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around
her. Her children would be the light. She had sworn to herself long
ago that she would cleanse herself of her heritage, no matter what
it took.
    But the
shadows, clouds on her heart, followed her to the village, and drew
closer every day. On the way back to camp, the air was heavy with
humidity. The heat combined with the increasing sense of time
running out made her panic, and she broke into a run, the dry earth
hard under her bare feet.
    She
almost ran right by the woman from the village, the bitter woman
who would somehow raise a gypsy child. This time they met on a dirt
track next to a field of glorious green. Only then did she see the
darkness surrounding the woman and understand how the woman had
invited darkness into her heart a long time ago. Kali was unsettled
to see a manifestation of evil so clearly, and openly. Worse, such
acceptance of darkness came from one of the gaje, a non-gypsy who
should not have knowledge of such magic.
    The woman
was accompanied by a young man, most likely her husband, Kali
realised. The villagers had called him a boy, Kali remembered, but
his wide shoulders and straight posture declared him every bit of a
man to Kali. His hair was white blond, his eyes, ice blue, and his
complexion similar to the woman. Again, Kali felt a twist of
discomfort at the memory of the baby’s image she’d had when telling
the woman’s fortune. When the woman set her gaze on Kali, her face
lit up.
    “ You! I need to speak with you.”
    “ Marusya, we don’t have time,” her husband said in a
deliciously deep voice that ran right down to the tip of Kali’s
toes. She couldn’t take her eyes from his face. What was wrong with
her?
    “ Oh, go home, you half-wit,” his wife snapped. She may as well
have been shouting at a stray dog, for all the care she held in her
eyes and voice. He glanced at Kali, his eyes full of embarrassment
and shame, and walked away. Trying to contain her shock at the
woman’s rudeness, Kali’s stomach still quivered at the memory of
her own foresight, and how uncomfortable she felt with the man’s
shame. Terrified of the darkness closing in on her, Kali took a
tone with the woman and openly challenged her.
    “ Marusya, is it? I am no dog to be ordered about. Neither is
your husband. Perhaps your barren womb is punishment for your
misdeeds. Consider that when you treat another like
dirt.”
    Kali
stalked off, chest heaving with fear as the woman screamed insults
after her. Had she lost her mind? She had broken the golden rule.
The gaje left you alone if they thought you meek. They forgot to
put you down if you acted put upon already. Now she had made an
enemy out of a bitter woman with a broken heart, because she
couldn’t swallow a cruel taunt, and that made her no better than
anyone else. Why had she spoken so? Because she was distracted by a
pair of blue eyes? Was she obsessing about her future?
    She could
not throw everything away like that. She would have to move on
again if Marusya caused a fuss. She would have to leave Drina
because she opened her mouth.
    Sighing,
she hurried back to camp, hoping to make up for the day’s
mistakes.
     

Chapter
Four
     
    Amelia
     
    Another headache kicked in, so I napped before dinner. My
dreams were disturbing, more unsettling than usual, even though not
a lot happened in this last dream, aside from Kali getting all
blushy-faced over a hottie. Oh, and losing the rag with his wife . Boundaries,
Kali.
    Still, I
felt more connected to her than ever. She had lost her mother, too.
She also felt ostracised because of mistakes her father had made.
How could I not relate to her? I carried guilt because I couldn’t
remember my mother’s face unless I saw it in a photograph. I felt
alone because my family members made decisions that kept me out of
the loop. I had been in danger for perhaps my entire life, and not
one of them had seen fit to warn me. They preferred to treat me
like a child incapable of comprehending the situation. Even