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“It is possible. Let me look.” With a feeling of dread, she opened her fourth eyes again to look into the life path of Pete and his other allies.
Sergeant Giovanni had narrowly avoided one death at the hands of the widow spiders, only to walk blithely toward another. “Sergeant Giovanni, who is also Pete’s friend, has at least three possible deaths waiting for her, one very soon. In two weeks.”
Colonel Bennet, the handsome Fae prince who had killed a Wolfhound to protect Pete would be dead in less than a year. His entire identity was wrapped in secrets, so Liliana didn’t say anything about him out loud. Seeing him die sent a jerk to her belly that made her fight not to throw up her lunch.
She swallowed, then said, “Detective Jackson will die within days, the same time as Sergeant Giovanni. Or Pete might die trying to protect her from an Other killer.” Detective Jackson had been with Sergeant Giovanni and Pete when they accused Liliana of murder, but she refused to believe Liliana was guilty with no evidence other than Liliana being spider-kin. The detective had been the only one who believed in Liliana’s innocence.
Janice sat down on the coffee table facing Liliana. “Wow. That’s a lot of murder all of a sudden.”
So much death.
Liliana shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself. “I have not seen so many images of people dying all at once since I lost two of my three parents, two brothers, one sister, and all their families in the same year. And that was when Nazis were killing everyone.”
“These are all the red wolf’s friends, though. You know werewolves are trouble, and Celtic wolves even more than most. I hope Ben is safe.”
A quick glance showed no near danger to Ben Harper, the Normal teacher who owned Pete’s heart. “Ben is not involved in most of what I see. He should be all right.” Although, he would have died, too, if she and Colonel Bennet hadn’t already slain the first Wolfhound.
Janice bit her lip. “Are you in any danger yourself?”
Even knowing that it was a question she probably did not want to see the answer to, Liliana looked into her future. She saw a dozen different deaths. Each vision was flickery like a candle flame in the wind, shifting with uncertainty, but they all involved Pete in one way or another. “Yes, the more I am involved in Pete’s life, the more ways I might die.”
She closed all her eyes, overwhelmed. Clearly, becoming Pete’s ally had a detrimental effect on one’s life expectancy.
“Madame Anna, I know you’ve always been the one to give me advice, but it sounds like being Pete’s friend is really dangerous. He doesn’t think you’re a killer anymore, so he shouldn’t bother you.” Janice patted her knee. “Maybe you’d be better off just going back to the way things were?”
Liliana considered Janice’s advice. If the spider seer went back to her old life, to watching the future of Others, guiding them safely around obstacles, and staying out of the larger affairs of the Other community in North Carolina, she would probably live a lot longer.
“Pete and all my new friends would die.” Her life would go back to being routine, boring, and lonely. “I do not want to be alone anymore.”
Janice squeezed her knee and nodded. “I didn’t even think about how lonely you must get never talking to anyone who doesn’t pay you.”
“I am also unwilling to be the kind of person who sees danger to my friends coming and does nothing.” Even if it meant increasing her probability of meeting an untimely end. That was not the child her three brave warrior parents raised. That was not the woman she wanted to see in the mirror. “Also, Pete trusts me.”
To her surprise, Liliana concluded that being worthy of that trust was more important to her than anything else, including increasing the likelihood of her survival.
Janice nodded and sat back. “I respect that. Okay, then. Is there anything you can do to help?”
Having saved Pete from the certain death she’d seen a few days before, Liliana felt confident that she could change the dark futures she saw, although it might cost her own life. “Changing fate is always dangerous. I must be careful, or I could make things even worse.”
“Worse, how?” Janice asked. “Could something happen to other people?”
That was a disturbing thought. “Other people may already be in danger.” Liliana had spent decades keeping her clients safe and guiding them toward happiness. Her clients made up a fair percentage of the Others in Fayetteville, and even a small percentage of the Normal humans. “I only looked at my friends’ futures.”
Is this tide of death focused, or will it harm more people I watch over as well?
Her fourth eyes showed her an ugly chain reaction, pushing outward like ripples spreading in a lake of blood. “Oh.”
“What is it, Madame Anna?” Janice bit the cuticle on her thumb.
“If Doctor Nudd dies, then Pete dies, then Sergeant Giovanni and Detective Jackson die, then everyone those two police women, military and civilian, might have protected dies or has awful things happen to them with no one to stop it. This could be devastating to all of Fayetteville.” The fate of her entire community was tangled with the fate of her friends.
“Where is all this coming from all of a sudden?” Janice got up and paced back and forth in Liliana’s small living room. “You and Ben’s man, Pete, stopped the ones who were killing those soldiers. That should have made us all safer.”
Janice was right. Wiping out the widow spiders should have stopped the red tide of violent death, not made the situation worse.
Why is everyone still in so much danger? What did we miss?
Another quick flash of the two military women being executed from behind made her shiver. They must be key in some way.
