long we had, but Luciana was coming.
âYou have to calm down. Youâre going to make yourself sick.â He tried to pull away, but I clung to him. â Cherie , please. I can feel your fear and anger, but I donât know what any of it means. Youâre scaring me. Tell me what you saw. Whatever it is, we can fix it. We can change it. I know we can. But you have to talk to me.â
âHow do you know we can change it?â
âI donât know, but I can try. With everything that I am, I will try to stop whatever has made you so upset. But I canât do that until you talk to me. So calm down. Talk to me.â
It was horrible. I said through our bond.
Cherie. Tell me.
I slowly described everything Iâd seenâfrom the Orangina breaking to how I ended the fight with Luciana.
He stayed quiet for a long moment when I was done, and then sucked in a big breath. âOkay.â
I pulled back from him. âOkay? What about that was okay ?â
âNothing. Nothing about that was okay. But okayânow we can work to change it. If you hadnât seen that, then it probably wouldâve happened, but nowâwe prepare. That gives us something to watch for. And there are markers along the way. So, as long as I never drink that Orangina, then none of this will happen.â
I took a deep breath. âOkay. So no more Oranginas for you.â
âHate the stuff. Never touching it again. Especially on pizza day.â
I huffed a small laugh. It was pitiful, but something. âI canât do it. Watching you die⦠It was the worst thing ever.â
He pressed his forehead to mine. âItâs not going to happen.â
âIt canât.â I thought for a second. I needed someone who knew more about magic and visions to tell me that this could be changed. Going to the brujos that were still here seemed the most obvious choice, but Claudia was in Peru and I didnât know the rest well enough to tell if theyâd blow steam up my ass or tell me the truth.
Cosette would. Even if she might be a little more harsh than I could handle, her brand of truth would be preferable. I had to know how to prepare. Or if we should just give up now.
âDo you think Cosette might know anything about visions? Sheâs mentioned a few things here and thereâand I know she said that she didnât really know muchâbut I get the sense that sheâs not telling us everything.â
âSheâs fey. Of course she knows more than sheâs saying.â
âWho do you think the guy is?â If the fey were fighting with us against Luciana, it would definitely make a difference. Iâd only seen Cosette and the one dude, but theyâd been the only ones who werenât getting their asses kicked in my horror show of a vision. We needed more of them. We needed every advantage we could gather.
âI donât know, but the fey have strings. I donât want to say theyâre not welcome, but theyâd add another layer of complication.â
I chewed on my lip. I couldnât believe I was actually going to suggest this. âWe should talk to Cosette. Ask her point blank. See if we can get some fey backing, too.â
âWe can try. Sheâs not a bad person. Just very fey.â
I wasnât sure what that meant, but Iâd do anythingâ anything âto stop that vision from happening.
I started to get up and then realized that I was soaked. âYou threw a bucket of water on me?â
Dastien brushed the hair back from my face. âWhat was I supposed to do? You were screaming. It was tearing me apart. The waterâs there in case someone loses it during sparring⦠I figured it would shock you out of the vision.â
âIt was a good try. But now I have to shower again.â And I wasnât going back to sleep anytime soon. Not after that vision. Until Luciana was dead and Dastien was safe and sound,
Marian Tee
Diane Duane
Melissa F Miller
Crissy Smith
Tamara Leigh
Geraldine McCaughrean
James White
Amanda M. Lee
Codi Gary
P. F. Chisholm