“It’s just speculation, Cass.” He held out his hand and waited until she took it, then he gave it a reassuring squeeze. “Maybe it has nothing to do with Pythia. What if she’s having second thoughts about her engagement?”
“One could only hope,” she muttered. “Unfortunately, I think Sofia’s determined to see it through. Either that, or my mother is riding her ass so hard Sofie can’t walk away.” She was quiet a moment. “If Russ is influencing Sofia, can you break it?”
He thought about what it would take to reverse what was basically a long-term emotional curse. “Maybe,” he offered cautiously. “But depending on how deep it’s set, there may be lasting scars.”
“Shit.” The air in the car grew heavy with worry.
There wasn’t much he could say or do right now to reassure her, so he decided to switch subjects. “Back at the cemetery, when you saw Cole and Dana, something happened.”
Her thumb swept over the back of his hand as she took her time answering. “It wasn’t anything specific, just an impression, and not a very clear one at that. It’s probably nothing.”
He wasn’t sure he agreed, because if she was getting visions around Cole, then something was up. Still, she was clearly reluctant to elaborate, and he wanted her to feel safe enough with him to share. “Maybe, but tell me anyway.”
She shifted in the passenger seat, lifting his hand so she could cross her legs then resting his hand back on her thigh. “I get the feeling Dana’s at the center of something… big. I just can’t pin down what the big thing is. It’s like this…” She waved an arm around. “Vague possibility.”
Dana, not Cole? he wanted to ask, but instead said, “I’m not sure I’m following.”
She continued to brush a featherlight touch over his knuckles. “You know how a snail’s shell swirls outward from a center point?”
“Yeah.”
“Think of Dana as the center point, and the impact of her actions are a line of dominos that follow the spiral pattern.”
Okay, that was a visual he could follow. “So your feeling of ‘something big’ is based on how large the snail shell is?”
“Not exactly. I mean…” Frustration made her voice sharp. “It wasn’t a real seeing. More like a snapshot, there and gone.”
“Okay, so what’s worrying you?” When she didn’t say anything more, he risked a glance to find she was biting her lip. “Cass, this is your area of expertise, so no judgment here, okay? I’m just trying to understand.”
“Sorry, it’s… I’m…” She pinched her nose and blew out a breath. Then she dropped her hand and tried again. “Right, so each ring appeared to connect to people I know. At least, I think they were. The further out it went, the harder it was to make out who and what I was seeing.”
His grip on the steering wheel tightened as he picked up on her word choice. People, not person, which meant more than one. If Dana was the connection point, he could guess at least one, maybe two people.
“I’m going to assume one of those is Cole, and since he was all but bragging about bagging a bigwig for Pythia, another would be Russ?”
“They were the two smallest swirls,” she confirmed. “Likely because they’re the two with the most direct contact with her.”
He felt an uneasy sensation creep in. “Who else?”
Her thumb stilled, and her hold started to tighten. “In ascending order from there, it was Sofia…”
Grayson would put down good money that was because of her connection to Russ.
“Then my mother…”
The person behind Pythia.
“And then Yaya, and then you.”
A rogue thought created a crack for doubt to slither through, but he refused to give it voice because he could be completely off base. He could tell Cass was frustrated and struggling to put whatever she was seeing into words.
As if she’d heard an echo of his musings, Cass kept talking. “Which might just be me projecting, considering where we were and why…”
He didn’t like the pinch in his chest that her defeatist tone triggered. “Were they the only ones?”
“No, and that’s the thing. I could swear that it was Isa, Dev, Locke, and Rory on those far rings. Which makes no sense because where would any of them be connected to Dana?”
Those were not the names he’d expected, especially one of them. “Rory? Like Zev’s Rory?”
