Page 76 of Unseen Eye
Callon’s expression doesn’t change, but his fury is palpable. “Tell us everything,” he urges, his voice unexpectedly gentle.
I begin to recount what I saw: the anguish on their faces, the unmistakable features of Erik, the grim details of the trap as best as I can recall. Each word is a struggle, tears spilling down my face, and I know it’s not just for me. It’s for them—Aaliyah, Erik, their final stand, lost in the chaos.
Theo holds Izzy, whose grip is barely holding, both standing in silent grief. The tension in the room is suffocating. Callon’s gaze never leaves me. It’s as if he’s trying to hold himself back, but the storm in his eyes keeps gathering momentum.
“Fucking bastard,” he snarls, low and guttural. “I should’ve killed Baron when I had the chance.”
And then, without warning, the window shatters. The deafening crash fills the room, and glass shards explode into the air like a shower of deadly rain. But a swift breeze, almost like a tempest answering Callon’s rage, redirects them, sending them harmlessly skittering across the floor. The ground beneath us trembles, and bookshelves topple, books swirling around us in a storm of chaos.
“Cal!” Izzy’s voice cuts through the madness, sharp, desperate. “Control yourself!”
Callon barely registers her words, his expression locked in fury.
Izzy whirls around, eyes blazing as she steps between Callon and me. “You,” she snaps, her voice sharp, “need to get a grip. We’d all love to storm into Astermiri and rip Baron to shreds, but you don’t see us destroying the room.”
Callon’s rage flickers, the storm around us losing some of itsintensity as Izzy’s words seem to get through.
“All these years,” Theo mutters bitterly, his voice like gravel, “they lied to us. It was a fucking setup.”
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, the words barely audible. “This isn’t how I wanted to tell you.”
Izzy rolls her eyes but steps closer to me, her expression softening slightly. “It doesn’t matter how it came out,” she says firmly. “What matters is that we know now. We can deal with it. But Cal here? He needs to take a breather before we end up without a roof over our heads.”
Callon’s eyes soften, and the chaos in the room finally begins to settle as Izzy keeps her fierce gaze on him. “This is the first real account we’ve heard in over a hundred years,” he mutters, the anger still simmering beneath the surface.
“That long ago? But how could I know this?”
Callon steps closer, placing his hands on my shoulders as he says, “Because you’re a seer. Gods, I should have seen it sooner. It all makes perfect sense now—your stories, how your geography aligns, how you know all of this.”
“But I thought seers were unheard of,” I say, struggling to process this new reality.
“I said they were extremely rare, not unheard of,” he patiently corrects.
“But… how?” My voice falters, the shock still fresh. “I thought my affinity was light, not seer.”
“You’re both,” Callon says, a smile breaking through the tension. “Being a seer was never considered an affinity; it’s a gift from the gods.”
I try to make sense of it, my mind racing. “Could one of my parents have been a seer?” I ask.
Izzy speaks up, her expression contemplative. “It’s unlikely,” she says. “Seers are so rare, and their abilities can’t be inherited. The gift doesn’t follow bloodlines—it’s something the godschoose to bestow.”
“But is it normal to see all this in dreams?” I ask, still trying to wrap my head around it. “I thought seers had visions or something like that.”
Izzy shrugs. “Each seer’s abilities are different. Some see the past, others the future, some both. Maybe your dreams are just how you experience it.” She winks, trying to cut through the tension. “Don’t let it go to your head.”
I glance at Theo, who’s staring at me like he’s seeing me for the first time. When he finally speaks, there’s a note of realization in his voice. “It makes sense. I’ve never mentioned my father, not even what he looked like.”
“A wanderer walks, caught in a dream,” Izzy says suddenly, her voice urgent. “Cal, the prophecy.”
“Well,” Theo mutters, running a hand through his hair, clearly overwhelmed, “I wasn’t expecting this today.”
Then something clicks in my mind. “In lands of whispers and forgotten lore, she’ll find the keys to open the door.” I say the words to no one in particular. “That’s me coming here. It has to be. All the stories I knew… they’re real. But what keys? What could that be referring to?”
“I need a drink,” Theo says, making a beeline for the stash we’ve been collecting in the corner. Callon, on the other hand, has been unnervingly silent through the entire exchange.
“What are you thinking?” I ask, needing to know what’s going through his mind.
Callon turns to face us, his eyes a storm of emotions as he picks up my journal again. “I think we need to reread every passage in here and figure out where each one belongs.”
