Everest let out a little whimper then spoke to this woman in a language I did not know but I’d heard modern day Everest speak.

The woman stopped beside me. She reached down and used her fingers to tip my face up to look at her. There were tears in her purple eyes. “Celina⁠—”

“Keltie?” Everest shrieked.

“Wait, Keltie?” I scowled. “As in Leyka’s soulmate?”

“Leyka?” Everest growled. “Her soulmate is Ananiel⁠—”

“No, it’s Leyka. The Angel of Storms. I have spoken to him. He lives on a beach and turns into a pig⁠—”

“Leyka.” Keltie chuckled and it was a musical tone. She rolled her shoulders and big white angel wings popped out. “I see I have arrived just in time.”

“This imposter is trying to break me⁠—”

“My sweet Everest.” Keltie knelt down and cupped his cheek with one hand. “She is no imposter. Your soulmate Celina is going to be reborn in the future and be named Francelina⁠—”

“That’s me!”

Keltie smiled and cupped my face with her other hand. “I know, my dear. I am from this time, but my father is the Angel of Time, I have a way of knowing things. I know what becomes of Celina, just as I know my Ananiel will be commonly known as Leyka in the future. You know some of the whys behind this, Francelina but not all. More importantly, you know you cannot tell Everest of the future.”

“Just as he couldn’t tell me about the past.” My eyes burned with the need to cry. I looked to him. “You’ve been waiting for this. For me to come here and find the truth with my own eyes.”

Keltie nodded. Then she spoke to Everest in that language again. When she was done, he stared at me like he’d never seen me before. Like it was the first time we’d ever met. Like I was the oxygen he breathed, like I was the safety rope tethering him to the cliff he’d fallen from.

For reasons I was not sure of, I pulled my left sleeve up to reveal my Coven Mark and the words from Valathame that were still on my arm. “I am a witch, arcana, and I was Marked as the Tower Card in The Coven. Valathame⁠—”

Everest gasped. “You know her name?”

I frowned. “Is that a secret?”

Keltie sniffled and wiped tears from her eyes. I did not understand how I upset her. “Continue, Francelina.”

“Well, Valathame finally showed us the prophecy about the war with Lilith⁠—”

“Do not speak of that yet.”