“So… are we doing this now?” A certain fallen angel’s voice cut through my reverie.
Azazel broke away, a hard but possessive light shining in his violet eyes. I glanced at Lucifer, who smirked at me knowingly.
“We aren’t doing this now.”
“You’re sending mixed messages, friend.” Tascius strapped his axe over his back and tied up his silver hair. “That looked a lot like doing it now.”
“No, I was just straightening his suit.” I threw him a narrow-eyed look, and he looked back, all innocence.
“Were you straightening his tonsils, too?” Lucifer inquired. “Mine are crooked, want to lend a helping tongue?”
He barely dodged the second shirt I threw at his head.
“Is everything all right in there?” Seer Antava’s voice was muffled, but she sounded concerned.
“No, we are not doing this now,” Azazel said, the slightest dangerous hiss in his voice. He crossed the room in several quick strides and threw the door open, startling the small seer. “We’re ready to see the Visionary.”
I saw Tascius and Lucifer exchange a silent high-five from the corner of my eye.
The last thing I’d expected was for the two possessive males to find the kindred spirit of fucking with people in each other.
I followed Azazel outside, and Tascius was right behind me, winding a lock of my hair through his fingers. His lips twitched when I glared up at him, but under Seer Antava’s eyes, he was suddenly all business.
Lucifer closed the door and joined us. I bid a fond farewell to the little respite; as soon as we knew where we could find the Oracle, we’d be setting out immediately.
“She’s waiting in the Crystal Pavilion,” the seer said, beckoning us along.
Instead of turning towards the glassy stairs, we went right, the men ducking under the hanging boughs of willow trees.
“Through here,” Antava said, and my mouth fell open.
The Crystal Pavilion took its name very literally. It was a cluster of milky quartz crystals the size of a house, but the inside was lit with a soft glow, and faint shadows gave away the presence of someone inside.
I followed Antava through a doorway carved in the stone. The interior opened up, widening so we could look up into the hollow bores of each crystal point.
There wasn’t much inside but a low table set with a teapot and several cups. Round silk pillows had been piled on the floor around the table, and a demonic woman gazed at us evenly from the opposite end, her hands folded in her lap.
I slowed to a stop before I reached the pillows. Her eyes were white, just as milky as the crystal overhead, but her eyes roamed over each one of us. She wasn’t blind, but somehow I thought she must be able to see other things beyond normality with eyes like that.
“Sit, Melisande.” The Visionary pointed at one of the pillows, and I folded my legs under me as I sat across from her. She smiled as my men each chose their own, pulling close to me.
I watched warily as she poured a cup of tea, unsure of why she made me nervous.
Maybe it was because she’d already seen part of my future.
Would it be better to know the truth if everything was going to go horribly awry, or would she save me from the knowledge that all my plans were for nothing?
She passed me a cup of tea and I took a deep breath of rose-scented steam.
“We’ve known of your arrival for some time,” the Visionary said, passing more cups around. From the corner of my eye, I saw Tascius give the tea a suspicious eye. “As soon as your plans solidified, the visions became clearer.”
“So you know what we’re here for.” I blew on the tea and sipped it.
Visionary Xrita smiled, those unnerving milky eyes focusing directly on me. “You seek raw ebonite from one of our fallen sisters.”
She lowered the tea pot and extended a hand across the table. A small dark pebble rested in the center of her palm.
I picked it up when she motioned for me to take it, rolling the pebble between my fingers. It was a chunk of inky metal, rough at the edges, and cold as ice even though it should’ve been warmed by skin contact.
Something Tascius had told me came to mind. Whatever magic Wayland the Smith infused the raw ebonite with, it would always take on those properties. This tiny piece of ebonite had the potential to become anything… even a blade that could slay a dragon or an archangel.
“I’m going to be honest with you. We made an agreement with the smith,” I said quietly. “He wants her hands. Our meeting with her will likely not end well.”
I’d already accepted that acquiring both the scrying mirror and her hands would likely end in death for one of us.
Visionary Xrita shook her head and sipped her own tea. “She made her choice when she committed the sins of theft and murder, and scorned our sisterhood.”
She seemed completely at ease with the fact that the oracle was going to die at our hands.
“Where can we find her?” Tascius put his tea on the table, clearly ill at ease here.
The Visionary’s eyes moved towards him, but he didn’t avoid her gaze. He just stared back, a warning in the etched line between his brows. A slow smile spread across her face at whatever she saw there.
“She took shelter in the barrens at the edge of Elysium. You’ll find her living in a cave like the sibyls of old.” The Visionary sipped her tea, still peering at Tascius. “You have a hard path ahead of you, child of Heaven.”
My breath caught in my throat. When Seer Antava had told us what they’d seen- a falling star, a hungry shadow, a warrior victorious, a child of Heaven- I’d assumed I was the last piece in that puzzle.
If I was the warrior victorious… I could dare
