Part 5
Isabel stared at her brother's closed bedroom door, a frown on her face.
She couldn't figure out whether she should knock or not. She had never seen Max as furious as he had been when he had stormed out of the transformation chamber a few hours before. He had literally been shaking with rage, most of it directed at her.
Isabel knew that he was hurt that she didn't believe him about Liz - but she couldn't stand to see him putting himself through this pain. He needed to accept that Liz was gone - he would never start to heal if he didn't.
SHE would never start to heal if he didn't.
Isabel had known that Liz was important to all of them, had even recognized how much she had loved her. But it wasn't until she was gone that Isabel realized how she held them all together. Liz had always been the strong one, the one who bonded them all.
Isabel had decided that with Liz gone it was her job to be the strong one. And she was failing miserably. All she wanted to do was curl up in her bed and mourn the best friend she had ever had. In the meantime they were all being torn apart faster than you could say Czechoslovakian.
Something had to be done. She had to be stronger. She had to keep them all going.
It was what Liz would want.
Isabel bit her lip, stared at Max's door for a moment longer, then retired to her own room. She would apologize in the morning, ask Max what he wanted from her. She had been wrong in trying to force him to listen to her. Maybe it was HER turn to listen.
That was what Liz would have done.
She would do anything to help her brother survive this because SHE couldn't survive losing him too.
She entered her bedroom, sat down stiffly on the bed. She wasn't at all tired. Her mind was whirling with a thousand different things, most of them centred on the fact that a week from now they would all be traveling to England to open the portal for the return to Illyria.
They were going to end this once and for all - they would bring Tarsus, that emotionless bastard, to his knees, avenge Liz's murder and place Jennetta on her rightful throne, reuniting their planet in the process.
But before that they had to help Max. They needed him. He was the King. He was the only one who could pass the throne to Jennetta. He was the one born to do it.
And then she could go back to being Isabel Evans, go back to pretending that she had never heard of a place called Illyria, pretend that she never knew that she was a princess, that she was one of only two links between this world and another.
She could go back to trying to forget that what she was - what her brother was - had killed her best friend.
But right now she had an apology to make.
Isabel picked up the phone on her bedside table, dialed Michael and Tess's number from memory.
Michael picked it up on the fourth ring, barking in annoyance as usual. "Yeah?"
"Jeez Michael. Rude much?" Isabel demanded automatically.
"I'm not really in the mood to talk to you right now." Michael snapped back. "And I think you're the last person who should be lecturing on the virtue of being polite."
Isabel felt a pang of guilt. "I know." She sighed. "Is Tess there? I need to tell her I'm sorry. I just totally lost it this afternoon and took it out on her."
She could almost hear Michael soften on the other end of the line. "I think she understood that." He said shortly. "But I'm sure she'd appreciate hearing it from you." He added. "Unfortunately she's not here."
"What?" Isabel glanced at the clock. It was after eleven. "Where is she?"
"She wouldn't tell me where she was going." Michael replied, sounding put out. "How am I supposed to protect her if she won't tell me anything?" He demanded, as though Tess was driving him insane, which Isabel knew was partly true. Michael had always wanted a family. Now that he had a sister, he was taking the over-protectiveness to an extreme. Isabel knew that part of it was to mask his frustration over the fact that he had no control over his daughter - that she had a destiny that was dangerous and unstoppable. And so Tess got the full big brother treatment as a result.
Of course this never stopped Tess from doing exactly what she wanted to do. She was unused to anyone looking out for her, one of the consequences of growing up in a "loving" household run by an emotionless, murderous alien. And so Michael was constantly in a frazzle.
"Well I guess tell her to call me when she gets home." Isabel told him. "I'll be up late."
"Fine. I'll see you in the morning. We need to go over the finances." Michael replied.
"Right. The finances."
The finances. How ludicrous was that? Their best friend was not even cold in her grave and they were going to be going over the finances. England WAS expensive after all. It was insane.
Isabel hung up, flopped back on her bed, stared at the ceiling. She felt so useless, so helpless.
She ran a hand through her hair, squirmed around. There was something under her pillow. Whatever it was, it was darn uncomfortable.
The minute her fingers grazed it, she knew exactly what it was.
It was a filthy orb, or so Maria would have called it.
Isabel bit her lip, pulled the orb out, stared at it.
She hadn't seen this particular orb in months, wondered where it had come from. She was sure that Max had gotten rid of it after the time she had used it and it had ended up giving her nightmares for three months.
Isabel shivered as she recalled those horrible dreams. She had almost become trapped in them that first time. Only Max had been able to pull her out, and it had been a VERY close thing. She had almost lost her mind.
The images tried to become clearer in her mind as she remembered. She forced them away. She refused to allow herself to remember those horrible pictures - of her brother, Alex, Tess, Michael, Liz, her Illyrian mother in various states of death...of a planet in flames, of millions of people dying in agony...
After the first time, Isabel had not had to use the orb to have the dreams. They had refused to go away. They returned every night, never as bad as that first experience, but bad enough.
Then one day, they stopped. In fact, it had been the day that Liz died. The day the visions had started coming true.
Isabel had not dreamwalked in months. She was afraid too, afraid that she would lose herself in someone else's mind. It had been so close that horrible night - she had almost gotten lost in her OWN mind - how could she control what happened to her in someone else's?
It was why she had not tried to dreamwalk Liz, had not tried to prove to Max once and for all that Liz was really gone.
She was scared to death.
She told herself that if Max was right, if Liz was on Illyria, it would be too far anyway, she would be unable to reach her. Liz might not even be LIZ anymore. It was highly likely that Tarsus would have brain-washed her if he had taken her.
Isabel had not been able to dreamwalk Max when he had been lost on Illyria - they had figured out afterward that it had to be because he hadn't been Max anymore. He had been Jaxon Falconer.
She sat up, stared down at the purple orb in her hand. Ren had told them that it was a communicator orb, that it's original purpose had been to communicate with the home planet. He had been unable to explain why it had done what it had done to Isabel.
When she had first used it, she had been trying to communicate with her mother, her alien mother that is. She had not heard from Milena in many months, had not had any more of the weird flash communications. She had even tried direct contact in the transformation chamber, tried to use the stone walls as a channel, just as she had used Stonehenge all those months before. Nothing had happened.
And then she had been too scared to try.
She knew that the Citadel had been taken. Her mother HAD reached her the week before at the prom. The flash had been short but concrete.
The end was near. Milena had been positive that she wouldn't survive the annexation of Illyria by the Dernians. She had caused them too much trouble already, had held the kingdom for a generation, awaiting the return of its rightful king...
Isabel was a coward. She didn't want to try and contact her mother again, didn't want to know once and for all that the mother she barely remembered had been extinguished forever. She HAD a mother - Diane Evans. She didn't need that grief.
But as Isabel balanced the purple orb in her hands she knew that she had no more excuses. She had to try. She had to find out as much as she could before they returned to the planet...had to know for sure if her mother was gone.
She had to know if her mother knew anything about Liz.
She had to do it for Max.
She would do anything for him.
But she couldn't do it alone.
Isabel picked up the phone, dialed the number that wasn't even memorized anymore. Her fingers danced over the buttons automatically.
He answered on the second ring.
"Alex, I need you."
******************************************************************
"Are you sure about this Izzy?" Alex was reclined on her bed, his hands behind his head. He knew he looked relaxed, but he felt deadly serious. "I hate when you do this to yourself. Those things are evil." He added, nodding towards the orb sitting on her bedside table. "Can't you try it without that?"
"Alex, I don't have any choice." She told him as she pulled her hair back and tied it with a ribbon. "I have to do this for Max. I have to do it for Jennetta. I have to do it for Liz. I can't believe that I've been such a coward up until now." She sat on the bed beside him, ran her hand down his chest. Alex shivered. "But I'm not taking any chances here. That's why I needed you. You're the only one who anchors me properly. I think that might be why I got so lost last time I used this thing." She picked up the orb, balanced its heavy weight in her hands. "You make me stronger."
Alex rubbed his temples. He had absolutely no desire to let her do this. But he had never been the type to stop her from doing what she felt had to be done. He knew his Isabel. Ordering her around was the first step to losing her.
And Alex Whitman had absolutely no intention of losing Isabel Evans - ever.
It was the price he paid for being in love with an alien princess. She would never be completely his - or completely safe. But he was willing to take his chances.
Max and Liz took a chance, a small voice in the back of his head taunted him. Look where they ended up...
Alex quickly suppressed it. He didn't want to think about Liz - not right now. He was exhausted with mourning her. Losing her was the worst thing that had ever happened to him...she was his best friend. He couldn't think about her right now.
He had to be strong for Isabel.
"Okay." He finally sighed. He patted the bed beside him. "Let's get this over with."
Isabel crawled over him, kissed him lightly on the lips. "Thank you." She settled down with her head on his chest, the orb in her hand. Alex swallowed hard, breathed in the clean scent of her hair.
He wondered if he would ever get over his amazement that this girl - this goddess - really loved HIM, goofy Alex Whitman. It was like a dream, one from which he hoped he never awoke.
Alex could feel Isabel beginning to take deep breaths as she settled into a trance state. He stroked her silky blonde hair, tried to send her the calm she needed to make this work. Of course, he was sure that the fact that his heart was beating in his chest a mile a minute, directly under her ear, wasn't helping matters.
"Pull me out in twenty minutes." He heard her mutter as she began to go under.
Alex turned to stare at the clock sitting on her bedside table.
It was bound to be the longest twenty minutes of his life.
**********************************************************
*Dreams* Isabel
Isabel awoke in the stark white chamber with the high ceiling and floor-length windows, freezing cold, just like the last time.
She shivered, sat up. This was beginning exactly as the last nightmare had. Was she destined never to be able to dreamwalk anyone ever again? Was she only going to see horrible flashes of her loved ones dead or dying?
Isabel climbed unsteadily to her feet, decided that the first thing she had to do was take care of the cold. She imagined Alex's arms around her, knew that they WERE around her in the real world. She felt a thread of warmth begin in her heart, begin to wind its way through her veins until she didn't feel the cold at all.
She had known that having Alex anchor her would change things. It was a sign. She was going to find out something good. She knew it.
She looked around, bit her lip when she realized that there was still no door. She had to go look through the windows, had to go look at whatever it was that had started the whirl of horrible visions the last time.
Isabel took a deep breath, clenched her hands into fists at her side. She took one step towards the nearest window...
"My daughter."
She whirled. Standing directly across from her was the most beautiful woman she had ever seen.
She was dressed in a floor-length emerald green dress. Her hazel eyes, exactly the same shade as Max's, were gazing steadily at Isabel. Her blond hair, the same colour as Isabel's own, tumbled around her shoulders. She didn't look a day over thirty. How could this be her mother?
And yet it was.
"Mother!" Isabel rushed across the chamber, threw her arms around the smaller woman.
"My child." Milena stroked her hair lovingly. "I have been waiting for you."
Isabel pulled back, realized that there were tears streaming down her face. "Mother! I have so much to say to you...but there is no time. I am only here for a very short time...Alex is going to wake me up! Oh, why did I only tell him twenty minutes?" Isabel could have kicked herself. A lifetime wouldn't be enough!
"It is all right my Mirana. I don't have long either. The guards will be returning to question me soon. They have not left me in peace since the Citadel fell."
"Mother! Are they hurting you?" Isabel felt a flash of fury so intense she almost burned with it. Another crime to add to Tarsus' long list.
"I will survive it my child. I have survived this long. It will take more than a Dernian guard to bring me down." Milena told her, her eyes sparkling. "And I am not alone."
"What are they asking you?" Isabel demanded. "What could they not know by this time?"
"They don't know what my role is."
Isabel felt her heart stop at the voice. It came from behind her, but Isabel recognized it immediately. She almost couldn't bear to turn around, couldn't bear to find the owner of that voice NOT there...
"Isabel."
Isabel turned, her eyes filled with tears.
Liz.
It was really her. She stood there, her hands folded in front of her, her face bright with affection.
She looked healthy...and ALIVE! She was alive!
"He was right..." Isabel breathed, her guilt for not believing her brother almost overwhelming her.
Liz smiled wryly. "I'm assuming you mean Max." She looked past Isabel at Milena, who still had her arm around her daughter's waist. "I told Tarsus he wouldn't believe it." She said, her eyes reflecting her love. "He won't give up on me."
Isabel hurried over to Liz, reached out to hug her, but Liz stepped back out of her reach. "You can't touch me." She explained regretfully. "I am only here with Milena's help. I'm not solid. If you touch me, you'll fall right through me."
Isabel just continued to stare at her in amazement. "How could we have been so stupid?" She asked. "How is he ever going to forgive us for not believing in him?"
Liz's eyes darkened. "Is Max all right?"
Isabel just shook her head in disbelief. "This is the first time I've realized how all right he is!" She exclaimed. "We're the ones who have totally lost it. Liz, we are lost without you."
Liz continued to smile gently. "You're not lost Izzy. You are all strong. You just needed to have your hope renewed. But it couldn't happen until you let it happen." She gestured around the chamber. "Just your being here means that you were ready to let go of your fear."
"ISSSSAAABBEEELLLL!"
"No!" Isabel looked around frantically. "No! Alex! I need more time!"
"ISSSSAAABBBEEELLLL!"
Liz began to fade away before Isabel's eyes. Isabel reached out frantically for her friend, but she met only air. "Tell Max that I'm trying to..." Liz was shouting at her, but the last was completely lost as Isabel felt herself beginning to emerge from the dream plain.
"Mother!" She screamed as Milena began to back away, looking sad.
"I will see you soon my daught..."
Isabel tried once more to wrench herself back into the white chamber but the pull of Alex's voice was too strong. It was like a beacon calling her home...
"ISSSSSAAAABBBEEEELLLL!"
***********************************************************************
Isabel sat up with a gasp. She could feel tears streaming down her face.
Liz was alive! It was a miracle!
"Izzy!" Alex grabbed her by the shoulders, clearly trying to get her to focus. "Are you okay? What did you see?"
"I saw..." She could barely catch her breath. "I saw..."
She jumped off the bed, bolted out of her bedroom, burst through her brother's bedroom door next door.
"MAX! Liz is alive!"
Isabel stopped abruptly, stared around in confusion.
The room was empty. The bed was made, but the drawers of Max's dresser were hanging open with clothes scattered everywhere.
The window was open, the curtains waving in a breeze that seemed to pick up suddenly, blowing a paper sitting on Max's bed directly into Isabel's hands.
It was in Max's handwriting, short and to the point. Isabel could almost feel the anger he must have been trying to suppress as he wrote it.
I've come to two conclusions.
1)Jennetta must be kept safe at all costs. It is too dangerous for her
to return to Illyria with Tarsus still alive.
I am going to kill him.
2)I have to prove to you all once and for all that the bond we share is
special - sacred. I will bring Liz back to you if it is the last thing I do.
Since none of you believe it, I'm going alone.
Max
Isabel stood frozen with shock, didn't even notice that Alex had come in behind her, had gently taken the paper out of her hands. She stared directly at Max's dresser - at the empty dresser top actually.
The picture of Liz that had always sat there was gone.
She needed no more proof.
Her brother was gone. Alone. Into danger.
And it was all her fault.
Isabel stared at her brother's closed bedroom door, a frown on her face.
She couldn't figure out whether she should knock or not. She had never seen Max as furious as he had been when he had stormed out of the transformation chamber a few hours before. He had literally been shaking with rage, most of it directed at her.
Isabel knew that he was hurt that she didn't believe him about Liz - but she couldn't stand to see him putting himself through this pain. He needed to accept that Liz was gone - he would never start to heal if he didn't.
SHE would never start to heal if he didn't.
Isabel had known that Liz was important to all of them, had even recognized how much she had loved her. But it wasn't until she was gone that Isabel realized how she held them all together. Liz had always been the strong one, the one who bonded them all.
Isabel had decided that with Liz gone it was her job to be the strong one. And she was failing miserably. All she wanted to do was curl up in her bed and mourn the best friend she had ever had. In the meantime they were all being torn apart faster than you could say Czechoslovakian.
Something had to be done. She had to be stronger. She had to keep them all going.
It was what Liz would want.
Isabel bit her lip, stared at Max's door for a moment longer, then retired to her own room. She would apologize in the morning, ask Max what he wanted from her. She had been wrong in trying to force him to listen to her. Maybe it was HER turn to listen.
That was what Liz would have done.
She would do anything to help her brother survive this because SHE couldn't survive losing him too.
She entered her bedroom, sat down stiffly on the bed. She wasn't at all tired. Her mind was whirling with a thousand different things, most of them centred on the fact that a week from now they would all be traveling to England to open the portal for the return to Illyria.
They were going to end this once and for all - they would bring Tarsus, that emotionless bastard, to his knees, avenge Liz's murder and place Jennetta on her rightful throne, reuniting their planet in the process.
But before that they had to help Max. They needed him. He was the King. He was the only one who could pass the throne to Jennetta. He was the one born to do it.
And then she could go back to being Isabel Evans, go back to pretending that she had never heard of a place called Illyria, pretend that she never knew that she was a princess, that she was one of only two links between this world and another.
She could go back to trying to forget that what she was - what her brother was - had killed her best friend.
But right now she had an apology to make.
Isabel picked up the phone on her bedside table, dialed Michael and Tess's number from memory.
Michael picked it up on the fourth ring, barking in annoyance as usual. "Yeah?"
"Jeez Michael. Rude much?" Isabel demanded automatically.
"I'm not really in the mood to talk to you right now." Michael snapped back. "And I think you're the last person who should be lecturing on the virtue of being polite."
Isabel felt a pang of guilt. "I know." She sighed. "Is Tess there? I need to tell her I'm sorry. I just totally lost it this afternoon and took it out on her."
She could almost hear Michael soften on the other end of the line. "I think she understood that." He said shortly. "But I'm sure she'd appreciate hearing it from you." He added. "Unfortunately she's not here."
"What?" Isabel glanced at the clock. It was after eleven. "Where is she?"
"She wouldn't tell me where she was going." Michael replied, sounding put out. "How am I supposed to protect her if she won't tell me anything?" He demanded, as though Tess was driving him insane, which Isabel knew was partly true. Michael had always wanted a family. Now that he had a sister, he was taking the over-protectiveness to an extreme. Isabel knew that part of it was to mask his frustration over the fact that he had no control over his daughter - that she had a destiny that was dangerous and unstoppable. And so Tess got the full big brother treatment as a result.
Of course this never stopped Tess from doing exactly what she wanted to do. She was unused to anyone looking out for her, one of the consequences of growing up in a "loving" household run by an emotionless, murderous alien. And so Michael was constantly in a frazzle.
"Well I guess tell her to call me when she gets home." Isabel told him. "I'll be up late."
"Fine. I'll see you in the morning. We need to go over the finances." Michael replied.
"Right. The finances."
The finances. How ludicrous was that? Their best friend was not even cold in her grave and they were going to be going over the finances. England WAS expensive after all. It was insane.
Isabel hung up, flopped back on her bed, stared at the ceiling. She felt so useless, so helpless.
She ran a hand through her hair, squirmed around. There was something under her pillow. Whatever it was, it was darn uncomfortable.
The minute her fingers grazed it, she knew exactly what it was.
It was a filthy orb, or so Maria would have called it.
Isabel bit her lip, pulled the orb out, stared at it.
She hadn't seen this particular orb in months, wondered where it had come from. She was sure that Max had gotten rid of it after the time she had used it and it had ended up giving her nightmares for three months.
Isabel shivered as she recalled those horrible dreams. She had almost become trapped in them that first time. Only Max had been able to pull her out, and it had been a VERY close thing. She had almost lost her mind.
The images tried to become clearer in her mind as she remembered. She forced them away. She refused to allow herself to remember those horrible pictures - of her brother, Alex, Tess, Michael, Liz, her Illyrian mother in various states of death...of a planet in flames, of millions of people dying in agony...
After the first time, Isabel had not had to use the orb to have the dreams. They had refused to go away. They returned every night, never as bad as that first experience, but bad enough.
Then one day, they stopped. In fact, it had been the day that Liz died. The day the visions had started coming true.
Isabel had not dreamwalked in months. She was afraid too, afraid that she would lose herself in someone else's mind. It had been so close that horrible night - she had almost gotten lost in her OWN mind - how could she control what happened to her in someone else's?
It was why she had not tried to dreamwalk Liz, had not tried to prove to Max once and for all that Liz was really gone.
She was scared to death.
She told herself that if Max was right, if Liz was on Illyria, it would be too far anyway, she would be unable to reach her. Liz might not even be LIZ anymore. It was highly likely that Tarsus would have brain-washed her if he had taken her.
Isabel had not been able to dreamwalk Max when he had been lost on Illyria - they had figured out afterward that it had to be because he hadn't been Max anymore. He had been Jaxon Falconer.
She sat up, stared down at the purple orb in her hand. Ren had told them that it was a communicator orb, that it's original purpose had been to communicate with the home planet. He had been unable to explain why it had done what it had done to Isabel.
When she had first used it, she had been trying to communicate with her mother, her alien mother that is. She had not heard from Milena in many months, had not had any more of the weird flash communications. She had even tried direct contact in the transformation chamber, tried to use the stone walls as a channel, just as she had used Stonehenge all those months before. Nothing had happened.
And then she had been too scared to try.
She knew that the Citadel had been taken. Her mother HAD reached her the week before at the prom. The flash had been short but concrete.
The end was near. Milena had been positive that she wouldn't survive the annexation of Illyria by the Dernians. She had caused them too much trouble already, had held the kingdom for a generation, awaiting the return of its rightful king...
Isabel was a coward. She didn't want to try and contact her mother again, didn't want to know once and for all that the mother she barely remembered had been extinguished forever. She HAD a mother - Diane Evans. She didn't need that grief.
But as Isabel balanced the purple orb in her hands she knew that she had no more excuses. She had to try. She had to find out as much as she could before they returned to the planet...had to know for sure if her mother was gone.
She had to know if her mother knew anything about Liz.
She had to do it for Max.
She would do anything for him.
But she couldn't do it alone.
Isabel picked up the phone, dialed the number that wasn't even memorized anymore. Her fingers danced over the buttons automatically.
He answered on the second ring.
"Alex, I need you."
******************************************************************
"Are you sure about this Izzy?" Alex was reclined on her bed, his hands behind his head. He knew he looked relaxed, but he felt deadly serious. "I hate when you do this to yourself. Those things are evil." He added, nodding towards the orb sitting on her bedside table. "Can't you try it without that?"
"Alex, I don't have any choice." She told him as she pulled her hair back and tied it with a ribbon. "I have to do this for Max. I have to do it for Jennetta. I have to do it for Liz. I can't believe that I've been such a coward up until now." She sat on the bed beside him, ran her hand down his chest. Alex shivered. "But I'm not taking any chances here. That's why I needed you. You're the only one who anchors me properly. I think that might be why I got so lost last time I used this thing." She picked up the orb, balanced its heavy weight in her hands. "You make me stronger."
Alex rubbed his temples. He had absolutely no desire to let her do this. But he had never been the type to stop her from doing what she felt had to be done. He knew his Isabel. Ordering her around was the first step to losing her.
And Alex Whitman had absolutely no intention of losing Isabel Evans - ever.
It was the price he paid for being in love with an alien princess. She would never be completely his - or completely safe. But he was willing to take his chances.
Max and Liz took a chance, a small voice in the back of his head taunted him. Look where they ended up...
Alex quickly suppressed it. He didn't want to think about Liz - not right now. He was exhausted with mourning her. Losing her was the worst thing that had ever happened to him...she was his best friend. He couldn't think about her right now.
He had to be strong for Isabel.
"Okay." He finally sighed. He patted the bed beside him. "Let's get this over with."
Isabel crawled over him, kissed him lightly on the lips. "Thank you." She settled down with her head on his chest, the orb in her hand. Alex swallowed hard, breathed in the clean scent of her hair.
He wondered if he would ever get over his amazement that this girl - this goddess - really loved HIM, goofy Alex Whitman. It was like a dream, one from which he hoped he never awoke.
Alex could feel Isabel beginning to take deep breaths as she settled into a trance state. He stroked her silky blonde hair, tried to send her the calm she needed to make this work. Of course, he was sure that the fact that his heart was beating in his chest a mile a minute, directly under her ear, wasn't helping matters.
"Pull me out in twenty minutes." He heard her mutter as she began to go under.
Alex turned to stare at the clock sitting on her bedside table.
It was bound to be the longest twenty minutes of his life.
**********************************************************
*Dreams* Isabel
Isabel awoke in the stark white chamber with the high ceiling and floor-length windows, freezing cold, just like the last time.
She shivered, sat up. This was beginning exactly as the last nightmare had. Was she destined never to be able to dreamwalk anyone ever again? Was she only going to see horrible flashes of her loved ones dead or dying?
Isabel climbed unsteadily to her feet, decided that the first thing she had to do was take care of the cold. She imagined Alex's arms around her, knew that they WERE around her in the real world. She felt a thread of warmth begin in her heart, begin to wind its way through her veins until she didn't feel the cold at all.
She had known that having Alex anchor her would change things. It was a sign. She was going to find out something good. She knew it.
She looked around, bit her lip when she realized that there was still no door. She had to go look through the windows, had to go look at whatever it was that had started the whirl of horrible visions the last time.
Isabel took a deep breath, clenched her hands into fists at her side. She took one step towards the nearest window...
"My daughter."
She whirled. Standing directly across from her was the most beautiful woman she had ever seen.
She was dressed in a floor-length emerald green dress. Her hazel eyes, exactly the same shade as Max's, were gazing steadily at Isabel. Her blond hair, the same colour as Isabel's own, tumbled around her shoulders. She didn't look a day over thirty. How could this be her mother?
And yet it was.
"Mother!" Isabel rushed across the chamber, threw her arms around the smaller woman.
"My child." Milena stroked her hair lovingly. "I have been waiting for you."
Isabel pulled back, realized that there were tears streaming down her face. "Mother! I have so much to say to you...but there is no time. I am only here for a very short time...Alex is going to wake me up! Oh, why did I only tell him twenty minutes?" Isabel could have kicked herself. A lifetime wouldn't be enough!
"It is all right my Mirana. I don't have long either. The guards will be returning to question me soon. They have not left me in peace since the Citadel fell."
"Mother! Are they hurting you?" Isabel felt a flash of fury so intense she almost burned with it. Another crime to add to Tarsus' long list.
"I will survive it my child. I have survived this long. It will take more than a Dernian guard to bring me down." Milena told her, her eyes sparkling. "And I am not alone."
"What are they asking you?" Isabel demanded. "What could they not know by this time?"
"They don't know what my role is."
Isabel felt her heart stop at the voice. It came from behind her, but Isabel recognized it immediately. She almost couldn't bear to turn around, couldn't bear to find the owner of that voice NOT there...
"Isabel."
Isabel turned, her eyes filled with tears.
Liz.
It was really her. She stood there, her hands folded in front of her, her face bright with affection.
She looked healthy...and ALIVE! She was alive!
"He was right..." Isabel breathed, her guilt for not believing her brother almost overwhelming her.
Liz smiled wryly. "I'm assuming you mean Max." She looked past Isabel at Milena, who still had her arm around her daughter's waist. "I told Tarsus he wouldn't believe it." She said, her eyes reflecting her love. "He won't give up on me."
Isabel hurried over to Liz, reached out to hug her, but Liz stepped back out of her reach. "You can't touch me." She explained regretfully. "I am only here with Milena's help. I'm not solid. If you touch me, you'll fall right through me."
Isabel just continued to stare at her in amazement. "How could we have been so stupid?" She asked. "How is he ever going to forgive us for not believing in him?"
Liz's eyes darkened. "Is Max all right?"
Isabel just shook her head in disbelief. "This is the first time I've realized how all right he is!" She exclaimed. "We're the ones who have totally lost it. Liz, we are lost without you."
Liz continued to smile gently. "You're not lost Izzy. You are all strong. You just needed to have your hope renewed. But it couldn't happen until you let it happen." She gestured around the chamber. "Just your being here means that you were ready to let go of your fear."
"ISSSSAAABBEEELLLL!"
"No!" Isabel looked around frantically. "No! Alex! I need more time!"
"ISSSSAAABBBEEELLLL!"
Liz began to fade away before Isabel's eyes. Isabel reached out frantically for her friend, but she met only air. "Tell Max that I'm trying to..." Liz was shouting at her, but the last was completely lost as Isabel felt herself beginning to emerge from the dream plain.
"Mother!" She screamed as Milena began to back away, looking sad.
"I will see you soon my daught..."
Isabel tried once more to wrench herself back into the white chamber but the pull of Alex's voice was too strong. It was like a beacon calling her home...
"ISSSSSAAAABBBEEEELLLL!"
***********************************************************************
Isabel sat up with a gasp. She could feel tears streaming down her face.
Liz was alive! It was a miracle!
"Izzy!" Alex grabbed her by the shoulders, clearly trying to get her to focus. "Are you okay? What did you see?"
"I saw..." She could barely catch her breath. "I saw..."
She jumped off the bed, bolted out of her bedroom, burst through her brother's bedroom door next door.
"MAX! Liz is alive!"
Isabel stopped abruptly, stared around in confusion.
The room was empty. The bed was made, but the drawers of Max's dresser were hanging open with clothes scattered everywhere.
The window was open, the curtains waving in a breeze that seemed to pick up suddenly, blowing a paper sitting on Max's bed directly into Isabel's hands.
It was in Max's handwriting, short and to the point. Isabel could almost feel the anger he must have been trying to suppress as he wrote it.
I've come to two conclusions.
1)Jennetta must be kept safe at all costs. It is too dangerous for her
to return to Illyria with Tarsus still alive.
I am going to kill him.
2)I have to prove to you all once and for all that the bond we share is
special - sacred. I will bring Liz back to you if it is the last thing I do.
Since none of you believe it, I'm going alone.
Max
Isabel stood frozen with shock, didn't even notice that Alex had come in behind her, had gently taken the paper out of her hands. She stared directly at Max's dresser - at the empty dresser top actually.
The picture of Liz that had always sat there was gone.
She needed no more proof.
Her brother was gone. Alone. Into danger.
And it was all her fault.
