Jacque smirked. Jen wasn’t wrong.
It was going to be an interesting Christmas. The only thing that would make it better was if Vasile and Alina were there to enjoy it with them.
Chapter 1
“Nothing is as it seems. If you think someone is on your side, assume they are not. If you think someone is your enemy, leave room for the possibility that they are your ally.” ~Lilly, Warlock Queen
Summer 1991
Lilly stared down into the green eyes of the man with whom she was madly in love. His head rested in her lap as he lay on his back gazing up at her. Her fingers ran through his wavy, auburn hair. She heard a rumble come from his throat. It was something she’d noticed he did when he was content, and she’d also noticed that it wasn’t a sound a human should be able to make. There was somethingotherabout Dillon Jacobs, but she hadn’t brought herself to ask about it because she didn’t want to sound crazy.
She wasn’t a stranger to things that weren’t quite normal. Lilly had known from a young age that she wasn’t quite right. It began when she was six years old and living in a girls’ home. The home wasn’t a horrible place to live, but it still wasn’t a family. There were no hugs, no stories read at bedtime, and no comfort when she hurt herself. What there was in abundance for Lilly were feelings ofknowing. She couldn’t predict when it was going to happen, but occasionally a feeling would come over her and she justknewthat something was going to happen to someone. Unfortunately, it was usually something bad.
The first time it happened was late at night. One of the other girls, Penny, was about to be adopted. The girl was so excited she couldn’t sleep. Penny kept talking incessantly about her new parents and what they might be like. At first, Lilly shared in her excitement and daydreamed right along with her. But all of a sudden, Lilly was overcome with a feeling of fear. It was so intense, she began to tremble. She rose on shaky legs. The other girl noticed and asked what was wrong.
“Penny, something bad is going to happen,” Lilly said. “Please don’t go with these people.” She had no idea how she knew something terrible was on the horizon, but Lilly would have been willing to bet her favorite stuffed bear on it, and considering that was her only possession, such a wager would be quite a gamble. Understandably, Penny didn’t take the news well. She became angry at Lilly and screamed that her friend was just jealous. To be fair, Lilly was jealous, but that didn’t change the fact that she knew something bad was going to happen to Penny if she went home with her new family.
Her friend had gone anyway, not that the girl had had much of a choice. A week later, Sue, one of the other orphan girls, had asked one of the teachers if she knew how Penny was doing in her new home. The teacher's face had fallen, and Lilly knew the answer was going to be bad. “Penny and her parents were killed in a car accident two days ago,” the teacher had said. The girls that shared a bunk room with Lilly and Penny all turned to look at her. Lilly remembered feeling like it was her fault. Somehow, because she’s said that something bad was going to happen, Lilly thought she had caused the car accident.
All these years later, it still haunted her. “What are you thinking about, beautiful?” Dillon asked, bringing Lilly back from her thoughts. “You look sad.”
Her fingers were still stroking his hair. They’d been dating for a while now, and Lilly believed she could trust Dillon completely. She felt it in her bones when she looked at him. He had a deep sense of responsibility and did the right thing even when it was hard. Lilly was tired of bearing this burden alone. She wanted to tell him. She wanted him to know her and to see if he was as loyal as she perceived him to be.
“I need to tell you something,” she said. “And it’s going to be hard to believe.”
Dillon chuckled. “I’m pretty sure there’s nothing you could tell me that I wouldn’t believe.”
She took a breath and then blew it out.Here goes nothing. “For as long as I can remember I get feelings, like I know when something is going to happen. Sometimes it’s good, but usually it’s bad. And mostly it’s related to a person. There are times when it happens a lot, but then I can go months without feeling anything.”
“Like what?” he asked without any sound of disbelief in his voice.
“Nothing specific,” she confirmed.
“You just get a feeling. Are you ever wrong?”
“No.”
“Is it with people you know?” Dillon sat up and turned to face her.
“Yes … always.” Lilly hadn’t even thought about that before. Her feelings were never about some random person on the street. It was always people she knew. They didn’t necessarily have to be close friends. They could simply be someone she saw at work on a regular basis.
“Have you ever told anyone about this?” Dillon asked, his voice gentle as he took her hand and rubbed his thumb across her knuckles.
Lilly laughed. “Um, no. I don’t really want people thinking I’m crazy.”
Dillon’s eyes softened. “It must be a huge burden. You know something bad is going to happen to someone you know, but you can’t tell them.”
Lilly swallowed hard. Itwasa huge burden, and it weighed heavily on her shoulders. She felt responsible every time she got one of her feelings. There’d been the friend whose husband cheated on her. The girl that always checked her out at the grocery store who got cancer at the age of twenty-five. Then there’d been her beautician that had been killed in a house fire. How many times had Lilly wished that her ability would go away? What good was it if she couldn’t help anyone?
“I’m sorry,” Dillon said. “If I could bear it for you, I would.”
Dillon had been nothing but caring to her, and Lilly knew he meant it. “There’s another reason I’m telling you this,” Lilly said. “I get a feeling about you, but it’s a little different. It’s good and bad. I don’t understand it. I just know you’re not quite what you seem to be.”
“You’re feelings aren’t wrong,” he said with a sad smile.
“Care to elaborate?”
“I’ve been thinking about this for some time. I wasn’t entirely sure how much, if anything, I would tell you about my … own ability.”
