Chica, settle down,” Lady Adelaide said as Annie continued to pace nervously in front of the fireplace. She had been rambling on ever since she crossed the threshold into Lady Adelaide’s living room.

“It was real, Adelaide. At least it felt real. I think my father and Caesar are dead.”

“Don’t you think I’d know if my Caesar left this world?” Lady Adelaide said. “Me of all people?”

Annie shrugged helplessly, and Lady Adelaide gazed into her eyes. “Who called you the night Grace died?” She tapped her chest twice, rattling the pearls that rested there. “It was me. I’ve told you before and I’ll tell you again, chica, it’s the gift. The three of us are connected. And I can tell you without a doubt in my bones that my nephew is very much alive. Although, his essence seems … different somehow, as if something….”

Lady Adelaide’s eyes rolled back in her head, and a deep husky voice sounded from deep within her. “The artifact lives. What you see is what will be.”

As quickly as she had gone into the trance, she snapped out if it. “Sorry, chica,” she said, her hand at her chest again. A bewildered expression marked her features. “Did you say something?”

Annie was used to seeing Lady Adelaide drift in and out without warning, relating important messages when she regained her senses. But the strange voice was something new. In the past, Lady Adelaide’s ways had unsettled and even unnerved Annie, but Caesar had always been fond of his aunt, and there was a special bond between the two women. Adelaide had saved Annie from drowning when she was nineteen. That was back when Caesar spent every holiday at Adelaide’s, and Annie, head over heels in love with him, found herself tagging along. Lionel would often drop by between business trips himself.

If Annie didn’t know better, she would have sworn her father had had an affair with Adelaide sometime in the past. He had been close to her brother, Caesar Sr., after all. Ever since Caesar’s father had passed on, Lionel went out of his way to accommodate the closest members of his family, especially Caesar and his aunt, Lady Adelaide, despite her penchant for rolling her eyes from time to time and uttering one nonsensical thing after another.

Annie knew this particular message meant that her visions had not yet come to pass, but the course was set. Annie had rushed over and related to Adelaide everything she had seen in her living room. She mentioned the voice she had heard and the odd waking time. As she spoke, tears ran down her face.

“You said something just now. Only you said it in a strange voice,” Annie said, as she continued to pace.

“Sit, sit. Calm down, Annie, and let’s see what the crystal has to say.”

This was Adelaide’s custom following one of her blackouts and revelations. She would sit at her small lacquered table, her head covered in a gypsy shawl, and uncover the polished crystal skull. The skull, she claimed, was her connection to the spirit realm.

Grace had been intrigued by the skull as a child, and had claimed to see people in it. She even made a few imaginary friends within the depths of the crystal glass. It seemed harmless to Caesar and Adelaide, but Annie put a stop to it, and Grace lost her first real “friends.”

Many times after that, Annie had peered at the skull, trying to see what her daughter had seen, but all she could see was the distorted reflection of the room. Lady Adelaide claimed it was real and had belonged to a superior being. Annie had doubted it.

She doubted even now.

Lady Adelaide’s focus intensified as she huddled in close, her eyes searching through the mists that were only visible to her. Suddenly, she could see events play out in the skull, scenes of annihilation that seemed to weigh heavy on her chest. They came at her all at once—mighty rushing waters consuming seaside towns and villages, intense heat burning people alive in the streets, vast settlements collapsing into the depths of the earth.

A wisp of wind lifted the edges of her shawl as every cell in her body began to tingle. She witnessed the clashing of elements, on opposing ends of the spectrum—light versus darkness—and the world was brought to its knees. Too much information was flowing through the crystal and into Adelaide’s mind. She was suffering mental overload. She recognized Caesar, who was engaged in the battle of his life, and the outcome meant the fate of the planet. She saw an explosion of smoke, and out of its midst emerged a great light, and then the visions were gone.

Lady Adelaide sighed and bowed her head, glad for the relief. She had never experienced such an intense vision in all the decades she had been peering into the skull. She leaned back to allow her body to relax when the skull clouded over once more.

When she looked into the crystal again, she jumped back, knocking over her chair and nearly falling. Her heart was racing, and Annie was screaming her name, demanding to know what she had seen.

“Speak to me!” Annie yelled.

Lady Adelaide looked at Annie in fear, as though she didn’t recognize her. Adelaide picked up the crystal and raised it above her head. She hurled it to the floor, and it shattered into pieces at Annie’s feet.

With tears streaming down her face, Annie pleaded. “Please tell me what you saw!”

“Oh, mi querido, why you? Why you?” Lady Adelaide paced the floor herself now, muttering in Spanish and shaking her head.

The ticking of the grandfather clock on the far wall grew louder, and both women turned toward it in unison. The ticking stopped. Silence filled the room, and Lady Adelaide turned to Annie.

“Annie,” she said in a trembling whisper. “You’ve got to go into hiding.”