Page 30

I followed her. She stopped by the window and closed the shutters. The sunflowers danced cheerily with each step, but something told me this whole story wasn’t going to end happily. Raina released a big sigh as she sat down on the sofa, then she patted the lumpy cushion next to her. I sat down.

“Why did you close the shutters?” I asked.

“You’re about to use your power, and we don’t need others to know it. The stone walls and wooden shutters should be enough to contain it.”

“I never considered my glitches as a power. I had one, an intense one just before the trio came to life. I was out at Dante Fell with a friend. Did that send a signal—you know—to the Regnas? That was when I saw my first wolf and then that awful man, Gunnar, grabbed me in the citrus grove.”

Raina’s face fell. “I had no idea they got that close to ya. Thank goodness you’re all right. And to answer your question, that probably triggered the attacks. Now I think you’ll understand more of this after you go back in time, to when you were still in the cradle. You’ll still have plenty of questions after your glitch.” She smiled at the phrase. “That works, actually. But I think you’ll get some answers firsthand, which is always best.” She’d been holding the mobile in her far hand. She carried it across her lap. “Go on, touch it. I’ll be right here afterward. I think you’ll need me.”

My fingers trembled as I reached across and touched one of the dangling sunflowers.

I wince at the sharp pain in my skull. My mind fogs and slowly comes into focus. I’m in—I’m in Raina’s cottage.

The fire flicks at the bottom of a large black tea kettle. A tray of sweets sits on a small table. Packages wrapped in brown paper and tied off with colorful cloth ribbon are piled around the tray of sweets. I stare up toward the roughly hewn wooden beams running across the cottage ceiling. My gaze is pulled to the colorful sunflowers dancing to the sounds of a bell. My mom’s violet blue eyes smile proudly down at me. She makes the beautiful sunflowers look drab and dreary.

“My sweet little punkin, many have come to see you.” Her face leaves my view, and a cry threatens to escape me. I want her back. There are many voices, gentle happy voices cooing about the pretty new baby.

A woman with round spectacles and a deep dimple on each chin stares down at me. She lifts a knitted blanket. It smells of lavender as she tucks it in around me. “I made this just for you, little Raphael.”

More faces appear but I look only for the one, for my mom’s face. The rumble of voices drops to a murmur and then silence. The crackling fire is the only noise in the room as another face appears. She has a green eye and a brown eye and both glitter with joy as she looks down at me. I still long only to see my mom’s face. I long to be in her arms and not on display in the cradle.

The room now is so quiet it seems even the fire has silenced itself. The woman with two different colored eyes lifts her long-fingered hand. Her skin is warm as she touches me on the cheek. The room is still silent. Her eyes close for a second, then she opens them. “Sassa, your little one has the great power to mind travel.” The announcement is met with mixed emotions.

“A mind traveler,” my mom says on a stunned whisper. “I didn’t expect that.”

“I had an aunt who was a mind traveler,” a voice speaks up in the room. “It was unsettling for her until she took control of the power. Then it came in quite handy.”

Mom seems satisfied with that. Her smile is back, but it’s far more wary than before.

The woman leans down again. She brushes her fingers along my arm and sucks in a shocked breath. “There is more,” she says rendering the room silent again. “Sassa, she is fated to a prince. She has been fated to the young Prince Granier of Solamere.”

Gasps and small excited conversations buzz through the room. I don’t care about any of it. I only want to see Mom and then she appears again with a guarded smile. She touches my arm. “You are special, punkin. That I knew long before Juno told us.”

The woman, Juno, leans over me again with her multi-colored eyes and her gentle smile. She touches me once more, and the smile fades. The wrinkles around her eyes deepen. “It cannot be,” she says in a muffled whisper that seems meant for no one else’s ears.

The room falls silent again, only this time it’s not with anticipation. It’s a silence that is fraught with tension.

“What is it, Juno?” The voice is familiar. Raina’s round face appears. “Is she not fated to the prince? That is not a bad thing. She will stay in Norvale with us, then.”

Juno shakes her head. “She is fated to Prince Granier of Solamere.” Juno pauses and the whole room seems to lean in waiting for her next words. “She is also fated to young Prince Fenrick of Regnamoor.”

The gasp around the room is so powerful it nearly draws the hearth flames toward it.

“You must be wrong,” Raina insists. “Try again. No one is double-fated. It can’t work.”

Juno’s face drops. She looks down at me now with sympathy. “You’re right, Raina, it cannot work.” She looks up. My mom is there now, holding a hand to her chest. “My prophecy is correct. Raphael is double-fated.”

“But what does that mean?” Mom asks through tears.

Juno shakes her head grimly. Conversations buzz through the room again, only instead of sounding merry and excited, now they are somber and sorrowful. With everyone’s attention taken from the cradle, another woman comes up to see me. She is elderly with long, gnarled fingers and a bonnet tied over soft gray curls. Young green eyes gaze out from a face deep with craggy lines.

A jolt of fear grabs me, and I can’t cry or scream. “So, you’re Sassa’s little one?” She leans closer, and I want to cry out and alert someone that this woman is too near. “Juno has laid bare your terrible double fate, so I probably needn’t have made the trip. You’ll no doubt be put to death.” Her face morphs momentarily to someone much younger, someone who fits the green eyes. “Still, I’ve been sent by King Vestrun, your great-uncle, to give you one last gift. I cannot remove your mind traveling power, but I can limit it so it is all but useless. For future travel you will be limited to a mere five seconds and for traveling back in time⁠—”

“It’s Morga!” someone screams. “Morga is here!”

Chaos follows and the woman nearly knocks over the cradle in her escape. She laughs loudly as she leaves. “Double-fated. Your little one is doomed, Sassa.” She is gone, and the room is full of fury and fear.

I rested back with my eyes closed. Fatigue had wrung out all my muscles. Thankfully, the sharp pain in my head had diminished to a dull thud.