Page 81 of Divine Oaths

“Take me to my brother,” Jojo said.

Suddenly, it was as if the air had been sucked from my lungs. Something felt different, like the past and the future had become one twisted thing that seethed before me.

Pete and Jay looked past Jojo, past their own reflections in the car window, past the barrier of the vision in my mind—until their gazes bore directly into me.

I clenched my hands, only realizing that I’d buried my nails into Kasem’s outstretched palms in the process. His breath hitched. But he squeezed my hand reassuringly, urging me to continue channeling.

In my visions, I’d always been able to see other people. But they’d never looked back at me before. They’d never seen me watching.

I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe.

When Pete and Jay spoke, it was in unison: a chorus of nails on chalkboard, a disjointed echo that raked through the back of my mind. I wanted the vision to end. I wanted to tear myself away from the bracelet’s clutches. But time caught me in its suffocating grip, and Pete’s and Jay’s empty eyes stared deep into mine.

“B-b-b-beware the mark of b-b-b-b-blood debts. For what’s so wrought on borrowed time will pay the price of a life duly expired and a death well owed.”

Then, horrifically, Pete reeled backward, his head snapping at an unnatural angle. Swampy water seeped from his eyes, spilling from his mouth as he choked, and choked, and choked. And Jay transformed in front of me—weeping red welts burst across his skin, and flames rose from his flesh. They jerked forward, their bodies twisting so violently that their bones broke and their eyes bulged. The two men screamed and writhed, the mud and the water and the flames taking over their bodies.

I was witnessing their deaths, a vision of their futures playing before me through a memory of the past. Pete’s and Jay’s demises would be painful and tormenting, and they would take place soon—unless they could fulfill their debt to the curse.

Unless they could kill Kasem.

Somewhere, someone was screaming. The sound was shrill and violating, like terror come to life in one splitting syllable.

“Sianna. It’s all right. Nothing can hurt you. Nothing will hurt you.”

I opened my eyes and looked up.

Kasem.

I’d fainted, and at some point, we’d ended up outside the quiet room. Here he was, holding me in his arms as a crowd began to form around us, the bracelet discarded at my feet.

And the person who had been screaming this whole time—it’d been me.

Pain surged against my forehead. I pressed my palm to it, and a trickle of blood dripped down from where my nails had scratched the surface of my own skin. I’d been screaming and clawing at my face, as if I could erase the image of Pete and Jay dying before me, both in the past and in the future to come.

“They’re going to die. They’re going to die in Westfield.”

He held me closer, and I buried my head in his chest, closing my eyes as tears blurred my vision. Seeing that spirit of Nathan—that had been frightening. But this, this was something else entirely.

Kasem picked up the bracelet and then turned away from me.

“Can I please borrow those?” Kasem said. He was speaking to someone in the crowd and his voice was calm, despite the fact that in his arms, I could feel him trembling. “She’s very sensitive to touch, and I think they might help her.”

“Um, sure,” the person said.

It was one of the people who had rented a nearby quiet room, likely a design and fashion student who’d been sewing a piece for an assignment. She handed Kasem a set of gloves. They were wrist-length and made of black lace with intricately woven patterns of moths. At the cuff of each glove, right at the wrist, was a button clasp. He pulled the first glove over my hand, and then the second, before sliding his family bracelet back onto my wrist. The lace of the gloves created a barrier of sorts from the bracelet, but I could faintly feel it pulsing against my wrist and the memories of the past churning within it.

I gathered my breath, looking up at Kasem finally.

“I’m all right,” I whispered.

“Are you sure?”

I made to stand, but the ground lurched beneath me.

“Should we get help?” someone asked.

“I’ve got it,” Kasem said. He held me steady and knelt in front of me, even as the dizziness made the world sway.