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Prologue

Autumn in the North Carolinasix years as keeper of the Raintree Sanctuary, the beauty of the place and the season was not lost on Echo The days were cooler now, and she liked that The leaves on the trees had turned enticing shades of gold, orange and red These early- a wooded trail were for her and her alone The rest of the day an just this ith a long walk and blessed solitude

Suddenly her vision diht blinded her Echo dropped to her knees, hard, then fell forward, grasping at the dirt and s to hold on so the world wouldn’t spin out from under her For a split second she was able to think, and what initially caht was gone, the ies bombarded her and she realized this was no stroke

There ater, lots of it Icy-cold salt water filled her nose and her mouth; she choked on it It burned She could not breathe The torlds—hers and theirs—ed She was prone on a dirt trail on Sanctuary land, holding on for dear life, but she was also there And she was drowning

The boat was sinking, going down fast Water rushed in, sweeping people off their feet and away, pushing them under the cold water The forceful and icy water swirled around her legs, pushing and pulling until she, too, fell and ashed deep into the sea She screas

There were one hundred and three souls on board; she knew that in a way she could not explain Though she was underwater and for all intents and purposes drowning as so many already were, she heard the panicked cries of those who had not yet been swept under the dark waters They were all screa to die

And then it was over

Echo felt as if she’d been kicked by a ht her breath and rolled onto her back Her entire body trembled; her knees eak, and she re the vision had lasted Even though it had seeht up in it, she noticed that the sun hadwarmer

She didn’t sob, but silent tears streamed down her face Her lower lip bled; she’d either cut it when she fell or had bitten it during the vision

All her life she’d dreao a few days without a nightht days, without one Now and then she ht see a disaster before it took place, but not often Not nearly often enough

This was new For the third time in a little over a month, a vision had come to her while she ake Each one had stopped her dead in her tracks, had thrown her to the ground—or the floor—and had twisted her body andwith the victims She’d always ha

ted the nightmares; she’d dreaded them But thisthis was so much harder This particular vision had been far more vivid than any of the others,worse?

If she had not been pulled out of the vision in time, would she have droith the others? Would she have died on the trail that had, until a short tio, been such a place of peace?

As with the other instances she would go back to the house, sit at her coether when and where the disaster was happening Or had already happened In her heart she knew that once again she would be too late Her true curse was that she was always too late