“Nerd. Are you talking to your dolls again?” A tall blond teenage guy came into the room.
“I wouldn’t have to if I had someone to play with.”
“Where is everyone?”
“Matt’s at soccer. Micah and Miles went for a run. Mom and Dad are out.”
Whoa. Her parents really had a thing for M-names.
“So it’s just you and me?”
“Yup.”
“Alright, well I’m not playing with dolls. Let’s go.”
Meredith’s young face shined as she grinned and raced across the room to him.
“Meredith,” I said into the vision. “Show me what happened. Please.”
Light flared. I couldn’t see anything. I heard distant voices echoing along the white expanse.
Someone was sobbing. A girl. Meredith.
And then, just as quickly as it started, it faded.
A wolf whined.
The white dimmed until I could make out shadows. Colors. I blinked, and suddenly I was in a field. Bluebonnets blanketed the ground. Wolves ran by me. A light brown one caught up with a smaller white one, and nipped at her tail. The sight of the two wolves playing made me smile.
This wasn’t what I needed to see.
“Please, Meredith. Show me what happened when you were cursed. Show me what I need to see,” I said in the vision.
The blinding white light came again. This time, I shielded my eyes with my hand.
The sobbing came again. And the sadness. Just a taste of it, and then gone.
Familiar sounds surrounded me. Utensils clinking against plates. People chatting. Two people—girls—were yelling. I peeked through my fingers.
I was in the cafeteria at St. Ailbe’s. Meredith and Imogene stood nose to nose. Shouting at each other.
“You think you can say that kind of shit about me and get away with it,” Meredith yelled.
Shannon grabbed Meredith’s arm, pulling her away from Imogene as Mr. Dawson came running. Before anyone could stop her, Meredith reached down into the plate piled high with loaded mashed potatoes. Her fingers sunk into them, and she threw them in Imogene’s face.
Everyone in the cafeteria froze for a second before a full-on food fight broke out.
I laughed. Hard. That was the best. I couldn’t wait for Meredith to wake up. We so needed to talk about that.
As fun as these images were, I wasn’t seeing anything of consequence. How was I supposed to get one specific image? I needed the scene with Luciana.
“Show me what happened with Luciana,” I said to Meredith. She didn’t acknowledge me at all in the vision, but the light flared again.
The sobbing came again. Louder this time. Beating against me in the empty white canvas.
As the sobbing slowed, the next vision came into view. The cabinets were the first thing I could make out. Then countertops. A stove.
I was in a kitchen. It was huge, bigger than the whole downstairs of my house in California.
Meredith sat at the counter, and her mother stood across from her.
Her mom looked like she’d stepped out of a magazine. White-blond hair hung in perfect silky curls down her back. The printed wrap dress wasn’t inherently sexy, but somehow, it showed off her curves. With the wedge sandals, she had to have been over six feet tall.
Now I knew where Meredith got her looks.
“You need to find a mate, honey. It’s time.”
Meredith shook her head. “I can’t, Mom. Even if I liked any of the guys at school, I’m cursed.”
“It’s your duty to the pack to find a mate. I don’t care who you pick, but pick someone. And soon. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, Mom. I understand.”
This was messed up. Didn’t Meredith’s mother care about what her daughter wanted at all?
Her mother passed her a binder.
“What’s this?”
“Possible matches.”
Yuck. She had an actual binder of men.
“All of the potential mates in there have been advised of your situation and are willing to take you on as is.”
Jesus. As is? What was she, a car?
“Meredith!” I yelled. “Show me something relevant. I need to know how I can help you! Please!”
The light came so fast that I couldn’t block my eyes. No sobbing to warn me this time.
I blinked, trying to make the spots go away. And then I realized that it wasn’t spots. I was outside somewhere, lying on the ground and staring at the sun.
I stood up as my sight slowly started to come back.
Meredith was lying on a blanket in the courtyard in the center of the St. Ailbe’s buildings. A pile of magazines was abandoned on her right. One was open to a page filled with purses.
