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The soldier with her long brown hair up in a neat twist at the top of her head arched an eyebrow. “Will I meet someone tall, dark, and handsome?”
Her cynical shell sought to hide the genuine question behind humor, but the answer mattered to the soldier. Liliana risked a quick peek with her fourth eyes, making an extra fluttering motion with her hands to distract the strangers.
Will Sergeant Giovanni meet someone tall, dark, and handsome?
Images solidified of a very tall man with strong, memorable features that Liliana found exceptionally handsome. Scars marred the smooth, dark brown skin on one side of his face. On one temple, a few strands of wiry gray mixed with black in a military short haircut. On the other, his ear was lost in scars, and a white streak marred the neat black hair. He wore a U.S. Army colonel’s uniform, and he shook Sergeant Giovanni’s hand in a vision with the only slightly faded shading of the recent past.
“A tall, handsome man with dark hair and skin and a burn scar on his face is already part of your life. He is someone you respect, an officer.”
Liliana tilted her head, considering. This man intrigued her. The colonel’s handsome face shimmered slightly, a sign that it hid something else, something Other.
What is he?
Some years in the past, he walked in a dry, barren land, armed and careful. Sergeant Zoe Giovanni followed, guarding his back.
“You follow where he leads.”
A dying bush brushed the bare skin on the back of the colonel’s hand. The bush bloomed.
Oh.
Liliana blinked her fourth eyes in shock. To affect plants so profoundly with an unintentional touch, the colonel must be Sidhe, the royal Fae who had the strongest ties to the Green. She hadn’t thought there were any Sidhe on this continent, and yet, someone who obeyed a Sidhe sat across the table from her.
Her hands gesturing around the crystal ball faltered. Sidhe from the seelie day court were indirectly responsible for the near extinction of her species. She swallowed hard.
He is only a vision.
To keep from leaving a trail of blooming flowers and greening grass everywhere he went, a Fae with that level of power would have to suppress his aura constantly. That required an intense level of vigilant control.
Why does he hide his power?
Instead of looking for visions, Liliana thought about the veil over her head and the Normal woman with the passionate soul who sat across from her.
There are many good reasons to hide what you are.
For the merest moment, she considered telling Sergeant Giovanni what her tall, handsome colonel really was, but then winced at a scolding voice in her memory. “My daughter will be a woman of discretion, an ehemythos, not a tale-teller blaring the secrets of others as if she had the right.” Her fourth eyes helpfully supplied a glimpse of her father’s swarthy face, grim with anger.
“He has a will of iron,” Liliana said carefully. That was probably not a secret.
DoctorTeague nudged the sergeant with an elbow. “You gotta admit, Zoe, ‘a will of iron’ fits Colonel Bennet to a tee, and he’s tall, dark, and handsome with a burn scar on his face.”
“Oh, you think the colonel’s handsome, huh?” the sergeant teased. “Should I tell him about your crush? Should I warn Ben he’s got competition?”
Liliana shuddered, only half listening. This powerful Fae colonel must live right on the Fort Liberty Army base, mere blocks from her house. The vividness of his face in her vision indicated a high probability she would encounter him in person in the near future.
More visions of Sergeant Giovanni and the dangerous Fae colonel flashed rapidly in Liliana’s fourth vision. “You have served with him in many battles. He has killed to protect you, and you to protect him.” And in addition to possessing powerful magic, he is a formidable warrior.
While the spider-kin hated even the idea of moving away from the clients she had guarded for years and her cozy home and routine, Seattle had the advantage of being on the other side of the continent from the Sidhe.
These people followed him. Perhaps that had been the hint of danger she sensed earlier?
Detective Jackson raised her eyebrows. “Is all that accurate?” she asked the other two.
“All true,” the red-headed scientist confirmed.
The detective whistled low. “Impressive.”
“Forget about it.” Sergeant Giovanni waved a hand carelessly. “Anyone could listen to the scuttlebutt and know all kinds of things about our unit. Soldiers gossip like old ladies.”
