“Are you okay?” Aida asked with concern.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just thinking about the Nevertide Oracle,” I replied, half-truthfully.
“Do you think she was trying to warn you of the Destroyers coming?” she asked.
I nodded. I did—the panic in her eyes as I ran toward her had been all too apparent.
“I guess we can assume she’s on our side, then,” Aida concluded. “It was probably true what Draven told us—that passing on the gift had been done kindly. She obviously didn’t know about Azazel at the time.”
“I think you’re right,” I agreed. “I think in the bathroom she was trying to warn me as well. Not about Draven, but Azazel.”
“So that’s it?” Jovi interrupted. “You’re just going to trust Draven now?”
I looked over at Aida, who shrugged.
“What else can we do?” she asked. “He’s the only one who has any answers, and the only one who can help us understand what we’re seeing—even if he does have his own motives, we still need him.”
Jovi grunted in disapproval, but didn’t argue with his sister.
I stared up at the aqua-blue sky, trying to remove the visions from my mind. The Druid had mentioned another training session tomorrow, and I was dreading it. I didn’t think I could handle much more—how could I handle seeing more of my friends getting into danger? How was I supposed to behave day-to-day when I had seen Jovi’s death? I would feel cut off from others, always on the periphery, looking in … crushingly alone.
“I still think we should try to get out of here,” Jovi remarked idly, looking toward the far end of the garden.
“No!” I retorted, more passionately than I should have.
Both Aida and Jovi stared at me.
“Sorry, it’s just, we shouldn’t. It’s dangerous. Don’t even think of doing something like that till we have a plan,” I emphasized, pulling awkwardly at the overgrown grass.
“I won’t,” Jovi replied gently. “Don’t worry, Vita, we’re going to be okay.”
“I know,” I murmured, “sorry.”
Jovi looked at me with deep concern, and I stood up, wanting to go and lie down. If I said anything more, I was worried that the truth would come tumbling out, and it just wasn’t the right time to say anything.
“I’m going inside, the sun’s giving me a headache.”
Aida nodded, looking up at me from the grass.
“Do you want company?” she asked.
I shook my head. “I’m fine. I’ll come back down in a bit.”
I walked toward the greenhouse without looking back.
Serena
[Hazel and Tejus’s daughter]
Using True Sight, I made sure that Draven and Bijarki were out of earshot and then turned to my brother, who was still warming himself by the fire.
“So the woman you saw—the diary must belong to her, right?” I asked.
“Yeah. I even saw her diary—the kid, Draven, ran through the house with it.” He looked contemplative, and kind of sad.
“Was there anything else?” I asked.
Phoenix frowned. “In the first vision I had of the Oracle—like I mentioned to Draven—there were other servants around, and they appeared to be human, which is odd. Why would they have bothered bringing humans to the In-Between? And what happened to them?”
I frowned too, shrugging. The fact was this whole house had a human 1800s feel—from the architecture to the furniture. Almost like it had been… transplanted here.
“Anyway,” Phoenix went on, “in the vision with the diary, the Oracle, Almus and Draven just seemed happy. I want to know what happened to her—have you got any further with the diary?”
“No, not yet, I haven’t really had time. I’ll read more today. I’m just hoping she’ll provide answers on how she regained her sight…I couldn’t imagine that happening to any of you.”
“Don’t worry,” my brother replied, trying to smile. “No signs of that happening yet.”
Not yet.
But it didn’t mean it wouldn’t. I doubted if Phoenix would even want to tell me if it did start happening. No doubt he would try to protect me from that too, like everything else.
“And what about the tree?” I asked. “It was weird that Draven didn’t comment on it. It seems like a strange thing to have a vision about.”
“I know,” Phoenix replied, concern marring his features. “I don’t get that. I’ll go and have a look at it later—if it’s even still there.”
“I’ll come with you,” I suggested. “We can go together.”