Chapter 27
I call Joelle on my way home. As the line rings, I cross my fingers that she won’t answer. I’m not ready to hear her voice again—not after the way things ended the last time we spoke. To my dismay, though, she answers on the third ring.
“Hello?” Her voice is guarded and low. “What is it? I thought you made it very clear that you didn’t want anything to do with me.”
I sigh, pausing to kick a pebble down the sidewalk. “I want to apologize,” I say. “There was a lot going on that night, and I said some things I wish I could take back.”
Joelle audibly sighs. “It all came completely out of left field. I thought we were friends.” Her voice cracks. “I thought I’d met someone who understood my interests, but I guess I was wrong.”
Everything I feel for her is real. I admire the way she sticks to her ambitions, and I adore her little quirks, like how she bites her lip when she’s focused.
The sound of her voice is music to my ears, and I could spend all day watching the flecks of gold in her eyes sparkle in the light.
My heart nearly goes into cardiac arrest every time she laces her fingers through mine.
I wish I could tell her all of that, but I can’t.
My vision was real too, and I have to do what I can to prevent it from taking place. If that means letting her go, then so be it. The stakes are too high. My aunt spoke of death as a gift, but it wouldn’t be like that for me. I’ve got too much more to do with my life to let go now.
“You’re not wrong. I do understand, more than you’ll ever know.
But…” I bite my nail, considering what I want to say.
“It’s never going to work out between you and me, Joelle.
I want to be your friend. Hell, I want to be more than that, but I’ve got a lot of family responsibility, and it’s taking up all of my attention. ”
“That sounds like an excuse.”
I clap my hand to my forehead and blurt out the words before I can take them back. “Look, I saw something in the cards.”
She pauses on the other end of the line. “What did you see?”
I tread carefully. “That first reading that I gave you told me more information than I let on, and I’ve been trying to make sense of it this whole time, but I can’t deny it anymore. We’re not meant to be in each other’s lives. You’re going to hurt me, so I can’t be around you.”
It’s vague as hell, and she won’t understand, but it’s the only explanation I can provide.
“I…I don’t even know what to say.”
“I’m sorry. It’s been nice getting to know you, but we need to go our separate ways. I wanted to end things on better terms.”
There’s shuffling on the other end of the line. “Honestly, I’m more confused than I was before,” she admits. “I don’t see how I could hurt you.”
I open my mouth to respond, but the screeching of tires behind me draws my attention away. I turn to see a red sedan careening straight toward me. I yelp and throw myself into the grass, narrowly avoiding being struck as one of the car’s front wheels edges onto the sidewalk.
Thanks to heavily tinted windows, I can’t even get a glimpse of the driver as they speed off down the road.
In my ear, Joelle is yelling my name. I can barely catch my breath as my heart jackhammers in my chest.
“Mikaela! What’s going on?”
“I almost got hit by a car,” I gasp.
“Oh my God,” she screeches.
My thoughts are full of static. This is the second direct attempt on my life in less than a week. “I’ve gotta go.”
I hang up and immediately call my brother.
Orion picks me up and drives us home. He looks wrecked after last night, with dark circles under red eyes. But his bottle is full of water, not vodka, and he’s here. He actually came when I called, which hasn’t always been the case.
He parks behind Gramps’s car and shuts off the engine. I filled him in during the drive about everything Aunt Roberta told me about our cousin Sabine. He taps his fingers against the steering wheel.
“We’ll go tomorrow. We need to talk to her ASAP.”
“Wait, how are we going to get there?” I ask. “We can’t exactly drive a car through the swamp.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Orion says, pulling out his phone and firing off a text. “I know people.”
“Of course you do.” Leave it to my charismatic brother to know someone with a boat.
“I’ll text him tonight and see if he can take us.” Orion unbuckles his seat belt as we both climb out of the car.
“In the daylight,” I add.
He throws his arms out. “Do you really think so little of me? I’m not an idiot!” he says. “She summons demons. The last thing we need is to show up on her doorstep in the middle of the night. We’d end up dead with our bodies thrown in gator-infested waters.”
“That’s one hell of a visual.”
He pauses at the gate and draws in a long breath. “I’m sorry I haven’t been as present as I should have. It sounds shitty to say, but none of it felt real until Chris died.”
As much as I’ve resented Orion for shirking responsibilities, especially since Gran’s death, I can’t blame him for this.
I’ve been thrown into the fire since Theresa brought Marian to our doorstep, but Orion wasn’t there to witness it.
An abstract threat doesn’t hold the same power as one that’s staring you straight in the face.
“It’s okay,” I say.
“No, it’s not,” he interjects, hanging his head. “More than anyone, I’ve let you down. I’m supposed to have your back, and now look. People are trying to kill you left and right. Gran would be so disappointed in me.”
“I’m beginning to think that we’ve spent too much of our lives afraid of letting Gran and Gramps down.”
Our parents made a mistake that cost them their lives, and we’ve been subconsciously on a mission to prove that we’re not them.
But in the end, Mom made her choice to drive into that storm, and we’ve made ours.
Gramps won’t love us any less just because we mess up from time to time.
We have to be allowed to fail in order to grow.
I wrap my arms around my brother and hug him tight. All of my past resentment fades away. Life is far too short. “No one’s perfect,” I whisper. “I’ll always love you, bro.”