“Okay, let’s do this test.”
“Right, well, it’ll be easier to do outside,” I said. It was partially true. It was easier purely because, depending on her power, she might break parts of my home, and I’d rather she didn’t. No need to tell her about that. I could already tell she was nervous and scared.
We both stepped out of the kitchen onto the small part of decking that wasn’t covered in snow. The rest of the garden, however, was a blanket of barely disturbed white.
“You’re going to need to take your shoes and socks off.”
She looked back at me. “Seriously?”
“It needs bare skin to make the connection. I’ll draw runes on the snow, and you step onto them.”
“My feet will freeze.”
“Then be fast,” I told her. Walking out onto the snowy lawn, I drew a large enough circle that Ava could easily stand in the middle. Once the circle was complete, I drew several runes inside. Then I did the same thing again with a second circle a short distance away.
“How do you know how to do this?” Ava asked.
“A few years ago,” I said, “the Norse dwarves put some knowledge of runes in my head. They need power to activate, and as I don’t have any, it’s completely useless to me.”
It was only partly the truth. I’d had the runes in my head since birth, and the dwarves had managed to accidentally recover them, giving me a headful of knowledge into the bargain. While that knowledge had remained when I’d come to Clockwork, I’d had no need to utilize it in the last two years.
I stepped barefoot onto one of the runes inside a circle. Nothing happened. “See? Do you feel better now that I’ve done this too?”
“What will happen when I do it?” Ava asked, standing on the edge of the decking.
“If there’s power inside you, the circle will glow. The more power, the brighter the color. Don’t know what color, as it’s completely dependent on the person.”
She stepped down from the deck and walked across the snow toward me. “Do I just step inside this?”
“I need you to step inside, close your eyes, and concentrate on my voice. I’ll ask questions, and you need to focus on what you see in your mind. You remember all of these dreams, yes?”
Ava nodded sadly and stepped into the circle. She turned toward me and closed her eyes.
Ignoring the cold seeping through my soles, I watched Ava. “Right, let’s concentrate on your most recent dream. Tell me about it.”
“There are two,” she said. “The first is a body found in an alleyway in town. One of its arms is missing. Its face is a ruined mess. I can’t see details of what the person looks like.”
“When did you last have this dream?”
“Two days ago.”
“And the second dream?”
“It’s in town again. Clockwork is on fire. There are so many dead. Hundreds. Many on the road, most killed in their homes. The school has hundreds of bodies on the field and in the main hall, where the council does meetings.”
“How did everyone die? From the fire?”
“Some. Most were killed in other ways. Shot, stabbed—a few were torn apart.”
The circle around Ava glowed deep red.
“Can you tell me any more?” I asked.
“I sense power. Not like electricity or anything, but power. I can’t explain it.”
“Like magic?”
“I don’t know what that feels like in dreams.”
“Elements?” I asked.
“Apart from the fire? No. I see a snake.”
“A snake?”
“A big snake. Bigger than anything I’ve ever seen. It’s dead too.”
“How big?”
“Thirty feet long, with a mouth that could take me in one bite.”
The red ring grew in intensity, the snow inside the circle melting from the heat of power. “Open your eyes,” I told her.
Ava did as she was told and looked down at the grass that showed through the melted snow beneath her feet. The ring of red power pulsed occasionally as it dissipated. “I’m not human,” she almost cried.
“No,” I said. I led Ava over to the decking.
“What am I?” she asked after several seconds of silence.
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “I have a few ideas, though. You said you were sick as a baby and nearly died but that you got better. Obviously.”
Ava smiled. “Apparently I was a marvel. I don’t get sick now, though. Just the dreams.”
“I want you to go back home while I look into it,” I said. “I’ll come over tonight with answers.”
“We’re having a dinner party tomorrow,” Ava said. “I was supposed to invite you.” Her expression became solemn. “Will you really figure out what I am?”
I nodded. “Shouldn’t be hard. And it’s nothing to be scared of. Leave it to me. I’ll sort it out. I’ll come over this evening to tell you what I find out.” I didn’t want to leave her wondering for days on end, especially considering I had a pretty good idea of what she was.
I showed Ava to the front door. “Seriously, though, don’t worry. It’ll be fine.”
“Thank you.” Ava put her helmet on, climbed on her bike, and rode away just as the landline phone went.
I cursed their invention and picked it up.
“Nate,” Antonio said. “How’s things?”
“It’s been a weird day. What’s up?”
“Can you come down to Duke’s? There’s something we need to talk about.”
“Be there in five,” I told him, and he hung up.
I paused. It was a weird phone call, mostly because Antonio had never phoned me at home and never once contacted me to ask if I’d come to the diner to talk. He’d sounded strained. I suspected something unpleasant. I considered phoning the sheriff but wasn’t really sure what I’d be able to tell him, so I decided to go find out.
Pulling into the diner car park, I saw that the diner was closed and the lights inside switched off. I’d never known Antonio to not open for lunch and wondered whether I was going to need a gun.
I walked over to the diner’s front door and knocked on the glass pane. The door opened, and Bryce stood there with a smile on his face, beckoning me inside.
“Thanks, doorman,” I said, receiving a shove to my back as I walked past him.
At the far end of the diner, in one of the booths, sat Antonio. His face was a little bloody, but other than that he looked okay.
“Your friend took some convincing to call you,” Bryce said.
There were four other men inside the diner, two of whom sat in the booth next to Antonio, with another one at one of the tables between the booths and front door. He had a cup of coffee in his hands. The last man, Robert Saunders, sat opposite Antonio. He had a pistol on the table in front of him that I recognized as a Smith & Wesson SW1911.
“Do not make me put one in your friend,” Robert said, patting the pistol. “Take a seat.”
There was no point antagonizing him while he had a gun aimed at Antonio, so I took a seat.
“Where’s your big friend?” I asked.
“The one you put in the hospital?” Robert replied. “Busy, I’m afraid.”