future if her life depended on it." Cass downed the glass in one big gulp and placed it back on the table. Her face turned dead serious, and I knew she was about to disclose why we came here. "Hey, Patty, what do you know about voodoo?"
Patricia blinked, taken aback. "What I've seen on TV, like piercing needles into a doll and falling into a trance with your eyes rolling back while talking with a weird voice in an ancient language."
Whoa, was that what would happen to me? I swallowed past the sudden lump in my throat. I thought being a witch meant brewing the odd love potion and speaking out a curse or two.
"That's not voodoo. It's called being possessed," Thrain said, still grinning.
"Oh." She nodded. "Right. Okay, then it's just the needles and the doll. And I remember something about chicken and blood, but that's gross."
Cass smirked. "And there I thought you might actually know something useful, like how to help a voodoo priestess get in touch with her powers."
"Is she one?" Patricia jumped up from her seat and walked around the table, stopping behind me. I felt her smooth hands on my shoulders, then on my cheeks and on my shoulders again. "I can feel her powers. She has been marked."
I held my breath, waiting for her to reveal more, but she remained quiet.
"By what? And shouldn't you have seen that the moment she entered your property?" Cass asked, impatiently.
Patricia's hands remained glued to my shoulders as she whispered, "By something very powerful." I felt Thrain's sudden tension. It passed on to me as though we were the same being. Words unspoken hovered at the back of my mind. I knew they were his, I could almost grasp their meaning and yet they kept slipping my perception.
"Could you be more specific?" Cass asked, irritated.
Patricia shook her head. "That's about as far as my powers go. Ask me in a few days when I turn eighteen and I might be able to help more."
Cass scoffed. "That's awesome news, particularly since we don't have any time to spare. Dallas is dead in less than a week unless we can figure out how to unleash her powers."
"Give me some credit," Patricia snapped, her eyes sparkling. "At least I can tell you something. What was it again you can do?" Someone definitely had a short temper. She looked so pissed off, I almost expected her to start smashing dishes. I peered at Thrain, my gaze begging him to intervene so disaster wouldn't unfold, but he just leaned back, grinning. Something in his eyes triggered a memory in me—darkness and the presence of something unnatural and scary, a cold sensation, then searing pain.
"I know what marked me," I heard myself say softly. All eyes turned on me. For the first time, I saw surprise written on Cass's face. I moistened my lips, uncomfortable with all the attention.
"You do?" Thrain prompted. His thigh brushed mine under the table, making any sort of concentration on the topic at hand impossible. Tiny jolts of electricity ran through me, wandering up and down my body. I had the strong need to touch him. Instead of giving in, I pulled away and crossed my legs, putting a few inches of distance between us. He frowned as though he knew I was uncomfortable with the proximity between us. Then again, I was probably reading too much into his expression.
"My—" I hesitated, considering my words because the word 'boyfriend' didn't quite feel right "—Gael took me to see a fortuneteller. I think something happened, but I'm not sure."
And then I went about recalling my experience with Madame Estevaz. When I finished, Cass asked me to start again without leaving out any details. The huge frown on her forehead told me she was just as confused.
"So, when you woke up you couldn't remember a thing?" Thrain asked for the umpteenth time. I nodded. He smirked. "Why don't I like the sound of that?"
"Did you notice anything out of the ordinary when you woke up? Anything you didn't understand, anything that had you confused?" Patricia asked.
I bit my lip as I tried to remember, but my mind remained blank. "Don't think so."
"Take your time," she said, walking around the table and sitting back in her chair. "Even if it might've seemed irrelevant at that time, it could mean something."
I rubbed the sole of my left shoe over the stone tiles as I went through what happened after meeting Madame Estevaz. "Gael