“What are you saying?” If the lines of confusion in Anne’s forehead grew any deeper, they’d be trenches. “She snatched the second oath a long time ago and didn’t tell anyone?”

“Yeah. Probably years before she burned it—because she knew someday she’d have to be able to ask you for a favor.”

“You’re saying that when we were seventeen, while you, Kori and I were daring one another to sneak into frat parties and make out with strangers, Noelle was making plans to protect her future daughter from a Skilled crime lord?”

I took a deep breath and dove in even deeper. “You’re gonna think I’m crazy, but I think this goes back even further than that. At least, it does for Elle. Do you remember the day we signed the original oath?”

Anne nodded, clearly impatient for me to get to the point. “I was twelve, not brain dead. That was the night I had my first kiss, at the back-to-school mixer. With Robby Parker. Who then told the entire male half of the seventh grade that my mouth tasted like dog shit smells.”

Cam looked as if he wanted to laugh, but he caught my censuring glance just in time and held it in. I turned back to Anne. “And after that?”

“After that, Kori went across the street into the park and filled a paper party napkin with actual dog shit, which she then shoved into his mouth in the middle of the gym, in front of the entire school. She got suspended, and I got the last laugh when Robby spewed dog poo all over his friends.”

That time Cam did laugh, and even Anne cracked a smile at the memory, in spite of the circumstances necessitating the trip down memory lane.

“And after that…?” I prompted.

“We went back to Kori’s house and swore we’d always be there to help one another. Her sister, Kenley, drafted an oath, and we all signed, then stamped in blood. Of course, we had no idea what we were doing—”

“Yes, but whose idea was the oath, do you remember?” I interrupted, when she seemed to be sidestepping my point entirely. “It wasn’t Kori’s—she’s more of a seat-of-the-pants revenge-taker—and it wasn’t mine.”

And that’s when Anne finally understood. She sat up straight and stiff on the couch, her eyes wide, staring at nothing and everything all at once. “Noelle…”

I nodded solemnly. “We were just goofing around—kids high on loyalty and revenge—but she saw what we couldn’t. And she must have known about Kenley….”

“Hell, she must have known about us all!” Anne’s stunned expression was starting to shift into amazement. “She must have known part of it, anyway.”

“Wait a minute.” Cam leaned back on the couch, arms crossed over his chest in an obvious display of skepticism. “You’re saying that a twelve-year-old kid saw sixteen years into the future and not only understood what she saw, but also understood how to prepare for it?”

I nodded. “And she knew how to nudge us into preparing for it.”

Cam’s brows rose, and I couldn’t tell if he was scared or impressed. Or both. “Well, it’s no damn wonder Tower wants her kid, if there’s even a chance that she’ll develop her mother’s Skill. I’ve never heard of a Seer that powerful in my entire life.”

Yeah. But look where it got her. Noelle had spent half her life planning for her own death and putting us in place to make sure the same thing didn’t happen to her daughter.

And we weren’t going to let her down.

Twenty-Four

“Okay, so Elle’s been planning ahead.” Anne leaned back on the couch, one arm over her closed eyes, and I wondered if she was trying to keep the light out or the hope in. “But if she could see so far in advance, wouldn’t she know we’d eventually need Hadley’s real, full name? Even if she never saw this particular problem coming? Why on earth would she trust me with her child, but not with that child’s name?”

“Maybe she did,” Cam said, and Anne sat up to frown at him. “But she couldn’t just write Hadley’s middle and last names down somewhere where anyone might find them.”

“An understandable paranoia,” I said, waving one hand for him to continue.

“So maybe she hid them.”

“Hid them where?” Anne demanded, her voice brittle with frustration. Or maybe that was pain. She was probably miserable by now, considering how long her accidental breach of contract with Noelle had been in effect.

“It would have to be somewhere you’d be sure to see them, but no one else would notice them.” I rubbed my forehead, my brain racing. “They’d have to be in something she gave you. Something she sent with Hadley. Or maybe something she left in her apartment.”

Anne shook her head. “I’ve been through all that!” She ran one hand through her hair in exaseration. “I’ve been through everything. Over and over. She didn’t have an address book—not hard copy, and not digital. There are no names on the backs of her photos except for Hadley, and that’s all she ever called her in writing. Just that one name. There was nothing embroidered or written on her clothes, no name tag on her diaper bag or suitcase. It’s like Noelle was hiding her before she ever even sent her to me.” Another sigh, then Anne met my gaze with an exhausted one of her own. “Besides, she was too careful to leave anything telling in her apartment. What if I hadn’t come to clean it out before she was officially evicted? What if someone else came looking for her before her neighbor called me? She couldn’t have seen everything, Liv. Some things had to be in the shadows, and she wouldn’t have taken a risk like that.”