The woman in her dream had been dressed in clothes from the early 1920s, before the flappers but after the drab style of the World War I era. And she had been excited, then all at once frightened; Sophie felt the woman’s fear again. She closed her eyes and focused, something that was becoming easier with time. Last year, Sophie had developed a new psychic skill, clairsentience. By touch she was able to see through the eyes of another, to feel what they were feeling in real time. She returned her focus to the woman in the dream. Her dress was scarlet, made of the finest silk. Sophie saw a bolt of cloth on a ship, which startled her. “That wasn’t a dream,” she said out loud.

Knowing this, she lay back against the recliner’s plump cushions, closing her eyes and trying earnestly to decipher the images imprinted on her mind. Taking several deep breaths, Sophie could feel herself relax, the way she did right before she fell into a trance. Unlike a trance, however, she was very much aware of the woman, her fears, and her physical pain.

She’d been celebrating; Sophie knew this as she felt the woman’s anticipation. Focusing on the emotions coursing through the woman, Sophie again felt the woman’s fright when it rekindled the same fear in Sophie that had awoken her from a sound sleep. The first trickle of apprehension coursed through her, the woman, as Sophie’s external self would refer to her.

A tinge of alarm was replaced by an icy-cold fear that permeated the woman as she called out a name. Sophie homed in on the words that only she could hear.

“Theodore?”

Anxious, Sophie concentrated on the name, hoping that her perceptiveness would lead her to find the meaning behind the woman’s fear as she spoke the man’s name. Again, centering every ounce of her psychic abilities on the emotions felt by this woman, she experienced a stabbing fear so great, she felt panicky. Acknowledging her gift, yet sometimes unsure of her own power, Sophie felt the force of the woman’s complete and utter fear spread through her nervous system like an electrical jolt.