Chapter 25
Morrigan Vision
Allie
Allie didn’t know how to properly explain her finding ability to the rest of them, so she fumbled through a basic description of the process while her head throbbed.
She realized as she talked that the others in the group were listening, nodding, showing signs of surprise but not shock or fear. They didn’t laugh at her or tell her she was crazy, and they sure as hell didn’t try to lock her in a trunk.
Gray was openly all for it. “This means you’ll be able to find things we can use more easily? Hell yes,” he said, grinning. “Even more glad to have you around now, kid.”
Meanwhile, Ripper absorbed the new information impassively, only nodding to show he understood, but Allie could tell he wasn’t freaked out.
A sense of burgeoning pride made the throbbing easier to handle.
Maybe she should have expected them to be this open-minded—everyone in the area they’d met so far apparently knew about Key’s dreams, and no one had acted skeptical.
However, these seemingly magical abilities were a whole other deal.
Even Key was still keeping hers close to the vest, as she’d told Allie she wasn’t ready for people to know about them yet.
Odette, the only person who knew the full truth about both of Key’s gifts, went directly to Allie and hugged her tight. “Thank you,” she whispered in Allie’s ear. “Thank you for sharing it with us.”
Allie let herself lean on Dette a moment, the warmth and acceptance in the hug almost bringing her to tears after everything with Cam had gone so sideways.
Dette noticed. “Hey,” she said. “Hey, it’s okay.” Then she pulled back, taking Allie’s shoulders in her strong hands, and Allie saw her shift into nurse mode. “Are you in pain?”
Allie flashed back to the moment Morrigan finally came back to her, damn near setting Allie’s brain on fire with Her presence.
A pointed reminder. A punishment. Morrigan had let the pain linger until it was almost too much, Allie clenching her jaw so as not to cry out.
Only then had Allie been given back her gift and been able to find what she was looking for.
The rush of sheer relief at the sight of Rachel in her mind’s eye had overshadowed the agony in her head—all she could feel was gratitude. Thank you. Thank you, Goddess.
A bright light flashing into her left eye brought her back to the moment. Odette had produced a penlight and seemed to be checking her pupils.
Allie sighed. “My head.”
Dette nodded, switching to the right eye for a moment before clicking off the light. “Gray? Ibuprofen, please.”
“On it,” came the reply.
Dette gave Allie a sympathetic look. “Drink some water, take the ibuprofen, and let me know if you feel nauseated or faint or if anything feels out of whack. I’ll check you again in an hour.”
Within a matter of minutes, Allie had three pills and a bottle of water in her hands.
She utilized them gratefully while Key and Cam got everyone ready to move.
Cam kept glancing over at her, and she could feel his distress, regret, worry.
.. but she didn’t go over to him. Too much pain still lingered—from Morrigan and from his reaction.
Besides, they had bigger problems, which included Rachel and a small group of strangers the woman had come across while scouting. They were the reason she hadn’t returned, as they seemed to be in a standoff of some kind.
The strangers. Allie hadn’t seen them, but her vision hadn’t given her bad feelings about their intentions, not like she’d felt with the bushwhackers.
However, she knew the strangers were afraid and armed with guns, and Rachel was armed and impulsive as well as scared.
Bad things were going to happen if no one intervened.
They rode all together, as Cam had rigged Rachel’s bike to the back of Gray’s trailer and hooked his bike to the trailer to help Gray.
Allie’s head went from raging-forest-fire pain to manageable-bonfire pain, thanks to the pills, the water, and a pair of sunglasses, so she was able to keep up without too much trouble.
The nervous adrenaline pumping through her veins helped.
It took them less time than she’d anticipated to get close, and she stood on her pedals to kick up enough speed to reach Key in the front.
Allie pointed up ahead. From her vision, she recognized the jumble of cars on the edges of the paved road, and she knew the four people, all clad in traveling gear, were hiding behind the cars on a slightly curved rise that gave them a good view of the low part of the opposite side, where Rachel would be plainly visible if she moved.
One of the people had a gun pointed at Rachel.
As they’d planned, the group set their bikes aside silently where they would remain out of sight.
Allie pointed out Rachel’s hiding spot to Key, who used the binoculars.
“Yup, it’s her,” Key muttered. “And she looks pissed.”
Cam let out an impatient breath. “She can join the club.”
Cam drew his gun, and Ripper did the same.
Pressure gathered in Allie’s chest. She looked from where her friends—her family—were arming themselves and over to where the strangers hid.
She hadn’t felt actual menace from them in her vision.
Their fear was laced with something else, though, something desperate.
It had been hard to think past her own discomfort, to draw the nuance, but she thought there had been pain—not only in her head but in them.
At least one of those four people was injured, and the others were concerned about the threat posed by Rachel as well as about their person’s well-being.
Allie took off her sunglasses and rubbed her eyes just as Cam and Ripper prepared to move forward. This is all wrong. I have to stop them.
Before she could say anything, she saw a flurry of movement from the vehicles, and three people walked forward, holding guns.
“Damn it,” Dette breathed.
“We know you’re there,” one of them called, not toward Rachel but toward them. “We have more people in our group, and they’re nearby.”
Allie shook her head. If they were bluffing, they were really scared. “There’s only one more of them, behind the car. Armed.”
Gray and Key drew their weapons.
“Wait,” Allie said. What had she felt from the group in her vision? Why couldn’t she figure it out?
Cam was already moving. “Stay here,” he said.
Allie looked at the escalating standoff. Everyone’s guns were out, and Cam, Key, Dette, and Gray were stepping out into full view of the rest. This is going to be bad. So bad.
No. Morrigan murmured in her ear, gently for once. Look.
Suddenly, time seemed to slow down.
Morrigan was right behind her, and She reached Her long, pale hands out to cover Allie’s eyes. Look. The goddess spread Her index and middle fingers wide, and Allie saw everyone’s auras.
Part of her marveled at it—my very own Morrigan vision—while the rest of her sought to understand what she was seeing. Everyone was surrounded by an aura. They were of various colors. Some of the colors bled into one another, while others were sharply defined.
More importantly, the auras supplied her with information, and when she turned her Morrigan vision to the strangers, she finally understood what she’d felt in her vision: their distress.
This wasn’t an ambush or a hostile, militant group.
This was a family of four people, all of whom seemed weaker than they should be, one of whom was younger and injured.
The others, all adults, were weary and worried, trying not to freak out—and her group coming up on their standoff with Rachel, guns and knives drawn, wasn’t helping.
The white woman in the center looked to be in her late forties, her hair tied back in a red handkerchief, the shadows under her eyes pronounced—her aura flickered between pink and blue as she leveled her shotgun at them.
The older Latino man scowling beside her seemed of a similar age and was tall but slender, holding a scoped rifle.
Allie couldn’t see colors in his aura, which confused her until she realized he was awash in blind panic that had no color, just waves of energy.
The other man had the look of the woman, but he was in his mid-twenties, maybe, with shaggy pale-blond hair and black-framed glasses.
His aura was blue with muddy streaks of despair.
His handgun trembled a little as he held it.
Allie couldn’t see the injured one on the other side of the cars, but the aura extending above them was all browns and blues, full of abject despair and guilt as well as fear.
Allie recognized it well enough—although she hadn’t seen her own aura at that time in her life, it felt very much like her mindset during her time with Brandon.
The distress radiating from all four of them choked her and almost buckled her knees.
When she turned, Allie saw her group’s auras as well. Odette’s was warm orange with streaks of white flowing through it. Key’s kept changing from red to black to yellow, then it shifted to mostly red and black—the streaks dense and thick. Her battle aura.
Gray’s actually appeared to be that of his namesake, at least at first, but then she realized with some delight that it was a hazy purple with ripples of gray within.
Ripper, however, radiated black with a few blue streaks flashing through.
It made her catch her breath—he was clearly ready to deal out death but also so full of grief.
Cam’s aura... Oh.
Though she could feel his worry, his regret, in the occasional current of blue that ran through it, Cam’s was a steady, full dark green—the most warm, secure thing she’d ever seen. She wanted to sink into it, into him, and share everything she’d held back until now.
But there wasn’t time. She took a breath. Let’s get snacking. Let’s grab a bag.
“Stop.” She said the word and began running, leaving her gun behind, before she knew what she was doing. She ran past Cam and Key before they could grab her.