“Like I said, I don’t always know when my visions take place unless there’s something in them that has the date on it, like a business sign or something.” I pulled out on the road while Nathan continued. “I can feel when it gets closer, but I can’t always predict them so I’m taking the same route my team usually takes.”
Curiosity hummed in my veins as I turned onto Mt. Vernon, risking a peek in his direction. “So, stakeout?”
“Stakeout.”
“Do we need coffee and doughnuts or anything? I feel like those are stakeout staples.”
Nathan groaned and scrubbed his face with his hands, but he was smiling. “You watch too many movies.”
“Hey, don’t mess with a classic,” I said. “So, what part of the cemetery am I aiming for? Do you know that?”
He scrunched his face up. “I’m not familiar with the place, but I got a glimpse of some kind of wizard tower surrounded by trees.”
I burst out laughing, causing the person next to me to honk as I drifted a little too close for their liking. “A wizard tower? I think I know the place you’re talking about, but I’m pretty sure it’s just a bell tower or something.”
“Anyway,” he continued, ignoring my laughter, “it’s near that. Do you know how to get there?”
“Yeah, it’s close to the main entrance. They should be closed by now, but yeah, I can get us there.”
Even while navigating the streets of Boston, I glimpsed the eyebrow he raised at me. “Is navigation another superpower of yours, or do you visit graveyards often?”
“Please,” I said, rolling my eyes. “I grew up in Salem. Of course the first thing I’m gonna do when I move here is scout out the best graveyards. It’s not as historic as Granary, but it’s an enormous garden cemetery. There are statues all through the place. It’s really pretty.”
“Weirdo.”
With the late evening traffic, it took us about half an hour to get to Forest Hills Drive, where I pulled us into the hospital parking lot. Nathan looked around, brow furrowed in confusion. I patted him on the arm.
“It’s closed,” I reminded him. “We can’t drive in there, so we’ll have to be all sneaky-like. Ninja stealth-mode.”
He sighed and opened the door. My Jeep groaned in relief as he exited. “Not your typical eighties buddy cop stakeout if we can’t sit in the car and wait, but whatever.”
“Hey, you ruined that when you didn’t bring the coffee and doughy goodness.” I started crossing the parking lot toward the main road, not bothering to wait on Nathan. He had longer legs than I did, he could catch up. “So, if you’re not familiar with this place, how did you know where your visions are? And if you can tell places, why not time?”
We waited for a break in the traffic, knowing damn good and well pedestrian signs only worked on people who cared, while he thought about it. “My visions are… limited in a lot of ways, but location has never been one,” he began. “A lot of times, if they come to me while I’m on my phone or in my apartment, I’ll come to with a marker of the place on my map.”
“Subconscious GPS?”
“Something like that.” The road cleared for a moment, and we sprinted across to the opposite sidewalk. “Even if I don’t have immediate access to a map, I just know it and mark it when I get somewhere that I can.”
I nodded, understanding exactly how weird powers could be. My illusion powers could physically harm people and things, but I couldn’t maintain them for long because they weren’t real. Stupid rules and restrictions.
“And this attack?” I gestured to the cemetery we were approaching. “How do you know it’s close? Like, how can you be sure?”
Nathan shook his head again. “Just a feeling, like anticipation building up. Like how your stomach twists at the top of a rollercoaster right before the first big drop. I can’t know if it’ll be tonight or later this week, but I thought you’d like the chance to see what we do.”
“You and your team of superheroes,” I added.
He chuckled. “Yeah.”
Once we snuck past the gate that Nathan pointed out looked like a castle gate, I led him across the short distance to his wizard tower and we set up watch there. I waited and watched for at least an hour before I got bored and looked over at Nathan. He sat on the ground with his back to the stone, rubbing his hands together. I tried, and failed, to hold back a smirk as I played with the bronze dragon hanging around my neck.
“You want my jacket?” I asked about an hour into our stakeout. “I don’t really need it.”
He narrowed his eyes at me, mouth twisting in a half-hearted scowl. “No thanks, it’s not really my color.”
I fell into my best flamboyant designer imitation. “Are you kidding? Purple would totally set off your green eyes! Honey, I must insist!”
As I stood to shrug out of my jacket, a sharp noise caught my attention just beyond the sparse trees around us. I froze, and Nathan leaned forward silently. There was movement, barely visible in the cloudy night, and the harsh growl of a language I didn’t know or even recognize. Which, in and of itself, was strange.
