Page 42 of A Seer and Present Danger

Me, standing with a fire extinguisher in my hand, looking terrified

Me, holding a roll of plastic wrap like it was a weapon

Me, running in the dark trying to find a phone

The futures carried an emotional wallop–fear and raw determination.

In each future, I was doing everything I could to make sure the outcome didn’t turn into a disaster.

“You okay?” Joanie’s hand fell on my arm.

The futures faded away.

I laughed a little, trying to shake off the emotions from the visions. “Just, you know, it’s been a long week.”

“Oh.” Realization crossed her face. Joanie was a nature spirit and unlike Kenny who was human, she knew about the supernaturals in town.

I knew her mostly as Fawn’s friend, or, as Sage liked to point out, the woman Fawn had a huge crush on and who Fawn was too (uncharacteristically) timid to ask out on a date.

“You had a disaster recently, too, didn’t you?” she asked.

“Hugo? Yeah, that was bad.”

“Hugo?” Kenny narrowed his eyes. “Were you there?”

“Yes. I found him. Outside the diner.”

“Did he have…anything on him?” Kenny asked.

“Like what?”

Kenny shrugged, but he was sweating. “He was always taking things from the shop and not telling me.”

“That’s right,” I said, “you’re counting inventory. What are you missing?”

Kenny froze. It was like watching an old-school computer boot up (slow and blank-screened).

Then he kicked into action.

“I’m not missing anything. If you’re not buying, I have work to do.”

He stormed into the back of the shop and stabbed a button on a boombox that looked like it came out of the ’70s.

Loud—very loud—country music crackled and twanged.

Joanie raised her eyebrows, and I pressed my fingers over my mouth because, wow, that was a mood change.

We left the store and had to get several feet from the door before the music faded.

“I didn’t mean to upset him,” Joanie said.

“Oh, you didn’t, I did. Say, have you asked Gabriel at the lock shop about the safe?”

“Yes, I ran it by him, but he didn’t recognize the type of safe, just that it was very old. I thought Kenny might have seen something like it since he’s…”

“Scummy?” I suggested, then laughed at her grin. “Sorry, that was impolite.”

“No, you nailed it. He’s scummy. Did you know he tried to haggle Crow out of half of the stuff in that big garage sale?”