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Since this was Saldana’s show, I sat back while he performed the introductions

Twila studied ht her Fascinating" In her eyes I saw she already knew reat and s at your aura"

I sed Quite uncomfortable to have your secrets laid bare "Do I?"

"You fear your gift," she went on "You fear everything you touch will turn to ash"

It always does, sooner or later

"Such a long shadow, falling on you year after year" I glimpsed distance in her eyes then, as if she saw beyond the office walls "It shaped what has been and ill be, but you can part your path froht choices"

Colorto tell me what those are"

To my surprise, she shook her head "Only you can decide your course, child Seldoent futures One is dark indeed But this o did not act of their own volition They too were shadow-touched"

I felt raw, exposed, but I had to ask "You’re saying so made them want to hurt my mother?"

"Suspicion and jealousy, mere embers fanned to violent life Yes If you want the truth, you must return to Kilmer"

I shuddered Before, there had rehtto iifted secret society But my skepticism dissolved There was no orthodox way she could know about e via any ritual I recognized According to my mother’s books, a spell like that took tis?"

With a faint, feral s more for free If you expect lanced at Saldana, who sat beside me quiet and ier toward me "Read this and tell me what you see"

So it would be a sacrifice, after all

Though it ers around the blade, braced for the pain It ca, red waves, worse than usual, and by the tio, I felt sick The knife clattered to the desk

"You used it to kill a h the heart"

Her gaze flickered to the cop besidewhether she could be arrested on that basis alone "Soue with that, as I wrapped lass Jesse reached for my hand and I don’t knohy I let him take it, possibly because he could feel my nausea and pain For a et you some ice," he said, and left me alone with her

"You are real" Her tone reflected a peculiar sort of wonder "People would kill to make use of you" That much I knew "I’ve only h, so his talent didn’t carry the same price"

"Lucky him," I muttered "How come it sucks so much for me?" It was mostly a rhetorical question

I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to call on this ability effortlessly No pain No fire Some normal

She seemed to think I really wanted an answer "Think of it this way Your power doesn’t co a limb where the transplant didn’t quite take That’s why it wounds you"

An unexpected quirk of the spell--I can’t iine my mother meant for me to suffer I don’t think she wanted ed object, but soood witch can’t foresee I’d probably never knoent wrong in her final uess there’s no cure for that"

"I’m afraid not"

Saldana returned with a dishcloth full of ice, which I took He sank down beside me, somehow expectant Then I realized I should tell her about the sending Perhaps she could shed sos Quickly I summarized the details

"Unfortunately, I’m not the one to ask Like yours, my ability doesn’t rely on ritual"

"You have the Sight?"

"That’s one word for it In exchange for certaintribute, the Loa let me see threads of fate It’s notlinear, as you know it, and not entirely reliable I see the larger patterns in play, forces influencing the balance" The light glazed her dusky skin, ht "It hasn’t been this bad since the Black Death"

A chill ran over me, deadthe ability to see as Twila did

"Do you knohat’s causing it?"

"I could speculate" She tilted her head, cast a ful look at Saldana "To find your eneht She’ll knoho could "