and its kicky waves foretold a storm brewing.
"It'll rain within the hour," Mia predicted. "And look." She gestured out to sea. Seconds later, as if she'd ordered it, a pale jag of lightning cracked the steel mirror of sky. "Storm's coming. I love a good storm. The air goes electric and the energy of it pumps into your blood. Makes me restless, though. I want my cliffs in a storm."
Mia slipped out of her lovely shoes, hooked them on her fingers, and stepped barefoot into the sand. "The beach is almost empty," she pointed out. "It's a good place to walk, and for you to tell me what's troubling you."
"I had a... I don't know if it was a vision. I don't know what it was. It frightens me."
Mia slid her free arm through Nell's and kept the pace easy. "Tell me."
When she finished, Mia kept walking. "Why did you give him your locket?"
"It was all I could think of. An impulse. The thing that mattered most to me, I suppose."
"You were wearing it when you died. You brought it with you into your new life. This symbol of where you came from, this connection to your mother. Your talisman. Strong magic. He'll wear it because you asked him to, and that makes it stronger yet."
"It's a locket, Mia. Something my father bought my mother for Christmas one year. It's not particularly valuable."
"You know better than that. Its value is its meaning to you, and the love you have for your parents, the love you've given to Zack."
"Is it enough? I don't see how it can be. I know what it meant, Mia." And this was the terror that stretched like a beast inside her. "In the vision his face was gray, and the blood-there was so much blood. In the vision, he was dead." She made herself say it again. "He was dead. Isn't there something you can do?"
She'd already done all she could think of, all she felt within her power. "What do you think I can do that you haven't?"
"I don't know. So much more. Was it a premonition?"
"Is that what you believe?"
"Yes. Yes." Even thinking of it stopped her breath. "It was so clear. He's going to be killed, and I don't know how."
"What we see are possibilities, potentials, Nell. Nothing is absolute. Nothing, good or bad, is guaranteed. You were given this vision, and you acted to protect."
"Isn't there a way to stop whoever will try to hurt him? A spell?"
"Spells aren't a cure for every circumstance, or shouldn't be. And remember, what you send out can come back to you or yours, threefold. Attack one thing, unleash another."
She didn't say what went through her mind. Stop the knife, Mia thought grimly, and you may load a gun.
"A storm's coming," she repeated. "And more than the lightning is going to slash through the sky this afternoon."
"You know something."
"I feel something. I can't see it clearly. Perhaps it's not for me to see." That was a frustration, this barrier. And the knowledge that she, so long a solitary witch, couldn't do what needed to be done alone. "I'll help you all I can, that I can promise."
Even as she worried it wouldn't be enough, she saw Ripley standing on the edge of the sand. "Call Ripley down. She'll come for you. Tell her what you've told me."
Nell didn't have to call, only to turn and look. In her practical chinos and sensible boots, Ripley strode toward them. "You're going to get wet if you stay out here much longer."
"Thunder," Mia said, and a dull rumbling of it rolled above the sea. "Some lightning." And it burst like a firewall toward the west. "But no rain for a half hour or so."
"You forecasting the weather now, Glinda?" Ripley said pleasantly. "You ought to get yourself a job on TV."
"Don't. Not now." Nell expected the sky to break open any second, but she didn't care. "I'm worried about Zack."
"Yeah? Me, too. I've got to worry when my brother starts wearing girlie jewelry. But I have to thank you for giving me the opportunity to razz him."
"Did he tell you why he's wearing it?"
"No. And I hesitate to repeat just what he did say to me in such polite company. But it got our day off to a fine start."
"I had a vision," Nell began.
"Oh, perfect." In disgust, Ripley started to turn away, stopping when Nell gripped her arm. "I like you, Nell, but you're going to piss me