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I lean back and look up at the blue sky. “Don’t worry. Thanks for trying anyway.”
I let my gaze wander, watching joggers pass us by and people walking their dogs. It’s really nice here. So peaceful. It’s hard to imagine anything tragic happening here.
Kate looks tense. She doesn’t seem ready to give up. She stares straight ahead with a concentrated expression.
“It’s okay,” I say, putting my arm around her shoulders. “It didn’t work, but it was good of you to...”
I don’t get to finish my sentence because it suddenly feels as if I’m being pulled into something. I feel a stabbing pain in my stomach. The world around me melts and draws together into a single point. I don’t know what’s happening to me, but my heart is racing, and my whole body is racked with fear. A kind of veil is drawn across my field of view, and although the sounds are muted in my ears, echoing strangely, I can see the people in front of me so clearly that I recognize them instantly.
Chapter 19
Just listen to me for once!” Frida shouts with clenched fists.
It’s a strange feeling, hearing her speak for the first time and actually seeing her in motion. Her face is pale, and there are dark circles under her eyes. But her eyes spark with a kind of anger and energy I never imagined.
“I’ve done that so many times. Too many times, I realize now. But now you’ve gone too far with this insanity,” Charles complains.
He’s angry too; that’s plain to see. But my focus is on the woman at his side. She’s slim, wearing a long blue dress with little white flowers on it. Her blonde hair is tied in an elegant knot. Her pale brown eyes look kind, although right now there’s a confused expression in them. She’s holding his hand and looking at Frida in bewilderment. This woman seems strangely familiar to me, and then the penny drops: the photo in the newspaper clipping. Patricia Morgan, the artist Frida suspected of being a goddess of destiny. She’s Charles’ girlfriend...
“It’s not insanity. Yes, I may have been mistaken a couple of times, but now I’m sure. I have proof.”
Frida opens the bag she’s wearing on her shoulder to takesomething out of it, but Charles waves his hand dismissively.
“You were sure every other time too. How did that go again?Patty’s cheating on you with one of her colleagues. Oh, wait, that’s not true. It’s not him, but she’s cheating on you with someone else. No, that’s not right, but don’t worry, now I have another accusation that I can explain totally plausibly.Frida, you’re crazy! Do you even know what you’re doing? You’re stalking my girlfriend. Do you realize how sick that is?”
“I know it must sound crazy. But you’re in great danger, believe me. Yes, some of my assumptions proved incorrect. I didn’t want to have to say all this in front of her. But it’s true, she’s no Noctu. She’s something else entirely.” She glances at the woman, who looks totally stunned. Frida draws herself up as if gathering her courage and says, “She’s a goddess of destiny. Please believe me! She’s just spying on you and using you for her own evil purposes. Charles, if you consider what I’m saying, a lot of things will start to make sense.”
He raises his eyebrows, and for a while, he’s lost for words. “You’re completely out of your mind, Frida.”
“Listen,” Charles’ girlfriend begins in a steady voice. “I don’t know why you can’t stand me and why you’re accusing me of all these... weird things. I’m not a... what did you call it?” She looks to Charles for help. “Some kind of goddess, and I’m sorry that you think you have to invent things like this to try and turn Charles against me. But take it from me, I love him, and I’m not going to break up with him, no matter what accusations you throw at me.” In a gentler voice, she adds, “I can guess the reasons for your behavior.” She takes a step toward Frida and extends her hand. “And I’m sorry that your feelings aren’t reciprocated. I know how painful that can be. Please, let’s bury the hatchet and start over. What do you say?”
Frida stares at her for a moment and then leaps back, yelling, “You can’t lull me into a false sense of security with that drivel. Iknow exactly what you are. You’re a monster, do you hear me?! A monster. And I know what you’re planning to do.”
Light begins to flash around Frida – a hex.
At that moment, the image wavers, blurs in front of me, becomes so murky that I can’t make anything out. There’s a rushing in my ears, and for a moment, I feel as if I’m being pulled back to the present, but then Kate seems to capture the vision again after all – because this can’t be anything else.
The scene I’m now looking at takes my breath away and freezes my blood in my veins. This can’t be happening. It just can’t be...
Charles’ girlfriend is lying face down on the ground. Her clothes are soaked in blood, and there’s a huge pool of blood around her. All around us, I see signs of damage caused by flying hexes. It’s obvious that some unimaginable force was at work here, which completely discharged itself. It must have happened fast. It appears that Charles had no time to launch a counterattack.
He’s standing by his girlfriend’s body, staring down at her numbly. He’s pale, and his hands are shaking.
Frida goes to him. At her side is the dog from the photo, which is now enormous, with sharp fangs. It’s covered in blood. I can see that Frida is really tense. But what’s worse is the blood spatter on her clothing and her deranged appearance. Her top and pants are frayed in places, and dirty, and her hair is disheveled. It’s obvious that she’s just been in a fight. There’s a strange gleam in her eyes that makes her look insane.
“Please, Charles!” She turns to him with outstretched hands as if he were a wounded animal. “Don’t do anything rash. You know what will happen if you tell anyone about this. Don’t do it, do you hear me? Let this be our secret.”
She takes another tentative step toward him and puts her hand on his forearm, which makes him flinch in fright. It’s almost as if he was unaware of her until that moment – and maybe that’s true.
“We’re a team; we always were, and this doesn’t change that,” she said.
I’m not sure why he does it. Maybe he’s afraid of her, or she has something else on him. But eventually he nods and says, “Yes, it was an accident.”
Frida smiles, and then the scene blurs again. I gasp and almost fall of the bench. I’m still breathing fast, and it takes me a while to realize that the vision is over and I’m back in the here and now. I look at Kate, who’s still sitting on the bench looking very pale, almost corpse-like.
She slowly turns to me and asks, “You saw that too, right?”
I nod. The fact that I was able to share her vision is extraordinary in and of itself.
