"It is imminent, yes." Sibyl confirmed with a nod and turned to look at Devin with gentle eyes.
"In fact, it's happening right here, right now, and the child is simply too young to the be Golden Child with the Golden Eyes that was foretold in the prophecy."
"So the vision rules out both Devin and Cecil." Tarot mused. "But there are still two coven maidens, Talia and Evelyn."
Sibyl again nodded.
"Mother, do we know which of them is the Coven Maiden?" Tarot asked again.
Sibyl slowly shook her head. "Your guess is as good as mine."
Cedric frowned. "I have no idea who the Coven Maiden is but I will say this. Evelyn is not my bride and will NEVER be my bride!"
"So if it's not Evelyn who got sacrificed, it would have to be…" Tarot mused.
"Absolutely no way!" Cedric slammed a hand onto the table, rattling all the dishes and stemware.
"Even if I am the Golden Child, I would never sacrifice Talia. Absolutely never. I would rather kill myself than to hurt her."
He turned to Sibyl. "Is there a possibility that you could be completely wrong about this?"
"Your Majesty, there are seven High Seers. Once I got the prophecy, we all got the visions."
"Tell me more about the vision. Do you get them often?" Cedric eyed her with suspicion.
"We get many visions, but the one of the Golden Child with amber eyes never wavered. Once a month, when the moon is full, we check on the vision to see if there are any changes."
"And are there changes?"
"Not with this vision." Sibyl shook her head. "It kept getting clearer with each passing year. That is why we know it is a true vision."
Talia turned to her mother.
"How long have you been seeing this vision?"
Sibyl narrowed her eyes in consideration.
"I've been seeing this man for over twenty-five years."
"Over twenty-five years?" Tarot gasped. "Then how would we know it's him? Could it be someone from twenty-five years ago?"
"Son, that's not how visions work." Sibyl waggled a finger at Tarot. "When a vision is first seen, it will be quite blurred. Sometimes, it's barely even recognizable."
She looked at Cedric and smiled.
"When I first saw him in my visions, it was just a blurry human-shaped blob. As he got older, the vision stabilized and became more identifiable.
"It didn't actually become a clear vision until eight years ago. Everyone thought it was Cecil because all we could see was your body."
"My—body?" Cedric raised his eyebrows.
Sibyl cleared her throat. She was not going to tell him it was his naked body that they saw. There were some witchy secrets that had to remain secret to protect individuals' privacy.
"Yes. Your body was all we could see."
"And then?"
"Two years ago, we knew the prophecy would come true when the vision became clear enough for us to see the color of your eyes. The prophecy had told us about your golden eyes, but the vision also finally confirmed that."
"Two years ago." Cedric rubbed his chin. "Cecil had already taken the throne by then. That was when he sent out the decree that I had to marry Evelyn Larabee."
"Yes. We knew then that the wrong man had been seated on the throne because the prophecy specifically stated that the Golden Child who would rule over the land had golden eyes."
She pursed her lips. "We tried to tell your father but it was too late. You had already left for New Orleans."
Cedric sighed. "It was around that time that I received solid clues that Viviene was in another realm, so I left."
Tarot snapped his fingers. "Do you think the clues were planted by Cecil and his family so you would leave and not challenge Cecil's right to the throne?"
Sibyl shook her head. "Cecil may be incompetent and a coward, but he's just as much in the dark about all of this as you are."
"That makes no sense to me," Tarot frowned. "How can he be in the dark? His mother is also a High Seer, just like you, Mother."
"Yes, but remember. None of us could see his eyes until two years ago. We only knew for certain once the visions confirmed the prophecy."
"Mother, why is Cecil not a witch like me?" Tarot mused.
Sibyl smiled. "Because it is seen as a woman's job to be a seer and a witch. People…mostly men, think that if a man were to be a seer or a witch, he would lose his virility or masculinity and become…"
"Oh that's ridiculous." Tarot scoffed.
"Exactly." Sibyl sighed. "But there is a very strong negative feeling about men who are not warrior-like and beast-like…" she gave a surreptitious glance over at Cedric.
Cedric's face was deadpan. He wasn't just warrior-like and beast-like. He was an actual beast warrior. Moreover, he was the Alpha male of the kingdom.
"In any case, once Cecil realized that the prophecy was about Cedric, he wanted Cedric to return so that he could take the prophecy and run with it."
"Why?"
"You understand, we've been having this prophecy hanging over our heads for twenty-five years."
"During this time, we were all trying to figure out what exactly would happen so we could minimize as much of the damage as possible."
"Unfortunately, Cedric was not even in Faria at a time when the prophecy was getting so clear that we knew it would happen, and happen very soon to Cedric."
"So what do we do now?" Cedric asked the High Seer. His tone of voice was clear. He was asking her as a King and not as a Son-in-law.
She turned to him with clear blue eyes.
"You need to find someone you can trust who will go in your stead to that realm. I can also locate a witch who may be willing to help you, but I cannot personally go at this time."
She turned back to her daughter.
"The prophecy seems to be talking about Talia and I need to be here to protect her from this prophecy. I also need to train her to become a witch."
"You didn't seem to think training me to be a witch was important before, so what changed?" Talia retorted.
Sibyl sighed. "I was trying to hide you and training you would mean you'd exude too much magic signature."
"If I can no longer hide you, you will need training so that you can protect yourself and your husband from those who are against the two of you."
Tarot clapped his hands with excitement. "I can help with her training!"
"That is not a bad idea." Sibyl turned her brilliant blue eyes at Tarot. "I need to train her myself on all the basics, but once she is somewhat trained, you can work alongside her to continue her development."
Tarot snapped his fingers as an idea came to him.
"Mother! The moon is still relatively full right now. Maybe you can show Talia how to look at the Golden Child vision tonight!"
Sibyl gave a soft tinkling laugh. "The moon is only full once a month and that was two days ago, but lucky for us, we don't really need a full moon to see the vision."
"What do you mean?" Talia raised a startled glance at her mother.
Sibyl smiled. "If you would like to learn how to see a vision, l can show you tonight, Child."
Talia pressed her lips together and nodded. The decision was not difficult for her to make.
If she needed to learn how to be a witch to help her man, then she would learn it as quickly as she could.
"A word of warning." Sibyl turned grave blue eyes at her. "Once you decide to walk down this road and become a witch, there is no going back. You cannot close the third eye once it has been opened."
Talia turned towards Cedric. His warm amber eyes gazed back at her, full of love and tenderness.
The answer came to her in a blinding flash. He was her man and the father of her future children. She needed to protect him at all costs. There was nothing she would not do for him.
Talia turned back to her mother.
"I understand. Please teach me."