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back into motion. She shook her
head lightly and smiled sadly. She walked back over to me and handed me the
folder. As soon as it hit my hands I felt a weight settle over me. I swallowed
deeply. Everything was about to change.
    I hesitated a moment before I
opened the folder. I wished I had waited longer. The moment I opened it, my
head began to swim with what my eyes were now forced to witness. None of
Xavier’s nightmares, nothing that I had seen while held hostage in the lab,
could have prepared me for the photographs now staring me in the face. There,
in my lap, lay the most gruesome sight I had ever beheld.
    My eyes didn’t want to believe what
they were seeing. There, in the photograph, was a young woman laid out in a
white, sleeveless gown. Carved up each arm were blood crusted symbols of some
sort. They looked deep and unpardonably painful. I took a deep breath praying
that she was dead before this had been done to her.
     I traced my eyes up her body to
rest on her face. When I came to it, my stomach recoiled. Where her eyes should
have been were two gaping chasms; a void of darkness where once there was
light. I couldn’t look anymore. I dropped the file to the floor spreading its
contents into disarray.
    “What was that?” I demanded, trying
to regain my balance. As much as I wanted nothing to do with the contents of
the folder, I knew they somehow pertained to me. If the past year had taught me
anything, it had taught me that ignorance was not bliss in this world. The
sooner I faced whatever was coming, the better. No repression, no denial, no
trying to be someone I was not.
    “What you are seeing is one of
three Seers that have been found similarly mutilated since our dear Xavier
disappeared.” Isadora’s tone showed no emotion.
    I stared at her, trying to wrap my
head around how she could remain so distant from it all. She was supposed to be
the head of the Council, the person that protected us. How could she be so
detached when Seers were dying?
    “Do you know who is doing this or
why?” I asked, pacing back and forth. Kennan had picked up the file and its
contents from the floor and was leafing through them with a rather grim
expression.
    “We have some idea. It is some sort
of ritual sacrifice. Our scholars are working on deciphering the runes and the
exact ceremony. The problem is, our kind have not done a ritual sacrifice in
almost a thousand years. Even then it was normally done with animals, never
humans,” Conall said with disgust. I suddenly wanted to know how he had lost
his eye. Durn my easily distracted mind. I pulled myself back to the present.
    “So someone is sacrificing Seers
and this is the third one? Where were the Guardians? Why weren’t these Seers
protected? What is being done to protect the rest of us from this madness?” I
demanded. I was growing more hysterical as the moments passed. Something inside
of me demanded that I protect the Seers. My very DNA screamed out that
something must be done. They were my sisters, my fellow travelers down this
miserable lot in life.
    “And you doubted she was the one,”
Isadora said to Kennan.
    “What is all of this subtext you
people are throwing around? Could someone please just spell it out for me? I
don’t have the mental capacity to deal with much more than that,” I said,
pointing toward the folder in Kennan’s hands.
    “We should go so that we can talk.
We will meet with you again in the morning to discuss matters further,
Isadora,” Kennan said brusquely before bowing and nodding in Breanan and
Conall’s direction. It suddenly dawned on me that everyone bowed to Isadora
when she walked by. I had a sinking feeling that what Kennan was about to tell
me was really going to rate high on the suck scale.
     
    **********

 
    CHAPTER FIVE
     
     
    We made our way up the stairs to
the dorm area. I was seeing red by the time we reached our room. I walked into
the room silently, trying to tamp down my rage. The moment the door closed