Page 12 of Witch's Dawn
"Spill it," I urged. "What else have youseen?"
"She'll find out the truth soon," he said, eyes glazing over slightly. "She'll be receiving a visitor who will teach her who sheis."
"In regards tous?"
"No. In regards toherself."
"Well, one step at a time then," I sighed, leaning back in my chair and resting my feet on the worn, overcrowdedbookshelf.
Raum's eyes remained glassy for a few moments, indicating he was somewhere else. The past or the future, he could see itall.
His eyes refocused and he blinked while looking around theroom.
"Where'sSal?"
"Who knows. Probably burning down cities or infecting terrorists with anthrax. You know how he gets when he'sfrustrated."
Salmac was easily the hot-headed one of the three of us. Raum and I had to physically restrain him from going after Deja when she essentially ran away at the party. He was about to tell her everything right then, ruining our careful plan and make the poor girl likely run to the police. She'd never believe she was anything but a normal human woman after that. Albeit a crazyone.
We had to do this extremely carefully and Sal was an emotional, impulsive fucker. Not even I could reel him in when his temper ran hot. Only Raum seemed to keep him on an even-keel.
"You know," Raum said, his trickster grin returning. "I could just make this a hundred times easier for all four ofus."
"Don't. That's an order," I snapped. "She will come to us of her own free will, or not at all. When she realizes the full extent of who she is, it should happen naturally. It will happen, as it was meantto."
"Of course. That was a bad joke on my part." Raum lowered hiseyes.
"Not everything is about trickery and manipulation, Raum," I growled. "We bring more humans to our side through simply revealing thetruth."
"You're right," he agreed. "She will see through any attempt at deceptionanyway."
I stood and looked out the window where Deja's tea shop and apartment just above it sat in plain view. I wondered who her supposed visitor would be and what kind of influence that person had overher.
"Let's certainly hope so," Isaid.
7
DEJA
My energy levelkicked into high gear after seeing Raum that morning. I couldn't begin to explain why, other than the expected giddiness at having a smoking hot guy talk tome.
"You keep smiling," Nona teased as we prepared tea orders side by side. "Did you get a date? Or at least hisnumber?"
"No." I let out a sigh that was somewhere between happy and frustrated. "He said he'd see me around and other stuff that was vague. So who knows, he's probably just aflirt."
But at least someone flirted withme.
I should have felt uneasy about his tattoo, which matched what I saw in my dream almost perfectly. Scratch that, I should have been downright freaked the fuck out. But for some reason, the coincidences didn't botherme.
Life was just easier when I wasn't trying to make sense of everything. When I was younger, I wondered if odd coincidences were signs of God trying to tell me something. It would legitimately stress me out to the point of anxiety. But the simple mental act of letting go gave me the courage to step on a bus and leave the home I'd known forever. It allowed me to make the decisions that turned me into a successful businessowner.
Sometimes things didn't happen for a reason and that was okay. Realizing that was the most free I'd ever felt in mylife.
Maybe the tattoo meant something. Maybe I caught a glimpse of it at the party and it was in my subconscious. Whatever the reason or lack of, it was beyond my control and it wouldn't do me any good to fret aboutit.
At 7:00 pm on the dot, the sky turned into shades of pink and orange and that ghostly Pacific chill swept through the neighborhood. Nona flipped my OPEN sign to CLOSED and we wrapped up another good day at the shop with a high-five and blasted P!nk’s latest album as we quickly cleaned up for theday.
A half-hour later she hopped on her bicycle to head home and I carefully walked up the creaky stairs to my apartment above theshop.
