Dominique saw her own fervor had reached deep into Mariam’s, as Mariam’s fervor was reaching into her. Their souls connected. It was unsettling and beautiful.

She could see Nazir felt it, too.

91

91

Dominique hadn’t been in Adrien Kurt’s therapy office since she’d come back from her experience in the catacombs. She appreciated that he was willing to stay late to see her on short notice, because she needed to be here. She didn’t know how to process all of what had happened to her in the mosque.

“Every bone in my body tells me not to go any further with this.”

“That’s the remnant of your fear,” Kurt said. “You’ve overpowered it for so long you never gave it the chance to rise up so you could choose it, and dismantle it. You’ve wanted to turn jihad around a long time. And from what you’ve told me, you have a grasp on a lot of it now—from the download of Mariam’s life—to the engagement around the poet. That’s a rare combination. And a serious confrontation to the terror you’re feeling. It isn’t going to let go until you choose to let it go.”

She noticed a beautiful white porcelain figurine on his desk.

“That’s new,” she said, pointing to it. She needed a distraction.

“Yes. She’s called, Quan Yin. She’s a Buddhist bodhisattva. She represents compassion and mercy.”

“May I…”

“Sure.”

Dominique went to the desk and held the figurine.

“You’ve been guided to the place where you are, Dominique.”

“Divine intervention?” she said with a nervous chuckle.

“What do you call putting on the mind of another?”

“So, you’re not going to try and talk me out of it?”

“You’re not afraid of what happened. You’re terrified you’ll succeed. Besides, there are forces seen and unseen that want you to succeed.”

“And forces that don’t.”

“There are.”

She placed the Quan Yin back on the desk, but couldn’t leave her presence.

Dominique had lived with forces that didn’t want her to succeed all her life. Being a woman was part of that equation. Being successful, the other.

She spoke of the last time she and Kurt met here, after she’d returned from the desert, and how Kurt had said he understood what she went through.

“You never told me all of what you understood.”

“You weren’t ready to hear it.”

“Am I now?”

“I believe you are.”

He told her he was in the desert a long time ago, in the same catacombs where she and Julian were led.

“How long ago?”

“Long enough.”

“I’m listening.”

“I was one of a group who came to find a location to hide the stones in order that those who followed might be led to the tablet.”

“Are we having this conversation?”