Page 36 of High Noon

“And I have not broken your trust once. If anything, I have given more trust than you deserve to receive from me.”

He was right. “I’m sorry.”

“This will allow you to share your vision with Maru. I know you’re in pain, Eve, but can you lean forward and rest your forehead against his?”

I nodded. The pain in my shoulder was nothing compared to what I felt in my soul. I didn’t want to show Maru what I’d seen, yet I couldn’t fathom keeping it from him. I trusted Maru. Maybe he could somehow figure out how to prevent it from happening, and in the process, save me.

We bumped foreheads as I clumsily slumped forward. “Are you okay?” Maru said, his eyes looking up to meet mine.

“I’m fine. Sorry about that.”

“Close your eyes,” Kohana ordered.

He asked Hotah to sit opposite him and the two brothers began to chant words that seemed both lyrical and beautiful. “Eve, let your mind focus on the vision. Do not think of anything but what you saw.”

How could I not think of it?

I let the scene overwhelm my senses until I was there again. Until I saw Kohana floating in the spring. Until Hotah was dead. Until I left to hunt Enoch.

When I couldn’t take the intensity of the vision anymore, I opened my eyes.

Maru slowly opened his and sat back.

“Did you see anything?” I asked, looking between Maru, Kohana, and Hotah.

“My God,” Maru breathed.

I lost it. I tore my hand out of the leather band and pushed myself up to stand. My head swam, but I couldn’t stay there another moment. Couldn’t stand to see him look at me that way.

“Eve!” Maru shouted.

“Leave me alone!” Swiping tears, I stumbled down a small knoll.

He caught up to me as the ground evened out again. “Hey,” he said, touching my elbow.

“Hey? That’s all you got? It’s all My God and then Hey?” I fumed.

“Don’t run from me,” he warned. “You may be faster, but I have the stubbornness to match. I’ll chase you to the ends of the earth.”

“You would, you jerk. I know you would.”

“Then save us both the drama and stop running away,” he challenged. “Face me, and this, head on. Like a warrior.” He lifted his head. “You and me? We’ve never met a problem we couldn’t tackle. True, this one might be the biggest we’ve had, even bigger than traveling through time, or falling for your target, or the small issue of going home and what we face in our time. This is huge, but it’s vital that we figure this out, because all those things hover around you. They affect you. The girl in the vision? She was you. We can’t lose you like that. I can’t lose you… like that.”

“That was only one of the visions, Maru. The other one was ten times worse. I don’t want you to see me like that.” My heart pounded as I tried to slick sticky strands of hair out of my face. “How do we stop it?” My shoulder throbbed, bright blood beginning to seep through the clean bandages.

“That depends on you. Did you just see the scene from the outside, or were you in that Eve’s head?”

“I was in her head.”

He nodded. “And could you feel what she felt?”

“Yes. I could feel everything. It was awful.”

“It was awful,” he added gently, “but you are not her. Your heart is not hers.”

“Yet.”

“Then we figure out how to keep you the way you are. We make sure you take no steps down a road that leads to… that.”

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