Page 33 of Eye on the Ball

“Thanks, Tess.”

Alejandro gasped, and I leapt forward to catch Tess if she fell.

“Rose! Honey, you know you can’t touch Tess,” Alejandro said, jumping up.

I clenched my jaw against any recrimination. Rose wasn’t in any state to be thinking about Tess’s vision, and?—

“I’m fine,” Tess said, tilting her head and clasping Rose’s fingers in hers, a wondering expression in her eyes. “I don’t see anything about your future. Nothing. But it’s more than that … there’s a feeling of … peace.”

Rose squeezed Tess’s hand and then let go and reached for another bite of pie. “Alejandro. Sweet cheeks. Did you really think I’d let Tess be hurt by us being here?”

“What did you do?” Tess asked.

“Sweet cheeks?” I asked.

This time, Alejandro flushed. “It’s a long story,” he muttered.

“Not that long,” Rose said cheerfully. “I made his pants disappear soon after I met him, after he turned into a caveman.”

“He went hunting woolly mammoths?” I could see it. Alejandro had a magical gift that made him a deadly ally in a fight—when he aimed a weapon at anybody, anytime, he never missed.

“He threw me over his shoulder and abducted me.”

“I only took you to the park, and you were running away to there already,” Alejandro protested.

Tess still looked bemused. “What did you do, Rose?”

“I cast a protective spell over myself, the babies, and Alejandro. It’s permanent. So, you could hold our hands all day long and you’d never see a vision about any of us.”

Tess’s eyes widened, and her entire face lit up. “You can do that? Oh, Rose! Is there … is there any possibility that you could do it the other way?”

I didn’t get it. “The other way? They don’t get a vision of you?”

“No.” Tess took a deep breath and clasped her hands together. “Can you block me from ever seeing another person die?”

15

Tess

I held my breath and waited for her to answer, trying not to let my hopes soar. I’d thought once before that I had a chance to get rid of this curse forever. Alaric, the former high priest of Atlantis, was one of the most powerful magic wielders in the history of the world. When I’d asked him if he could cure me of this … affliction, he’d tried his best.

He’d even healed a gunshot scar I’d gotten from a criminal toy maker.

But he hadn’t been able to do anything about my visions. He’d said the curse wasn’t a wound or injury, but something intrinsic to me, so he couldn’t heal it.

This, though—what Rose had done to protect her family from my visions—if it could be reverse-engineered …

I could live a normal life.

I’d never again have to see how someone was going to die.

I felt hot tears threatening to spill, but I fought them back, barely noticing when Jack put his arm around me and pulled me back against him.

Rose’s eyes widened. “I … don’t know.”

She didn’t say no. “I don’t know” isn’t no.

I was afraid to speak.