Page 31 of A Deeper Blue
“And my destiny is to stand here and freak out about my sister having children?” asked Azure sourly, annoyed that the two of them seemed to be on the same wavelength.
The Lady sighed and closed her eyes. “Blackpink has arrived, so… nope, she’s not pregnant. You’ve got a few decades.”
“Oh, good.” Then Azure pictured her future relatives and fought a rising sense of panic. “She’s going to need me for the delivery. I’m not prepared for puppies. I’ve only done human births. I... I... need to find a class. I’m not prepared for veterinary services!” She reached out to Rafe, her heart going too quickly.
“They come out as babies,” he said. “Also, you’ve got at least twenty years.”
“Oh,” said Azure, clutching his hand tighter. “Right. I’m fine. We’re fine. I’ve got time to prep up.”
“Azure...”
“Yes?” She looked up into his green eyes and found she didn’t recognize his expression.
“Breathe.”
“Oh. Right.” She took a deep breath and then another. “I should probably still find a class, though, don’t you think? If there’s going to be more wolves in our lives?”
“It couldn’t hurt,” he said. He was grinning.
“Um, sorry,” Azure said, turning back to the Lady. “I got really off-track. I don’t mean to waste your time.”
“My time is never wasted,” said the Lady. “It’s a literal impossibility. Also, you clearly need to work through some unresolved issues with your sister.”
“Thanks so much,” said Azure icily.
The Lady chuckled. “Unsolicited advice: unpopular in every century. But I suppose weshouldget down to business. Albert has called the summit, yes, this is so? That’s when I am?”
“Yes,” said Azure, nodding.
“Excellent. I knew he could be counted on.”
“My second sight was giving it the hard thumbs down when I left,” said Azure.
“Oh, like your second sight was the best that ever was,” said the Lady.
“Hey! I may not be great at the interpretation, but it is always right.” Azure felt hurt. “I really try to serve my gift.”
“Oh, sorry,” said the Lady, grimacing. “That’s my fault—misread the timing. Thirty years from now, you’ll find that funny. I never get sarcasm quite right. Yes, I imagine you did read it as likely to fail originally. But it’s changed now, hasn’t it?”
“Yes, now it feels like it has become important.”
The Lady nodded. “It was always important, but now it has become viable.”
“What changed?” asked Azure, trying to sort through the threads of future in her head.
“You met me,” crowed Rafe, looking entirely too smug.
Azure opened her mouth to contradict him and then found that she couldn’t.
“I almost didn’t go into that bar,” she said, horrified that the future had depended on a choice between a biker bar and a retrofitted Applebee’s. “I was going to go into the Family Food place.”
“But you didn’t,” said the Lady. “And now here we are. Your moment has come, little girl blue. Time to blow your horn.”
“Sheep’s in the meadow,” said Rafe. “Cow’s in the corn.”
“What does that mean? Is that what I sound like to everyone else when I start talking about what I see?”
Rafe chuckled. The boomy growly noise always made her smile even when she didn’t want to.
