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“But I thought the meditating thing stopped working?”
“Not exactly.” I searched the waiting room for a directory of some kind. “The more I ignored my visions, the stronger they became. But I haven’t been ignoring them. Not since he moved out.”
She arched an eyebrow. “So, you think it will work again?”
“It’s worth a shot,” I said, wringing my hands. “I’ll try anything at this point.”
Shado pressed her lips into a thin line. “Alright. Just don’t get your hopes up, okay? It might not work.”
“I know, but I’m not afraid of the vision anymore,” I said. “I’ve seen it a hundred times in the last few hours, I won’t flinch if I have to see it again.”
Shado’s eyebrows drew together as she processed what I said. “The blood. Oh god, Bex, that had to be—”
“Horrible, but if he survives, then it was worth it.”
She grabbed me by the sleeve and towed me out of the waiting room and through a door I hadn’t noticed before. “The chapel is down this way.”
On the other side, the hospital fell silent.
“How do you know where the chapel is?” I asked in shock. Shado had never been religious in her entire life.
“You’ve met my sister, right?” She chuckled. “I’ve lost track of how many times Freya’s shown up at my door, shot or stabbed. I would bring her here to get patched up. Sometimes it takes a while, so I wander. I’ve seen more of this hospital than half the doctors that work here.”
She stopped in front of a wood paneled alcove and pointed inside. I looked and, sure enough, there was a small door with a cross embossed in the wood. “Wow, thanks.”
“Happy to help,” she said as I pushed open the door.
The chapel itself was simple. Clean tan walls, crucifix at the altar, and six polished pews on either side of the room. All of which were empty. I walked up and around the front pew, picking a spot out along the wall to sit on the floor. I could hear Jackson’s voice telling me that sitting on the ground helped you connect better to the earth.
“How do you do that?” Shado asked.
I paused mid-crouch and found her standing at the door. “Do what?”
“How do you just stride into a church without flinching?” She inched her way into the room. Her eyes scanned every surface but the crucifix. “I always feel like I’m gonna get struck by lightning or something. You know, after that wholethou shall not suffer a witch to livething.”
“Viktor was religious.” I shrugged, folding my legs under me. “He used to take me to church with him every Sunday.”
“Really? Wow.” She nodded, sitting down next to me. “I never would have guessed. He always seemed so pro-witch.”
“He was, but he also had this thing about repenting for our failures. I don’t know, it doesn’t matter,” I said, shaking the tension from my shoulders. “Have you ever meditated before?”
“Not really, I’m more into Pilates than yoga.” She smiled. “The whole twisting yourself into a pretzel thing just never seemed fun to me.”
I rolled my eyes. “All you have to do is sit still, and let the tension out of your body. Just let it all go.”
“Sounds easy.”
“The hard part is staying focused, and not falling asleep. I struggled with that when I first started,” I said, closing my eyes. I let my hands lay on my lap and inhaled to the count of four.
Shado shifted next to me, bumping her knee against mine, and took an exaggerated breath. It was exactly what I’d done the first time Jackson convinced me to give meditation a try. She couldn’t sit still. Two minutes in, I had to grab her knee to keep it from bouncing.
“Sorry. You know what, I’m gonna go sit at the back of the chapel, let you have some space,” she said, and then she was gone.
I didn’t open my eyes, but I knew she’d pulled her phone out to play a game of some kind. I could hear her fingers clicking away, and that was fine. Shado wasn’t the type to sit still and focus on anything for more than a few seconds.
Refocusing, I turned my attention inward, and started taking White-Out to the world. I erased the tension of the case. I smoothed over watching Jackson almost die in my arms, and everything else that reared its head when I pushed the other things aside. When the darkness of my world finally disappeared, I tugged every happy memory I had of Jackson out of the depths of my mind.
I laid them out in front of me one by one and shaped them into bricks of titanium. Shining and perfect, they made the fortress that would keep my visions at bay. My love for Jackson would protect me. Any vision I had would have to beat its way through the day we met, the day he first said he loved me, all of it.
