“Y—Yeah—” My voice stammers, but my heart is certain. I nod to attempt showing the strength of my conviction. “With my life.”
His head flicks to one side. I can’t see his expression, but I do spot the silhouetted curve of his nose. The tip is sharper than I expected. A strong hook of the bridge ends in a sharp point. But the weight of his pause feels almost unbearable.
“The chickens say I can trust you.” His voice is extra gruff.
“Well. They have good taste.” I say without really questioning how he could know what chickens are saying.
“I need to show you something.” The dark heat of the room seems to follow him as he moves deeper into the coop. “I want to introduce you to my family.”
“Your family…” I say slowly, the hen house is full of hens.
“Adopted.” He follows up more carefully. “You’ve already met Alice.”
A familiar bird is gently poking at the hem of my jeans. I reach down, and she nuzzles into my hand.
“She likes you.” Eggward’s voice is appreciative.
“She’s sweet.” I say.
“She’s very picky. She doesn’t peck just anyone.” There’s a smile in his voice. “She’s special. All of my rescues are. That’s why it’s so important what I’m doing here.”
“Special how?” I ask.
“She can tell the future.”
I look up to see if he’s being serious, but there’s nothing revealed in the shadows of the hood he wears. “Not to doubt you, but how can you possibly tell? She’s a chicken.” I glance at her again; her dark eyes seem to stare back into my soul, like she can read something in my very being that I didn’t even know existed. “Sheisjust a chicken—right?”
Eggward makes a noise that almost sounds like a squawk. I realize he’s laughing at me.
“Here.” He picks a speckled brown egg from a nest and holds it out in a flat palm toward me.
I pick it up gingerly, Alice cooing quietly at my feet. The egg is light, weighing almost nothing. But the shell is whole. No signs of tampering. “Is it empty?”
Eggward shakes his head. “Open it.”
I shake the egg and hear something soft rattling inside it. Still, I can’t help feeling a little silly. “Is this some kind of trick?”
“Crack it open.”
I turn and tap the egg on a random beam until it breaks. I carefully pull the shell apart. Inside it’s completely smooth and clean. Empty. Except for a small rolled-up piece of paper. I unfurl it to read in rough chicken-scratched lettering, “Jace Blake will betray you.”
Alice clucks something. I glance down at her, and then back to Eggward.
“And you really think this is accurate?”
“What does it say?”
I shake my head. “You’re saying you don’t know?”
“This is how I knew where to find Alice the other day. When you needed help.”
“Wow. That’s…” I stare at the small sheet of paper for a moment. I knew Ghostlight was weird but I’ve never seen anything like this. If anyone else, anywhere else in the world had told me this, I would have thought it was a strange prank. I don’t know Eggward well, but he wouldn’t joke about something like this. “That’s amazing.”
“This is something that no one else in Ghostlight has seen, Mina.” Eggward says.
“Just me.” I nod, feeling the intensity of the secret. “All of Alice’s eggs are like this?”
He nods. “Every single one. Some are more cryptic than others but they are always right, eventually.”
