“Which they surely know,” Bruiser said. “They are waiting on you to rush in.”
“No. They’re waiting onusto rush in.”
I walked to my downed vamps, Leo and Koun, and pulled my magical weapons, laying them on the dead grass. I sat down in front of the amulets, facing the church, a vamp to each side, my body only feet from thehedge. I considered the ring, which in half-form only fit my pinky. I picked a finger and slid the ring with the oversized jeweled part over the knobby knuckle of my left pinky. I’d had the ring for a while. Still had no idea what it did. But the arcenciel had been brave, so why not me?
“Jane.”
“Heard you the first time. I love you.” Before I could chicken out, I stuck out my pinky finger. Touched thehedge. And yanked back my hand. “Holy crap.” I shook my hand, which was now numb. “That didn’t work.”
Before I could think it through, I took up the lizard pin and tried again. The pain shot to my elbow. Numbness set in hard.
Without thinking of the what-ifs, I hooked gold Jesuswith its arcenciel blood jewels and the gold cross together, pressing them in place with three little metallic clicks. The magic inside the fully restored talisman shocked through me, frozen and cutting as a diamond blade dug from a glacier.
At the sound of the last snap, all around me globules appeared, hovering like droplets of mercury, silvery poison suspended from the sky. My gut wrenched. My muscles did something... odd. I fell back to the ground with a grunt of pain. It hurt like dying. I struggled to breathe.
Fawn stood over me, looking down. “You okay?”
“I’m freaking ducky,” I lied. “Sit me up.”
Fawn nodded to the others, holstered her weapons, and got an arm under my shoulders. Shoved me upright. Stood behind me and held me there, a knee between my shoulder blades.
Hands shaking, I lifted the gold chain over my head and settled the gold cross at the base of my neck, over my armor. More globules appeared. They were silvery. Reflective. All I could see was myself, kneeling on the grass.
“Y’all... y’all see those?” I gestured to the globules.
“Huhn?” Fawn said.
“See what, my love?” Bruiser asked.
“Okay,” I gasped. “That answers that one.” Pain began to seep away from my body. My breath came easier. But the globules were there, all around me, still reflective, showing me a Cherokee chick in black armor sitting on the ground with a party hat shaped like a crown on her head. Where I wasn’t pelted, I was pale skinned from shock, and my eyes were hollowed holes in my puma skull. I looked like I was dying. Maybe already dead. I forced my knees to bend again so I could sit up by myself.
I twisted the ring upright and took the lizard amulet in my other hand. Additional globules appeared, but still they were reflective, showing me only myself.
I needed to see more. All this started when I put the cross together. That meant...Crap. Soledad had scars. So the icon had to go against my skin. Bet that was gonna be fun.
My heart rate sped. My breathing too, yet I couldn’t get enough air. I tried to find calm, the way I used to, tochange shapes. That didn’t work either. Thinking one of the words I didn’t use, ever, I pulled out my armor neckline, and let the crucifix fall against my chest at the base of my throat, above the other necklaces I habitually wore. The icy cross flattened itself against me as if an unseen hand shoved it tight. It was so cold it blistered my flesh. My blood froze. My skin pebbled and every hair of my pelt stood upright. My nerves twitched and burned as if fire ants had set up a nest inside my skin. I gasped in a painful breath. Not enough. Not enough air.
I dropped my fisted hands to the grass. My back bowed, then whipped into a hard arch. I thought I might have a seizure or I might hurl. Both. “Holy crap,” I managed. And I looked around. There were a lot more globules now. Like alotmore.
Slowly the pain dulled except from the points of contact, the crucifix pressed against my skin, the ring around a pinky, the lizard amulet, each with arcenciel blood in them. The Rule of Three. Around me, the globules, invisible to the people with me, became less reflective. My image of myself faded. Slowly the droplets of mercury became clear, crystalline, as if droplets of pure spring water now hung suspended in the air. Globules, some as large as softballs, were everywhere: front, between the church and me, up to the top of the damaged bell tower. Thousands upon thousands contained within thehedge.
In each globule close to me were visions of myself. Me, dead in any of a hundred ways; some of the visions were me dead inside the church. In one I saw how I would die if I used the Glob on thehedge. Badly. Good to know, as that had kinda been my next plan.
In another water bubble I saw what would happen if I went into the church alone. In others I saw what would happen if Leo wasn’t with me, if Koun wasn’t with me, if Bruiserwaswith me, if my small crew went in without me. Without backup. If, if, if. All of the dead Janes and dead friends and dead family and dead witches and dead lover. Every single one was a sign of utter defeat. And in every single one, I could see my actions that led to all that death. No matter what I did, we all died.
I reached out and flicked a droplet with a particularlynasty dead me away. All of the dead-Jane droplets swept to the back, as if I had rearranged the columns in a database. “Holy crap,” I said, shocked.
Closer to the front now were visions where I was alive inside the church. I sat straighter, tightened my knees in a guru position, waved Fawn away, and studied the futures as the cross scalded my flesh. Found one with me alive, walking out of the church, covered in blood. There were very few of those,veryfew, among all the possibilities. And in none did my people survive. Their bodies were in pieces on the church floor.
That... that would kill me quicker than dying at the hand of Mainet.
I flicked more negative potential futures away, analyzed timing more than weapons and tactics. The smell of burning synthetics and skin came to my nose from inside my armor. My gut did a somersault and wrenched in agony, the way it felt when I’d had cancer. My breathing sped even faster. My hands began to tingle. I was hyperventilating. I forced my breath to slow, studying the futures.
“Jane?” Bruiser asked. “Your finger and your other hand are burning.”
“Mmmm.” I held up an index finger, telling him to wait.
I was down to maybe twenty futures. In three of them Koun was beheaded. In three others, Tex was dead. I flicked those six out of the near present. I turned my head to the laptop screen Quint still held up for me. In it, in the church just yards away, Lachish had been painted in runes with what looked like lipstick, thick and scarlet. The witches were in place in their circle. Had too much time passed? I compared the scene on the screen to the remaining futures and calculated what would happen next. In every case, I had to wait. Wait. Or my people would die.
