Fourteen

"Ican't just sit here. Is there anything else we can do?" I asked for what felt like the hundredth time, and each time a look passed between Roger and Emilia that I didn't understand. Full of concern, but also a little pride which really made no sense.

"No, he'll come back when he's decided on his fate." Emilia checked his forehead like she would for a fever, but a virus wasn't to blame for what afflicted him.

"What if he doesn't decide? What then?" I asked, but I knew the answer.

"If he won't decide then he'll stay there until he does," Roger said. He looked so haunted, and I wondered what horrible things he'd seen. "If the wraith is gaining power, then it's more important than ever that our seer take up his power."

"What do you mean our seer?"

"Each of the old ones became a seer as a counter to the evil they'd inadvertently released on us all. When they died, their power was passed to their descendants, but not all their lines survived, and after a while some of them died off. Jordan is the last of our lines."

"Lines?"

"We are both descended from different lines of seers," Emilia said. "Jordan is . . . special. Not many of the old ones survive, not even in spirit form. When they called the wraith to them, they also realized they could protect spirits from it, and eventually they learned how to send it back to the other side of the veil. But no seer has ever been strong enough to destroy it or prevent it from coming back as a bigger threat the next time."

"You think Jordan could be the seer that destroys the wraith?" I asked, finally understanding why they tried to stay away from the supernatural and what their family was destined to inherit. "How can that be? Surely there have been other seers who were able."

"There were a few that were possibly strong enough, but the wraith did not try to gain power under them. It knew if it tried it would be destroyed, but this time is different," Emilia said.

"I don't understand. If they could have destroyed it and the old ones were the ones that originally conjured the wraith, why didn't they conjure it again and destroy it?" Fucking magic and power, it was always the same. Those that have it always brag about how powerful they are, but when it comes down to it, they're never there when it counts. My anger grew as I thought of how much I'd tried to deny my abilities but was forced to use them, and I still had no clue exactly what I was capable of or what my boundaries were.

"The wraith stayed away. It didn't take any souls, so for a few generations, they forgot about it. But it used that time to learn, and to see how strong it could get and how weak they could be. It started preying on the spirits of seers." Both of them were quiet and I wished Buddy was nearby, but mostly I wanted Jordan.

"You didn't say it destroyed their spirits, what did it do?" I braced myself for their answer.

"It stole their memories and their experience, leaving them vulnerable and unable to defend against it," Roger said.

"Like Edith." They didn't need to answer for me to know. She may have been the last of her line, but she was also a victim of her destiny. "She didn't have dementia."

"No, this is a common outcome for seers who no longer have family or another seer to go to. We have to protect each other," Emilia said and took my hand in hers. "We are not safe when we're alone."

"Emilia—" Roger cautioned.

"He's not alone," I reminded her, and hoped she realized I meant far more than just his family.

"The seer needs their family. They cannot deal with the emotional strain of the spirit world without feeling love on this side," she said. Roger squeezed her arm and nodded his head.

"Tell him everything." Roger took a deep breath as he waited for Emilia to speak.

"Jordan feels pain being near a spirit because he's very connected to the other side, and no matter how much he denies it he can't turn it off. He's also very sensitive to emotions, but he shuts that part of himself away. The pain he feels is his own doing from denying his ability. It's imperative he choose to become the seer," Emilia said.

"What do we do?" I asked, and hoped they had some fucking idea because I was fresh out.

"We wait, but the wraith knows the longer he's there the weaker he grows. But what's worse is that now it knows not all seers are defeated, and it won't stop until it destroys him too."

"I can put a glamour spell on him. It'll hide him from—"

"That won't work on the wraith. He was made from original magic. We've tried every spell to protect our seers but none of them were successful," Emilia said. "I wish we didn't pass this on to Jordan. He's already been through so much, it's not fair that he has to live his life this way."

"Jordan would choose to help. If he knew how much was on the line and how important the seer is, he'd agree to do it in a minute. Does he know all this?"

"He knows some. He doesn't know what will happen if he isn't our next seer and I won't have him decide on his own life based on everyone else," Emilia said.

"He needs to know everything so he can decide for himself. We came here because he wanted me to know everything, but I feel like he's the one who's been kept in the dark. He needs to know. He's so afraid to use his ability or to try to read the emotions of a spirit because of pain. He's in pain nearly every day at work. It's not fair to Jordan, and I won't help hide information from him that might help him. I love him, and I won't lose him to either the wraith or any other spirit. I will fight for him."

Roger met my eyes and smiled. "I was hoping you'd say that. Now, come on, we've got to help our boy."