The Diviners (The Diviners 1)

“I need to show you something.” Evie unwrapped the tissue covering John Hobbes’s ring.

“Is that what I think it is?” Will asked. Evie nodded. “This is becoming a habit, Evangeline.”

“Will, if I can see him, understand him, we can be one step ahead of him.”

“Do you think that’s a good idea, doll?” Sam asked. “This fella’s a killer.”

“And a ghost,” Jericho added.

“What good is it to have this power and not use it?”

“I salute your spunk, but I question your sanity,” Sam said.

Will crouched beside Evie. “Evie, this isn’t a party trick. This ring belongs to the Beast himself.”

“I understand.”

“Get in, get what we need, and then get out,” Will advised. Evie nodded. “I’ll clap three times to help bring you up. If at any time you feel as if you are in danger—”

“I don’t like the sound of that. Do you like the sound of that, Frederick?” Sam muttered.

“You will say a code word. Let’s decide on one now.”

“How’s about no?” Sam said. “Or hooey? Or stop?”

“James,” Evie said. “The code word is James.”

Will nodded. “Very well.”

“Evie, are you sure you want to do this?” Jericho asked.

“Pos-i-tute-ly.” Evie attempted a smile. Her hands shook with both apprehension and excitement; going under was a bigger thrill than a front-row table at the most exclusive nightclub. “Put it in my hand, please.”

“I don’t like this,” Sam grumbled, but he put the ring in her hand anyway.

Evie closed it tightly in her palm and placed her other hand on top, like a seal. It took a moment for her to find her rhythm, and then she was falling through time in her mind.

“I see a town with muddy streets….” Evie said from her trancelike state. “Horses and wagons. I can’t… it’s speeding up….”

“Concentrate. Breathe,” Will instructed.

Evie took three deep breaths and the image stabilized.

“There’s a crowd, and a preacher….”

A tall, heavily bearded man in a black suit stood on an overturned fruit crate as he preached on the edge of a small town. A crowd had gathered. Many ridiculed him. Evie saw their laughing faces as almost satanic. The preacher didn’t stop. If anything, his voice gathered strength. “You must arm yourself that when the day of judgment comes, when the Beast brings forth God’s justice upon the sinners, you will be counted in the Lord’s number and spared. Prepare ye the walls of your houses with his markings to usher in his holy coming and anoint your flesh to bear witness to his glory!” the preacher thundered. At the preacher’s side stood a small boy of no more than nine or ten with a pale face and arresting blue eyes.

The boy held up a leather-bound book. “This be the Word of the Lord! The Gospel of the Brethren!”

Someone threw a tomato. It broke apart on the preacher’s face and slid down, staining his suit with pulp. Everyone laughed. The preacher wiped his face clean with a handkerchief without stopping his fiery sermon. But the boy stared daggers at the tomato thrower, and something in his gaze stopped the man’s laugh cold.

“Evie?” Will asked, for she’d fallen quiet.

“Yes. I’m here,” Evie answered. “It’s changing. I see wagons by a river. It’s cold. The preacher’s breath comes out in white puffs. They’re praying….”

In her mind, she saw Reverend Algoode raising his hands to heaven as he addressed his small congregation. “You are the chosen, the faithful, the Brethren….”

“The angel of the Lord appeared to me in the heavens as a streak of fire and bid me to part ways with the corruption of the old world and build a new Godly body of heaven in this country….” Evie echoed. “The Blood of the Lamb runs in our veins, and in blood will we vanquish our enemies and bring forth God’s true mission on earth.”