Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 104157 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 521(@200wpm)___ 417(@250wpm)___ 347(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104157 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 521(@200wpm)___ 417(@250wpm)___ 347(@300wpm)
“Never ask a woman who can shatter your kneecap with a swift kick whether she can fit into her pants.”
“Ay, pero you’re pregnant, mi corazón,” he said, as if I needed reminding.
“And do you know what pregnant women like?” I asked.
“Ice cream,” he answered.
He knew me so well. Either that, or I’d been milking the cravings too hard. Either way, I got my gelato. Cristiano bought me a cup with a tiny spoon, and we made our way around the square, stopping to purchase little things we didn’t really need, mostly to support the residents, and accepting the occasional gift for our future daughter.
As we stood at one booth admiring wooden jewelry boxes, the hair on the back of my neck rose. The steady tap of nails on glass, over and over, made a simple beat that somehow became chilling.
“Cristiano,” I whispered.
He squeezed my hand. “¿Qué pasa?”
Slowly, I turned my head over my shoulder and met the dark, cunning eyes of an elderly woman sitting across the way. She drummed her nails on a glass ball centered atop the purple crushed velvet fabric covering her table.
My mouth dried. Shimmering gold headdress. A mélange of rings in silver and gold topped with pearls and gemstones. Veiny, feminine hands.
It had been over a year-and-a-half, but I hadn’t forgotten the woman with the slender, wrinkled fingers, haunting eyes, and floral perfume from my father’s annual costume gala. And rarely a few days went by that I didn’t remember the fortune teller’s words from that night.
“You will die for him, your love.”
I had died. I’d been pronounced dead, my body so devoid of life that it had terminated my first child.
No good could come from this.
I stepped back and hit Cristiano’s wall of a body. He squeezed my shoulders. “What is it, Lourdes?” he asked. “Do you need—”
He stopped speaking. I turned around to see why. His gaze was also trained on the old woman staring back at us.
“Who wants to know their future?” she called out in that same craggy voice. Her cackle turned into a hacking cough.
“She gives me a bad feeling,” I said.
“And me,” he agreed.
“Do you know her?”
He nodded. “I believe we met once.”
And had she told Cristiano his future?
This soothsayer had said I’d die for the love of my life, and I had. Not just once, but twice. I’d come clawing back to life once for Cristiano, and we were strong and healthy now. I couldn’t take any more despair.
I grabbed Cristiano’s hand and started to pull him away.
This woman could bring nothing but bad news.
* * *
Cristiano
“Lovely young couple,” the old woman said, slowing us in our tracks as we made for a getaway. “And with a chiquita on the way.”
Clever woman. She knew the sex of my child. Any other time, I’d have called it a lucky guess. Now? I wasn’t sure. I still didn’t believe in this kind of hocus pocus. But my fortune had been eerily spot on.
Was it premonition that my drink had been drugged at the political event? Or something more?
I soothed my wife with a hand up and down her biceps, bringing her closer to my body. “What did she tell you?” I whispered over Natalia’s head.
Her back went rigid. “That I would die,” she said and wriggled away from me to march toward the woman’s table.
I followed, staying at Natalia’s back as she accused, “What do you want, vieja? Am I supposed to die a third time? My husband and I are happy. Enough harm has been done.”
The woman pressed a hand to the base of her neck. “I simply deliver messages. I’m not so different from your beloved monarch.”
All right, that was a bit too far. The monarch was private between Natalia and me. I gripped Natalia’s elbow to pull her back. “Let’s go.”
But she couldn’t be moved. “That was just a silly costume,” she said.
“And yet you’re considering naming your baby after . . .” Her eyes traveled up to mine. “Well, I won’t spoil it. I’ll let you tell your husband the name you’ve chosen.”
Natalia’s face drained of blood. I had no idea that the woman meant, though. Had Natalia picked a name and not told me?
“Stay away from us,” Natalia said.
The woman sighed. “I don’t create anyone’s fates. I warned you, didn’t I? You should listen next time.”
Next time.
She had warned us—Natalia that she would die, apparently—and me, to get back up when I fell. Moments after I’d seen her, I’d literally fallen to my knees.
And now she was here again.
To give us a warning.
“What is it?” I narrowed my eyes on la bruja. “What did you come here to tell us?”
Her sparkling eyes fell to Natalia’s stomach. I put my arms around my wife, spreading my hands over her belly, shielding it.
“It’s hard to see the future of a dead man. And you are, aren’t you?” Her gaze bounced to Natalia as she smiled and squinted. “However . . .”