She closed her eyes again. “There will come a darkly eager one. Ye’ll feel it through the center of yer soul. Wanting to be let in. Close him out. Don’t let him near yer youngest—he’s not for her. He’s a Prime and a danger.” She took a shaky breath. “Tell yer friends and their young Primes to keep that knowledge close unless or until they’re the pack Alpha. Except…”
She cocked her head, looking confused despite her closed eyes. “Her. The impossible one. She is, too. They’ll protect her. A Prime Alpha. And after time away ye’ll return because they’ll need ye fierce. And if ye don’t return, they all die.”
She opened her eyes again. “All that’s in the distant future.”
“There are no female Prime Alphas, as far as I know.”
She still looked confused. “It’s a certainty but I don’t know why. Anyway, summon yer friends to ye in the new world once yer there even if yer not fully settled yet. Get them out o’ here within two years. No longer.” She went quiet for a moment. “The tapestry of life is full of threads, sometimes tangled. But yer future will be strong and withstand if ye heed my words.”
She finally released his hand. “Everythin’ else is muddy beyond that because yer still needing to take steps forward. I hope that’s all helpful.”
“Me, too. Thank ye.”
She reached for her coin purse and shook the coins out of it. “Here.” She dropped them into his hand, smiling. “I won’t need them now, will I?”
“I guess not.” He tucked them into his purse and held his hand out again. She looked at it before taking it.
He poured the full force of his Prime into her. “Doesn’t hurt so much now, does it?”
She slowly shook her head, her eyes going wide. “This feels…amazin’!”
It didn’t hurt to take a minute to try to read her, and she didn’t resist him even though he sensed in her younger, stronger days she likely could have. But whether because of her pain and illness, or some other reason, her early life looked hazy and muddy in her mind. Like a dream instead of lived experiences.
Which made absolutely no sense to him because he’d never run across anyone like this before where he couldn’t see their past in full clarity. There was a before and an after, when she was a child.
And it wasn’t anything she appeared to be doing on purpose to keep him out, either.
“I had two chapters, too,” she said, looking up at him. “I think we crossed a veil. There exactly was a before and after, like we fled someplace to here. Everything was different once we were here. I think that’s what yer seein’. I’d happily trade ye more answers for yer questions about it, if I had them to give, sorry.”
“I understand.”
He handed her the cup and she took a sip, suddenly smiling. “You name your youngest after me? That’s so sweet!”
He smiled. “It’s been an honor knowing you, even for this short time, Chelsea.”
She saluted him with the cup. “The pleasure’s all mine. Fer once.” She quickly drank it and he didn’t release her free hand while he refilled the cup for her. She savored this one a little more slowly, but held it out for a refill a moment later. “Thank ye for seein’ more in me than a drunk, crazed hag.”
This time he released her hand so he could steady the cup for her as he poured. “Drink up.”
“I am, believe me. This is delicious!” Her voice was already slurring and he wondered if she’d even make it through the last cup.
“I’m glad it’s helping.”
She looked him in the eyes and the growing fuzziness there cleared for just a moment. “Dewi.”
“What?”
Confusion washed in. “I…I don’t know.” She drained the cup and this last time he had to hold the cup to refill it and help her hold it so she didn’t drop it as she took several deep swallows. “It’s a name. An impossible…name… I… Dewi’s grazer.” She sighed and finished the cup. “Thank you,” she whispered as he helped ease her back onto the bed. “Close my eyes after?”
He nodded, setting the cup aside and holding her hand again. “I will. I’ll make sure ye get a decent burial.”
“Thank ye.” She took three more breaths before the last exhale and her chest fell still.
He waited for a moment, patting her hand before placing it on the bed. Then he reached up and closed her eyes.
After saying a short prayer over her, he departed, finding the vicar in the closest church and waking him up. He gave him more than enough coin to cover the expenses and Primed him to promise to provide her with a decent burial. With that completed, he made his way home to where Louisa lay sleeping.
He washed up and curled in bed with her in a house that they would soon leave behind. It was already sold, and they’d sold most everything they weren’t taking with them on the ship. They had several crates and trunks already packed and ready to transport.
