… and in the center of his forehead, blazing with cold blue brilliance, was a third eye.
It seemed to glare at her balefully, and Kaitlyn suddenly felt faint. As if she were about to fall into the picture.
She jerked back, and the sensation disappeared, but chills ran down her neck.
Stop it, she told herself. There was nothing strange about a picture of the third eye. Gabriel was psychic, wasn't he? And this just a metaphor showing he was. She'd drawn a picture of herself with a third eye once.
The reassurances didn't reassure. Kaitlyn knew in her bones that the drawing foretold something evil.
Kait, what's wrong?
Rob's voice in her head. Kaitlyn looked up from the maze of colors to see that everyone was looking at her. Gabriel had turned around in the front, and Lewis and Anna were looking over the back of their seat. She could see Rob's worried eyes in the rearview mirror.
While she'd been drawing she'd forgotten about the web, hadn't even felt the presence of the others. And she could tell from their confusion that they hadn't heard her thoughts, either, just gotten a general sense that she was upset.
Interesting, one part of her mind said. So drawing is a way to screen my thoughts. Or maybe it's just concentrating.
Meanwhile, the rest of her mind was answering Rob.
It's nothing. Just a drawing.
She felt Rob's alarm. "A precognition?" he said aloud.
"No—I don't know." It was horribly impossible to lie in the web. "Whatever it is, I don't want to talk about it now."
She didn't, either. Not with Gabriel sitting there hearing every word, not with Lewis and Anna looking on. Gabriel would be furious at the violation of his privacy, and the others might panic. No, Kaitlyn had to talk to him alone about this first.
She could feel frustration from Rob—he could tell she was hiding something, but not what. Anna's clear dark eyes were questioning.
Time to change the subject. "Shouldn't we stop and switch drivers?" she said.
Lewis grinned. "Let's wait a couple of exits and stop at the Olive Pit. There was a sign back there advertising free samples."
"This must be olive country," Kait said, glad of a distraction. "I keep seeing groves of olive trees."
She kept talking until they stopped, and then there was the complexity of selecting olive samples—chili olives and Cajun olives and Texas olives and Deep South olives—and by the time they all got back into the van everyone seemed to have forgotten their questions.
Gabriel drove. Rob sat in the rear with Kaitlyn, who leaned against him.
"You all right?" he said, too softly for the others to hear.
Kaitlyn nodded, avoiding his golden eyes. She didn't want to have any secrets from Rob, but she was afraid to upset the precarious balance between him and Gabriel.
"Just tired," she said. She didn't feel like drawing anymore, not even when a huge and beautiful mountain appeared before them in the distance. Its single peak was white with snow, accented by black ridges of rock.
"Mount Shasta," Lewis said.
They passed rolling hills and crossed riverbeds, mostly dry. The motion and the sound of the van was lulling. Kait's head drooped onto Rob's shoulder and her eyes shut.
She woke with a start and a shiver. How strange—it was cold suddenly. Icy cold, as if she'd stepped into a restaurant freezer.
She looked around, dazed with sleep. Mount Shasta was behind them, glowing like a huge watermelon jewel in the sunset. The sky was murky mauve.
In the front bench seat Anna's black head was lifting. "Gabriel, turn down the air conditioning!" she pleaded.
"It's not on."
"But it's cold," Kait said and was caught by another shiver.
Shivering himself, Rob wrapped his arms around her. "It sure is," he said. "We haven't gone that far north—is it usually like this, Lewis?"
Lewis didn't answer. Kait saw Anna look at him curiously, and at the same time realized she could sense nothing from him in the web.
"Is he asleep?" she asked Anna.
"His eyes are open."
Kaitlyn's heart rate seemed to quicken. Lewis? she thought, sending the word to him.
Nothing.
"What's happening?" she said aloud as Rob let go of her to lean around the front seat and look into Lewis's face. She had a bad feeling—a very bad feeling. Something was strange. The air wasn't just cold, it was full of electricity. And there was a smell, a smell like a sewer drain.
And a sound. Kaitlyn heard it suddenly over the soft roar of the van's engine. A sharp, sweet sound, one note, as if somebody had run a wet finger around the rim of a crystal goblet. It hung in the air.
"What the hell is going on?" Rob demanded. He was shaking Lewis. At the same moment Gabriel snarled from the front, "What are you guys doing back there?"
"We're not doing anything," Kait called—just as Lewis jumped up and dived for the empty bucket seat beside Gabriel.
His hands grabbed and beat at the air. His body slammed into Gabriel, who cursed and wrestled with the steering wheel. The van swerved.
"Get out of here! Get him out of here!" Gabriel shouted. "I can't see—"
Rob twisted in behind Lewis, trying to pull him back. The van kept swerving and skidding as Lewis's elbows hit Gabriel. Kaitlyn clung to the seat in front of her, frozen.
"Come on!" Rob yelled. Lewis, come on back! There's nothing there!
Lewis kept on fighting, and then all at once he went limp, and like a cork popping out of a bottle, he shot backward with Rob. They both crashed into Anna, who yelped. Then they fell in a tangle on the floor.
"Hey—what's the matter? You getting fresh or something?" Lewis said. "Let go of me."
It was an ordinary, complaining voice. Lewis was disentangling himself, looking mildly bewildered but absolutely normal.
Rob sat up and stared at him.
Gabriel had finally gotten the van on course again. He shot a glare over his shoulder. "You crazy jerk," he said. "What'd you think you were doing?"
"Me? I wasn't doing anything. Rob was grabbing me." Lewis looked around at all of them, his round face honestly puzzled.
"Lewis—you really don't remember?" Kaitlyn asked. She could tell by his expression, by his presence in the web that he didn't. "You jumped up and started beating on something in that seat," she said, nodding. "Only there was nothing there."