Forecast of Shadows

by Bronwyn Leroux

  Vaughn dives, snatches at a weapon, cocks it while rolling, and fires. I easily dodge the forecasted bullet. Brain flipping between the future and reality, I duck this way, dive that way, avoiding the bullets aimed at me.

  There’s a sharp zing of pain as I don’t quite evade a bullet. A sizzling sting as it burns through the flesh of my upper arm. Just a flesh wound. I avoid two more deadly missiles before the gun clicks empty.

  This is what I was waiting for. With a war cry, I close the distance between us. Reach Vaughn before he can fire the next gun, already in his hands. Kick it out of his hands, land on the balls of my feet, pivot in a full roundhouse kick, and catch him in the ribs. Bones crunch under my heel. Vaughn flies back and lands in a crumpled heap on the ground.

  I stalk toward him. He’s at my mercy now, so I let my grip on the future fade away. He’s already having difficulty breathing. The broken ribs must’ve punctured a lung. If he doesn’t receive medical attention, he’ll die. I stare at the man who took everything from me.

  The man responsible for my parents’ deaths. Who made me turn to forecasting which destroyed countless lives. Who brought misery to all who crossed his path. Who would’ve used Beth until she was an empty husk. Rage burns through me, a wildfire nibbling at my soul.

  I caused this injury in self-defense. I want to do more. I want to wrap my hands around his neck and squeeze the life out of him. Then again, leaving him here to die an agonizing death would kill him just as effectively. But . . . a sadistic act like that would make me as much a monster as him. Thoughts of monsters remind me of Beth. Of why I’m here.

  I can’t do this. Not if I hope to ever be a better person.

  When Bandit crosses my line of sight, I blink. Gasp as he tugs the knife from his stomach, his breath hitching when blood gushes out.

  The Time Bandit tries focusing on me, eyes hazed with pain. “Don’t blame yourself. This is the best outcome. Thank you for saving me.”

  Before I can stop him, he raises his arm, screaming with the torment, then drives the knife into Vaughn’s eye. I’m so stunned I can only stare. Then sounds, taste, scents crash down on me. The coppery scent of blood—so much blood. The biting taste of gunpowder in the air. The whimpers of the Time Bandit.

  I rush to his side. He’s quivering, face devoid of color. His eyes find mine. His lips move, but no sound comes. I take his hand in my own. “It’s okay. I’m here. I’m with you.” I squeeze his hand. Abruptly, his shivering stops, and his eyes clear for a split second. Then he smiles the most beautiful smile. He exhales one last time before life drains from his eyes.

  Tears are a river down my face. He was so young. If my guess of fourteen was correct, he was eleven when Vaughn took him. Forced him to do the unspeakable. Tortured him so he could torture others. And for what? A little power? Money? Nothing is worth what Vaughn made this kid endure.

  I crouch over the Bandit, venting my rage and grief. I manage a whispered, “Thank you,” when the waves calm. Whether or not the kid intended it, he saved my life. More importantly, he saved me from having to make that choice. The choice I didn’t want to make. The choice I couldn’t make.

  A small hand touches my arm, the touch feather light. But it’s like I’ve been electrocuted. I leap back, arms raised, ready to fight.

  It’s Beth. “Are you okay?” She glances around the huge, empty room. “They all went away. I thought it was safe for me to come out.”

  Her little voice, so unsure, slaps me to my senses. If my plan will work, we have to hurry. “I’m just sad. But I’ll be fine. Are you ready to get out of here?”

  Beth nods, her small head bobbing with enthusiasm. Then her joy falters. “I don’t want to go home.”

  My heart, already a bloody pulp, squeezes painfully. Gently, I take her hand. “I didn’t think you’d want to. Would you like to stay with me for a while?”

  When she nods a second time, I take her hand. “Okay, then here’s what we have to do.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Lugging Trent’s unconscious form from the warehouse is heavy work, but I manage. Beth tries helping, but she’s so slight it hardly makes a difference. Still, her attempts comfort me. The time endured under her parents’ selfishness hasn’t ruined her.

  We drag Trent clear of the buildings, where I know my planned explosion of fire won’t harm him. I place him under the rusted carcass of an ancient vehicle, where he’ll be safe until help comes.

  I’ve done what I can to staunch the blood loss. I pray the garbled message I’m about to send will get through. This part was fifty-fifty on the forecast. Lifting the two-way radio to my lips, I say, “Mama needs her baby. Fetch him from the east wing. He’s the one in the, uh,” I glance at the car, “blue stroller. Make sure he gets out from under it. And bring the nurse. I have to go back to the delivery room. There’s still trouble.”

  While my crew may struggle to understand the part about the stroller, they’ll get the rest: Trent’s location on the east side of the building, me going back in after Vaughn, and Frances, our healer.

  I glance at Beth. “I need you to be quiet for this next part. Don’t be scared. This is what we need to do to be free.”

  Beth nods solemnly, her only sign she accepts what I told her. Trusting she will obey, I lift the two-way radio to my lips for one last time, wheezing into it. “Where is everyone? I can’t see. I’m trapped. I need help to get out. The building’s on fire. There’s too much smoke—”

  When I reach under my vest and retrieve the remote, Beth’s eyes widen. This was the one thing I could add to Trent’s plan. The one “out” I could explain away as a last resort. The one forecast I glimpsed faintly enough to really, really hope it will come true.

  Closing my eyes now, I rapidly trace the future’s routes. All show none of my crew are close enough to know how things will go down. They’re already blocks away, chasing after what’s left of the Hawks as their own desire for vengeance led them to.

  With a warning glance at Beth, I depress the button on the two-way radio and pretend I’m hacking up a lung. “So much smoke. I can’t—” I lift the remote. With a flick of my finger, I flip the detonator.

  The explosion rips through the building, exactly as planned. Howie and his team did their work well, setting all the charges while negotiating their path to their high vantage point—the vantage point they vacated the moment I commanded them to attack. Neither they nor any of my crew can see what I’m doing, precisely as the route showed. If only the rest of the route will happen as I foresaw . . .

  Even though we’re some distance away, I feel the shuddering effects of the explosion. Fires take root as the tinder dry building materials ignite. In a terrifyingly quick transition, the flames find the pipes used for transferring the gasoline to the silos. They flash along the pipes, devouring the space between the main buildings and the outlying silos.

  The future rushes through my mind, and I shove Beth to the ground. A split second later, a concussive wave from the exploding silo rolls over us. I keep her there, waiting for the other explosions. When the last sets the silos to shooting flames thirty yards into the air, I rise and pull Beth to her feet.

  “We have to hurry. We don’t have much time. Stay here a second.” I rush toward the inferno that was the original building. Close enough so the heat singes my eyebrows, I hurl the two-way radio into the flames. It’s absorbed and destroyed in seconds. Dashing back to Beth, I grab her hand and steer her away from the buildings, down the alleys none of my crew will use to reach the blaze.

  As we escape the purgatory I created, I keep one eye on where I’m going, the other on the route leading us to freedom. It feels like it’s been days instead of under an hour when we finally reach the outer parts of the city. I’m breathing hard. Beth looks about ready to pass out, but she hasn’t complained once in this frenzied dash for freedom.

  Now I have to give her the decision. The place where the routes diverge. Kneeling down so I’m at eye level, I draw her clos
er. “Beth, this is where you get to decide your future.”

  Such a short sentence. Such an enormous impact. Should I even give her this? But I’m done deciding for people. Done dispensing visions of the future. Done with forecasting and all its horrors.

  People weren’t meant to know the future. It only brings misery. Heartache. My mind goes to the hundreds I’ve forecasted for. The countless lives I destroyed. Good or bad, the forecasts all turned into disaster.

  I lay it out for Beth. “You have a few choices. You can go home to your parents.” Her vehement head shake allows me a small measure of relief. “Or you can stay with my crew. Stay with Trent, the man we put under the car. He’ll keep you safe.” No response. She’s waiting for the rest. “You can go your own way from here, although I don’t think that’s safe.”

  “Or I can come with you.” Beth’s voice is so soft I barely hear the words. But I do.

  “Yes, you can come with me—if that’s your choice.” Beth nods. “Are you sure? You don’t even know me.”

  “I know you better than the man we pulled from the building. I know you kept me safe when you didn’t have to. I know you won’t make me do things I don’t want to.”

  I’m shocked by her calm assessment of the situation. “Beth, how old are you?”

  She glances down at herself. “I’m fourteen.” When I blink, making sure I keep my mouth closed, she nods. “I know. I don’t look it. But try living with parents who kept you locked in a tiny room all your life and only fed you when you produced the one thing they were after.”

  Fresh fury towards her parents washes through me, but now is not the time. “If you want to come with me, know I don’t plan on staying here.”

  She raises an eyebrow. “You don’t think I figured that out from your little show?”

  I grin. The girl has a brain. Enough to know even a dim future with me will be better than the brightest day of her past. Ironic that my worst was after Vaughn, but hers was before. I intend making sure her belief in me isn’t unfounded. “In that case, let’s go.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  With a contented sigh, I lean back in my armchair and plonk my feet onto the table. It’s been a long day of chopping wood, hunting, and cooking dinner. Replete after the excellent meal, my eyes sweep the tiny room, sparsely furnished with few amenities. Nothing like the luxury I enjoyed in the city, but it's ours, and we’re free.

  It’s the home I always dreamed of. The cabin in the woods. The sanctuary where I can live without the pressures of my gift overwhelming me, without the burden of leading my gang. How are they doing? Have they accepted that my fate was burning up in that refinery?

  Briefly, I allow my mind to travel routes, exploring the world. The exercise brings reassurance. My crew have landed on their feet, continuing on the path I set. Continuing to free those afflicted by what the world has become.

  And although Trent doesn’t have my gift, he took up the mantle the crew offered. Ignoring the sorrow still marring his face is impossible. He believes he couldn’t save me. Believes I died exacting my revenge. But there’s joy too. The way his face lights up when Kenzi, a new gang member, enters the room. The love shining every time he looks at her. Whenever I doubt whether I made the right choice leaving him behind, not telling him of my plans, I only have to think of the relationship he has been rewarded with to know it was absolutely right.

  Even though there’s a twinge of jealousy because Kenzi gets to have what I never did. But the age difference between us was too vast when we first met and was only barely noticeable by the time I realized something between us could be possible. When it was too late.

  My eyes snap open as the fire crackles, spitting sparks in the old stone fireplace and shooting them into the grate protecting the hearth. The hot water with lemon warming my hands is a treat I will never take for granted.

  Beth sits in the chair next to mine, her feet swaddled in thick socks and on the table too. She cocks her head. “What?”

  “Thank you for the drink. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to having fresh water again.”

  Beth smirks. “You shouldn’t have told me. Next time you’re mean, I won’t give you any.”

  I laugh, surprised by the sound. I can’t remember the last time I laughed with an abandonment that filled my soul with joy. Not since before Vaughn took me. I hold the moment for a second, treasuring the sensation, before replying. “You know if you withhold water here in the cabin, I’ll just go down to the river and get some.”

  It’s her turn to laugh. “Yeah, I guess I shouldn’t have let you talk me into refreshing it. Touché!”

  “I’m still amazed you could turn that gunk into a life-giving torrent.”

  Beth sighs. “Goes to show what’s possible when someone believes in you.” She gives me an appraising stare. “Did you really think I could? Or was it blind hope on your part?”

  I shrug. “Does it matter?”

  “No, I suppose not.”

  “What matters is everyone believes a freak chemical combination from the refinery explosion was the catalyst for the river’s purification.”

  Beth chuckles. “I wonder how many scientists will analyze the riverbank and the water there to see if they can replicate it.”

  I snort. “More likely thinking of all the money they’d make if they succeed, not all the lives they’ll save.”

  “Not everyone thinks like that.”

  I understand Beth’s oblique reference. When I explained her parents had each lost a hand for their hubris, she immediately said they’d received their just rewards. Knowing she didn’t hold my actions against me was a relief.

  “You’re right. They don’t. If it helps, when I asked if you could cleanse the river, I thought if I would deprive the world of the one person who could provide fresh water, I should at least try to get her to leave some behind before we disappeared. I wouldn’t want to be responsible for everyone dying of thirst.”

  Beth huffs. “You know they wouldn’t have died.”

  I eye her. “Do I?”

  Her face blanches. “Oh, no! You’re not serious? They really would’ve died?”

  I maintain a neutral expression. “I can say with certainty that I don’t know exactly what would’ve happened. But then, I don’t have to. I’m done with knowing.”

  Beth understands. “You and me both.” With a contented sigh, she wriggles more comfortably into her chair. “Who would ever guess two of the most sought-after Abbies are up in the mountains, all on their own, miles from anyone and anything—and free as birds because of it?”

  Scowling, I cluck my tongue. “Don’t jinx us. We barely escaped that life of bondage. Let’s enjoy what we have here and hope fate doesn’t have other ideas for us.”

  Now she sits up straighter, raising her eyebrows. “Nylah, is there something you aren’t telling me?”

  I’m still getting used to my real name. But I like it. It reminds me of who I was before. And it’s reassurance that even after all the terrible events between then and now, I can find a way back to my humanity. Back to who I was.

  I wave a hand dismissively and close my eyes, soaking in the fire's warmth and the heat from the cup cradled in my hands. “No, I only know what the next thirty seconds holds—the end of this conversation. The quiet of two friends enjoying the rest they deserve. The knowledge that life goes on, come what may.”

  Beth sighs in irritation that I won’t tell her what I see. But if my short years forecasting taught me anything, it’s not to go where we don’t belong. Not to live my life based on what I think may or may not be coming. To live my life in the present, in the here and now, and to cherish every moment.

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  ALSO BY BRONWYN LEROUX

  Breach (A Destiny companion novella)

  Dawn of Dreams (Destiny, Book 1)

  Dogs of Doom (Destiny, Book 2)

  Doors of Destiny (Destiny, Book 3)

  Duel of Death (Destiny, Book 4)

  For my Family

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Bronwyn was born near the famed gold mines of South Africa (where dwarves are sure to prowl). It was the perfect place to begin her adventures.

  They took her to another province, her Prince Charming and finally, half a world away to the dark palace of San Francisco.

  While the majestic Golden Gate Bridge and Bay views were spectacular, the magical pull of the Colorado Rockies was irresistible. Bronwyn’s family set off to explore yet again.

  Finding a sanctuary at last, this is Bronwyn’s perfect place to create alternative universes. Here, her mind can roam and explore, and she is free to conjure up fantastical books for young adults.