The Flight of the Silvers (Silvers #1)(139)

“Oh, please. There’s an expression people like to give me whenever they notice my wrist. They say, ‘A girl with two watches never knows what time it is.’ That’s bullshit.” She checked her dual timepieces. “It’s 3:30.”

“How do you know for sure?” Theo challenged.

“Because they’re synchronized. That makes me twice as sure. What Sterling Quint, God rest his missing soul, doesn’t take into account are the redundancies. You look at a million possible outcomes, you start to see repeats. From repeats come patterns. From patterns come probabilities. A true augur can look at the big quilt and see which futures have the best chances of happening.”

She tilted her head at Mia as if she suddenly just noticed her. “You have amazing hair.”

Mia fought a bashful grin. Theo remained skeptical. “It’s still guesswork though.”

“So?”

“It wouldn’t matter for coin tosses, but for life-or-death situations . . .”

The girl waved him off. “Oh, suck it up, man. You’re never going to be a good augur if you live in fear of regret.”

“Who said I wanted to become an augur?”

“You’re already an augur, Theo. You’re just not a good one.”

Now both Silvers stared at her in hot alarm. She sighed at herself.

“Shit. I didn’t want to make a whole thing of this. I don’t even know why I came here. This isn’t my battle.”

“Who are you?” Mia asked.

“I’m nobody. Just a stupid girl who can’t mind her own business. You both seem like nice people and you looked so lost. I just wanted to give you a push in the right direction and then flutter away.”

“You won’t even give us your name,” Theo griped. “Why should we believe anything you say?”

The girl shrugged. “You don’t have to believe a word, hon. Doesn’t affect me one bit. It also doesn’t change the reality of your situation. Big things are coming, whether you like it or not.”

“Yeah? Like what?”

“Like you,” she told Theo. “You have no idea how much power you’re carrying in that stubborn brain of yours. There’s a great prophet buried in there. Now he’s clawing his way up through all that trauma and liquor damage. I wish I could tell you the process will tickle, but those headaches you’re getting are just previews. Come tomorrow, you’re really not going to like being you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“What does it matter? You don’t believe me anyway.” The girl looked to Mia. “I’m hoping you’ll be a little more receptive to what I have to say. You’re a sweet and pretty girl with a sharp mind and killer hair. But one thing you’re not and never will be is an augur.”

Mia’s heart lurched. “What . . . what do you mean?”

“You don’t have the sight like me and Theo. You just have your portals, and they aren’t meant to be used the way you’re using them. It’s not your fault. Nobody told you. It’s just that there are a lot of Mias out there in the future. The stronger you get, the more of them you’ll hear from. If you’re not careful, every minute of your life will be a ticker-tape parade. I don’t think you want that.”

The thought turned Mia white. “I don’t! What do I do?”

“Talk to Peter. He’ll set you straight. The man can be a pigheaded fool sometimes, but he sure knows his portals.”

Theo eyed her cynically. “Is that what you are? A Gotham?”

“No, but I’ve met a few. They hate being called that, by the way.”

The girl rose to her feet and slung her purse over her shoulder.

“You know why Merlin McGee only predicts natural disasters? Because he’s lazy and they’re easy. They’re constants across the many branching futures, well outside our influence. It doesn’t matter which way we zig or zag. It’s still going to rain in Nemeth tomorrow.”

She fixed a heavy gaze on Theo. “Bad times are coming. First for you, then your friends. If there was a way around it, I’d tell you. You’re all just going to have to stay strong and weather the storm.”

The girl walked ten steps to the bookshelves, then took a final look at Mia.

“I really do love that hair.”

She disappeared in the aisles, leaving her new friends in quiet turmoil. Theo aimed his dull stare out the window. Mia’s gaze danced around the letters of Quint’s book jacket.

“Are you okay to drive?” she asked him, a half hour later.

“I think so.”

“Okay. I think I’d like to go home.”

“Yeah.”

They left the library in grim silence, without looking back. They didn’t need foresight to know that they wouldn’t return here. They’d already learned more than they wanted to know.

—

The grandfather clock ticked away as the Silvers sat behind the remnants of their supper. Ten elbows rested on the dining room table, ten fists propping five chins. Only Theo sat slouched in his chair. He wished Mia hadn’t told the others about the girl with two watches.

“She’s either a skilled augur herself or a time traveler,” David surmised. “I can’t see how else she’d profess to know about Theo’s potential.”