“I hear that,” I muttered.

Lucien got up from the arm of the chair that Leah was sitting in, saying, “I’m going to find Gregor, see how things are—”

He didn’t finish.

Abel’s head turned to look over the back of the sofa where we were sitting, so mine did too.

A second later, I saw a blur materialize as Gregor.

He didn’t waste a second.

“The mission to take the training camp in Pennsylvania was successful. They’ve detained a goodly number of The True. Our jet is on standby.”

Everyone was on the move as he spoke.

And everyone stopped being on the move when, suddenly, Poncho’s auntie materialized beside him.

Her hair was wild, her face was caked in mud, as were her clothes, she smelled really, super bad, and she was in a serious state, arms waving, mouth moving a mile a minute to spit out words.

Unfortunately, all of them were Spanish.

Fortunately, Poncho was with us.

“Tía, despacio, por favor,” he said.

She nailed him with a look that I reckoned could pulverize rock, literally, seeing as she was a bruja, then she went on talking.

It seemed just as fast to me, but apparently it was slower because Poncho was catching it and he started translating.

“She says you can’t go,” he told us, then listened before telling us more. “She says you must remain here.”

“Fuck, seriously?” Abel bit off.

Poncho ignored him and kept translating.

“She says your work will be done here. She says the fates haven’t decided the outcome. She says the human race will decide the outcome. She says if you leave the security of this compound, which will keep you safe, The True will triumph.”

Poncho’s auntie quit talking.

“Our work will be done here?” Leah asked.

“That’s what she says,” Poncho answered.

“How can the human race decide the outcome?” I asked. “It would be nearly impossible for them to win against immortals.”

Poncho turned to his aunt, she said something to him, then he turned to me. “She said this is a test. She said they must pass or they’ll suffer for their failure.”

“Great, now we got hazy predictions to deal with,” Dad muttered, then said louder, “No offense, tía de Poncho.”

She shrugged at Dad.

“There are people in danger if we don’t move,” Callum noted. “Did Josefa see harm come to any others?”

Poncho again talked to his aunt.

Then he spoke to Callum. “The next fight, we’ll be there.”

I shook my head. “How, if we’re here?”

“No clue. Auntie just said we would,” Poncho told me.

“Brother,” Jabber began, “a lot’s riding on this. Is the old broad that good at tellin’ the future?” he asked, then looked to Poncho’s aunt and added, “No offense.”

She skewered him with her eyes.