1
EMMA
The house wasdark except for the flickering light coming from the candles in a circle around us on the floor. Daniel gripped my hand, squeezing it every so often as if to remind me that everything was okay. Deep down, I already knew that.
Deep, deep down. Like, the core of the earth deep.
Even so, we weren’t summoning demons or any scary stuff like that. All this was set up so that Alice could have an easier time harnessing her visions. When we finished, she might be able to tell me who was coming for my powers, if we were very lucky and the stars aligned and whatnot. Now, we had to wait for Alice and Henry to join us, and we could begin.
“It’s going to be okay,” Daniel said in a low voice. Not the low, growly one when he’d go all protective bear to keep us safe, nor the low one he used in the bedroom. No, this was his capable-strong-man voice. The voice he used when he wanted me to know that he was here for me, no matter what, and not even ghosts and goblins could separate us.
I loved that voice, so I smiled at him. “I know. I —” Something moved beyond the light, in the shadows by the doorway. I couldn't stop a small shriek before realizing it was Alice and my brother. Geez, why was I so jumpy tonight?
Sure, life had been crazy, culminating in Alice having a vision saying someone was coming to take my powers. I hadn’t had them all that long. It wasn’t like I’d been born with them. Even still, I sure as heck didn’t want to give them up, either. Especially not to someone who thought they could take them from me.
Henry gave me a small smile, realizing he’d scared me, but I was busy trying to get my heart to beat normally so I stared at him. His black hair, the same shade as mine, was a little longer these days. He liked his hair to look the same all the time, but the length was nice on him. It drew attention to his bright blue eyes, also the same shade as mine. When our gazes caught, for a second I wondered if my eyes were as noticeable in the candlelight as his.
Heck, I hoped so.
“Everything looks right,” Alice said, studying the circle of candles with a frown.
She didn’t want to do this. She didn’t like her visions, and so especially didn’t like trying to bring one on, but I appreciated her doing this for me. “Thank you,” I told her, and we both knew I wasn’t thanking her for her words.
Tonight, she wore a gray cardigan with the top button undone and a skirt with flowers reaching below her knee. Her auburn hair was pulled back into her typical bun, and her sneakers looked like she’d colored them herself. After a second I realized they were cartoons from her favorite TV show. As she sat across from me, she stretched out her skirt, then Henry plopped down beside her.
“We have to hold hands,” Alice said. My brother wasn’t the biggest fan of being touched. She was likely trying to stay calm by going through the steps of this process.
To my surprise, Henry took her hand before flashing another one of his small smiles. Daniel reached for his hand, and Henry flinched away.
“Sorry,” my big bear said, those green eyes of his filling with regret. He frequently worried about inadvertently doing something that might throw a wrench in their close relationship. The last thing Daniel wanted was any kind of strife with my brother.
Henry recovered quickly, letting it go, which was difficult for him. “It’s okay. I’m okay. We need to do this for Alice’s visions and to help Emma.” He reached out, and they took each other’s hands. Daniel held back this time, making it more like Henry was taking Daniel’s hand rather than vice versa.
That man was…chef’s kiss. Perfect.
Alice nodded and looked at me with more than a little fear in her gaze. “I don’t like my visions.”
I didn’t know what to say. I already knew that. I squeezed her hand and gave her the most sympathetic smile I could. Alice couldn’t have made it clearer that she hated them. A huge part of the reason that she didn’t like to be around a lot of people was that she was more likely to have visions. Another one of the many reasons she loved my brother so much was because she felt safe with him. He’d never given her a vision. We weren’t sure why. He’d told me he suspected it was because he was always very open and honest with her all the time.
“As you guys know, my mother, Maria, is a witch.” She took a deep breath like this was a script she’d rehearsed, and she wanted to get it right. “No one in our family has been particularly powerful. Mom is good with plants, like her mother before her, and her mother before her. When she married my father, they believed that I'd be more human than witch. When, as a young girl, I started having visions, they weren’t sure what to believe.”
She sucked in a deep breath and looked up for a second before continuing. “They sought out help. Everyone knows about Cyrene Whisper.”
I didn’t, but I kept my mouth shut because even as I thought the words, Alice explained who the woman was.
“She was a witch with the most powerful premonitions of all witches in Mystic Hollow until her death. Her daughter, Brielle Whisper, was known for her premonitions as well, so she taught me a few tools. Tools that help me avoid my visions. Tools to help me understand them when they come.” She looked at me with that fear in her eyes again. “And tools to force them to come, if needed. Until her murder, she was my guide. The one person in Mystic Hollow who understood how I felt.”
Geez. Were Cyrene and Brielle both dead?
Alice paused again but didn’t start again. She was struggling. I squeezed her hand, my heart aching. “If this is too much for you, you don’t have to—”
She shook her head. “I’ve done a lot to avoid my visions, but Brielle always taught me that there's a big difference between avoiding unnecessary stress from unwanted visions and using my gift when needed. Right now, my visions are needed, so the last thing I want to do is run away from them.”
Henry nodded solemnly. “She’s this brave in our video games too.”
Daniel grinned. “I believe it.” He was actually impressed. I’d seen him scream while playing a game with my brother before because trolls attacked them.
Literally, scream. Not just while playing around with Henry. The man was braver in a real fight than he was in a video game.
