The Future Falls by Tanya Huff

live in hope that you’ll stop diving to my granddaughter’s lure when you’ve been Wild a little longer.”
    â€œIf you already know about the babies, then why did you call, Auntie Catherine?”
    â€œI can’t call just to talk?”
    â€œYou don’t.”
    â€œTrue. There’s a Calgary . . . What is the politically correct label for bums now? Economically disabled? Never mind,” she continued before Charlie could answer. “Let’s go with
personality
. There’s a Calgary personality known as Doomsday Dan.”
    Charlie felt a cold touch along her spine. The odds of it being a coincidence that she’d seen Dan on the same day Auntie Catherine called and mentioned him were slim to none. The universe didn’t work that way, not for Gales. “What about him?”
    â€œHe’s right.”
    â€œWhat’s he right ab . . . Auntie Catherine?”
    â€œShe hung up.”
    It wasn’t a question, but Charlie answered anyway. “Yeah.”
    â€œAnd you’re leaving.”
    â€œHow did you get that from
yeah
?”
    With Evan on her hip, Allie couldn’t fold her arms, but her entire posture screamed that, had she been able, they’d have been crossed with extreme prejudice. “Are you?”
    â€œWell, yeah.” Although she still didn’t get how Allie’d figured it out. “There was a crazy street dude on television this morning before you got up, ranting about . . .” Charlie edited
the end of the world
out of her explanation. Since the babies, even joking about death and disaster had been taken off the table. “. . . all sorts of weird shit. Your grandmother just called to say he was right.”
    Allie’s left foot began to tap. Edward watched it, fascinated. “She’s Seen a crazy street dude talking about weird shit?”
    â€œApparently.”
    â€œ
Crazy street dude talking about weird shit?
Really, Charlie? You’re thirty, not thirteen.”
    â€œAnd thank you for reminding me.” But, yes, it sounded idiotic repeated over and over. “Mentally unstable homeless person making obscure prophecies about the future.”
    â€œWas that so hard?” As Edward grabbed two handfuls of Allie’s jeans and began to haul himself up onto his feet, she shifted position and even Charlie, third circle though she was, felt her anchor herself in the city. Her gaze blanked for a moment—checking on the rest of the family, Charlie assumed—then refocused on Charlie’s face. “Why did she call you about it?”
    Because I’m Wild and she’s Wild and we’re not like you. We don’t dig in and wrap ourselves in family to the exclusion of all else. But we’re still Gales and we still need family . . .
    â€œCharlie? Charlie, are you having an epiphany in front of my children?”
    â€œWhat?” She shook herself free to find Allie and both boys grinning at her. “No. No epiphanies. Not with minors in the room.” Allie’s grin broadened, Evan blew a spit bubble, Edward climbed onto Allie’s foot, and Charlie felt like she’d dodged a bullet. The last thing she needed was for Allie to think she’d ever take Auntie Catherine’s side. Not after what had gone down with the Dragon Queen. “And I don’t know why Auntie Catherine called me,” she continued as if there hadn’t been both an epiphany and a lie about it. “That’s why I need to talk to her and find out what she’s actually Seen.”
    â€œMaybe she’s just messing with you. You know how she hates not being the center of attention.”
    Actually, Charlie knew how Auntie Catherine had created a new life for herself in Calgary away from the family and then left that life to Allie when she was banished. Later, she’d set in motion a plan to stop one of the old gods from rising and while the