?"
She nodded. "Give or take a few days or weeks. Some seers are more sensitive than others."
A big fat shiny light bulb powered on in my head. "I got it!" I shouted.
Elyssa jumped back a foot, hand over her heart. "Justin, will you please warn me next time you're going to do that?"
"I connected the dots!" I could totally do the pictures on the bulletin board thing.
Kassallandra raised both eyebrows.
Elyssa folded her arms. "This ought to be good."
"Thunder Rock was all about casting the Templars and Daemos against each other. My parents' marriage killed off relations between the Daemos and the Arcanes. Maximus's rebellion splintered the vampires, and whoever attacked the Arcane school just declared war on the Arcanes. Every major faction hates and distrusts the other now, and some factions are at war within themselves." I let my statement sauté in the juices of their lovely brains for a moment before continuing with my Blue's Clues moment.
Elyssa lifted an eyebrow. "Didn't we just figure all this out a minute ago?"
"Exactly, but now I know how Mr. Gray and his Ken dolls connect to this. If I'm the half-damned who can reunite the Overworld, then whoever is behind this wants me dead."
"And you think Mr. Gray is working for the bad guys."
"He might be just another sock puppet, or he might be a major player." If Thunder Rock was the genesis for the chaos consuming the Overworld, finding the engineer behind it might solve a lot of my problems. Or it might not. But where to begin? I smacked the back of one hand into the other palm and got up. My eyes met Elyssa's. "We've got to find Vadaemos. If we can convince the spawn—"
Kassallandra's gaze hardened to stone.
"Ugh, fine! If we can convince the Daemos and Templars to make up, the Templars can concentrate their full strength on Maximus and the spawn might even pitch in since you once told me they're big on political stability. Your father has to come to his senses, though, and let go of his vendetta."
Elyssa blanched. "That's a tall order, Justin." She shook her head. "Even if we somehow find Vadaemos and make him talk, there's no guarantee my father will do that."
I gripped her hands and drew her closer. "We'll make him see sense." I let go and paced for a moment. "Kassallandra said the Templars are harassing Daemos. Is that true across the board? Are they close to real war?"
"Like I said, in eastern Europe, we've already had some real battles. In the States, it's mostly been small skirmishes and political maneuvering." Elyssa twisted her lips thoughtfully. The Synod asked my father to join them, but he refused."
"Because he hates politics?"
"He despises them. He wants to fight, not talk."
"Maybe Kassallandra could help with the Assads," I said. "After all, she has quite a gentle touch when it comes to dealing with people."
The redhead folded her arms and gave me a cross look. "I can be quite diplomatic when the need arises."
I returned her glare. "Because sending hellhounds after my dad was very diplomatic."
Her eyes flared. "I was and still am furious with your father for the dishonor he caused me and my family. I wanted my hounds to bring him to me as a normal dog would fetch a twig. I wanted him to feel as low as I felt upon learning that he'd left me for a human."