I took a deep breath, struggling to keep my freaking out contained. “So if we can control the electricity and keep it to a bare minimum, then we won’t die?”

Nicholas raised an eyebrow skeptically. “Can you control it?”

I met Alex’s eyes, and sparks instantly crackled like a wildfire. Could we control it? Maybe…if we could keep our emotions and intense looks contained.

“I think we might be able to,” I said, my eyes locked on Alex, who seemed to be waiting for my answer.

“Of course we can,” he said as if it were the easiest thing in the world. Lucky him, because I had a feeling it was going to be difficult. At least for me it was.

“So we go inside the mapping ball, find out what vision my dad changed and then what?” I asked. “I mean, I still don’t get how I erased and recreated what happened to me on the beach…I mean there was two of me.”

“That’s where everything becomes tricky.” Nicholas grabbed the mapping ball from Alex’s hands, got up, and walked toward me. Alex started to get to his feet, but I shook my head, telling him to stay put. “You see the thing about visions,” Nicholas sat down on the couch beside me.

“Is that everything is connected to each other.” I scooted away from him. “I’m not sure what you mean?” Nicholas stared down at the mapping ball. “In the Foreseer world, every vision is connected.”

“Okay…” Where was he going with this?

Sensing my confusion, he explained further. “Say you make the decision to become a singer, so, you go down to the local talent show and try out, win, and go on to become a famous singer.”

“But I can’t sing,” I told him, even though I knew he was talking hypothetically.

He flashed me an annoyed look as he went on, “Each one of those events that took place would be their own vision. The decision, the trying out, and the winning—all of them led to you becoming famous.”

“I still don’t get what you’re saying.”

“I’m saying they’re all connected to one another—each one had to happen in order for the other one to happen.” Ding. The light bulb in my head finally turned on. “So if I never made the decision to become a singer, then none of the rest would have happened.”

“Exactly,” Nicholas said. “And if a Foreseer wanted to change your life, he could just alter the first event and it could change everything from that point on. Say he put the idea in your head to become a ball erina, and on your way to trying out, you left a minute later because you had to put on your tutu. And because you left one minute later you get in a car accident and die.”

Yeah, like I would ever wear a tutu. “But how could changing what I wanted to be, change my life that much.”

“Haven’t you ever heard of the butterfly effect?” he asked.

“Vaguely,” I replied.

“Well, it’s like that,” Nicholas explained. “Change one small thing in your life and it can greatly affect the rest of it.” He paused, mulling something over. “I’m not sure what your father erased and recreated in order to get the world to end, but in order for us to stop it, without doing more damage, the best thing to do is to erase him before he changes it.”

“What?” I gaped at him. “Erase my dad?”

“Not in the sense of erasing your actual father.” Nicholas said. “We would go into the mapping ball, find the memory of your father where he changed the vision, and erase him before he does it…like you did with yourself on the beach.” I was kind of getting it now. “Okay, so we go into the mapping ball, filled with all of my dad’s memories of his life, find the one where he changed the world’s future, and I place a hand on him and erase him before he does?” Nicholas nodded. “Pretty much, yes.”

“And how are we supposed to find the memory? I mean it could take forever.”

Nicholas smiled, tapping the side of his head. “The answers are in here.”

I frowned. “In your head?”

He winked at me. “In yours.”

My dad had also said this, but what did it mean? “Can you please explain what that means?”

“I will when we get in there,” he said simply.

I sighed, hoping he wasn’t toying with me. “And what if the vision my father changed is still bad?” I asked, casting a glance at Alex. I’m not sure why, but I suddenly thought of the vision I kept having, where he and I are at the lake and the light smothers us.

“It doesn’t matter. It’s how things were—or, are supposed to be.” Nicholas traced the Foreseer’s mark circling his wrist. “Despite how powerful some of us get, Foreseers are only supposed to see visions, not change them or control them to our liking.”

At that moment, Nicholas actual seemed like a good person who cared about the world. It was weird seeing him like that, all serious and somewhat normal.

My father, on the other hand, seemed like the opposite.

He had changed a vision so the world would end in the most horrible way. Everything would freeze over and all the witches, fey, vampires, and Death Walkers connected to Malefiscus would run the streets killing everyone.

“So how do we get inside the mapping ball?” I asked.

The sooner we put everything back together, the sooner we could all have a normal life…at least I hope that’s what waited for us in the future.

“That’s the tricky part,” he said.

I rubbed my forehead, which was throbbing from the stress. “You’ve already said that like twice.”

“Well, this one’s tricky as well.” He spun the mapping ball around in his hand. “This thing uses a lot of power.” I pointed at myself. “Like the power of a unique Foreseer.”

He shook his head. “More power than even you have. We need the power of the main crystal ball that all the other crystal balls run off.”

My mouth slipped to a frown as I remembered the giant crystal ball that sucked its energy away from people. I peeked over at Alex and shuttered at the mental image of him strapped to the crystal with tubes embedded into his skin.

“So, we what? Just take the mapping ball there and use the crystal ball ’s power?” I asked.

Nicholas looked down at his hand. “We bring it back,” he said, opening and closing his hand.

“Bring it back?” I glanced at Nicholas’ hand. What was he doing? “And how do we do that?”

“You think I’m actually going to let you go off to the City of Crystal alone with her,” Alex interrupted.

“Well, you could always let me go by myself and hope I’ll come back,” Nicholas remarked, trying to get under Alex’s skin.

“Alex,” I said. “You’ve got to stop. Let me handle this—it’s what I’m supposed to do.”

Alex suddenly looked horrified. “I’m not going to let you go off alone with him.” He got up and pulled me up with him.

He took me over to the corner of the living room and lowered his voice, his eyes pressing. “Don’t forget what he did to you, just because you erased it.”

“I understand where you’re coming from—I really do, but you’ve got to stop worry about me all the time. I’m not a girl who needs to be protected by you because she has a star’s energy that will save the world. I’m a girl, with a very unique Foreseer’s gift, who needs to save the world from the star’s energy.”

Alex ran his fingers though his hair as he stared off into empty space. “How am I supposed to just stop doing something, when it’s all I want to do?”

My heart thumped insanely in my chest and, when he looked at me, I just about stopped breathing.

“Yeah, I give you two like a day before you end up killing one another,” Nicholas’ laughter-filled voice intruded our moment.

I scowled at Nicholas. “Thanks for your opinion,” I said sarcastically. “But we’ll be fine.” Although, I wasn’t sure I believed my own words.

“Sure you will,” Nicholas’ grin was mocking.

“We have a problem,” Aislin announced as she entered the room.

“Of course we do,” Alex said with an eye roll. “The world is going to end unless we fix it.”

She shook her head quickly. “No, not that problem…