Page 98 of Ash

A footstep close to him—John had risen, and stepped up to the metal table. The man sweated profusely, his eyes darting around the room. As though his conscience troubled him.

Something twisted inside Ash. “What...” When his voice broke, Ash swallowed and tried again. “What did you tell them?”

The Seer turned even whiter than he’d been to begin with. “I told them about the fortress in the mountains.”

“I know that. What else did you tell them?”

The man’s eyes slid to the Dragons, watching as their life was drained from them. He swallowed. “I foresaw the bigger Dragon go into the fortress.”

Ash’s heart accelerated. The Dragon.HisDragon. “Did Rindek kill him?”

The Seer frowned at him. “Can’t you foresee for yourself? Demeti brought the fortress down on him.”

No.Ash tried to chase the timelines, but his ability was slipping away. Not vanishing, but running untethered, beyond his control. He couldn’t determine if the Dragon had survived, or died.

Ash struggled to focus. “Where did Rindek go?”

“They went back. The woman Rindek is looking for—I saw her.”

“I’ve seen her too.” Dani was safe at the Dragon palace.

“I foresaw her.” The Seer swallowed. “She’s coming. To the fortress.”

Ash’s eyes snapped open. “You told them that?”

The little man drew himself up. “I have no choice. Rindek has my family.”

Ash turned his face away, lest it reveal the truth. It was a truth the man likely already knew, or suspected, if he had the courage to search the timelines for it.

His family was already dead.

In many of the futures that scrolled unhindered through Ash’s brain, his dream Dragon was as well.

He clung to the same lies as the Seer. The hope that what he’d foreseen was wrong.

That the truth lay along different pathways, currently hiding from him in the darkness.

* * *

Dani was in Sirki’s shower when she had the worst anxiety attack yet.

Right out of the blue, with no trigger at all. She crumpled to the floor and sat huddled in the spray, feeling as though the walls were closing in on her. She could barely breathe. Darkness hovered at the edges of her vision.

She lost track of time. But she must have huddled there for a while, because Sirki came looking for her, knocking gently on the bathroom door.

“Are you okay? You’ve been in there a while.”

Dani gritted her teeth. “I’m okay. Just needed a long soak. I’ll be right out.” Then, in an effort to sound half-way normal, she added, “Has the chef arrived?”

Sirki hesitated before answering. “No. He should have been back by now.”

The door closed again, leaving Dani struggling for control. The concern in the Dragona’s voice helped her to push through the last of the angst and step out of the shower. She was shaky as hell and filled with a sense of foreboding.

An hour later, as she leaned on the wall near the ledge, the foreboding had progressed to outright agitation, and she fought off another anxiety attack.

Sirki had resorted to pacing between the opening and the kitchen.

“Can’t we go look for him?” Dani finally asked.

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