ONE MONTH AGO
Daisy’s apartment was the kind of place people forgot existed in a city full of noise.
It sat on the third floor of an old building with narrow staircases, peeling cream walls and windows that rattled whenever the wind picked up.
Inside, however, there was nothing neglected about it.
Daisy had turned the little apartment into something warm and alive.
Plants crowded almost every window.
Ferns spilled from hanging baskets.
Vines climbed the bookshelves.
Small pots of flowers occupied the kitchen counter beside jars of sugar and tea.
There were cushions everywhere, two blankets permanently abandoned on the sofa and enough candles to make Finn complain that she was trying to burn the building down.
Daisy ignored him.
She was curled up on the sofa that afternoon, eating from a bowl balanced against her stomach while some ridiculous movie played on the television.
Finn was in the kitchen washing dishes when someone knocked.
He glanced toward the door.
Another knock followed.
“I’m coming.”
He dried his hands and opened it.
His expression changed immediately.
Luca stood outside.
Finn had seen Luca angry.
He had seen him amused, irritated, exhausted, arrogant and dangerously quiet.
He had never seen him look like this.
His coat was slightly crooked, his hair disheveled, and there was a strain around his eyes that made him look older than he usually allowed himself to appear.
Finn stared at him.
“That’s a terrible look for you.”
Luca stepped inside.
“I didn’t come here for compliments.”
“I wasn’t giving one.”
Daisy heard Luca’s voice from the sofa and stopped chewing.
She didn’t need to turn around.
“Let me guess.”
Finn closed the door.
“The second seal.”
Luca looked toward her.
Daisy finally turned her head.
She wasn’t surprised.
She picked up the remote and muted the television.
“You felt it.”
“Yes.”
Finn looked between them.
“You two are becoming very irritating.”
Daisy smiled faintly.
“That’s because we’re usually right.”
Luca didn’t smile.
That was when Daisy’s expression changed.
She put the bowl down.
“You didn’t come here because of the seal.”
“No.”
“What happened?”
“Zina.”
The name immediately removed the last trace of amusement from her face.
Luca walked farther into the apartment.
“What have you seen lately?”
Daisy frowned.
“About Zina?”
“Yes.”
“I told you everything.”
“I know.”
“Then what exactly are you asking me?”
“Whether there’s anything you left out.”
She stared at him.
“I didn’t leave anything out.”
Finn leaned against the kitchen counter, quietly watching them.
Daisy sighed.
“You’re asking the wrong question.”
Luca’s eyes narrowed.
“Then give me the right one.”
“What do you want to know?”
“Everything you saw after you met her.”
Daisy thought for a moment.
“I saw the same things I’ve already told you. Her standing with Damien. Her father. The house. A few things I couldn’t place.”
“Nothing new?”
“Nothing I can explain.”
“Daisy.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Oh, don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“That ancient-man voice.”
Finn almost laughed.
Luca looked at him.
Finn immediately looked away.
Daisy continued, “You taught me not to force a vision when it doesn’t want to open. I’m not going to start breaking rules because you’re worried.”
“I’m not asking you to break anything.”
“You’re asking me to see something that isn’t there.”
“Then tell me that.”
“I just did.”
Luca looked toward the window.
For a moment, nobody spoke.
Daisy watched him carefully.
She had known him too long to mistake silence for calm.
“You’re frightened.”
His gaze returned to her.
“No.”
“Luca.”
He said nothing.
Daisy leaned back into the sofa.
“You only get that face when something has happened that you already knew could happen.”
That landed.
Finn straightened slightly.
Luca looked at Daisy for several seconds before finally saying, “I need to know what you saw when you first saw her.”
Daisy’s expression softened.
“The first vision?”
“Yes.”
“You’ve heard it.”
“I want you to tell me again.”
She studied him, then nodded.
“All right.”
She tucked her legs beneath herself.
“When I first saw Zina, it wasn’t a vision of the future.”
Luca’s attention sharpened.
“It was the past.”
He said nothing.
“I didn’t know that at first. The vision didn’t give me a date. I had to work it out later.”
“When?”
“Years ago.”
“How many?”
“Before Zina was old enough to know anything about herself.”
Daisy glanced toward the television.
“I was younger too.”
Finn looked at her.
“You’ve never told me that part.”
“I didn’t tell anyone.”
She returned her attention to Luca.
“I woke up from a vision one night and couldn’t breathe. I was standing in a room I’d never seen before. There was a woman there. She was exhausted, frightened and angry all at once.”
“Lenora?”
Daisy shook her head.
“I didn’t know her name then.”
Luca remained very still.
“There was a baby,” Daisy continued.
“Newborn. A little girl.”
“Zina.”
“Yes.”
“Are you certain?”
“I am now.”
She paused.
“I wasn’t then.”
Luca’s expression tightened.
Daisy remembered it clearly.
The room.
The woman’s face.
The strange heaviness pressing against the walls.
The newborn wrapped tightly in cloth.
“And what did you see?”
“Her birth.”
Luca’s eyes didn’t leave her.
“Not a prophecy. Not a possible future. I saw something that had already happened.”
That distinction mattered.
Daisy knew it.
So did Luca.
“I saw the night Zina was born,” she said.
“I don’t know exactly where it was, but it was somewhere private. There were people around her, though I couldn’t see all of them clearly. I could feel that they were afraid.”
“Afraid of the child?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
Daisy looked down.
“I don’t know.”
She hated saying that.
Luca knew.
“You saw her.”
“Yes.”
“What was different?”
“Nothing.”
He frowned. This chapter is updated first at g.com.
“That isn’t possible.”
“It was.”
Daisy looked directly at him.
“She looked like an ordinary newborn.”
“Human?”
“I couldn’t tell.”
“Daisy.”
“I couldn’t.”
Her voice sharpened.
“You keep asking me for a category, Luca. I didn’t see one.”
He went quiet.
Daisy continued.
“I saw her being held. I saw the woman looking at her. I saw blood. I felt something around the room, but I couldn’t identify it.”
“What kind of something?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’ve had years to think about this.”
“And years haven’t changed what I saw.”
Luca looked away.
Daisy watched him.
“You’re trying to make me give you an answer because you’re already afraid of what it might mean.”
He didn’t deny it.
She continued more quietly.
“When I first learned how to control my visions, you taught me that every person has a thread.”
Luca nodded.
“A past behind them. A present they’re living. A future ahead.”
“Yes.”
“Zina had a past.”
His expression changed.
“And a present?”
“Yes.”
“And her future?”
Daisy hesitated.
“That was the problem.”
Luca waited.
“There wasn’t one.”
Finn’s brow furrowed.
“What do you mean?”
Daisy looked at him.
“When I looked at Zina, I could see what had happened to her. I could see where she came from. I could see pieces of the life she was living.”
She swallowed.
“But whenever I tried to look beyond that…”
She shook her head.
“Nothing.”
“Blocked?”
“No.”
“Hidden?”
“I thought so.”
“What changed your mind?”
Daisy’s eyes settled on Luca.
“When I touched her.”
His face hardened.
“The first time I met her.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“You didn’t ask.”
Luca stared at her.
Daisy sighed.
“I also didn’t not understand what it means.”
“That is not a good enough reason.”
“It wasn’t supposed to be.”
She leaned forward.
“I touched her hand.”
For a moment, the apartment seemed unusually quiet.
“I expected a vision.”
She smiled without humor.
“I got darkness.”
Luca’s expression became unreadable.
“Not the kind you see when something bad is coming,” Daisy said.
“It was different.”
“How?”
“It felt like standing in front of a locked door.”
“What was behind it?”
Daisy looked at him.
“I don’t know.”
“Why couldn’t you open it?”
“Because I don’t think there was anything behind it yet.”
Luca’s eyes narrowed.
Daisy shook her head.
“I know how that sounds.”
“No. Explain.”
“I think I was looking at something that hadn’t finished becoming.”
That silenced him.
Daisy’s gaze drifted toward the flowers beside the window.
“I saw Zina’s birth in the past. That much I’m certain of.”
She turned back to him.
“But when I tried to follow her thread forward from that moment, I couldn’t.”
Luca’s voice was quiet.
“Why?”
Daisy’s eyes held his.
“Because every person I’ve ever seen has had a future.”
She paused.
“Zina didn’t.”
The room seemed to shrink around them.
Finn slowly pushed away from the counter.
Daisy’s voice dropped almost to a whisper.
“And Luca…”
He looked at her.
“I don’t think her future was missing.”
She swallowed.
“I think something hadn’t decided what she was going to become yet.”