Page 20 of Smoke

8

Smoke

“Smoke!”Jasmine was breathless when she found me in the library.

I had my nose buried in an old volume describing the movements of the Vikings when they first reached the New World, and it took a moment for me to come back to reality. I looked up at her, mind a little foggy.

Until I saw the abject horror on her face.

“What is it?” I waved her in, snapping the book shut.

She shook her head, chest rising and falling in quick, short bursts like she was about to hyperventilate. “I… I saw something… I hope I was wrong…”

“What? What did you see? Is it Pierce?”

“No!” She shook her head again, waving her hands. “I saw Alina.”

“Alina?”

“She was going to kill herself.”

“Wait. Slow down. How is this possible? Were you dreaming?” I almost had to force her to sit down. “You have to catch your breath.”

“I can’t sit! I have to find her! I have to go back to the mansion and stop whatever’s happening there!” She squeezed my shoulders. “I have to go before she does something terrible.”

“All right. All right. One thing at a time.” I eased her hands off my shoulders and held them in mine.

They were sweaty and cold. She was about to go into shock if she didn’t calm herself down—or, rather, if I didn’t calm her down first.

“How did you see your sister?”

She let out a frustrated sigh. “It’s something I’ve always been able to do, but the images were never really clear. You know how Alina’s a healer, right? It’s a natural talent, something she was born with. We fae have all sorts of talents. Charms, the ability to communicate with animals, the ability to read minds. And my talent is sort of like that.”

“You can read minds.” I wasn’t asking a question. It was a statement. She wasn’t making any sense at all.

“Not the way others can. I don’t know how to dig around in a person’s memory. But I can see things. I can perceive emotion when it’s strong enough. I haven’t gotten a… I don’t know what to call it… a vision, in a long time. But just now, I was in the kitchen making something to eat, and all of a sudden I wasn’t anymore.”

Less sense with every word she spoke. “Where were you?”

“I was standing in Alina’s room. At the top of the tower. And I was about to throw myself out the window.”

I let go of her hands. Suddenly, my dragon—which had been sleeping peacefully up to that point—roused to wakefulness. “You’re sure about this?”

“I could smell the trees. I could feel the breeze in my hair, the sun on my skin. I even felt the fabric of my dress blowing against my skin. I felt all of it.” She crossed her hands over her chest. “More than that. I felt the deepest, most heartbreaking despair. I didn’t know it was possible to feel so deeply desperate. It almost knocked me over. Just remembering it is enough to make my chest ache.”

My palms went as sweaty as hers had. It wasn’t possible. Was it? I got up and shook out my hands, ran them through my hair, muttered to myself. Things like this didn’t happen. I was a man of logic, learning, books and history and reason. I didn’t believe two sisters could connect like that across hundreds of miles.

Then again, who the hell was I to say what was possible and what wasn’t? I was half-dragon. I had lived for more than a thousand years. Anything was possible.

“Did she do it?” I asked.

“No. I think I screamed at her in my head. I didn’t scream out loud, did it?”

“I would’ve heard it, with the door open.”

“Then, yes, it was inside. But I did scream ‘no’ when I realized what was happening. And then…” She shook her head. “It all went away. I was back in the kitchen. But I know one more thing—there’s no question. She’s leaving. She’s running away.”

The dragon roared so loud, I raised my hands to my head. He was splitting my skull open. I should never have let Alina go. She was going to kill herself.

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