Page 121 of Roguefinder

I lifted the lid.

And I was suddenly in Jesse’s arms, the lid in my hands, and my heart beating so fast my knees loosened.

“Caleb!” Jesse barked.

“I’m sorry,” I gasped. “Fuck, I didn’t mean to.”

He eased me away from him but kept his hands on my arms. “It’s okay. I’m sorry I yelled at you.” He took the lid from me and set it on the counter.

“I don’t know why I did that,” I said.

He felt my forehead. “You okay?”

“Yeah.”

We looked into the box.

A twisted golden ring nestled on a piece of dark cloth. Too big for a bracelet, it was open at the front and worked into little balls at both ends. An intricate design ran around the whole thing.

“It’s a torc,” Jesse said. “Celtic jewelry worn around the throat. We should get rid of it.”

But it was pretty. The gold gleamed in the afternoon light streaming through the window.

“Yeah,” I said, my voice sounding distant in my ears. “We should.”

I blinked, and the kitchen ripped away.

I sped across a black sea. Storm waves heaved beneath me. Wind screamed in my ears. Water and salt lashed my face. An island rose from the water. Rocky and barren, it was a fist of stone that punched from the sea.

Lightning cracked around it in a cage of white light. Someone chanted under the wind, the words too low to understand.

I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t stop. I was going too fast and the island was getting bigger and I was going to slam into it.

A vision. I knew it, but I couldn’t stop it. I reached for my gift.

Let me out.

Show me something different.

Nothing. The island kept coming. The chanting swelled. The vision held me the way the silver straps had held me to Carlo’s table.

A man’s deep voice boomed over the wind and the roar of the sea.

“YOU’LL LOOK GOOD IN MY COLLAR, LITTLE WOLF.”

Something struck my hand.

The vision shattered. The kitchen slammed back in a blaze of light and warmth. I swayed on my feet as the torc sailed through the air and hit the hardwood with a metallic ring.

Jesse staggered back. He’d kicked it out of my hand.

Except I didn’t remember touching it.

He snatched a towel from the counter, strode to the torc, and scooped it up with the towel between the metal and his skin. Then he rushed to the slider and tossed it outside.

He came to me and guided me to a chair. “Caleb,” he said, squatting in front of me. “Talk to me. What did you see?”

“I couldn’t let go.” I told him everything: the ocean, the island, the lightning. The vision that wouldn’t stop. The voice.