“It’s okay.” Xotichl shrugs. “Really. Most of you have known me forever, which means you should know that I don’t need my sight in order to see. Especially when I see far better without it. True vision doesn’t depend on the eyes. I guess I always knew that in theory, but now I know it for real.”
She leans into Auden and he slips an arm around her, whispers into her ear. So visibly moved by her wish, he needs a moment before he can voice his. “With the Richters dead, we’re probably in the clear, but just in case, I’m asking for Xotichl and me to be released from that contract Luther had me sign. I want to go back to playing local clubs with Epitaph and become successful the old-fashioned way—because we earn it and our music merits it—not because I traded my soul for fortune and fame.”
Xotichl squints at him, her eyes filled with tears, as Auden pulls her tightly to his chest and drops a kiss onto her forehead, and we all turn away, allowing them a moment of privacy.
When it’s Dace’s turn, he simply says, “I want the same thing I’ve wanted since the day Daire Lyons Santos stepped into my life.”
And when he returns the feather to me, I hold it tightly, and say, “I want a glimpse into the future. I want to see one good thing I can cling to if things should ever turn bad again.”
Dace squeezes my shoulder as I close my eyes and wait, trusting the vision will appear in my head, but it’s Valentina’s laughter I hear instead.
Open your eyes, she urges, so I do.
I snap my eyes open, and suddenly, I’m looking at an image of me, but I’m no longer in the Lowerworld. I’m in . . . a sick bed?
But I said one good thing!
Keep looking, she tells me.
I’m sweaty.
Clammy.
Pale in some places, flushed in others.
My hair much shorter than it is now, barely reaching my shoulders.
There are faint traces of lines fanning my eyes, a slim gold band on my left ring finger, and I seem to be in some sort of distress. Or maybe just exhausted, it’s hard to tell.
One thing’s for sure—I should’ve known better.
Should’ve never asked for a peek into the future.
I never allowed myself that kind of indulgence before, so why risk it now? Just because the Richters are dead doesn’t mean thi
s will end any better.
I mean, what’s next? A vision of the Bone Keeper and her sinister skirt of snakes flaying my flesh and collecting their bounty?
Daire, please, Valentina says. Have I ever let you down?
Well, there were times you failed to show . . . but, now I realize you were always standing by, letting me find my own way.
Which is what I’m doing now. Keep watching . . .
I switch from doubt and anxiety to the scene unfolding before me, and that’s when I see it.
That’s when I begin to understand what’s really occurring.
And before I can do anything to stop it, my face is streaming with tears at the sight of Dace standing before me, his hair cropped short, his body lean and muscular, his features a bit more angular than they are now, but he’s still as devastatingly handsome as ever, if not more so for all that we’ve been through together. And standing right beside him is a young woman I instinctively recognize as a midwife I trained, placing a newborn baby in each of his arms.
Twins!
And they’re ours?
You’re a doctor of holistic health. Dace is the mayor of Enchantment. And this is your family—a boy and a girl.
Enjoy your “something to cling to.” Valentina laughs, circling her arms around me and embracing me with such an abundance of unconditional love I nearly fold under the weight of it. The two of us watching the future fade. And when it’s no more than a memory, she vanishes with it, leaving me sobbing before my family and friends.