Page 43 of Explosive Chemistry

Even her older sister, Isabella, could only open her fourth eyes for a few seconds at a time during combat without risking distraction and death, and she was two hundred years older than Liliana.

Whenever Liliana became too accustomed to the placement of the ropes and bars, so that she didn’t need her human vision to find them, she would move them to a new configuration. Sometimes, she practiced at night with the lights off and used her second and fourth eyes. Over the last few months, she had been getting a tiny bit better at splitting her consciousness, but her fourth eyes could still distract her at crucial moments.

An image of the handsome Fae colonel, a moment when he smiled at her while wearing his shimmering demi-stone form, appeared in her wandering fourth vision. The smile had not been cold. It was warm and amused when she told him out of nowhere that she liked Pete.

She jumped for a swinging bar. And missed.

Again.

The momentary distraction at the wrong moment was all it took to make her fall.

She landed reasonably well on the gym mats covering the concrete garage floor. The spider-kin rolled to absorb the force of the impact. Physically, she was not injured, but everything in her ordered, internal world felt like it was slipping out of her control.

Liliana pounded her fists into the rubber mats under her. “Aaaaaaagh!”

She had not found a way to save Doctor Nudd.

Even with his sword, Pete would not survive the coming attack from the Wolfhound assassins without his mentor fighting beside him. Siobhan might be able to save Doctor Nudd, but Liliana did not wish to trade the life of one friend for another.

Without Nudd and Pete, Fayetteville would rapidly become a deadly place to be, for many Others and Normal humans as well.

Plus, she had begun to feel like even the ticking of her clocks was oppressive, counting down the narrowing gap before her blood fire time. It was a few years ahead, so it shouldn’t have been weighing on her so much, but it seemed that every little thing reminded her that she had no mate and that was likely to continue to be the state of things until her biology drove her mad.

The day before, she’d snapped at one of her customers who asked her a particularly silly question. All the future, all the past, and all the world were within her range of vision, and people asked her if sweaters would go on sale after Memorial Day.

Sweaters always go on sale after Memorial Day.

Liliana cancelled her appointments for the rest of the week. She couldn’t afford to alienate the people who counted on her. She had to get her life back in proper order and make sure that her friends didn’t die.

Someone knocked on Liliana’s door. Not the public door to her business that people knocked on normally, but the door to her home.

The spider seer glanced through the door with her fourth eyes to see who it was. It was Pete. She had been expecting him sometime soon.

Pete had never come to visit at her house before, except the one time when he came to accuse her of murder. Usually, they met for combat practice in the forest near Doctor Nudd’s house, for music and alcoholic beverages at Doctor Nudd’s house, or for hot drinks and talking at the Starbucks down the street.

Today, Pete had called Dr. Nudd and said he was busy and would not come to the forest to train.

In truth, Pete had been no more busy today than any other day. That wasn’t why Pete cancelled combat practice.

Pete was sad.

Liliana opened her door and left it open for him while she went into the kitchen to get him a beer.

The week before, she bought the kind of beer that the wolf-kin and the oak goblin healer both liked. Her fourth eyes told her that they would both come visit her soon. Siobhan would also visit, but she often visited her for sword practice in the garage these days. She enjoyed dark, bitter craft beers and sweet fruit juice as well as honey-sweetened tea. Cherry cider was her favorite. The Fae Colonel preferred wine, or aged scotch when he wanted something stronger.

Liliana had not foreseen for certain that the prince would visit her, but it was a possibility. In case he did, she had his favorite wine. It was extravagantly expensive, and she did not really expect him. The bottle sat in her pantry, tilted down to keep the cork wet, nonetheless.

She sighed and rolled her human eyes.

She was thinking about him again.

Stop it, already. Pete needs your attention.

The spider-kin handed her dearest friend a beer and sat down on her comfortable, overstuffed, second-hand couch, avoiding the spot with the spring that was starting to work its way through. She was really getting the hang of this social visiting thing.

Pete followed her into the house and closed the door behind himself. “Um, hi, Lilly.” He sat down in the armchair next to the couch, perching on the edge rather than settling in comfortably. Clearly, something was bothering him, but he seemed nervous about asking. He picked at the label on the beer bottle between his hands instead of drinking it.

Liliana looked into him with her third eyes. She nodded as if he had spoken.

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