Chapter Seven

QUINN

We received our marriage certificates after we got tested. We each gave a swab of our saliva for DNA testing that proved our identities. A machine spit out a rectangular sticker.

The man processing our marriage certificates smoothed the label on my left arm. Right arms were for birth certificates. After a minute, when I moved my arm back and forth, I could see our marriage information. The date of the wedding, our names, and a photo of Airik and me.

Once he did the same steps on Airik, we were legally married. We got dressed to go outside again. Airik took my hand as we walked out of the building and back into the bitter cold. Even though I had three layers on and wore more clothing than him, I still felt chilled.

"We're only getting two days of honeymoon," he said. "I'm not taking off of work."

Because this wasn't a real marriage, I thought.

"Where do you work?"

"I'm a senior admin for the government. I don't want to talk about work right now. I'm already a bit of a workaholic, and this is supposed to be our honeymoon."

"Of course. That's fine. We have all year to get to know each other," I said. I didn't care. I was on a high today.

"I was wondering something," he said. He opened the door for me to a small snow car waiting outside the building.

"Is this one self-driving?"

"Yes. I own this one. They don't all have drivers. The ones in town are self-driving. Any cars that go out of town need drivers because the terrain or the snow can require human intervention. That brings me back to what I was wondering," he said. The look in his eyes gave me shivers. "Is it possible you're wearing your special underwear like I asked you to?"

I smiled at him, feeling as sexy as I ever had in my life.

"Maybe I am."

"I was hoping you'd say that."

"You mean I didn't wear this skirt for nothing?" I said, indicating my attire. "I wanted to make sure you had access if you needed it."

He didn't say anything as his hand slipped under my skirt. He sucked in his breath when he discovered how much access he had to me. He set the car to the slowest speed possible on the way home.

I saw him again. It was when we stepped into the hotel and pulled off our mitts and hats. The man from yesterday disappeared down one of the halls.

"Did you see him again, Airik?" I asked, feeling a spike of fear pierce my heart. He might be randomly staying at the hotel, but my intuition told me otherwise. I had learned a long time ago that it was always right. "Will you have him checked out? You don't think I'm crazy, right?"

I wished again that my Dad was here. He had always been my protector. But he wasn't here, and I would have to get used to it, despite my heartache for him and anything familiar from home.

"Sure, Quinn. But why are you worried? I think you had better tell me."

Tell him? I couldn't tell him the whole story, but I would have to give him something.

"It sounds silly, but when I left home, I was being persecuted. There was a cult that was trying to...well, they were attempting to kill me. I'm afraid they might have followed me here."

"Pursuing you seems unlikely when you consider the expense," Airik said.

"I'm probably just being paranoid." I tried to dismiss my concern just like he did.

"I'll check him out if you want, Quinn. I'll send you the information."

"Thanks, Airik. I appreciate it," I said, smiling up at my new husband. Maybe I had imagined things after all.

I had the vision after we made love again in the hotel room. It took me when we were snuggling in bed. As usual, I was sucked into a movie that was playing in my mind. But it wasn't a movie. It was the future.

I felt my body go rigid and start to shake. I stared into space, not seeing what was in front of me. I was walking down the street holding a little hand. I looked down and saw a two-year-old girl. We were walking down the street near the building where I had received the marriage certificate. There was no snow around me, so it must be summer.

I went to cross the street. We were in the middle when the little girl dropped her doll. There was a car coming towards us. I pulled her across the street to save her. At the last moment, she yanked her hand away from me and ran back for the doll. She grabbed it and picked it up, beaming at me. She didn't see the car when it hit her and her body went flying through the air. I didn't need to touch her body to know she was gone. She was lying still without any movement. I screamed and ran to her, dropping down beside the lifeless little body as I started to sob.

As I came out of the vision, I saw Airik staring at me. "Quinn? Thank goodness you're back."

"Airik?"

"Are you all right? What happened?"

My eyes filled with tears. I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep tonight. If I did, nightmares of the girl's death would torment me.

I looked up at him. He appeared concerned. "It seemed as though you were having a seizure," he said.

He had a great explanation for me, and it wasn't even much of a lie.

"This kind of thing used to happen to me back home," I said. "I'm sorry. I should have told you, so you wouldn't worry when it happened." It was all true.

"I was worried."

I reached up and touched his face. "You don't have to be. I'm all right."

"You look upset," he said, tracing a line the tear had made down my face.

"I always feel a little strange afterward," I said, dropping my eyes. "I need to rest."

"Okay," he said. "I'll find something to occupy myself."

I nodded. "I'll rest here."

Once I was sure he was gone, I broke down and cried.

AIRIK

We had just made love again when it happened. Her body went stiff, and she started shaking. Her eyes became unfocused. She stared off into space. I watched in consternation.

What was going on?

Different intense emotions passed across her face. Happiness. Careful attention. Worry. Anger. Terror. Grief.

Without warning, she was back. Her shaking stopped, and she looked up at me, telling me this had happened before, and it was nothing.

I let her give me a story about a seizure. When I went into the other room, I couldn't concentrate.

I knew Quinn was lying to me.

Along with my ability to receive Precogs about the future, I was also an empath. I could feel people's emotions. The emotion I sensed from Quinn right now was guilt.

But why would she lie about having seizures? There was nothing shameful about them at all. Her behavior was strange. Something different was going on. I needed to find out what she was hiding. I had linked my life with this woman without knowing anything about her. Right now, I thought that had been a bad idea.

I needed to find out the truth. If I couldn't trust Quinn, then this was never going to work.

QUINN

It was three o'clock in the morning. I still couldn't sleep. I had watched three movies and tried every trick I knew to get myself to fall asleep.

As soon as I closed my eyes, I would see the little girl dead and broken on the ground.

I made myself so sick from crying that my stomach hurt.

Airik, of course, was sleeping like a log in the other room.

I got into my messages and saw one from Airik about the stranger and also one from my father. I opened my Dad's message first. I needed something to cheer me up.

When I started reading, I wished I hadn't opened it. It wasn't good news. Dad said he had recently watched a news program about the Sons of the Heavenly Father. The police had captured several members. Two had told the police everything they knew. Former cult members said the organization had people all over the galaxy and on every planet. Cult members were encouraged to seek out and kill anyone who seemed different.

They were fanatical, he said. The cult's lone assassins would go to great extremes to kill someone who had been targeted previously as a victim. He encouraged me to be vigilant and careful in my new home. Maybe I wasn't as safe as we had hoped. He also sent me congratulations on my wedding. Tears ran down my face by the time I finished his message, but I still managed to open the one from Airik.

Airik's message was a copy and paste. All the man's profile information was in front of me. I wondered if Airik had read it. I thought it unlikely. The message didn't have any personal greetings, and he hadn't seemed concerned when I told him about my worries.

I scanned the information. The man was human. Was on a work visa on Koccoran. Wasn't married. Had graduated from high school but not college. I scrolled down looking for the pertinent information I needed. Religious affiliations. Where was it?

There. Near the end. Religious affiliations: a member of the Sons of the Heavenly Father church

I jumped up and began to pace. Suddenly, the fear for my life eclipsed my grief at seeing the little girl die. If I were back home, I would go for a run. But here with three feet of snow outside, it was impossible. I felt trapped and frustrated. Sometimes exercise helped when I felt isolated like this, but I couldn't go out.

It wouldn't be safe to go out, either.

I supposed I could do some exercises inside. I started with some jumping jacks, then proceeded to sit-ups, push-ups, running on the spot, and burpies. I dripped with sweat and felt exhausted. I sat on the floor with my arms wrapped around my knees.

I was exhausted, but not sleepy.

I decided to take a shower. As I got up, Airik came out of the room, rubbing his eyes. "Quinn? Are you still awake?"

"Yeah, I can't sleep. It's no big deal; it happens all the time. Don't worry. You'll get used to it. I hope I didn't wake you."

"Uh, no. I didn't hear you." He looked uncertain, which I found perplexing. Either I had woken him, or I hadn't. "But why can't you sleep? Is something wrong?"

He was giving me a penetrating stare and his eyes looked wide awake. He was making me nervous all of a sudden. Did he suspect I was psychic and that I had visions? What would have made him think that? I didn't know what I did while having a vision, but my dad said I never spoke.

What would have tipped him off?

"Nothing's wrong. I have nightmares sometimes and can't go back to sleep." This was true, though not the entire truth. I would decide what to tell him about the man from the lobby in the morning after I had a few hours of sleep under my belt.

"Really? Me too, sometimes."

I didn't believe him. "I was exercising to try and make myself tired. I'm going to have a shower."

"Let me use the bathroom first."

"Sure," I said, gesturing for him to proceed.

It was an incredibly awkward conversation. I wondered how we went so quickly from being as close as two people can be to barely being able to make small talk. I shook my head. Maybe I shouldn't be hiding things from him. He was my husband. Surely he would understand, right?

Of course not. No one ever understood. I was a freak, an outcast, and a weirdo. He wouldn't get it. No one would ever get me.

That's the way my life was.

He came back out of the bathroom.

"How about something different? Quinn, you said you've never seen snow before, right? Have you ever heard of rainbow snow?"

"What's that?"

"It's a weather phenomenon that creates a swirling light effect that looks like colored snow. It looks spectacular. I checked, and the observation point will be open tomorrow. They're expecting a rainbow swirl. Would you like to go?

"Sure," I said, smiling at him. He walked over to me and pulled me in for a soft kiss. When our lips touched, I felt like there was nothing between us. When he let me go, I felt the distance growing between us again.

"I hope you'll come back to bed," he said, studying me.

I shrugged. I felt far away from him, and I didn't like it.

"I probably won't unless I think I can sleep. Otherwise, I'll toss and turn and wake you up."

"Okay then," he said, looking at me like he didn't believe a word I said. With a sad glance, he went back into the bedroom.

I sat down on the couch then and hung my head. If Airik couldn't trust me, I knew this marriage couldn't last.

AIRIK

We stood at the top of the hill and looked down. There was snow everywhere and from up here we had an excellent view. Before us, the town spread out — the colored buildings stood out brightly against the white of the snow on the streets. Some of the houses had smoke coming from their chimneys. All around the town was the forest, looking like a thick green carpet from our viewpoint.

We were waiting in line for our turn to get on one of the open hovercraft. It would take us to the proper height so we could see the beautiful rainbow swirls.

The weather was perfect. I was sure Quinn was going to like it. I looked over at her and checked to make sure the scarf covered her delicate cheeks. The only visible part of her was her bright blue eyes, the color of the sky today.

"Warm enough?" I said with a smile.

She was wearing panties, long underwear, and two pairs of pants, not including her snow pants. On top, she had on her bra, a camisole, a long underwear shirt, a sweater and her coat. She had on warm boots and a hat on her head, with a scarf wrapped around her face. I knew all this because I had enjoyed watching her dress before we left. I hoped she was warm enough. There was no way she could carry any more clothes on her tiny frame.

She pulled down the scarf and grinned at me.

"I am. I'm glad I put on everything. For once, I'm not freezing."

"We're going to have to toughen you up and get you outside more. There's still three more months of the first winter."

"Three?" she winced.

"Winter is lots of fun," I said as we moved forward in line. "When we get on the hovercraft, you'll see the beauty of your new home. It wouldn't be possible without the cold weather."

"I hope so," she said, tilting her head to look up at the vehicles already floating in the sky. Soon it was our turn. We strapped on the seat belts.

"Are you ready?" I said, peeking my head around so I could see her. She turned and kissed me. Then she smiled, looking happy but nervous.

"Ready."

The hovercraft began rising into the air, avoiding the other vehicles and taking us to the best view of the snow. When the hovercraft stopped, I heard Quinn draw in a deep breath.

"Airik, I've never seen anything as lovely as this."

Rainbow snow was only visible at certain times of the year. The primary component of snowflakes here was clear ice. It looked like they were constructed from glass. The snowflakes split the sunlight like small prisms. The wind created a swirling rainbow vortex that moved and danced in the sky.

We sat there for a long time watching it. Quinn took my hand in hers, and we didn't say anything. Finally, she said she was cold. I directed the hovercraft to descend.

"That was incredible," she said, kissing me on the cheek once we were on solid ground again. "I've never seen anything like it."

"Do you want to go downtown and get a snack?" I asked. I didn't want this day to end yet. I took her to a cafe I liked. We had warm drinks and a delicious Koccoran bread filled with spices and dried fruit.

When we got back to the hotel, we took off all our outdoor clothes and hung them around the room. There was a drying rack in our room for our mitts. After we had changed into our pajamas, I went into the kitchen.

"Do you want some tea, Quinn?" I called out.

"Sure."

When I turned around, she was behind me. She smiled and wrapped her arms around my waist.

"Thank you for a wonderful day. Rainbow snow is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen."

"I'm glad you enjoyed it. I haven't been up to see rainbow snow in years. I had a good time, too."

I leaned down and pressed a kiss to her forehead on the spot between her eyebrows directly on her third eye. I didn't mean to kiss her there. It just happened to be within easy reach as I bent down.

As I touched her third eye, the cortex of all intuition and precognition, images rushed through my mind. I used my training to slow them down.

Quinn as a little girl, happy and carefree, with a man who must be her father, pushing her on a swing. Quinn riding a bike. Quinn wearing a fancy dress and dancing at a party. A teenage Quinn, unhappy now, crying on her father's shoulder. Quinn sitting on the same couch with her face beaten up. Quinn hiding in an apartment.

As my lips came away, the flow of images stopped, and Quinn looked up at me with shock in her eyes.

"What is it?" I whispered. I wanted to understand.

I was a top recruiter for the Precog Division before I was a director. One of the ways to identify a Precog was by touching their third eye using skin-to-skin contact. It allowed a trained Precog to sense their abilities. I had been one of the best.

Quinn must be a Precog. There was no other explanation.

She stepped away from me and she started babbling.

"It was nothing, Airik. Nothing at all."

"That wasn't nothing."

"It was. I swear. Please. Just ignore it." She looked around the room like she wanted to escape.

"Quinn," I said, using my most authoritative voice. "There's something you're not telling me. I have to know what it is."