Medusa's Dagger (Aya Harris Collection 1)

It had a cement floor and cracked, dirty walls. The remaining Yonas family cowered on the floor, grasping each other for comfort.

I watched from an angle high above their heads as snakes began to slither under the walls. Black, slimy looking things with rectangular heads and dark eyes. Someone needed to warn them! A scream tore from my throat, but no one looked up. Instead, the snakes kept coming in waves until no floor space remained. They piled high, engulfing the Yonas family, drowning them in the hissing, writhing mess.

I felt my shoulders being shaken. Closing my eyes tight, I tried to push the hands away, but they held on. All I wanted to do was sink into the darkness and go to sleep.

“What did you see? Tell me what you saw.” Gideon’s muffled voice sounded like he was on the other side of a long tunnel.

I opened my eyelids a crack. He was watching me closely, his eyes not moving from my face.

“Was it a vision?”

I turned my head away. Water. I needed water. My head pounded as I pushed Gideon away and stumbled to the kitchen. The giant spider plant on the bookshelf was completely brown. It’d shriveled up as a result of my intense vision, its life force spent. I pressed a hand to my mouth while my stomach threatened to come up.

“I need to know what you saw.”

Gideon chased me to the sink where I filled a glass with faucet water and gulped it down.

“Every detail. Maybe it’ll give us a clue where he’s hiding them.”

I whipped around and the glass flew from my hand, smashing on the kitchen cabinet. “You did this on purpose. You wanted me to have another vision. That’s why you paraded those awful photos in front of me.”

His mouth fell open, but no sound came out. Instead, he gaped at me and then shut his mouth, licking his lips.

“How dare you,” I continued. “Do you know what those visions do to me? After the last one, I couldn’t get out of bed all day. They don’t come free.”

“I’m sorry.” Gideon rubbed the back of his head. “I really am, but I had no choice. We’ve got nothing at the SI. We’re stumped. And people are dying.”

“Yeah, well, you could’ve tried asking.”

I slammed the cupboard open under the sink and snatched the hand broom and dustpan. Sweeping up the glass fragments, I threw them in the garbage with as much rage as I could muster. No one had the right to use me and my visions. It was one of the reasons I ran away from Chicago. My life, my choice.

“I’m sorry, okay?”

Gideon grabbed my wrist. He held it lightly between his fingers, but even that slight touch burned my skin.

I stopped my rampage and looked him straight in the eye. “Don’t ever try to force me to get a vision again or that’ll be the end of it. I won’t be used by anyone.” The warning came out through clenched teeth. I could feel the beginning of frustrated tears springing from the corners of my eyes. I turned away.

“I won’t. Never again.”

Gideon’s promise sounded truthful, even to my still raging head.

He grabbed my other hand and squeezed it. “I didn’t know they were so bad. Are you okay?”

I’d probably have a migraine for the rest of the night and a wicked magic hangover tomorrow morning, but I’d live. Draining the spider plant of its life force seemed to have spared me from most of the damage of the vision. I nodded my head and went back to the kitchen table, collapsing in my chair.

“You want to know what happened? This one’s screwy, so take notes.” I closed my eyes to visualize it. “It was a really dark room. No windows. I’m guessing… underground. Like a basement or something.”

“Did you see the family?” Gideon took out his notebook and began scribbling.

“Yes, all three of them. They were huddled together in the middle of the room. And there were snakes.”

Gideon looked up. “Snakes? What kind?”

“I don’t know. The black slithery kind. They were coming in from every corner of the room, hundreds of them.”

He looked down at his notes and paused. “Why would there be snakes in the room?”

“Maybe it’s not literal.” I chewed on my bottom lip. “Sometimes, my visions are representations or like riddles. Our killer might have something to do with snakes. Is there a wizard that likes snakes?”