Page 108 of This Blood that Bonds Us

“Cecily.”

She turned toward me with a pale finger pressed to her lips to silence me.

“She’s close.” Cecily’s voice was thick with an Irish accent. “Can you see me?”

She looked through the mirror as if she were staring through me.

“Yes,” I whispered.

“Who am I speaking to?”

“Kimberly.”

“Kimberly Burns. Anything She knows, I do. You must be here about the Calem boys. Is that right?”

“I . . . Wait, if I tell you, will She know too?”

“No. This isn’t real. It’s just a piece of me you’re speaking to.”

“Where is this place?”

“I call it the In-Between. She holds a piece of my soul and splits me in whichever way She wishes. A part of me is here forever. How are you speaking with me?”

“I have one of the last daggers.”

“You’re with a Kilian. Listen to me,youmust use the dagger. It is vitally important, and they know Kilian has it. They know you will come, but you can’t let it stop you. You must make sure you all go.”

“Tell me what we need to do. Help us. Show me the future. Show me the possibilities you can see.”

She shook her head. “I can’t. You’re not a vessel.”

“But the dagger showed me visions before.”

“The Divine only showed you brief visions because It wanted to.”

“Then tell me, how do I save Aaron and his brothers? Tell me how to win.”

“I can’t. All of the threads run together. It’s nearly impossible to follow one all the way down to a desired outcome. And I cannot tell you too much or it won’t come to pass.”

Of course not.

“What can you tell me?”

“First. You must speak the truth. What do you want most? Do you want to save him, or do you want them all to be free? I need to know because it determines what I tell you next.”

I hesitated. Could I not have both? It should have worried me, but I still felt nothing there. I knew my answer regardless.

“I want them to be free. I want Her to not have access to them anymore.”

She smiled. “You don’t usually make it this far . . . In most futures I saw, you died before you were able to make it to the island. This is a good sign. You’re in Her blind spot. I do not know what awaits you, but I will warn you . . . you likely won’t make it out alive.”

I paused for a moment, feeling out the weight of that sentence.

“But it saves them, all of them?”

“We can only see what pertains to The Family. Futures that affect us only. I see all of the most likely futures of the boys. And there is only one in which you get your desired outcome, their freedom. It wanes in and out. Sometimes, it is the most prominent, and sometimes, it doesn’t show up at all. But that is all I know. I can see that they fall away like falling off the edge of a map. I can’t see beyond that. Only that they no longer belong to us.”

“There’s just one . . .”