“How so?”
“She only gets vague images. Sometimes just an impression of one object. It can be a little useless and most of the time, we can’t figure out the meaning until whatever the event was has passed. But from what you’re saying, you actually live through it. So you actually know what’s going to happen if you go down that future path.” He leaned back in his chair. “Think about how that could benefit the coven. We’d know exactly how to deal with every bump in the road.”
“It might not be that easy.” The microwave beeped and I grabbed my food. It had dried out a little, but still smelled good. “The thing is, I don’t know how to control it. I don’t know if it was actually tied to Raphael or if it was just something that happened. Before, I could touch an object and see what it had been through. Or for people, sometimes I’d see what they were thinking or feeling. Now if I just get visions willy-nilly with no warning…how am I supposed to control that? How can I make myself have one or not?” I took big fork full of pasta and meat sauce, but no one said anything. They just stared at me. I waved the fork around. “That wasn’t a rhetorical question. I actually want someone to answer.”
Cosette shrugged. “I have no idea. I assume it’s possible, but I don’t have visions, nor am I close to anyone who does. We’re going to have to do some trial and error.”
“Since your lessons weren’t going well anyway,” Daniel said, and Claudia started cracking up, “we’ll put a stop to those and start doing vision stuff.”
“Okay.” I shoved another bite in my mouth. This was going to be a nightmare. “What about Tia Rosa?”
“Our crazy aunt who left the compound?” Raphael said. “What about her?”
“She removed the spell that Luciana put on me last time. That puts her pretty high in my book, and I think she might know more than she’s letting on. She came by and said she’d be able to help.”
“She doesn’t have visions,” Daniel said. “We would know if she did.”
“But she has some sort of ability. And her sister did.” Rosa was Grams’ sister, so technically she was my great aunt. “She said she’d help me, but that I needed to go see her.”
“Yeah,” Claudia drew out the word. “She and Luciana don’t really get along.”
That made me trust her even more. “Again, I’m not seeing this as something wrong with her. I definitely don’t get along with Luciana, and if we’d stayed out there tonight, we would’ve had a massive confrontation.”
“Thank God you had the vision then,” Raphael said. “None of us can afford to get on Luciana’s bad side.”
“We are on her bad side,” Claudia said.
Raphael rolled his eyes. “Fine. I don’t want to be even more on her bad side.”
I nearly laughed at the exchange.
“So, what’s the plan? Do I start touching things?”
“I don’t think that’ll work,” Elsa said. She didn’t speak up often, but I liked her style—only talking when she had something of real value to add to the conversation. “You have to start doing things. Making choices. When you take the wrong path, fate will put you back where you belong.”
“Fate? That seems risky.”
“Fate got you your mate,” Elsa said.
Girl had a point, but that didn’t make it any easier to swallow. There had to be a way. The others chatted a bit while I sat and ate. One by one, they left as the night wore on, until it was just me and my cousins.
Even if I hadn’t learned more spells, I was learning more about magic and life at the compound. The magic part seemed like a total crapshoot. Not anything that we could rely on, but maybe Rosa had some tips.
“Fine. Then tomorrow I’m going to go ask Luciana for permission to visit Rosa.”
“Am I the only one who thinks this is a terrible idea?” Raphael said.
“It is a terrible idea,” Claudia said.
“Thank you—”
“That’s why it’s so brilliant.” Claudia cut him off before he could finish. “Let’s take some risks. It just might work out for us.”
“This is more like it. A little adventure never hurt anyone.” Or it could go horribly wrong. But if making decisions was what would set off visions of the future, then I needed to take control. None of this waiting around business.
Dastien was suffering and I wasn’t having a good time either. It was time for me to kick a little Luciana ass.
