Deborah of the Forsaken

The devil you know

I was falling again, yet this time I felt almost in control.

Close your eyes, the voice whispered in my head and I obeyed, too overwhelmed by my emotions to do otherwise.

He will find you. Silas will not fail, she offered confidently when my body touched down on what I recognized as the bed Anthony and I'd shared during our stay at the Temple. I knew the truth of the words, understood it as a fact.

The unbearable pain was back along with the extreme weakness, though it would seem my vision had been spared the floating black flecks clouding it previously. As I lifted my arms to inspect the skin for the tattoos, I found them still marking my body elegantly. Holding up my hair to my line of sight, I discovered that the silver tresses were still present as well.

He lied to you! the voice hissed. Anthony placed a veil over your eyes so you could not even see your true form. Feel your power! Feel it coursing through your veins.

Blue sparks ignited on my raised hands, playing across my palms and flicking from my fingertips. The power warmed me, burned through my blood like it was a living thing. There was a feeling of completion to my innermost being that I had not experienced for a long time.

The second voice hummed in delight, retreating into the farthest corners of my mind to leave me to my self discovery. Not for the first time, I wondered if I had finally, unknowingly, given in to true madness or if this disembodied voice belonged to something more sinister. Truthfully, at that very moment I couldn't find it in me to give a damn.

Silas... The thought was entirely my own, his name spoken like a prayer. Why had it been so hard to leave him? He was a stranger to me, a man I had glimpsed only in a near death dream once before. How could someone I had never met make me feel like I was ripping my insides apart by turning my back on him?

Shaking my head to free my mind from the chaos it now held, I let my eyes wonder over the room. Alarmed, my gaze landed on overturned furniture thrown all over the place, books strewn haphazardly, the contents of my hiking pack littering the floor.

Anthony was nowhere to be seen. His things were missing too, the cupboard drawers that held his belongings hanging open.

Carefully pushing up on my elbows, I propped my back against the headboard, causing my entire body to flared with renewed agony. Gulping in air, I needed a few deep breaths to calm my racing heart and to dispel the intense dizziness.  Fisting my hands into the blanket underneath me, I exhaled in a slow controlled breath, desperate for relief.

A letter on the bed next to my knee caught my attention, the white parchment in stark contrast to the black bedding. Stretching in slow, jerking movements, I grasped the paper between two fingertips and yanked upward, groaning loudly when the muscles in my shoulder and arm stung.

Pain means you're not dead yet, I chided myself, gritting my teeth.

Smoothing the crumpled paper out, my heartbeat hammered loudly in my ears. The handwriting was undoubtedly Anthony's, although the letters looked rushed and uneven, the wrinkled paper making it seem like he hadn't fully intended on leaving the note, but had decided to anyway at the last minute.

I read the letter twice before my mind caught up, the sheer shock of the words inhibiting my understanding.

"My Darling,

Silas probably told you who you are if you didn't see it for yourself already. The veil I'd fixed over your eyes would have torn the second your power were returned to you, so I have no doubt you have many questions for me. Maybe even a bullet with my name on it. No doubt he's also on his way to find you this very second and frankly, I don't want to be here for that reunion.