Page 65 of Borrowed Time

And that same black car, only this time moving away from me, accelerating until it went around a curve and disappeared from sight. That was the only detail I could really make out, since the surroundings in my dream were dim and hazy, something seen through a fog with no landmarks to provide any sense of place.

What was it about that car?

I didn’t know. That dream disappeared, and I went on to one where I was walking through pine forests similar to thosenear Lockett Meadow, only vast and trackless. Here and there, I saw the flame of a maple or the blazing gold of an aspen, but I couldn’t tell whether I was wandering in the forest outside Flagstaff or somewhere utterly different.

Or maybe it was a forest conjured only by my mind. Hard to say when again, I couldn’t see any distinguishing features, nothing to give me a clue as to where I could possibly be.

Low chanting, and figures in hoods. I knew the McAllisters gathered like that at the holidays special to their goddess, like Samhain and Beltane, but since I couldn’t see any of their faces, I had no idea who they might be.

And a black sky unbroken by any sign of a moon, where even the stars seemed subdued, as if they knew something was terribly wrong.

I didn’t see anything more than that, because I sat up in bed then, heart racing, breaths coming in fast pants, and for a second, I couldn’t remember where I was. The room felt just as black as the ominous sky I’d seen in my dream, although as my eyes adjusted, I could make out the comforting glow of the banked-down flames in the stove on the other side of the room.

Right. I was in Flagstaff in 1884, in my room at the Hotel San Francisco. Seth was asleep right next door.

It would have been much better if he’d been next to me in my bed, but at least I knew he was close enough that he’d come running if I so much as called out for help.

Which was silly, right? Yes, I’d had a bad dream, and yet….

When I sat down and really thought about it, I couldn’t even say what had been so frightening about that dream, what had pushed it into the borders of nightmare even though none of its elements had been all that threatening on their own.

A black car…a black-haired man.

People chanting on a moonlit night.

None of those elements seemed to make much sense, whether put together or analyzed separately. But since when had dreams ever had much logic to them? I supposed if I were a seer, I might try to pick it apart further and view my dream more as a vision than a simple nightmare.

But I wasn’t a seer. The McAllister clan had Caitlin Trujillo, but she had been living in Tucson for more than twenty years. And I’d heard that Bree McAllister, the daughter of Levi and Hayley McAllister, sometimes got the odd vision, thanks to her grab bag of magical talents.

I wasn’t like either one of them, though. My two talents had been well established for years, even though I hadn’t used the time travel one much, for obvious reasons. And I hadn’t seen the need to employ my gift for masking my witchy nature, either, not when the cover story Seth and I had been using explained perfectly why I was a witch.

Well, lying here awake wasn’t going to accomplish much. True, Seth and I didn’t have a lot on the docket for Thursday, so it probably wouldn’t have mattered too much if I was tired tomorrow, but I still didn’t want to inflict my cranky self on him two days in a row. He’d claimed he didn’t mind and that he understood why I was out of sorts. Still, he deserved better than that, no matter how much he might say it wasn’t a big deal.

Holding that thought in my mind, I rolled over on my side and took in a deep breath, held it for eight seconds, and then let it out again, again counting to eight. The breathing technique was something my cousin Marie had taught me years ago when I was coming to terms with how dangerous my talent could be, and it had definitely helped me fight my feelings of panic and helplessness.

And it seemed to help now, because after a minute or two, the world faded away…and those troubling dreams faded with it.

17

SIDE QUEST

“I have an idea,”Seth said to Devynn over breakfast. He thought she seemed better today, not as tired, and if she wasn’t a vision of vim and vigor, she also didn’t appear nearly so out of sorts.

“That’s the kind of comment that usually leads to dangerous territory,” she remarked with a grin, and he couldn’t help smiling in return.

“Sometimes, sure,” he allowed, then reached for his cup of coffee and took a swallow. They’d both been up and dressed fairly early, and came into the restaurant at a little past eight.

That was part of the reason why this particular notion had occurred to him.

“When we were at the depot yesterday, I noticed the schedule they had posted on the wall. A train stops here at nine-thirty and gets to Williams a little after ten o’clock. Since that stop would be on the way to California, it just makes sense that we would go there and see if anyone remembered seeing Eliza pass through.”

Devynn looked thoughtful. Obviously, she knew there was no real reason for them to go to Williams…well, nothing except a desire to get out of Flagstaff for the day. And because theirdestination was so close, they could easily be back here by late this afternoon — he’d checked, and the eastbound train left Williams at five and came through Flagstaff a bit before six.

“Is there much in Williams?” she asked, her tone a little doubtful.

“I have no idea,” he said cheerfully. While the tables to either side of them were occupied, he wasn’t much worried about what they’d said so far, since neither of the “Prewitts” would have any real knowledge of the area.

Devynn picked up the biscuit she’d buttered a moment earlier and took a bite. “Well, I suppose going there would make some sense. How far is it from here?”

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