But the words were screaming inside her, seeking escape. She had no choice but to deliver them. She had to get them out. She kept her palm over her mouth and looked at the door. She might be able to make it outside if she made a run for it . . .

“Here,” Harlan said. He pushed his phone across the table.

She glanced down and saw that he had pulled up a blank screen. The notebook feature. The little keyboard was ready and waiting. Frantically she grabbed the phone and tapped the letters. The words spilled out onto the page.

The feverish sensation receded with each keystroke. She could do this. She could control the compulsion to speak, at least to some extent.

When she was finished, the desperate need to give voice to the words evaporated as suddenly as it had come upon her. She looked down to see what she had written.

When the time comes you will know how to go through the mirror.

CHAPTER 18

Olivia pushed the phone across the table and picked up her coffee cup. She set it down immediately, because her fingers were still shivering in reaction to the adrenaline sluicing through her veins.

“I can’t go on doing this,” she whispered. “People will think I’m crazy. For all I know, I really am going insane.”

“No,” Harlan said. “You’re an oracle. This is how your talent works.”

He was not looking at her. He was studying what she had written on the phone.

“I find your sympathy underwhelming,” she said.

“You’ll get used to it.”

“Your inability to project sympathy?”

“No, your talent.” He closed the phone and put it back into his jacket pocket. “Any idea what triggered the vision?”

“It wasn’t a vision, damn it.” She paused, trying to assess what had happened. “An anxiety attack, maybe. Complete with video. It felt as if I was suddenly in the middle of a nightmare.”

“Or a memory?”

She felt herself go very cold. “I don’t see how that could be possible. I don’t believe in repressed memories.” But the dream had felt so real.

“Memories are tricky things,” Harlan said, his tone surprisingly gentle. “Just ask any cop who has interviewed an eyewitness. Also, there is selective amnesia. It can occur after a traumatic event. There are any number of reasons why you don’t recall a specific memory unless or until you encounter a triggering incident.”

She sighed. “I know. You’re right. It’s just that I can’t remember anything before or after the dream sequence. If it is a real memory, there should be more context.”

“Maybe we can provide some.” Harlan folded his arms on the table and fixed her with his raptor eyes. “It was my question about the safe room that triggered the nightmare, wasn’t it?”