Page 19 of Kane's Bounty
Chapter 4
It was not possible. Lena stared at the spot where the vision had been and she knew her mouth was hanging open. Neither one of the visions was all that surprising. She had seen crazier things when she read other people’s futures. The crazy part was, these were clearly two different futures. They could not exist in the same universe.
“What just happened?” Kane asked.
“You triggered a vision,” she mumbled, half to herself.
“Two visions,” he corrected.
She nodded dumbly.
“What does it mean?”
“I have no idea,” she said.
She looked up at him and his mouth was drawn down in a frown. His normal guise of being relaxed had been shattered. He clenched and unclenched his hands. Even the one still holding hers squeezed tighter, though not painfully. “I thought you were in charge of reading these things.”
She released his hand and knelt down in the sand, gathering up her stones. “They have never given two different futures before. I’ve never seen the stones triggered by someone other than my grandmother or myself. I don’t know what to say.”
He knelt next to her. “I can’t watch you die, Lena.” His voice was sad and angry.
She knew just how he felt. “It’s not my first choice, either.”
“The first vision had to be soon. You still had the bump on your head.” He combed his fingers through her hair.
“I noticed.” Her mind reeled.How can there be two futures?“The stones don’t lie. They tell you what will happen to a point and then you make a choice.”
“Well, what does it mean? Clearly the second scenario takes place several years in the future.”
She touched her flat belly. “Clearly.”
She was lost in her own thoughts about being a mother. Kane’s hand settled over hers. She looked up into his eyes. “Lena, I…”
“You what?”
“I’ve never had a family.” His hand slid up from her stomach to her face. “I never thought of a wife or children. My life…”
“Didn’t you grow up in a family? A mother?”
He shook his head. “I grew up in an orphanage until I was seven and then I was turned over to the Psi-Alignment and trained to do what I do. I have no idea how to be what you need.”
He was afraid. Kane knew about escape. He understood how to hide and evade. If she understood him, he was terrified of both visions the stones had offered. She touched his cheek and leaned forward, pressing her lips to his. He responded, sucking her bottom lip into his mouth and wrapping his arms around her.
She broke the kiss, gasping for air. “First we have to find out how there can be two futures. Then we have to understand how it is you can trigger a vision.”
“How do we do that?” His voice was rough.
“We’re going to have to see my grandmother. She’ll know what it all means.”
“And where exactly is your grandma?”
“She’s in hiding. I knew Oscar would use her as leverage if he could find her.” She trusted him with her life, but she was not ready to trust him with the life of the only family she had left. Grandmother was too precious.
He kissed her forehead. “I can’t get you there if you don’t tell me where we’re going.”
She rested her head against his chest. His heart beat a steady rhythm and she closed her eyes. “I will tell you, Kane. Just not yet.”
The sun began to set. They walked hand in hand back to the hotel. In the lobby,
