"It's a little early for me to be thinking of settling down. I'm nineteen for Christ's sake." She sighed.

"But thanks. I like her too."

She started to grin.

“And now you're thinking about her. You always get that grin when you're thinking about her."

"I was just thinking about when I tried rescuing her from Alvin and his goons, and my reward was for her to try to kick me in the head for the first time."

“First time?"

“Yeah. She has anger management issues."

"She's a violent little vixen, isn't she?"

Heda shrugged.

“I think she has this need to overcompensate sometimes.

But honestly? It's so cute when she does it that I can't bring myself to complain."

“Well, if there is anyone out there who can change your wild ways and settle you down, it had better be someone who's challenging.”

"Hey, don't get all nest-building on me. YOU could stand to plow a few less fields too," Heda replied with an arched, knowing eyebrow.

"We both know that it isn't in the cards for me," Edgar said wistfully.

Heda's skin tightened up, and she sighed as she put an arm around her brother's shoulders.

"It could be. There's no guarantee that the visions will come. You could live a long, happy life."

"I think the visions are coming," he replied.

Instantly, Heda's humor died.

"Why? What happened?"

"It's . . . it's just that I had a feeling. Back right before this case started, I just had this feeling that there was going to be trouble down here. Something about you.”

“Did you see something?"

"No, but ——"

"Ed, I'm ALWAYS in trouble. That's not a vision, that's just historical fact." Heda tried to keep her heart from beating quite so fast by taking a deep breaths.

"Don't scare me like that."