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The obsidian prince flattened his hand and waved it in a smoothing motion.
After a moment, the oak tree stilled, and the grass crept back across the disturbed ground. The suburban lawn was left greener, but otherwise the only sign the deadly Wolfhound had ever been there were a few scratches in the tree trunk.
In this possible future, the unseelie prince staggered and leaned against the tree for a moment. He shook his silver-crowned head as if to clear it.
Liliana tilted her head sideways in assessment and watched the unseelie prince for a moment more as he recovered from the costly earth magic.
What an interesting person.
Twice in visions, she had seen him kill, once to protect Sergeant Giovanni and now to protect Liliana’s favorite red wolf. She felt an odd thrill in her belly at the thought of her life path crossing more with his. Sidhe royalty of any court were always dangerous, but the unfamiliar sensation she experienced felt far more warm and tingly than fear.
She couldn’t help but see again the way his eyes once followed a drop of water into her modest cleavage, or that moment when he told her he wished he could believe her, a drop of rain dripping from his hat.
On the future night four days from now, Janice’s children would sleep undisturbed if the second vision she saw came to pass.
Next door, in the arms of his human beloved, Pete lay safely, unaware of the death he had narrowly avoided.
As she watched, warmed by the sweet scene of the two men cuddled together, a momentary flash of bloody horror interrupted the vision. Blood splattered the walls. Pete’s beloved lay on the bed staring at nothing from dead eyes, his chest ripped open, rib cage hollow, the blankets soaked in scarlet.
Pete fought like a madman, throwing the assassin through walls and hitting him with his furniture, but nothing he did could so much as muss the assassin’s fur beneath its magical protection. The Wolfhound laughed as he ripped into Pete’s throat with his claws.
Liliana blinked her fourth eyes, shuddering in horror, and the vision shifted back to the other possibility. Pete slept peacefully, his arms warmly embracing the man he loved.
Out in the Willoughbys’ yard next door, the crown of silver horns shrank into the colonel’s skull as the unseelie prince shifted back to his human form. The shimmering, translucent obsidian skin faded to deep, polished mahogany brown. Colonel Bennet nodded tightly, as if satisfied, and took a steadying breath. Slowly, with great effort, he straightened to his original knife-blade straight posture. Only a slight trembling in his hands betrayed the exhaustion his use of powerful magic caused.
The colonel was the key. If he survived his encounter with the Wolfhound assassin, Pete and his beloved would be fine. They would never even know they’d been in danger.
“Well, is he?” Janice asked the spider-kin when she could stand the suspense no longer.
Liliana blinked. “Is he what?”
“Is the Celtic wolf a danger to my children?” Janice asked again, fond exasperation in her tone.
“I see no danger to your children in the near future.” Liliana gave her best customer a sheepish smile. “I am sorry. I got a little lost in other times and possibilities.”
Janice sighed and sat back in the chair across from Liliana at the round table. “That’s a relief. I still don’t like having a red wolf spending so much time right next door though. And with Lou too.” Almost as an afterthought, she asked, “The werewolf won’t hurt my Lou, will he?”
Pete would not harm the shy rabbit-kin mechanic, but out of duty, Liliana looked for intersections between Lou Willoughby’s life path and Peter Teague’s.
A pack of wolf-kin, coyote-kin, and hyena-kin all in full canine form chased the rabbit-kin mechanic in his human form. The pack all wore black collars with embossed silver crowns. They were all members of the Order of the Wolfhound.
Pete ran on Lou’s heels in demi-wolf form. The red wolf was not one of the hunters, but a shield to the innocent rabbit, guarding his retreat with bared fangs, claws, a pistol, and knife after knife bouncing harmlessly off his enemies’ thick fur. He got the rabbit-kin to safety, then turned to face the wolf pack alone.
Pete fought valiantly, but his weapons and claws could not pierce the pack’s protective magic, nor could even his specially made bullets. The highly-trained assassins were skilled fighters and fought cooperatively. The red wolf didn’t stand a chance. While Liliana watched, Pete was torn to pieces.
Liliana slammed her fourth eyes shut and gagged, stomach heaving. She swallowed hard.
That vision had the overbright, washed-out colors of a future vision, several months ahead in time at least. The image flickered and faded in and out, as if it were not a likely future.
Reassured by that thought, she risked another look.
What are the alternative possibilities for that moment?
For Janice Willoughby, the other, more likely future was even worse. The Wolfhounds ripped her husband to bloody shreds with no one to protect him.
Liliana covered her mouth in horror.
If he defended the rabbit-kin, the beautiful red wolf would die, but Janice’s husband would die if he did not.
