Eight of Hearts: The Vision - Book 2

Chapter 34

Kaya screamed as her mind returned to her, pain ripping through her like the jagged edge of a well-used knife. She slumped to the floor, her chests heaved great gasps of air that stank of rot. The crumbling ruins of her mental sanctuary groaned around her, threatening to collapse at the slightest disturbance.

A gentle hand touched her shoulder and she flinched away, raising her head to glare into the gray eyes that cursed her with kindness.

"I'm sorry," Isaac said, pulling back his hand from her. "I didn't want you to see all of that. But now at least you should understand--"

"Do you think you can break my will by showing me how hard you had it?!" Kaya snapped, baring her teeth. It had been a close thing, she had to admit; she could still feel the lingering emotions Isaac's memories had stirred in her. But in her own body and mind, she had no room for sympathy. The cracks that had formed when her brother had been taken from her allowed all sense of joy and hope to drain away, until nothing was left but her hate. "You have always had power! You pretend to be weak and ignorant, but I saw the visions you had! You knew Pahana would die, didn't you!? And you let it happen anyway!"

Kaya's own visions were vague glimpses of images, like trying to peer through rippling water at something far below the surface. They were nothing compared to the clarity of Isaac's visions. With that kind of power, she could have prevented so many deaths; Isaac deserved any pain that came his way for allowing it to happen.

Isaac sighed wearily, and Kaya noticed for the first time since waking that he had returned to his usual appearance. "If I had even a modicum of control over my powers, I would never have lost Stephanie. I don't get to choose what my visions show me, or when they happen. And even if I did, I'm not smart enough to figure out a way to prevent them."

"Liar!" Kaya snapped. Her cheeks burned with the sting of tears, but she ignored them. "Pahana is dead because of you! You could have saved him! You could have saved everyone!"

Her gut twisted with pleasure as she caught the look of guilt and shame that flashed across Isaac's face. She rose to her feet, still clutching a hand to her chest to stem the pain as she glared down at his bowed head. "You will pay for his death, just as Dr. Higgins did. Then I will finally have peace again."

Isaac's head raised to look at her, and again she was surprised by the transformation as he aged fifty years before her eyes. "Your mind is shattered, Kaya; you cannot have peace for as long as it is in ruins." He gestured to the cracked walls, and shattered furniture around them; a smoky shadow seeped through those cracks like a toxin. "Until you take the time to rebuild your own mind, no peace cannot linger long here."

"And you think you can fix me?" Kaya spat at the old man in disgust. "With your own mind shattered into pieces? I can feel your fear; I saw the same things that haunted you. And I see your weakness now. You are divided against yourself, unable to take what you want, even if you could decide what it was." Kaya shivered with pleasure as she unveiled Isaac's secrets before him. She had a clearer sense of him now, as his spirit twisted under her words like a worm pierced by a fishhook.

But Isaac's expression of pity never changed, even as his appearance shifted back to his younger self: the hard man of bitterness and pragmatism. "I may be shattered, but each part of me remembers what I promised. Even if the world I know is taken--even if everyone I care about is gone, there's only one thing that I will ever want."

Kaya waited for him to continue, though her will gathered itself around her to clash one last time.

Isaac shifted again before her eyes, reverting back to a child of eight. His smile had returned; the same smile that looked so out of place on his older self shone with purity and innocence now. "I want to be happy, so that I can share happiness with everyone I meet."