Page 32 of Broken Rejected Mate

“So,” I say, crossing my arms. “Clairsentience is useless, then?”

“No,” Beth’s brows draw down so dramatically I have to bite my lip to keep from laughing.

She scoots forward, laying a hand on my arm. “No, dear, not at all. Just because something is subtle, doesn’t mean it’s not powerful. You have a sense for what’s going to happen, what’s already happened. You’re sensitive to energy, have an acute ability to understand what others are feeling. You may even,” she whirls her hand through the air, then says, “have a certain sense of…auras. Not to say a visual sense, but clairsentients can often see right into the heart of a person, know whether they’re good or evil. Understand their intentions.”

“But I won’t have premonitions?”

“Clairsentients don’t often have explicit premonitions. If anything, truth comes to you in your dreams.”

“What about me?” Sarina asks, bouncing on her seat, moving toward Beth.

It’s startling to me, seeing Sarina at this stage in her life. Moving between maturity and childlike behavior like this, excitement over learning about her gift.

“Well, your mother said you’d had one premonition. Can you describe that to me?”

Sarina nods, closes her eyes. “When it happened, I was someone else. I was an announcer man, at a race, watching horses.”

“Interesting,” Beth drops her head into her hand. “Do you have any idea why that happened?”

“I was thinking about horses,” Sarina admits, looking to me, like this is actually something she did wrong. “We saw onepulling a cart when we got to the market, and it just…melted from that into me being someone else.”

“Do you remember what they were saying?”

As though reading from a script in front of her, Sarina says, “Adelphus pulls ahead, despite all the odds, taking the race by fifteen full seconds! Second place goes to Glanmore, third to Rylan! What an upset!”

I realize the entire room has gone quiet, and is looking at my daughter.

“That isexcellent, Sarina,” Beth says. “Many of us don’t recall our first premonition, so it’s really something special that you’ve held on to the whole thing.”

Sarina beams, but something takes root in my stomach. The sense that this “gift” might be a lot more trouble than it’s worth.

We go on with the exercises, and Beth guides me through identifying the clairsentience, and how it guides my gut feelings. Just before it’s time to go, she catches me by the arm and pulls me back.

“Veva,” she says, voice low, head tipped down, eyes flicking to Sarina as she pulls on her shoes. “Keep an eye on your girl. With the way her gift is presenting…I feel she may develop more. And with the capacity for casting from your blood? Those abilities may be much stronger than a ten-year-old is capable of managing.”

“Oh,” I say, laughing and pulling back from her, running my hands down my shirt to smooth down the wrinkles. “I will. Also—she’s turning eight soon, actually.”

Beth’s eyes sparkle. “Oh, sure she is.”

Chapter 18 - Emin

I’d give anything to be in that house right now, sitting beside Veva and Sarina. Logically, I know Beth is capable, and I know that with all the psychics in that room, one of them would know if something was going to happen.

But the distance still makes me ache.

I hadn’t realized it before, or maybe I’d pushed it all the way to the back of my mind, but the time and distance from Veva had turned into a sort of low-grade headache, a humming, looping pain that circled my head like the fluids in a vehicle. Always there, sometimes leaking out and causing damage.

And now that I have her again, now that she’s close enough for me to actually touch, it’s getting harder and harder to keep myself from doing it.

Maybe I should have told her to go to bed last night, shouldn’t have cuddled up with her on the couch like that. But this is the first morning in a long time that I feel well-rested—the first full night of sleep I’ve gotten in ten years.

As their meeting goes on, I sit in the truck, scanning the street, keeping my eyes and ears open. It’s unlikely that the Grayhides could get this deep into our territory, but I’m not taking any chances with them.

I wonder if they’ve found the bodies of the shifters we killed. Dead shifters trading hands between our packs isn’t new—but with the rising tensions, I’m surprised the Grayhides haven’t struck back yet.

An hour later, when my coffee is almost gone, the front door finally opens, and Veva and Sarina come out, waving good-bye to Beth and walking toward the truck.

My entire body lights up at the sight of them walking toward me. Coming home.

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