Swearing in two languages followed my declaration. Looking around the property, I held up a hand for silence while letting out a sigh. “Let’s… let’s wipe down the place and I’ll tell you what I know when we’re on the move. Speaking of; do we have a car?”

Alice took a moment to calm herself before she nodded. “I called Tony,” she said. “He’s bringing my car.”

I nodded. “Anything else you manage to get from the guy?”

“They are looking for specific people,” she said. “I wasn’t able to get much. As soon as he realized what was happening he threw up some impressive mental defenses. Once I started to get through them, he—“ she gestured back toward the guest house.

“But what I got was they are picking up various people, and it has to do with their bloodlines,” she said. “They call them ‘the Chosen.’ That’s pretty much all I got before he made me run.”

“Great,” I muttered. “Let’s get this place sorted so we can leave as soon as Tony gets here.”

We divvied up the cleaning duties, with Ida starting with the cop car. Alice and I started to clean the house (we decided that the guest house was a lost cause), so I took the opportunity to sate my curiosity.

“Whose house is this?” I asked.

“Some old Hollywood family,” she said with a shrug. “I sent them to one of their other properties for a week to give their horses some exercise.”

I tried to hide my disapproval but she caught it. “You were dying! We needed a safe place to treat you!”

I was already nodding hurriedly as I wiped down the couch and surrounding furniture I had rested on. “I know, I know,” I said. “And I’m grateful.”

We fell into an uncomfortable silence as we worked. After a minute I broached the topic I had been building up to. “So,” I began. “What happened with your mom?”

She made a frustrated noise.

“I assume she did that divination and didn’t like the result,” I continued.

Alice nodded, her shoulders slumping. “Apparently, you stand out to divination like a searchlight.”

I swore.

“I managed to get out of her that it’s not perfect,” she said. “People divining you can’t perfectly predict your next move… unless they guess right.”

I waited for her to elaborate.

“From how I understand it,” she began, speaking loudly as she moved to the bathroom. “The Divination she uses shows the various paths your life is most likely to take, with the one with the highest odds of being true being the clearest, easiest to see. Normally, if a path is highly likely, the path will be observable for several days, weeks, and sometimes months down the line, giving you a reliable model of behavior.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“You, however,” she said, some irritation bleeding into her voice. “All paths are lit up. For years. It’s impossible to tell what path is more likely or not unless you have an idea of what you are actually doing. And, since we made national news…”

I groaned. “The correct path has become that much easier to guess.”

The implication was that if you picked the path that was closest to reality, you’d be able to predict my future with a high degree of accuracy. I’d always be at a disadvantage. The enemy would know I was coming and could just fucking bounce. I’d be chasing shadows.

Or, they could set ambushes. Like the one today. We were lucky in that they were really shitty in tailing us or they could have followed us until we stopped, or even went to sleep for the night. Even with their shitty execution, they almost managed to kill me.

I let out a shuddering breath.

We continued to clean in silence. I finished up my section of the house and tossed my rag in the bag we’d be taking with us.

“Your mom wanted you to bail,” I said after I considered for a moment.

She didn’t reply, so I knew I hit the nail on the head.

“I understand where she’s coming from,” I said. “We thought this was simply a missing person situation... but now there’s been several gunfights, I got caught with a mind-whammy, and now demons have entered the mix. Plus you’re hanging out with someone who’s practically broadcasting all his actions with a magical loudspeaker.

“I really appreciate you sticking with me through all this, but… she might have a point.”

“What!” Alice yelled. She came barreling out of the bathroom, her face set in outrage.

“This is way, way more dangerous than you or Ida bargained for,” I said. “I… If something happened to either of you, during this—I mean, you know me. I’m already fucked in the head. Can you imagine me with the guilt of one of you—“

“Fucking stop,” Alice said. “Just—just stop.”

She looked away and clenched her hands, her shoulders tense with anger. After a good thirty seconds, she turned back to me, her anger slowly deflating as conviction transformed her features. “The simple truth is that you’re my friend, Colm,” she said. “We haven’t known each other for long, that’s true, but… If I leave you, now, when things are at their worst? What kind of person would that make me?”

She walked over and fell into the couch, placing her head in her hands. “I have nightmares about the cruise ship. Did I ever tell you?” I shook my head as I sat next to her. “It was a fucked up situation in every sense. But it was also…this is fucked up to say, but it was also very good for me. It marked a change in my life.”

“I’m sure you noticed that my house isn’t very… lived in,” she said slowly. “I’ve only been living there for a few months. I…” She glanced at the time on her phone with a frown. “There’s too much to get into right now, but lets just say that I wasn’t really part of the family until recently. Talking with you after the cruise, thinking about… about why I was even there. It made me think about the kind of person I am. That I was.”

She turned and gave me a hard look. “I’m not saying that I’m staying around to help you as a sort of self-improvement exercise. You need help, and I’m going to give it. Because fuck the kind of person who’d abandon their friends in their time of need.”

“Nerd,” I said and drew her into a hug. She barked out a surprised laugh.

“Let’s finish up,” I said as I released her.

We got back to work, the mood significantly less tense. “I guess that means I’ll need to cut myself off from the astral,” I said after a while. “At least until I can modify the spell.”

“Are you sure? That’s… dangerous, in more ways than one,” she said hesitantly.

I shrugged. “I don’t see many other options,” I said. “We need to not have our movements known and also not be ambushed all the time. We know I can wear it for a couple of weeks before it gets really bad. Hopefully, we find Conner much sooner.”

“Because everything goes to plan with us,” Alice deadpanned.

I sighed. “Right,” I rapped my knuckles on an end table. “Knock on wood.”