“So be it,” he nodded, “but no matter who will sit at the head of the table, you will always be the leader, and I will answer to you, for it is you who I give the assignments directly to.”
“Jeb, you’re not hearing me. The ladies will vote me out. I can promise you, I will not be the leader.”
“You will.” His face was set. He wasn’t going to listen to any more rational explanations, and honestly, it really didn’t matter now anyway. This entire thing was a ways off, and who knew what would happen between now and then? And almost like he was reading my mind, he added, “But all of this is conjecture if you don’t heed my warning right now. You have angered the Hags.” He shifted his weight and opened the big book with a flourish. The pages moved on their own, stopping toward the end. His big finger went over the lines as he paraphrased. “The Hags are only one station above me, but they like to think they are the supreme rulers of the entire universe. But from what I can see here, you have no choices left to you. You must appease them if you want to live.” His lips moved as he read the words silently to himself. “To do that, you must find a way to settle your debt to Fate and put yourself back on your true path.”
“Okay, I’m in. How do I do such a thing?” For the first time I had a glimmer of hope that maybe this strange warlock had an answer to all my problems inside his big gold book.
“It will take some time, but first we must figure out how you’re going to survive the night. Then we can talk of future dealings.”
“I’m not going to survive the night?” I said. That wasn’t what I wanted to come out of that book.
“Not as I have it here.” He ran his finger over more words I couldn’t see. “That’s why it was imperative for me to find you now. You have angered someone very powerful, and as of right now, she cannot be convinced it can be fixed without your death. And she has a point. With your death, there is a resolution. Even though her sister disagrees and has been championing you for quite some time—it was she who took the plane down, and lucky for you she did because if she hadn’t, your path would’ve ended in disaster in that swamp. You must find a way to mend the rent in Fate that doesn’t include your dying, and according to what I see in here, there are very, very few options left to you—”
“Juanita took the plane down?” I interjected. It was the only thing I could focus on at the moment. “She could’ve killed us.”
“She had no other choice,” he said dismissively. “If not, the plane would have been redirected by her sister Enid, and you would not have survived. That would’ve been a more dire outcome. Juanita did what was necessary, as have I. But on your current path, as I’ve just stated, you will not live through the next two hours. Your outlook is dreary. If you do survive, however, the next task will be to figure out how to redirect your Fated path. This will not be simple either, but it will be a tad easier than being dead.”
I pressed my fingers to my temple. “Okay, we have to break this up. What are my choices for the next two hours? That seems like the most pressing, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Yes. For one, you need to stay out of all transportation devices. They are far too easy to manipulate. Enid cannot blow your body up, per se, but she is well versed in bringing down powerful supernaturals by other means, and you are not a goddess, so there’s no chance of regeneration.”
“How do I get home without transportation?” I asked stupidly. My brain was still processing the fact that I was supposed to die soon—really die. My wolf howled in anger.
“You must run, of course.” He cocked his head at me oddly. “You do have that capability, do you not?”
“I do,” I said sheepishly. “But that would take longer than I’d… intended.” That was about as lame as I could get. I had nothing specific to do once I got home, except find Juanita and then help Tally.
But I couldn’t do any of that if I was dead. So, duh, I could run.
“It’s the only option to you, long or not,” he replied with a curt nod. “You will take your… partner along and no one else. If you do not listen to this advice, you will put your entire party at risk. And I am beginning to understand, by your actions, that you don’t take harm to your family and friends lightly. That is a commendable trait, but not always advisable. Sometimes, for the greater good, sacrifices must be made.”
“I will never sacrifice my family.” Rage bubbled up inside me before I could tamp it down. I could almost handle the thought of dying, but thinking about being responsible for someone I loved dying was unacceptable. “So don’t ask me to, now or in the future, for any reason.”
“Well,” Jeb scoffed. “In our world, it’s impossible to assign the same value to all lives. The sooner you understand this, the better. Our world is much different than the human world.”
“I don’t agree,” I argued. “How can anyone choose which lives will bring more value, human or supe? It’s not possible.”
“I can and I do. For example, if you were to die, it would lead to catastrophic consequences for us all. Countless lives would be lost, both human and supernatural. How’s that for hierarchy of value? For many, if they died, it would trigger no change in Fate’s fabric. And I can’t speak for every living soul, but a great many, I believe, would willingly sacrifice themselves for the greater good. Keeping you alive is one of those greater goods, in my book.” He shook his golden book for emphasis.
My mouth closed with a rebuttal on my tongue.
It was hard to argue against knowledge like that, but I loathed being the one who would have to choose whether someone lived or died. Instead, I asked, “I understand I made a mistake when I killed Ardat Lili and now I have to right my wrongs, but why does the rest of it—like if I die, the supernatural race is in peril—seem to sit on my shoulders alone? Since the first day I shifted, I’ve felt the pressure of the supernatural race on top of me, slowly choking me with its need—quite possibly I’ve felt it since the day I was born. But I’m not the only person who is going to sit on the Coalition. It’s supposed to be made up of five powerful supernaturals. Shouldn’t we all share the burden of the end of the supernatural race?”
He gave me a once-over, his expression shifting slightly as he glanced over the top of his book. “You are different than all the rest, of course. I thought you were aware of that. You’re not only the Enforcer, but you are also the catalyst. The change maker, if you will. Your birth was a significant event in our world. It set into motion much that had been patiently waiting, and that’s just the way it is.” He shrugged. “It can’t be changed. You are who you are and you have a specific role to play. There is only one catalyst born every thousand years or so. But everything about you has been late in coming—you are actually four hundred and forty years late to this gathering.”
Huh? “Late?” I had no idea how to respond to that. “How can my birth be late when I wasn’t supposed to kill Lili for another hundred years?” I turned in a slow circle, searching for something tangible, something to let me know I wasn’t really having this conversation. I was sick of things not making sense. My fingers wandered back to my temples. I was starting to hope this was a dream and I’d wake up any minute in Rourke’s warm lap. I stopped and faced Jeb again. “If my birth was late, wouldn’t that be what threw off Fate and angered Enid, and not the other stuff? I would think all this is interrelated—kind of like the snowball effect of bad karma.”
“I can’t answer that. I guess it could be.” He shrugged, appearing to be unsure of himself for the first time tonight. “I’m not a seer—I’m an intuit. Things come to me, and I write them down. I don’t ever see the entire picture. That would be too telling. Instead I receive knowledge about the supernatural world through my magic, like reading a report, and from there I figure out what things need to be dealt with, in what order. The Hags are seers, and they like to think they know everything, but I know for a fact they do not. Fate has always been tricky that way. It is ever changing. Which is why it is imperative that you figure out a way to bring your path back around, from whatever got it off track—your late birth or your actions, it makes no difference. If you do not, all is lost.” He snapped his book shut to accentuate his point. He didn’t need to, because I understood now how dire this was.
“Any more advice for me? How am I supposed to bring it back around?”
“That I do not know. But if you can remain alive tonight, there is hope. I see that in the writings, but nothing specific has been stated… yet. I believe it is up to you to figure it out, and once you do, it will show up in the book.” He smiled, happy with his sleuthful deductions.
“That’s reassuring.”
He shrugged. “As I said, it’s not written yet. If something changes, I will let you know immediately, as keeping you alive, and back on your Fated path, means life and happiness for us all.”
“No pressure there. And next time you want to get in touch, can you use a phone? No more hijackings.”