She cast her eyes down, twisting her fingers together as she shifted from foot to foot. Usually, I found her fidgeting cute, but with so much weighing on me, I had a hard time not shouting at her to get on with whatever it was she wanted to tell me.
“I’ve been having visions,” she said at last.
“Excuse me?” I frowned, unsure I’d heard her correctly.
“Dreams,” she said. “Dreams that I think are actually visions of things that have happened in the past. My grandfather’s side of the family was gifted with the sight. It’s when?—”
“I know what it is, June,” I said quickly, though not unkindly. “Why didn’t you ever tell me about this?”
She shrugged, flinging her arms out and letting them flop back at her sides. “It never came up. I’d never had anything resembling the gift, and neither did my grandfather. I had no reason to mention it when I’d shown no hint of being able to see anything. Gran thinks that becoming a shifter so late caused some deeper magical gifts to come out.”
“Okay, okay,” I said, pinching the bridge of my nose. “What the hell does this have to do with me?”
Again, she paused before speaking, taking a moment to avert her eyes. “I saw…uh…you and Naphele. Back then. Before she died.”
An icy cold clutched at my heart.
“Youwhat?” I said, gaping at her.
“It’s worse than that,” she whispered. “I, um, saw her the night she died. I watched the attack happen.”
As the words slammed into me, my knees became like jelly, and I had to reach out, grabbing a tree to steady myself.
“You…you saw it?” My voice was thick with emotion, my head spinning.
For a century, I’d wanted to know who had killed the woman I love. To this day, there were still mornings when I woke up in a cold sweat from nightmares about holding Naphele as she died.
The horror and shock vanished, and unmitigated rage swept in to replace it. I took a step forward, and the look on my face must have been terrifying, because June took a quick step back as if she thought I was going to hurt her.
“Who was it! Tell me,” I shouted, barely able to contain myself, even though I knew deep down whoever had done it was most likely long dead. It didn’t change the fact that I needed closure.
“I don’t know,” June said, holding her hands up as if to ward me off.
Her reaction forced me to calm myself. Hands still quivering in clenched fists, I took a few deep breaths, shoving my emotions back, burying them so that I could function and not scare June.
“Okay,” I said, moderating my voice but still speaking through clenched teeth. “Do you at least have a description?”
“It was dark, and it happened fast,” she said. “They were in their wolf form, and there were no distinct markings.”
Nodding, I pressed my fist against my mouth, doing my best not to bite down on the flesh of my knuckles. My wolfwantedto bite something, to tear and rend flesh and make whoever had killed Naphele scream until blood burst from their lungs.
“Why are you telling me this?” I whispered.
“I have a theory,” she said slowly. “Would you like to hear it?”
“Go ahead,” I grunted, old thoughts and memories flooding through my head.
“We did that ritual with Rainier. That was when I had my first visions of Naphele. I saw lots of stuff, like the day you gave her this,” she said and touched the necklace. I barely held back a sob; I recalled that day so well. So long ago, but it seemed like yesterday in some ways.
“When it was done, it didn’t feel like I was her reincarnation, but like I’d made some sort of contact with her. I thinkshegave me those visions. I think she’s stuck in some sort of limbo, unable to reincarnate until her murder is solved.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Why else would she keep showing me her death? I had another vision of it tonight. I think she’s telling me we need to find out who killed her. Then, maybe, she can be at peace, and finally reincarnate. You two can…uh…finally be together, since I know that’s what you really want.”
“She could be showing you that because she’s within you,” I said, unable to help myself. A small part of me still desperately hoped that was true.
June shook her head, letting out a humorless chuckle. “We’ve been over this, Levi. The ritual?—”
