by Diana Paz
“I know.”
Julia’s eyes stung at the sight of Angie’s slumped shoulders, her fallen face. “Hey, don’t listen to me, okay? Yay, prom! Yay, David!”
“Come on. Indira’s waiting.”
Indira. Their magic mentor would be disappointed that they hadn’t found the final Daughter of Fate. Angie’s seventeenth birthday was the day after prom, so they had pretty much run out of time. Daughters of Future were always born of wild magic. It wasn’t inherited like Daughters of Past and Present were. From what Angie had told her, the Fates always led the Daughters to a channel of magic, and the channel was always linked to the sea. Timeways, Angie had called them. There was no way to know if the Fates would choose a Daughter of Future near their Timeway or whether the magic would flow to some other time and place. Angie made it sound like it was up to the Fates, but Indira seemed to think it was up to them ... that every generation of Daughters could find each other and create the seal if they tried hard enough.
Julia wondered if it might be a little of both.
The symbols on her arm grew warm as they approached Indira’s tent, but thinking about the missing final Daughter made it hard to feel her usual excitement about practicing the magic. This might be their last training ever. Her heart rebelled at the idea. She and Angie would find the last Daughter somehow. Indira wouldn’t be any help—she never was, with all her “It’s up to you, Daughters” crap—but that didn’t mean that she and Angie couldn’t use the powers of Indira’s crystals or find something here that would help. She pulled back the silky flap that served as a door, tilting her head a little as she peered inside, but instead of Indira, a guy met her at the entryway.
Julia stopped short and so did he. His eyes widened and Julia heard his sharp intake of breath.
She shook her head vaguely. No one else knew about the magic. No one. So what was this person doing here?
She swallowed drily, unable to stop herself from staring. Between his half-buttoned shirt and smooth, tanned skin, he looked like a pirate. An incredibly gorgeous pirate. His black hair spilled over his forehead in waves, almost hiding silver eyes that shone like mercury.
Those eyes, surrounded by rows of thick, black lashes, flashed with recognition. Julia didn’t know what to make of that, because she had never seen him before. She definitely would have remembered those eyes.
The thought made her blush. She tried to control it, as well as her heart, which was beating like crazy. How long was she going to keep staring? She was making it obvious that she thought the guy was hot to the power of hotness, and she had a boyfriend.
“Excuse me,” he said softly.
“Right.” She moved out of the way.
He hesitated at her side before walking on.
“Do you know him?” Angie whispered.
Julia had forgotten Angie was there behind her. She shook her head.
“He seemed to know you.”
Angie swept past her and stepped into the tent. Julia held open the tent flap, unable to move forward. Was she really going to look back at the guy? She squeezed her eyes shut. Yeah, she really was.
He wove in and out of the crowd, stopping to brace himself against a palm tree. His chest heaved. Before she could decide if something was wrong, his head swung up and their gazes locked.
Julia’s heart slammed against her chest as he began to vanish into thin air.
His hands melted away, then his legs and torso, and finally his desperate face. If she hadn’t spent the past few months in training to become a Daughter of Fate, she would have questioned her sanity before believing her eyes.
“Come in, Julia,” Indira said in an airy voice.
Julia swallowed the lump in her throat and obeyed, blinking rapidly as she backed into the cool, dark tent. She turned and met the gypsy’s eyes. As always, she was a little skeeved out at the sight of them. The woman’s good eye had an iris as dark and shining as a drop of fresh black paint on a sheet of paper, but the other eye had no iris. It was just a scary, milk-white ball.
Other than that, she looked too young to be a magical guru lady, with her amazing gold-toned skin and the longest hair Julia had ever seen in real life. Then again, she moved and spoke in this mystical, otherworldly way, practically oozing ancient wisdom. She could have been a thousand years old and Julia wouldn’t have been surprised.
“Indira,” Julia said as the gypsy knelt behind the low table in the center of the tent. “Who was that guy?”
“All in good time,” Indira said, getting out the talismans and candles that helped them hone their powers. Her hand motions were like a slow dance.
Julia held back a groan of frustration. Usually she liked watching the ritual, but today she dropped to the satiny cushion beside Angie and wished Indira would hurry up. She needed to know about that guy.
After a moment, Indira smoothed a cloth on the table, the signal that she was finished with her preparations.
“Okay, so who was the guy who left the tent?” Julia asked again.
“Someone the Fates have chosen,” she said. “His time in your life is nearly here.”
Indira always said things like they came backward out of a fortune cookie. “But what is he? I mean, he disappeared.” Julia looked at Angie. “Really disappeared. Like a ghost or something.”
Indira’s good eye focused on a flame as she lit a long, thin stick of incense. The white eye glowed for a moment. Julia shuddered.
“Clear your minds,” Indira said to them.
“But what about the guy?”
The intensity of Indira’s stare stopped her cold. “Clear your mind, Daughter of Present. Ethan’s time is near, but his time is not yours yet.”
She didn’t know why, but her face grew warm. She closed her eyes, shutting out the guy’s haunted eyes and the doomed look on his face as he had melted away into oblivion.
“Where is the third?” Indira asked.
Julia sighed with impatience, her eyes flitting open. If they had found the last Daughter of Fate, wouldn’t they have brought her here?
Angie sent her a scathing glare.
“What?” Julia whispered.
“Be respectful,” Angie said under her breath before turning to Indira. “We are still looking, mentor. We will not give up.”
Indira nodded, moving her hands over the crystals in front of her. “Let us work on your powers, then.”
The crystals began to glow, but Julia held back. “Wait, I think I can do it without them.”
“Good,” Indira said. “Hold the present, Daughter, and freeze time.”
Julia placed her hand in Angie’s. Her mark of magic shot a bolt of heat through her. She glanced at the candles. They no longer flickered. She listened, and noticed the absence of crashing waves in the distance. Everything had gone completely still. “Time frozen. Booyah!”
As usually happened when they used their powers, Indira was nowhere in sight. Julia stretched out on the cushions, feeling like an Arabian princess. “Do you think Indira would notice if I borrowed this purple crystal? It would look dead-ass awesome with my prom dress.”
Angie’s eyes widened and her voice dropped to a scandalized whisper. “You can’t take things just because time is frozen.”
“I’d bring it back next week,” she said. “Never mind. So, what now? Should I practice Journeying or do you want to give your Voyaging power a try?” They hadn’t actually time traveled yet because it took too much power for the two of them to do alone. Until they found the final Daughter they could only look around in the past like purposeless ghosts, though that was still pretty cool.
Angie didn’t answer, staring down at her hands.
“Hey, what’s wrong? Is it the whole David thing?” She should have kept her big mouth shut. The sight of Angie’s big blue eyes welling with tears would be too much to bear. “Listen, I’m really sorry—”
“No, it’s not that. It’s just, my grandmother trained with Indira. She couldn’t figure out who the other Daughter
s of Fate were and her magic faded.” She glanced up, her gaze soft. “It seems like the same thing will happen to us.”
“No way. Geez, where is this even coming from?”
Angie lifted one shoulder in a limp little shrug. “Just facing facts. We have to acknowledge the possibility that the Fates’ selection process involves our elimination. There are other Daughters out there, somewhere. Only three in a generation are the Fated ones, and they might not be us.”
Not the Fated ones? “I don’t want to hear this stuff anymore. I’m not acknowledging anything and neither should you!”
Angie frowned. “Why are you yelling?”
“I’m not!” She lowered her voice a little. “I’m not.” Her mind reached for encouraging words, but she wasn’t used to being the one to convince Angie of anything. Usually, it was Angie with all the answers. Fine, so Angie’s birthday was the day after prom, and fine, their powers would fade forever if they didn’t mark the last Daughter before then, but they were probably really close to finding her. She shoved back the hair from her face and held out her hands, ready to unfreeze time. “The Fates are just testing us or whatever. As long as we keep trying, we’ll find her.” She watched Angie, a lump of worry forming in her throat.
“Just remember,” Angie said softly, her face angling down, “whatever’s meant to be is for the best.”
Julia couldn’t agree. Not a hundred percent. “And you remember what Indira says. We choose our own fate.”
Before Angie could respond, the power flowed between them. Julia closed her eyes and allowed it to rush through her. She was getting good at freezing time. After only a moment of shared emotion everything came back to life. The ocean crashed, the candles flickered, and Indira appeared with the flow of time.
“This is good,” Indira said, “Your powers are coming more naturally. After you find the final Daughter, you will be ready to fulfill your destiny as true Daughters of Fate.”
Julia felt a headache coming on. Two days suddenly did seem like a short amount of time. They needed to find this girl, mark her, and then bring her to Indira for the ritual that would bind them to the magic—and each other—forever.
The thought of keeping her magic forever sent a thrill of excitement through her. She could never muster the same hatred of the Sorceress that Angie could. The lady was the reason why she and Angie had awesome powers, after all. The Sorceress had once been a priestess, one of many blessed with magic. She had gone nuts with the power, thinking she could summon demons across the elemental plane to overthrow the Fates. So the Fates had condemned her to the recesses of the nether, and that was the end of her for a couple of centuries.
Julia never understood why the Fates didn’t just off the lady. Angie said the Fates never actually “off” anybody. Apparently they left the dirty work to their priestesses.
“Are you ready, Evangeline?” Indira asked.
Angie’s lashes lifted. Her gaze held traces of worry. “Mentor, forgive me for intruding on our training, but I have something to ask.”
Indira inclined her head. “I am here to serve.”
“I know the duty of finding the Daughter of Future lies with us, but if you could use your sight once more, maybe you can find out what we’re doing wrong?”
Julia raised her eyebrows. This was rarely helpful. Indira’s sight only saw complete randomness as far as she could tell.
Indira’s good eye gleamed. “Of course. I will summon the winds of time.”
She lifted her arms. Julia glanced around as an unearthly breeze blew through the tent, making Indira’s robe-like dress rustle and the jewels in her hair glimmer.
“Evangeline, you are Past,” she said, “and Julia, you are Present. Do you understand who you are searching for?”
“Gee, I wonder who?” Julia mumbled.
“Be respectful,” Angie hissed again, and then added, “Yes, mentor. The girl who will be Future.”
Indira raised her arms high. For a moment, both of her eyes burned with white light. When she spoke again, her words were slower than usual. Julia eyed the sputtering candle flames as the wind stilled.
“Future remains out of reach. Always hidden. She is someone with whom you are familiar. Look in the places you have been.”
Julia shook her head. The magic eight ball failed again.
“You mean,” Angie said, her pale brows coming together, “we missed her somehow?”
“Future is the youngest of the three.”
Angie’s lips parted. “Oh ... it could be a girl who just turned sixteen? Someone who was fifteen when we first tried to mark her with the magic?”
“Yes,” Indira said.
“I call bull,” Julia said, ignoring Angie’s gasp. “Why does our magic fade when Angie turns seventeen, then? If the future-girl is the youngest, shouldn’t it be when she turns seventeen?”
Indira shook her head. “All three Daughters must be sixteen at the time of the sealing. Your grandmother, from whom you inherited the magic, was not alive to mark you and awaken your powers. Evangeline marked you, so your magic is dependent on hers, just as the final Daughter’s magic will be dependent on yours.”
Julia’s headache came on a little stronger.
“Once Evangeline’s magic fades, so will yours.”
“Okay. I get it ... I think. We do want our powers, so we’re going to have to hustle.”
Indira became motionless. “Daughter of Present, the powers are to be used in service of the Fates.”
She nodded. For the most part, she understood it. They were the Fates’ little helpers. Rule number one: keep the Sorceress trapped in the nether at all costs. The Sorceress had figured out how to access the mortal realm by creating portals. The threads of time rippled over past, present, and future and the Sorceress looked for periods of chaos and destruction; those were the most easily manipulated for her purposes. The portals allowed creatures of Mythos into the world, since the magic binding creatures to the nether wasn’t as strong as the curse on the Sorceress. Julia didn’t remember why the creatures had been banished to the nether, but from what Angie said, they were all too happy to serve the Sorceress as a way out. Each death at their hands empowered the Sorceress, and she was determined to gain the strength she needed to challenge the Fates.
Being a Daughter was like being a time traveling super hero, heading into the past to handle the creatures of Mythos. As long as the portals were sealed, the Sorceress would be stuck in her netherworld prison forever. And best of all, when the Sorceress wasn’t causing trouble, the Daughters could use their magic however they wanted.
“I await your return,” Indira said, kneeling in front of the low wooden table. She opened the aged box where she stored their talismans and began putting them away. “With the final Daughter.”
Julia blinked back her surprise. Usually they spent a whole afternoon freezing time and trying to Journey. They hadn’t even worked on Angie’s power.
“We have accomplished all that is necessary, Daughter,” Indira said, fixing her sightless eye on Julia. “The rest is up to you.”
Julia dropped her gaze. She couldn’t look into that white eye for very long without feeling uncomfortable.
“Thank you, mentor,” Angie said.
“Yeah, thanks,” Julia said, not too thrilled with the fact that Indira could read her mind.
Indira never really smiled, but her expression was as close to a smile as it had ever been. “At your service, Daughters.”
Julia held open the tent flap for Angie. “Now what?”
Angie stared at her blankly. “What do you mean?”
“We have no idea who the third Daughter is, your birthday is Saturday, and prom is Friday.” She dug her fingers into her hair. The magic was important, but it wasn’t the only thing going on in her life. “I haven’t even finished prom shopping yet. You saw my dress. I need some killer shoes, not to mention a wrap or something to hide this thing.” Her fingers skimmed the mark on her arm. It was hard enough to h
ide it from her mom even when it wasn’t blazing bright white with the magic of the Fates.
“Maybe you can find something here,” Angie said brightly.
A bearded guy looking as old as Moses roller skated by. Julia moved out of his way, eyeing the beach vendors hopelessly. This was not the place to find prom stuff. “Want to go to Santa Monica?”
“No. I have to really think about all the girls we know who might be the final Daughter of Fate. If I have time, I also want to go over my history paper.”
Julia skidded to a stop on the sandy boardwalk. “Are you kidding me? All this Daughter of Fate drama and you’re worried about a stupid history paper?”
Angie put on her sunglasses. Her lower lip formed a soft pout as her head tilted down.
“Sorry,” Julia muttered.
“It’s okay. I just want to do well. It’s worth forty percent of our grade and ...,” she trailed off. “I worry too much.”
“No, you’re right.” She gave Angie a sideways hug. “Magic won’t get me into college.” Or would it? She would have to think that one over.
Angie smiled up at her. “Want me to help you out with your paper? I could look over your outline.”
Julia never understood Angie’s way of thinking. Doing an outline was like doing the work twice. “I have a better idea. We could freeze time. Then I could check out prom stuff and still finish my history paper.”
Angie’s lips parted. “That isn’t what the magic is for.” She placed her hand on Julia’s arm, using the power of Convey to share her thoughts. We’re not supposed to use our powers to cheat or steal. We’re supposed to be the protectors of time.
Fine, no using our powers for schoolwork. But we can freeze time so I can do a little prom shopping, yes?
Julia felt Angie’s hesitation like a bubble pressing in on her mind. Her friend’s thoughts swirled around ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ and possible consequences.