His voice boomed around the room as he asked. “What fate do ye speak of?
Her words caused Isla to tremble inside, and she felt the medallion resting on her chest gain heat; it nearly burned her skin. She yelped, released the woman, and hurriedly took it off from her neck.
The medallion’s light shone bright, and nearly blinded her, so she tossed it to the ground in panic. “What is happening?” she asked in a shaky voice.
Jack had come to stand beside her and hold her hand, but his presence did little to unnerve her. “Isla,” he called again but his voice barely cut into her confused mind.
When she shivered hard, he wrapped his hands around her shoulders and pulled her to him. “I am right beside ye,” he murmured, and his words offered her some form of courage.
Having him close made her feel more relaxed.
The woman’s eyes gleamed and taunted Isla as she laughed. “Yer fate remains the same as ye have nae learned to put others first. In Birlet Shallows ye died and the world has forgotten who ye are. Even if ye return now, nay one will remember ye.”
“That is not possible,” Isla replied as she shook her head. “I do not believe a word you say. I will not believe you ever because you speak lies.”
“Then I will show ye and make ye believe.”
The woman yanked Isla out of Jack’s grasp before she could brace herself, and instantly she fell into the trance she weaved. Isla saw the crowd gathered at the fair and heard the music that filled the air.
Her friends laughed, everyone partied, but no one noticed the cloaked figure heading toward her until the pointed end of his dagger stuck into her gut and drew her blood.
She fell to the ground limp, and no one still noticed. They all partied and enjoyed the pyromancer’s performance until she took her last breath.
How can this happen? How can it be real?
“Ye die in that life, Child. Even if ye return there now, it doesnae change the endin’ of what ye just saw. It is yer fate to die at that fair, and it has happened already.”
“So if I stay here, then I die there, and even if I return, I will still die?” Isla asked, seeking clarity so she fully understood what the woman was saying.
Isla gasped back to reality as the trance had only lasted a second before the woman released her. Her fear closed in on her and made it difficult for her to breathe. Hot tears stung her eyes and blurred her vision. “Liar,” she yelled on top of her voice. Her words ended on a wheezing breath.
“I dinnae speak lies. It is only yer fate,” she replied with another smile. “It is the fate that awaits ye even if ye return to yer time. Nothin’ has changed. A horrible fate awaits ye.”
The woman then burst into a loud cackle that sounded all too familiar in Isla’s ears. Just as the other gypsy had laughed at her in the past.
“Let us get out of here,” Jack told Isla, then spun her around and led her out of the inn. Once they were outside, she tore herself from Jack’s hold and staggered away from him.
The pains in her chest threatened to cut her breath short, and Isla already felt double the pain.How is this possible?
The entire time while she stayed here, her body lay cold and lifeless in her time because she had been stabbed.
Who would have done this?
“I need to breathe,” she cried out and dropped limply to the ground because her legs wouldn’t carry her. Isla’s body felt too flushed and hot to be normal. She shivered uncontrollably, and she couldn’t see anything besides shadows in the seconds that followed.
“Isla,” she heard Jack call, but it was too late. She had given into the fears that enveloped her from the panic that threatened to consume her whole.
* * *
Isla was in and out of her sleep-dazed state for the next two days and it worried Jack. After they left the inn, Isla fainted, and another woman had rushed out and offered to help them.
Jack hadn’t seen the older woman when he carried Isla back into the inn. In fact, Madeleine, the owner of the inn who helped them claimed there was no one like that at the inn.
Two days had passed, and he had searched and waited to see the gypsy again.
Had she cursed Isla? Put her in a tranced sleep she couldn’t get out?
His mind ran with his worrisome thoughts and there was nothing to keep him centered. He was pacing around the chamber they stayed in now and watching dusk befall the sky.