She smiled and bobbed her head up and down. “I’ll try, but there’s something else I need to tell you first.”
I stiffened. Unless it was going to help me find Melody, I really didn’t want to know.
But Marcella looked so excited. I braced myself for whatever news she had. There wasn’t anything else I could do.
“Alright. Lay it on me.”
“One minute. Mom’s bringing coffee. She thinks you’ll need it.”
Great.
As if waiting for her cue, Olivia headed down the hallway, a small wooden tray in her hands, and nestled on top of it were two mugs. She handed one to me and took the other for herself. I stared into the cup, catching a hint of my reflection in the rich brown liquid.
“So…” I may as well get this part over with.
“Drink the coffee, dear. It’ll help with the nerves.”
Right as I took a drink, Marcella blurted out, “You’re not going to die anymore!” With all the excitement and grace of a preteen.
I spit my coffee back into the cup. “Excuse me?”
She smiled from ear to ear. “I’ve been looking into your future for weeks now and I thought you were going to die. I mean, I was almost sure of it. But now I’m almost positive you won’t. Isn’t that great?” She dragged out the word almost which didn’t instill confidence. And had she said I was going to die. Before, not now. But still.
I turned to Olivia. I was pretty sure my expression was horrified, judging by the sympathy stamped across hers. “I was going to die?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “In a manner of speaking.”
“And you didn’t think I might, I don’t know, need to know that?”
Marcella bobbed up and down on the sofa beside me. “Naw. It wasn’t set in stone yet. I didn’t want to worry you. Besides, what with my last message, it was all getting too confusing.”
I set the coffee cup down on the side table. At the rate I was going, I was going to end up wearing most of it. “Can we take a few steps back for a minute? Before you said, ‘The TK has to die,’” I said in an ominous tone.
“I did. And I thought a telekinetic had to die, but that was before I realize you yourself were a telekinetic. Congrats on the upgrade, by the way!” She lifted a hand for a high five.
I scowled but gave her one away and then rubbed my forehead. This really wasn’t making any sense.
“Okay so before you knew I had telekinetic powers—”
“Yes. When I thought you were just a pyrokinetic.”
“Right, so when I was just a pyrokinetic, you thought a telekinetic had to die?”
“Exactly.” Her violet eyes were so expressive.
“But now that you know I’m both a pyrokinetic and telekinetic,” thanks to dear old Mom and her experiments within the H.A.C., “you thought I was the telekinetic that had to die.”
“Yes!”
“Okay.” I could see where this was going. I still didn’t know why no one had bothered to tell me I was going to die, but at least so far, I was following the right track. “And now…?” Now I hoped she had better news for me because dying just wasn’t going to fit into my schedule.
“Now I’ve realized you don’t have to die. Nor does anyone else with telekinetic powers.” Well that was a relief. “At least not that I know of.” She reached out and grasped my hands in her much smaller ones. “You see, just a part of you has to die. The TK part. But not all of you. Not you as a person,” she was rambling now. Her expression ernest.
I pressed my lips together. “And this is good news?”
She nodded vigorously. “The best!”
“Okay then. I’ll take your word for it.” What more could I do. I’d decided a while back that I was going to leave each day as it came. Marcella’s news didn’t change that though it did feel like a weight had been lifted from me.
“Marcella, dear. Why don’t you give us a moment of grown-up time and grab Miss Naveed a fresh cup of coffee.”
“Sure, Mom!” Marcella jumped from the sofa and bounded toward the kitchen.
“You’ll have to forgive her. She’s been terribly excited ever since she realized you weren’t going to die some gruesome death. She’s very attached to you. It causes her a great deal of discomfort to think of you injured or dying.”
It caused me a great deal of discomfort too. This wasn’t what I came here for. But while we were on the subject… “What are the chances of her visions changing and me suddenly dying again?”
She shrugged. “Marcella is still learning the extent of her powers. There is no one else like her in our Coven, so we are learning as we go just like she is.”
Her words settled like rocks in the pit of my stomach. Great.
Marcella returned with a fresh cup of coffee, which I gratefully took from her. “Thank you.” And then proceeded to drink half of it. “I’m glad I’m not dying anymore,” I told her.
“Me too!”
“But now I’m hoping you can help me find my friend.”
“Oh, right.” She retrieved the photograph and stared at it for several seconds. I watched her with baited breath. She’d mentioned before that she could see the future—not the past—but aside from that and a few confusing messages, I didn’t know how any of this worked. Could she call on her abilities at will the way I did? Well, the way I mostly did. My telekinesis seemed to have a mind of its own but I’d managed to get my fire powers
