“Oh, my dear girl.” She rubbed my back, rocking me like she had when I was a small child. That only caused me to sob harder than ever.
The dream had been more like a memory than a nightmare. After a few minutes, I finally managed to get myself under control and release Gran from my death grip.
“June, baby, what happened? Are you okay?” she asked, brushing my hair back from my forehead.
I nodded as I wiped my nose on my sleeve. “I had a nightmare.” I thought about it for a second, then added, “It actually felt likemorethan a nightmare.”
“Tell me about it,” she said, rubbing her hand across my forearm.
I groaned. “Let’s get off the floor.”
I helped her up, and we both sat on my bed. I hugged my knees to my chest while she leaned back against my headboard, waiting for me to start speaking. I hadn’t told my grandparentseverythingthat had happened in Hidden Grove. All they knew was that I’d gone into the forest to find Leviathan Cross, so he could teach me to shift. As far as I knew, they assumed the legend himself had helped me access my inner wolf, and then I’d returned home. How did I tell them more had happened?
“I dreamed about a woman dying,” I said, deciding to be vague instead of delving into my sex life with my grandmother. “She was a real woman, though. A person who lived a long time ago, here in Idlewild. I think I’ve been dreaming of her death. Is that crazy?”
Rather than laughing it off and easing my fears, Gran chewed at her lower lip and looked out the window, deep in thought.
“Uh…itiscrazy, right?” I said, hoping to get her to agree with my assessment.
“Hmm,” she said. “I wish your grandfather was here.”
“Huh?” I frowned at her, wondering if I was still asleep. This was surreal, like a continuing dream.
She gave me a sad smile. “He went on an early run. He doesn’t sleep well anymore and likes to go into the woods to run off the excess energy.”
“Gran, what would Grandpa have to say about this? You aren’t making any sense.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, shaking her head. “Your grandfather might have more insight because his side of the family had a touch of the sight.”
Shifters had many gifts. Of course there was the ability to shift into our animal form, and the bond we had with our inner creatures, but we had enhanced healing as well as the ability to reincarnate in new bodies—though from the stories I’d heard, reincarnations were normally a shadow of the person deep inside a new personality, not a true reincarnation like Levi believed. Along with those more well-known attributes, there were other gifts that only blessed a small portion of shifters. One being the sight, a skill that allowed some of us to see things from the past. It was rarer than most of the others, typically passed down from certain bloodlines. Grandpa’s family had been known for the gift, but over the years, its strength had faded. His father had been the first to have the gift in nearly ahundred years, and so far, Grandpa had shown no hints of it in all his years. Though, that never stopped Grandpa from joking and saying he knew when I did something wrong because of the sight. I’d never even entertained the idea that I might have it.
“Are you saying this might have beenmorethan a dream?” I said, unsure if I was relieved to know I wasn’t imagining things or scared that I might be seeing the past while I was asleep.
“Perhaps.” Gran shrugged. “Discovering your ability to shift this late may have also unlocked some other gifts. Who is the woman, anyway? If it was in the past, I might have heard of her.”
If my dream reallywasa vision of the past, and not just some fantasy brought on by my relationship with Levi and his obsession with Naphele, then it sounded like Levi had been accused of murdering her. I could still hear that accusing voice at the end of my dream. Everyone in town had obviously forgotten about an alpha’s dead mate after a hundred years. Shifters lived longer than humans, sure, but not that much longer. There might be, at most, a half dozen of the oldest members of the pack who might have been alive back then, and nearly all of them would have been children at the time. That didn’t mean I wanted to stir up old crimes, especially not with Levi staying in town for who knew how long. We’d had a falling out, but that didn’t mean I wanted him to get arrested for a crime he never committed.
“Gran, I need to go see someone,” I said.
“June, you’re worrying me,” Gran said, patting my knee. “It’s not even five in the morning yet. Anyone you need to see is probably asleep. Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine, yeah,” I said as I got up and tugged on my jeans.
When I bent to slip my shoes on, the infinity necklace dangled down, catching my eye.
“Gran?”
“Yes, dear?”
“Could…uhm, could the sight maybe channel things? Like through personal items? Could that let me see what someone else saw?”
She thought about it, then nodded slowly. “You’d really need to ask your grandfather, but I think I’ve heard that. Items of heavy significance could possibly be used to focus the power and see specific things. Is that what you mean?”
What if therewasa trace of that old magic within me? It would be useful in figuring out who killed Naphele. If that’s what it really was, and if I could learn to control it, that is. Why would it start now, though? Why not when I was younger?
Reaching up, I fingered the necklace, running my finger across the delicate chain. “Yeah. I’ll talk to Grandpa when he gets home, but first I need to go see someone.”
57
