The Survivors: Body & Blood (book 3)

Follow the Leader

EVERETT WAS WAITING BY THE TREE WHEN I EMERGED THE NEXT morning. "Dude, how long have you been standing there?" I asked.

"Long enough," he said. He looked unusually nervous. "Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah, shoot."

"Why did Ginny pretend like she couldn't analyze Sadie's DNA? You know anything about that?"

"I don't," I said. And I didn't. Who knows why Ginny does what Ginny does?

"Okay, well how about one you will know: Why didn't you want me to let Sadie do the Fateor on my arm?" he asked.

"Did you want the symbols there forever?" I asked, hoping the evasion would work.

It didn't. "That's it? You cared about how my wrists look? I find that hard to believe."

"Then don't believe it," I said, making my way toward the house. "Anything else?"

"Yeah, actually. Did Ginny tell you what she figured out last night?"

"About the male and female human symbols? I told her to leave that alone for now," I said.

"That's not what I meant, actually, so you'll need to explain those later. I was talking about Anthony's vision. You know, the snow?" he asked. "Sadie's freaking out about it."

"Oh, yeah. That." I had no idea what he was talking about. "Well let me talk to Ginny and see if we can figure out how to keep Sadie calm." I clapped him on the shoulder and bounded into the house, looking to escape. And looking for Ginny.

Ginny was smudging eyeliner across her eyelids when I found her. "Does it look sexy?" she asked.

"Gorgeous," I said, hopping up on her bathroom counter. This was the only way to get anything from Ginny: to pretend what you wanted was no big deal. "What did you tell Everett last night that's got him all worked up?" I asked.

"Baby bro, I was with you all night. When could I have possibly told Everett anything interesting?" she said as she went to work on the other eye.

"Don't play me, sugar," I said. "What did Anthony see? What about snow? Sadie seems to be unsettled over it."

"He told Sadie? Shit," she said, putting away the makeup.

I laughed at her. "You thought he wouldn't?"

"No! I told him not to. That was supposed to stop him."

"You haven't been paying attention, have you?"

"Apparently not enough," she said. "Well I'm sure this is about to blow up. Let's get downstairs before we miss the fun."

I grabbed her on her way out. "Forgetting something, aren't you? Gin, what did you see?"

She bit her lip. "Anthony's vision of the war . . . it changed."

"Impossible. No vision has ever changed."

"I know," she said. "But it did. Now there's snow."

"How sure are you?" I asked.

"Pretty positive. Blood shows up a lot better on snow than it does on grass," she said stiffly.

That was . . . an image.

"How's Dad taking it?" I asked.

"How would I know? It's not like he's admitted this happened. I just swiped it off him."

This was getting more disastrous by the second. "So with a change in the vision, this means we don't have a timeline for the war. It means we don't even know if the original vision is true. It means . . ."