She nodded. “Sí, Jebediah Amel is correct, and you must learn to trust him, even though he can be a bit… prickly at times.” She chortled at her own joke, which was referring to his spiky hair. Abruptly her face turned serious. “He will not lead you astray and you will learn much from him. Fate has been unstable for too long, Chica. When Lilith killed my sister and Ardat Lili took her seat on the Coalition, the damage they caused was grave. Only someone with a great magnitude of power could have derailed Fate’s true path so effectively. Lilith was one of only a handful of supernaturals with the kind of power to do what she did, and she knew what she was doing—relished in it. Because of that, we are still reeling from it. My sister Enid and I miss our third sister, Bianca, very much. But when Fate gave us the sight, right after she was killed, Enid and I interpreted the signs differently. It was the first time that had ever happened. We have disagreed about it for centuries. This es why we are sitting here at this table.” She rapped her knuckles on the wood. “I believe you are the key to fixing everything that went wrong, and Enid believed that Lili was. And now that she es dead, without giving birth to our sister, Enid believes your death es the only option to give us a fresh start. But that es not the truth, and to prove it we must get down to the business of solving it before Enid can end your life.”
My mind spun. “And how do we do that? How do we put things back on track?” I hoped she had an easy checklist that I could follow to the letter, and once completed, everything would miraculously go back to normal.
I somehow knew that wouldn’t be the case.
“Before I go into that, I must be completely honest with you, Chica. Everything on the table.” She rapped again on the painted wood to emphasize her point. “Enid’s way es the only way that es guaranteed to work. My way es trickier, and all of the things must happen in the right order, but if they do, we have a chance.” Her face was grave. “We will not take Enid’s path if we can help it.”
She was talking about my death. “If I die, you’re certain Fate will set itself to rights?”
“Sí,” she answered. “If you die, it will trigger the birth of a new catalyst, and this time the rebirth would be my sister.” She bowed her head. “Enid and I both saw it the night you ended Ardat Lili’s life. That es why Enid has acted so quickly. She es desperate to have Bianca back, but I know there es another way. We saw it the night Lilith took Bianca’s life.”
“Jeb said it would be very bad if I died,” I said.
“Oh, sí, it would be much worse in our world before it got better, which es why I don’t agree with Enid. I am anxious to greet my sister Bianca once again, but we will get there another way.” Juanita grinned as she picked up her mug and took a sip. “Enid thinks this es an acceptable loss in the short term, but I do not. My sister and I can both read the signs, but there es still quite a bit of mystery involved, you see? If we could control Fate, then we would be Fate. That es something my sister Enid cannot comprehend. Her grief es too great and she cannot think clearly any longer.”
“What do I have to do to get Fate back on track?” I asked. I really didn’t want to die if I could help it. “Tell me and I’ll do it.”
Juanita crossed her legs and grasped my hands again. “In the end, you will have to sacrifice something precious to you,” she began, “but I cannot tell you what. I also cannot tell you anything specific about your journey, except that it will happen very soon. If I give away too much, it will influence your choices and that es a no-no.” She wagged a single finger at me. “Moving forward, I must implore you to make all the decisions with your heart, even if they seem… hard to do. Just like turning the car around to help the necromancer. That was a choice you made with this.” She gestured to my heart. “Without doing that, we would not have been able to be here right now, and you would not be on the right track.”
Sacrificing didn’t sound ideal, but it was better than dying. My brain instantly jumping to my mate. I couldn’t give him up. I prayed it wasn’t him. “I’m willing to do what is necessary.” I didn’t say any more. I’d cross that bridge when I came to it.
“Don’t worry. This es something you can handle, Chica. I swear to it or I wouldn’t be here. Inside of you, deep inside”—she motioned to my chest—“there es knowledge. Your wolf will help guide you. Now that she es whole for the first time, you are both complete. This es the place where you need to be. It was necessary for that to happen first, before we could move forward. In time, you will learn more. But you must always try to listen to your wolf on matters of the supernatural.”
“Did you orchestrate my entire encounter with Marinette, then?”
“Sí, all of it was necessary, including taking the plane down where I did. But as much as I am able to lead you—to direct you toward something—we are forbidden to manipulate it once it es set in motion. The outcomes must be organic. But I did cheat a teensy bit with Marinette by giving information to the witch.” She winked. “But it was necessary or you would’ve died. Meeting your creator was—how do you say—a tricky result? Many outcomes could have erupted from that. We were lucky it came out as it did in our favor. But that es a testament to you. You are tenacious, as I knew you would be. Marinette was a powerful goddess in her day, and she was indeed responsible for the creation of shifters, but her life ended for a reason—one that she was never able to fully grasp. Even if she had successfully inhabited you and taken over your body, she was no longer capable of being powerful. Her only reason for continuing to exist was to pass on to you and your wolf what was rightfully yours—the other half of her soul.”