Page 1 of The Rebel Seer

Prologue

Dallas, TX

My hands shake as they shut the door and I’m locked in with my nightmare.

Water flows not three feet away from me, like a waterfall, but in a never-ending churn that comes from nowhere and goes nowhere. There is nothing peaceful about this waterfall. This waterfall is death and despair.

“Shahidi Davis,” a deep voice says from behind the locked door. “She’s fifteen. An orphan. Her family died in a house fire a few years back, and she went into the system. Eighteen months ago, her foster mother found her screaming about something she called a water demon.”

I know it’s not a demon now, but in the moment I saw those hollow bones behind the water and it was the only word I could think of. No one believed me, of course. No one. I’m cut off from the supernatural world since my parents died, and I can’t get anyone to call me back.

I tried our family friends when I had a phone. No one answered. I called Sarah Day, a witch who worked with my mom and aunt from time to time, but the number was disconnected.

Like I’m disconnected.

“She was in quite the state when she was brought in. We believe she’s got early onset schizophrenia,” the doctor explains. “Tell me. What course of treatment would you begin?”

Drugs. Lots of drugs.

They keep me… Not calm. I’m never calm when that thing is close to me. The drugs simply keep me from being able to defend myself.

I sit on the bed, not able to really get up because the drugs make me dizzy. I can’t defend myself from anything in here. They make sure of it.

I wish my mother was here.

I feel a tear slip down my cheek because this is what every day looks like. I try to tell the doctors what’s happening, what I’m seeing, what I am now. Some nod sympathetically and up my dosage. Others sneer and tell me I’m lying because I’m lazy and don’t want to go to school.

I wish I was in school. I used to love school. I was told once my power manifested, I could join the school where all the werewolf and Fae and witch kids went.

I haven’t seen a supernatural creature in years. My family died and they sent me straight into the human foster care system. I remember waiting and hoping someone would come looking for me. We had friends in that world, friends at the Council.

No one ever did. I never got to that school.

Instead, they bring in a tutor a couple of hours a day for us and they treat us like we can’t read or understand mathematics.

I glance over and wonder what would really happen if I walked into that water. Would I be free? Would darkness take me and it could all be over? Or would I be somewhere worse. Some hellscape the spirit owns.

“Hello, Shy.”

Even through the fog of my brain I hear the man talking to me. From inside my room.

“Don’t panic,” he says and drops to one knee in front of me. “I’m not a spirit, though you shouldn’t fear those either. You’re so damn young and have had no one to guide you. These ghosts you see are not the enemy. You were born for a specific purpose, though I’m sure you don’t care about that right now. I’m so sorry this happened to you.”

“Who are you? How did you…” Sometimes it’s hard to find words. Especially right after they give me the medicine. “The doors are always locked.”

“I suppose it doesn’t matter since there’s almost no way you’ll remember.” He’s a handsome man with dark hair and his eyes… I never saw eyes that color before. Violet. And they nearly glow in the low light. Even on one knee he looms above me. “I’m what you would call a prophet. I witness the important events of our world. Needless to say, I’ve been busy lately.”

So I’m asleep and dreaming. At least he seems nice. This dream guy. “Why would you be here?”

“For the same reason I convinced your friend to have a sleepover the night your parents were murdered.”

The words send a shock through me. “What?”

He stands and then moves to sit next to me. “Shy, I see the possibilities of how the world will go. They are laid out like infinite roads. Technically I’m simply here to observe, but what I’ve learned is that sometimes I can choose the path. Or at least who I can put on the path. You are important. More important than you can imagine. More important than anyone can know.”

I shake my head. “I should have been home.”

“If you had been home, you would no longer be on this plane of existence. You would not be able to do what you were born to do. Myrddin doesn’t know it, but you are the one he was trying to take out. He only wants the psychics he can control. For him it was a power play. He never realized he could have won the war with one fire.”

---