Page 23 of Morning's Light

“You mean, you?”

“It’s not me! I’m not the Harbinger,” Astix maintained. “I held Darkness off. Period. If I were the Harbinger, then I would have been able to stop her the first time and we wouldn’t be dealing with…I don’t know. Whatever we’re dealing with now.”

“This is the worst,” Aisanna moaned. She closed her eyes and remembered the screech of metal, the crunch of her car slamming into oncoming traffic.

“Correction. It could be worse. This is just the beginning.” Astix glanced over briefly and caught the hint of panic on her sister’s face.

They picked up Karsia from a boutique downtown and continued the drive toward the park.

“You know,” Karsia began, shivering, “I heard someone say today it’s colder in Chicago than it is on Mars. And I think I believe them.”

“It’s because of the leakage.” Aisanna nodded her head decisively and regretted the motion in an instant.

“Duly noted. I’ll have to add another pair of wool socks to my wardrobe.”

“So, when are we going to talk about what happened? We can’t help if we don’t know the details,” Astix prompted.

Outside, the wind whirled viciously, with sleet pelting the glass and windows rattling ominously. A wintry mix began to blanket the ground and the road. Astix’s grip on the steering wheel tightened.

Aisanna took a deep breath and nodded. “I suppose it’s time to tell you. Although at first I thought it was a figment of my imagination, because I haven’t been sleeping well. Kind of a rough past couple of days, if you know what I mean. It took me too long to realize she was here. Terrorizing me this time. She’s getting inside my head, and I thought I could handle it by myself. I can’t.” She shook her head. “She’s real. And she’s back.”

“Yeah, everyone thought the guy prowling outside my house was made up, too. Until he kidnapped us and stripped our powers,” Astix commented, keeping her tone purposely light.

“Herodotos. He’s gone.” Karsia shivered. The long-dead accomplice of Darkness with the ability to control minds wouldn’t be hunting them anymore.

“He was not the problem. He was just an errand boy until she became able to make contact on her own.”

“I thought we’d gotten rid of Darkness,” Karsia said. “Didn’t you wiggle your fingers, draw up some powerful shit, and put a cork on her bottle?”

Astix scoffed. “Are you kidding me? I told you, she wasn’t staying down for long. What I did was a temporary fix for a larger problem. I for one have been living like a hermit inside the layers and layers and fucking layers of wards Leo’s helped me put in place. We’ve been trying to plan our next move. What have you two done?”

“Nothing, okay?” Aisanna didn’t want to get into it. Not when she knew her sister was right. She caught a glimpse of Astix’s satisfied yet oddly disappointed smirk before she said, “Darkness has been following me. I saw her in my rearview mirror the day I crashed the car. The closer we get to the eclipse, the stronger she gets, and I don’t feel like finding out what she can do at full blast.”

Karsia was more reserved and took the statement in stride. “What did she do to make you crash?”

“I don’t remember. She said…she said something creepy and bad.” Aisanna wanted to slap herself for the lapse. Her memory came in spurts, usually while asleep. “She spoke to me before, when I called you to come and get me, A. I saw her in the shadows. Look at me, I’m jumping at shadows now.”

Astix pounded her fist on the wheel. “I knew it. She wants one of us, but I can’t figure out why we’re the targets. Unless we find the Harbinger witch, we’re sitting here waiting for her to kill us. She’s like a damn supernatural hitman.”

“Wait,” Karsia began, “I thought you were the Harbinger witch.”

“Please. I made my choice, and my choice is to stand with you and help the Light win. Since I obviously failed, that means someone else is the Harbinger and we need to find him, or her, fast. You get it?”

She was using sarcasm to push through, trying to keep it simple and easy and pretend nothing serious was happening. Aisanna knew they were scared to death. Was sure it showed on her face.

“I know I had a vision when I was asleep in my car. Then another one when I was unconscious.”

Aisanna debated for a long time whether she wanted to divulge the information. For some reason, the words lodged in her throat before she knew what to say. And then they suddenly became un-lodged. These weren’t just her sisters—they were her allies.

“She was coming through the windshield reaching for me the first night. And I was frozen, immobilized. I couldn’t do anything to stop her.” Aisanna remembered the feeling of helplessness, the way her body seized and nothing she did could break the spell. “Then, right after the accident, I remember a man. He was inside my head.”

A man with dark hair who spoke as though he knew her.

“Vane,” Astix murmured. “That was the name of the dude who spoke to me when I almost died. It must be the same person.”

Aisanna growled. “Are you kidding me?” She stared at her sister. “You saw him, know his name? And you never told anyone about it?”

Astix shrugged. “I didn’t think it was important. I should have died, and probably would have if you guys hadn’t been there. Who’s to say that what I saw wasn’t some kind of hallucination? In my vision, I was in a park, and he came over and spoke to me. I thought I was crazy so I kept it to myself.”

---