Chapter 85 Kristen
Sentinel Park was crowded. Families spread out on blankets for picnics. Joggers weaved along the paths. Dogs pulled on leashes, eager to chase squirrels. Everything looked completely normal.
Too normal.
I followed Anna across the lawn, trying to focus on why we were here instead of the persistent ache between my legs that reminded me of Leo with every step. Of his fingers inside me. Of the way he’d left me desperate and wanting.
Stop thinking about it.
“So where’s your contact?” I asked, scanning the park for anyone who looked remotely capable of providing information about my father.
Anna grinned and pointed across the lawn to a small tent set up near a cluster of oak trees. Purple fabric with gold trim that looked like it belonged at a Renaissance fair, not a city park.
A signboard out front read: Deidre’s Palm Readings.
I stopped walking. “You’re kidding.”
“Nope.” Anna kept moving toward the tent.
“A palm reader? Anna, I need real information, not some carnival…”
“Deidre’s legit. Trust me.” Anna was already heading toward the tent entrance. “She’s been like a guardian to me ever since I got into Phoenix. She predicted I’d get an A in physics once.”
I raised an eyebrow, following despite my skepticism. “And did you go home and study after that prediction?”
Anna laughed. “Okay, fine. But she’s actually legit about the important stuff. You’ll see.”
We reached the tent and Anna pulled back the purple flap. “After you.”
I stepped inside, and the smell of incense hit me immediately. Candles were scattered everywhere, their flames casting dancing shadows on the fabric walls. A small table sat in the center with a crystal ball that caught the candlelight and threw rainbow reflections across the space.
And behind it sat Deidre.
She was older, maybe sixty, with sharp eyes that seemed to miss nothing. Her smile was knowing in a way that made me uncomfortable, like she could see things I was trying to hide.
But what really caught my attention was the golden key hanging from a chain around her neck. It was ornate, ancient looking, with intricate patterns carved into the metal.
And it was glowing. Not reflecting the candlelight. Actually glowing with its own internal light.
I couldn’t look away from it.
“Anna! My darling girl!” Deidre stood and embraced Anna like they were old friends. “How are your studies? Still freezing your professors’ coffee when they bore you?”
Anna grinned. “Only the ones who deserve it.”
Deidre laughed, a warm sound that filled the small tent. She reached for a can of Sprite sitting on the table. Room temperature, from the look of the condensation forming on the outside.
“Speaking of which, be a dear and fix this for me?” She held out the can to Anna.
Anna rolled her eyes. “You need to get a fridge.”
“Why would I do that when I have my own walking refrigerator?”
I watched as Anna touched the can. Frost spread from her fingers, ice crystals forming across the aluminum surface. Thirty seconds later, the Sprite was perfectly cold.
Deidre took a sip and sighed happily. Then her eyes landed on me, and something shifted in her expression. The warmth remained, but underneath it was something sharper. More calculating.
“And who is this?”
“I’m Kristen.” I stepped forward, trying to sound more confident than I felt. There was something about this woman that set me on edge, though I couldn’t say exactly what.
Deidre’s eyes narrowed. She set down the Sprite and leaned forward, studying my face with an intensity that made my skin prickle.
“There’s something about you, dear.” She paused, and when she spoke again, her voice was quieter. “Something vicious.”
My stomach twisted. “I just want to know what happened to my dad. And what powers I have.”
I sat down in the chair across from her, the crystal ball between us. “I’ve been at Phoenix for a while now. They still haven’t surfaced.”
Deidre frowned, and it was the first time her confidence seemed to waver. “That can’t be true.”
“What do you mean?”
Her fingers traced the edge of the crystal ball, almost absently. “Your powers have resurfaced. And you’ve used them.”
What?
“That’s not possible.” I shook my head. “I’ve never used my powers. I don’t even know what they are.”
Deidre’s eyes didn’t leave mine. “I’m seeing it right here. You’ve used them. Recently.”
“No, I haven’t.” My voice rose, frustration and desperation mixing together. “If I used my powers, I would know. I would remember.”
Deidre tilted her head, studying me like I was a puzzle she was trying to solve. “Perhaps you used them without knowing. Or perhaps…”
Anna stepped closer. “You think someone wiped her memories?”
“It’s possible.” Deidre reached across the table and took my hand. Her touch was warm, grounding. “I’m even more intrigued now.”
She gestured to the crystal ball with her free hand. “Put your palm on this. Let’s see what we can find.”
I hesitated. Part of me wanted to run out of this tent and never look back. But a larger part needed answers. Needed to know who I was and what I was capable of.
I placed my hand on the crystal ball. The surface was cool and smooth under my palm.
It lit up immediately. Bright white light that made me squint.
Deidre gasped. “I see light in your future.”
Her voice went distant, trance-like, like she was somewhere else entirely. “Two paths stretching before you.”
The light in the ball shifted, split down the middle. One side turned gold, warm and inviting.
“One filled with immense power. Glory. A throne of your own making.”
The other side turned dark, black as pitch and just as cold looking.
“The other filled with destruction. Ash. The end of everything.”
My breath caught in my throat. “Which one will I…”
The ball turned red.
Suddenly. Violently. Like blood spreading through water.
Deidre jerked back in her chair. “What… what is happening?”
The crystal ball started to shake. The table rattled beneath it. Wind picked up inside the tent, even though there was no source for it. The candles flickered wildly.
“This has never happened before.” Deidre’s voice was tight with something that might have been fear.
The candles blew out one by one. The crystal ball glowed brighter, that angry red light filling the tent.
Anna grabbed my shoulder. “Kristen…”
Then silence.
The wind stopped. The shaking stopped. The ball went dark, just ordinary glass again.
Deidre stared at it, then at me. Her face had gone pale.
“What the hell was that?” Anna breathed.
Deidre’s voice came out barely above a whisper. “Your friend is not a common powered creature.”
My hands were shaking. I pulled them into my lap, trying to hide the tremor. “I don’t understand. What’s going on?”
Deidre stood and circled the table. She never took her eyes off me, and I felt like a specimen under a microscope.
“I can only see cracks in your future. Fragments. Pieces that don’t fit together.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means…” Deidre touched the golden key at her neck. It pulsed once with that same internal light I’d noticed before. “That has never happened before. Not once in forty years of reading.”
She leaned down until her face was level with mine. “What in God’s name are you?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but no words came out. Because I didn’t know. I didn’t have any idea what I was or what I was capable of.
BOOM.
The ground shook. Not like an earthquake. This was something else. Something deliberate.
BOOM.
Closer this time. The table rattled. The crystal ball rolled but Anna caught it before it fell.
“What the hell is that?” Deidre said, all her mystical composure gone.
Anna rushed to the tent entrance and pulled back the flap. “Sounds like it came from outside…”
BOOM.
Louder now. Rhythmic. The tent poles trembled and I could hear the fabric snapping in a wind that shouldn’t exist.
We stepped out of the tent and into chaos.
People were running everywhere. Screaming. Scattering in every direction like someone had set off a bomb. Families abandoned their picnic blankets. Joggers sprinted for the parking lot. A mother scooped up her child and ran without looking back.
BOOM.
The ground shook harder. Trees swayed. A jogger stumbled and fell on the path ahead of us.
Anna grabbed my arm, her fingers digging in hard enough to bruise. “What the fuck is that?”
I stared across the park, trying to see what was causing the chaos. But there was too much movement, too many people blocking my view.
BOOM.
Birds exploded from the trees in massive flocks, their calls adding to the cacophony. A crack split the concrete pathway, spreading like lightning.
More screaming.
The shaking was getting closer. Faster. More intense with each impact.
Deidre’s hand flew to the key at her neck, and this time it was glowing so bright I could see it through her fingers.
“We need to go.” Her voice was hard, commanding. “Now.”
But I couldn’t move. Couldn’t look away from whatever was coming toward us through the park. Something massive.
Something wrong.