Foretell

by Belle Malory

  I offered her my hand willingly.

  She stared at it intently, tracing her gnarled finger over lines, pursing her lips and taking mental notes.

  While waiting, I caught Rex’s gaze. The firelight intensified the color of his eyes, making them appear to glow softly in the dark. He stayed quiet. His expression seemed apprehensive, if that were possible. It was strange seeing him worried. His nonchalant, jaded attitude caused me to believe he was apathetic to everything that was happening. I never thought he cared.

  “Ah, yes.” Zetta finally spoke. “It is as your heart has always suspected, Estelle. What you have is no gift. It’s not a natural form of gypsy sight, either. It was intended to be a punishment.”

  Her words caught me off guard. “A punishment?”

  She nodded.

  I tried to absorb the meaning. Had I done something that was so horrible and deserved this brand of punishment? Unable to prevent it, I swallowed, trying to keep the tears out of my eyes.

  My mind wandered back to the little phantom girl. Had I killed her? Is that why she haunted me, her white dress covered in blood at my hands?

  “What did I do?” I asked, my voice slightly breaking.

  Zetta squeezed my palm gently. “The answers lay in your past, child. I cannot see enough whys or hows to give you peace. That will come with time, with remembrance. However, I can tell you who is responsible for this magic.”

  “Who?” I asked, my eyes entreating hers.

  “This curse is clearly the work of Marcellus de Clemente, a young witch of our world, still foolish and impulsive.”

  “Did you just say witch?”

  “Witch, wizard, whatever you want to call it. We refer to any non-gypsy magic as witchcraft. It’s clear that the magic within you is his doing. His impetuousness combined with his youth causes him to make rather stupid decisions, your curse being a prime example. It’s a safe guess he didn’t fully understand what he did when he marked you.”

  Marcellus, the witch. I tried to trigger some sort of recognition. It didn’t work though. No face came to mind. I couldn’t remember anything about this person.

  “Do you think there’s any possibility this Marcellus would take his curse back?” I asked hopefully.

  Zetta sighed. “Perhaps if you explained to him, maybe. That’s only if he can undo it.”

  “Where is he?” I asked. My body turned rigid with an unspoken determination.

  Zetta closed her eyes, searching for the answer. I held on to every waver of her breath, praying she would know where I could find this witch.

  “It’s a city, a large one,” she said, trailing off as she searched her mind for the answers.

  I waited in anticipation.

  “Ah, yes. I can see it now. Somewhere north. Near the ocean. I think he’s close to a seaport.”

  Lola said, “That could be any number of places, Auntie. What does it look like?”

  “I see snow-covered mountains, beaches and rivers. It’s cold though, very cold. This city is not in America. Canada, perhaps.”

  “It’s Vancouver,” Gabe claimed confidently. “Your description sounds just like Vancouver.”

  “Yes,” Zetta said, her lips curving into a slow smile. “I think you may be right, young man.”

  Vancouver.

  I would go there. I was done with hiding, done with being afraid of the trackers, done with being anyone’s puppet. I would find this Marcellus and get my answers. I would find him if it was the last thing I ever did.

  “I’ll leave tomorrow,” I announced.

  A flurry of voices immediately voiced their concern.

  “That’s impossible,” Lola told me.

  “Ridiculous,” Gabe added.

  “Why?”

  “It’s too soon,” Lola explained. “We need to lay low for a while, and give the trackers time to give up their search. Right now everyone is on the lookout for you. They’re all bounty hunters and you’re the million-dollar bond. There’s no way we can leave now.”

  I started to argue, then stopped. She was right. There was no way we could leave now.

  In that moment, I finally saw things clearly. I had dragged everyone into this mess. It wasn’t their fault I’d been cursed. Whatever happened to me in the past was clearly my own doing. I needed to be the one to set it right.

  And for some unknown reason, I had the strongest urge to protect Lola from all this. I met her only a few days ago but I felt the bond that went beyond this lifetime. There was something she wasn’t telling me. I could feel it, some kinship that went beyond what she’d told me.

  I would continue this journey on my own. I owed them all that much.

  The next morning, with my mind made up, I approached Lina in order to tell her my plan to sneak away. I wasn’t sure if I could trust her to keep my intentions a secret, but I needed someone to take care of Abby for me.

  Before I even got a word out of my mouth, Lina met me with a stern look, “The answer is no.”

  Stupidly, I’d totally forgotten about the whole psychic thing.

  “Then you know my reasons?” I asked.

  She shifted uncomfortably. “You don’t understand.” She sighed. “Lola is my friend. And if she finds out I know you planned to leave, she’s going to be livid.”

  “Look, Lina. I’m doing this whether it’s now or later. With or without Lola’s consent. I made the decision in the past to keep everyone out of it. That must have been for a good reason. I don’t want Lola involved anymore. I just want her to have a worry-free, happy existence, and not continue to be bothered with this life after life.”

  “She won’t see it that way.”

  “She will eventually. Lina, I just need you to take care of Abby until everyone realizes I’m missing. I need to move fast. I can’t bring her with me.”

  Lina looked at Abby warily. “I’m not really a dog person.”

  “It’s just till they figure out that I’m gone,” I pleaded. “Then you can hand her over to Rex.”

  She raised a questioning brow. “Rex is going to take care of her?”

  I shrugged. “He likes her. They share an unspoken bond.”

  She considered this, then said, “Well at least something out there likes Rex, be it your dog or a mosquito. It’s something anyway.”

  I hid my smile.

  “So why didn’t you just go to him in the first place?” she asked me, confused.

  “Because he’d just say no. And he definitely wouldn’t allow me to leave, for Lola’s sake,” I explained.

  “Oh. Right.” Lina bit her lip in apprehension. “I still don’t know about all this. It feels so wrong.”

  I sighed. “Please, Lina. I’m begging you. Let me find the person responsible for doing this to me. Give me the chance to do this for myself. And give Lola the chance to live a normal life with Gabe.”

  She looked into my tearful, beseeching eyes, and crossed her arms over her chest uneasily. Eventually, she let out a long, drawn out sigh and I knew she had caved.

  “You have one day.”

  “Thank you!” I exclaimed, hugging her tightly.

  “I’m not kidding, Essie. One day is all you’ve got. If they don’t notice your disappearance before then, I’m breaking the news.”

  “It’s a deal. I’ll leave tonight as soon as everyone is asleep.”

  She nodded, groaning. “This is a mistake, I just know it.”

  “It’s not a mistake.” I smiled. “Promise.”

  “It better not be.”

  As Lina walked away, I breathed in deeply, feeling a little anxious now that my plan was set in motion.

  Everything will be fine, I chided myself.

  But who was I kidding, really? For half of my life, I’d hardly ever left my own house. Now I was supposed to find my way into another country?

  Oh, no, I thought, feeling myself begin to panic.

  I hadn’t had a panic attack in years, not since shortly after my dad died. They came in waves after his pas
sing. This sort of dreary, fragmented atmosphere surrounded our house, my mom, Indie, and me, sucking the life out of us all. There were endless days filled with silence, an empty refrigerator, and hollow eyes with dark circles beneath them.

  During that time, there would be these moments where I just couldn’t take it anymore. I’d panic, feeling as if my entire world was crashing around me.

  Kind of like this moment.

  I felt like I was about to die, like the air was being stripped from my lungs.

  Falling back into the nearest chair, I tried to calm down. I breathed slowly, in and out several times over until it didn’t feel forced.

  Thankfully, it was just me inside the RV and no one else had to watch me freak out. Except for Abby. Sensing something was wrong, she licked me once on my leg, staring up with her puppy dog eyes.

  I felt drained, not as confident as I had only moments ago. All I wanted to do was lie down on the floor next to Abby and pass out. I pushed passed it and forced myself to walk outside, letting the bright sunlight pour over me. I slipped on my sunglasses and tied Abby to the bench outside. I left a bowl of water and patted her head.

  “You can’t join me on this hike, little girl.”

  I headed down the trail that led to the campground’s general supply store I’d spotted earlier. If I was going to do this thing, I mean really do this thing, then I was going to need a map.

  Twelve

  I browsed through the maps at the campground’s general store, wondering which ones to purchase, and well, puzzling over how to read them. The jumble of lines representing interstates and highways all looked like some ancient language. I silently cursed myself for not getting out of the house more often.

  All I was sure of was that we were still in California. I’d also gathered that we were pretty far north. I’d have a lot of driving to do.

  I decided to steal the rental car. That much was unavoidable. I felt kind of bad about it, but there was no other way to quickly put a lot of distance between myself and this place. Not to mention that it would leave Lola and the others no immediate recourse to follow me.

  I selected a few of the maps, then headed to the counter to checkout. As I was venturing out of the store, a voice stopped me dead in my tracks.

  “What are you doing here?”

  My heart stopped, the blood draining from my face as I stared at Rex. My eyes then traveled quickly to the bag in my hands, wondering what I could say.

  Quick, think of something before he figures it out for himself!

  “Snacks,” I answered, smiling. “I was hungry.”

  He nodded, accepting what I’d told him as the truth. This freaked me out a little. He could see when people were lying, right?

  “I was looking for you,” he said.

  “You were?” There was a hint of pleasure in my voice, embarrassingly noticeable.

  A lazy grin spread over Rex’s face. “Yes,” he said. “I was dying of boredom, and hoping you could entertain me with your droll wit and mourning wear.”

  I looked down at what I was wearing self-consciously. My long, gray sweater and black leggings. Both were favorite pieces from my wardrobe. I narrowed my eyes on Rex. “It’s Chanel,” I muttered. “You can’t make fun of Chanel.”

  “Tell me,” he said. “Did you just come from a funeral?”

  “No,” I replied, smiling sweetly. “But I’m still holding out for yours.”

  I pushed past him, wondering where this latest mood came from. One minute he was almost kissing me in the bathroom and the next he was berating me. I wasn’t sure I could keep up with Rex Constantin, or if I even wanted to try.

  “I have something to show you,” he called out to me.

  I slowly turned around, crossing my arms over my chest. “What is it?”

  “It’s a surprise.”

  “Like yesterday’s surprise?”

  “No, this one’s different. How’s your knee, by the way?”

  My bandaged kneecap bulged from beneath my leggings. I wiggled it around, not feeling any terrible pain. “It’s fine, I guess. I can walk on it at least.”

  “Perfect,” he said. “Because we’re about to do a lot of walking.”

  Rex walked past me, heading down the store’s porch steps, and out on the pathway. “Come along,” he called out.

  I was not about to follow him. No way.

  Suspiciously, I trailed after him. “So exactly where are we headed this time?”

  Rex tsk tsked me in a scolding way. “Spence, I thought we talked about this whole patience thing.”

  “Very funny.”

  “We’re just going on a short hike.”

  “So you’re really not going to tell me until we get there?”

  He smiled smugly. “That would ruin the surprise.”

  I sighed, shaking my head. I resolved to follow him, curiously wondering whatever this crazy venture he’d planned was. I shoved the maps into the deep pockets of my sweater. Hopefully, Rex wouldn’t notice or ask for a snack that I didn’t really have.

  We walked down a short trail that led to a longer one. The next trail was entirely uphill, but not very steep. Chilly breezes swept over us, but after a while I felt beads of sweat forming along my brow. I didn’t complain though. I enjoyed the exercise.

  Up ahead, I noticed the pathway split into two different directions. Rex paused, slinging off his backpack. He pulled out a bottle of water and offered it to me. I drank from it thirstily.

  Curiously, I watched as Rex removed a little book from the bag, thumbing through the pages.

  “This way,” he directed, once he found what he looked for.

  I followed after him, carefully minding the rocks we hiked across. “I’m extremely intrigued by all this, you know. You sure you didn’t plan to murder me today? It would be a genius move. Getting me to trust you, not killing me right away, and then doing the deed. It’s totally twisted, but I wouldn’t put it past you.”

  I heard him chuckle from up ahead. “Since when did you start trusting me, Spencer?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe after you dived in the lake yesterday. It was kind of nice, actually. You were like a modern day prince charming coming to my rescue.”

  I laughed after hearing the sound of him gagging.

  “Don’t ever call me that again,” he muttered, sounding completely disgusted by my depiction of him.

  “Agreed,” I said. “Don’t know what I was thinking.” First a knight in shining armor, then prince charming. Neither of those titles belonged to Rex.

  He paused again to look inside his book. I took the chance to sneak a peek over his shoulder. A map of the hiking trail was drawn inside.

  Rex caught me and flattened it against his chest, “Patience, patience,” he admonished.

  I rolled my eyes.

  “Let’s go. We’re almost there.”

  “Almost where?”

  Of course, however, I was met with no answer.

  After about ten more minutes of hiking, the underbrush beside me began to rustle. I stopped walking and kneeled down to see what was burrowed inside of it.

  “Rex,” I whispered loudly. I pointed to my discovery. “Look. It’s a fox!”

  A black, fluffy tail swished, and the fox peered up at us for just a moment, then made a mad dash away from the path. I pursed my lips, sorry to see it go.

  “It’s just a fox, Spence. Why are you freaking out?”

  I shrugged. “I’ve never seen one out in the wild. I thought it was kind of cool.”

  “Am I going to have to worry about you trailing after wild animals and whatnot? Please, for God’s sake, don’t try and pet any of them.” His tone implied he was talking to a small child. “Those foxes will bite. Next thing you know, you’ll contract rabies and I’ll have to take you to a hospital.”

  “I’m not stupid, jackass. And I hate hospitals. I’d rather you take me to a voodoo witch doctor.”

  He glanced at me sideways, seemingly surprised by this statement
. “You don’t like hospitals, eh?”

  I shook my head emphatically. “There’s something about the smell and the people.”

  “You know, that’s a common dislike amongst gypsies. Right up there with jails.” He held his arm out for me to steady myself while stepping over a large rock. “A hospital is a place of confinement and sickness. Then again, most gypsies are practiced in the art of healing. Lola is planning to go to school for nursing. I never understood why though. She hates hospitals too.”

  “Maybe something changed her mind.”

  He considered this. “Possibly.”

  I couldn’t explain it, but I felt like there was a depth of meaning behind that ‘possibly’. I started to ask what happened but my voice was cut off as we walked through a clearing.

  “Wow,” I breathed, amazed.

  We came to a ledge high above the campground. Miles of land stretched out, in a breathtaking display of scenery. We saw everything; hundreds of tall trees, rolling green hills, the lake. Streams flowed throughout the countryside, sparkling like crystals in the distance.

  “This is. . .incredible.”

  Rex opened his book and began to read aloud. “Pioneer, Dr. Sullivan Clooney, the first to explore this area, dubbed it Mount Victory after his late wife, Victoria Clooney. At approximately 1,012 feet above sea level, scientists today conclude that Dr. Clooney’s calculations were misinterpreted for what is nothing more than an extremely large hill. However, Mount Victory remains registered as a mountain, and is considered as such in modern times.”

  Rex looked up, closing the book. “You’re officially standing on a mountain, Spence.”

  I looked around, feeling everything fall into place. A lump grew in my throat. I swallowed, trying not to get emotional.

  I stared out into the countryside, feeling something flutter inside my stomach. To climb a mountain. One more thing I can knock off my bucket list because of Rex.

  I placed my hands on my hips and attempted to steady my breathing. The amazing view blurred as I felt the enormity of Rex’s gesture touch my heart.

  “Oh God,” he groaned. He noticed my wet eyes before I could hide them. “Don’t tell me you’ve gone all female on me again.”