But Tascius’s expression grew even blacker, the lines of his body tight.
I couldn’t help but ask. “Why are you so eager to help us?” I extended my hand across the table, meaning to drop the chunk of ebonite back in her palm. The Visionary waved me away.
“That piece is yours,” she said. “When the Dragon dies, Hell will be free to become what it was meant to be. After much deliberation, the other Visionaries and I have deemed this the wisest course of all the possible futures we have foreseen.”
I tucked the ebonite away in a pocket. It felt like ice against my skin, even with fabric between me and it.
“The death of a lost sister is a small enough price to pay, and there are sibyls here who would be glad to see her dead, regardless. She only ever used her Sight for selfish causes and to bring pain to others.” Visionary Xrita sighed. “Fly to the west. You’ll find the cavern easily. And whatever she offers you, don’t take it. Her only joy is to sow discord and uncertainty.”
Azazel and Lucifer were the first to rise, clearly ready to find this cavern now. Tascius rose, and I heard Seer Antava softly speaking to them.
But the Visionary leaned forward when they were gone, pinning me with her gaze from across the table.
“When the time comes, the path will fork before you. One path is a straight road, but there is a charnel house at the end of it. The other path is a cliff, and your eyes cannot see beyond, but there is happiness to be found there. A sword is only a sword. A feather is more than a feather.”
Goosebumps rose on my skin. Her voice sounded layered, like several people speaking at once, and her eyes were wide and unblinking.
“Trust in your heart. Make the right choice.”
She sighed and closed her eyes, and I whispered a thank you as I got to my feet, eager to be free of her and carrying an unknown future choice on my shoulders like a weight.
23
Melisande
We touched down on a bluff overlooking the edge of the forest. A ridge of higher cliffs rose in front of us, extending over the horizon, and dark crevices and caverns peppered the sandy stone.
The City of Sight was hours behind us, and I wrapped my hand around the hilt of the sword, scanning for any signs of life.
Elysium was beautiful, but I didn’t need anyone to tell me that this was the edge where all beauty came to a halt. The bluffs looked utterly inhospitable, and a faint whistle of wind reached my ears as the breeze kicked sand over the hills.
Lucifer folded his wings, eyes narrowed as he scanned the bluffs. His shoulders relaxed a moment later, and he nodded at the distant hills to our left. “There. Smoke.”
I peered into the distance, and just caught a wisp of gray smoke before the wind swept it away.
“Let’s go get our ebonite.” I jumped down from the sandstone outcropping, landing next to Azazel. He’d released Tascius, and now the Watcher was absent-mindedly smoothing the feather on his chest. I stroked his arm as I passed and was rewarded with a faint smile.
Of all of them, only Tascius seemed reticent about finding the outcast oracle. He eyed the bluffs, his broad shoulders tight.
I gestured for Lucifer to lead the way and fell in next to my Nephilim as we followed them into the maze of stone.
Tascius looked down at me when I took his hand.
“Just listen to the Visionary,” I said quietly. “Whatever the oracle says, ignore it. It means nothing.”
Tascius’s lips were pulled tight. “Or it means everything.”
“No matter where you come from, you’re still Tascius. That’s not going to change just because of something some old witch says.”
He had to duck under a low stone arch to avoid cracking his head. I caught sight of Azazel dissipating into mist just ahead of us.
“You know where I come from, and so do the seers.” Tascius shook his head. “Whatever she says, there will be a grain of truth in it.”
I bit my lip, trying and failing to think of something to say that would comfort him.
He’d had snowy white wings. I could picture them, the soft little pinfeathers of a child… and I could also picture them stained red as his mother sawed them from his back.
“Whether there’s truth or not, nothing would change the way I feel for you, or that you belong with us.” I pulled him after me, not wanting to lose sight of Azazel and Lucifer. “Nor are we sure that it would be the truth. Just because she was a sibyl doesn’t make her honest.”
Tascius’s midnight eyes were sad again as he scanned my face. “There’s one thing I can agree to. No matter what she says, I would never leave your side.”
He brushed a kiss over my lips, and when I started walking again, I almost ran right into Lucifer’s wings.
Both of them had stopped in the middle of the narrow trail, and I rose on my tiptoes to peer around him.
The trail opened on a clear floor of stone, in which a tiny campfire sent up green sparks and the column of smoke that was torn away by the wind overhead. Behind it, the dark mouth of a cave was nestled at the foot of a tall bluff.
Sigils had been painted in dripping red around the mouth, and figures made out of bundles of twigs hung from nails jammed into the stone.
“We get in, we take what we need, we get out,” Lucifer said quietly, just as a voice called from the cave.
“I see you, fallen star.” A loud cackle echoed eerily off the bluffs. “I see angelspawn and dealers of death. Come in and have your future told.”
We glanced warily at each other.
This was my mission, my idea, my plan. I released Tascius’s hand and pushed past Lucifer, scraping
