Oh no. I put my gaze back onto the page. I was like a child. I couldn’t have it, so I wanted it more.
“Hey.” He slid his book over to me, and it startled me out of my obsessing. “I’ve been thinking a lot about this weather situation. I asked Bryant, and although he didn’t talk much to me, he agreed the weather is off. So I wanted to see if there could be an answer. It was right here.”
I took the book from him and looked down at the page. It took me two seconds to find what he’d seen. A weather demon. A what?
“I’ve never heard of one. I mean, sometimes they bring bad weather with them, other demons do. But an actual weather demon? This is a first for me.” I looked back down. Rare. Unknown, but real. They brought storms, drove their victims out of safety. They were often hidden from Sisters who were very sensitive to the weather. I was glad I wasn’t the only Sister to go through that. That was neither here nor there at the moment.
“We could be under attack, and we don’t even know it.” The ramifications of this were mind-blowing. The powers we’d always counted on to tell us when we had evil nearby could fail us. It had taken an outsider to see this. I got to my feet. Dealing with this was much more important than figuring out education and caring for hypothetical Sisters I might never be asked to find in the first place.
“What are you going to do?” Gordon got to his feet. I was already moving, but he caught up to me in no time. “Mika?”
I couldn’t bother Anne with this until I was sure. She had enough on her plate. They were turning away people at the gate. We couldn’t fight everything or help everyone with just three of us with powers. We needed Teagan to come back, and we had to hope she’d bring others with her. Not that we could count on that, either.
I had to see. If there was a weather demon, then I would find it and report back to Anne. I would do all the groundwork. Maybe I’d find nothing at all and I wouldn’t have to add to Sister Superior’s ever growing list of worries.
With or without Guards, I had to help, not hinder.
“Mika?” Gordon grabbed my arm. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to find it. After that, I’ll get some help to take it down or someone else will. Without Guards, I’m not supposed to be fighting. I had no choice when they were gone. They’re not now. Anne and Daniella are stronger anyway.”
“No way is that possible.” He held my arm tightly, but with gentle fingers. “Is seeking the demon going to mean that you have to leave the safety of the gate?”
“We live with a giant demon under the house. I don’t know how safe this is here either.”
Gordon shook his head. “Don’t be cute. You know what I mean.”
“I’m going to go for a walk—a long walk—and see if I stumble on a demon. If that takes me outside the gate, then so be it.”
“Damn it.” He let go of my arm. “Not alone you’re not. If you don’t want to go to Anne with this, then fine. I’ll go with you.”
I almost argued with him. What was he really going to do for me in the event that we found a weather demon? But then I remembered Wayne and how he’d carried me off the field and the way they’d all tried to secure the gate. Lennon had managed to pull me back from the brink. It was helpful to have a friend with me.
“Okay. Thank you.”
He nodded, some of the muscles in his neck visibly unclenching. Had he expected me to argue? We walked in silence for a bit, eventually reaching the front gate. Alexander sat by it, sipping some of Krystal’s lemonade. He raised his eyebrows at me. “Sister, are you leaving?”
“I’m going for a walk to look for something. Gordon is coming with me. We’ll be back soon.”
I could tell the boy was not at all happy I was doing this. It broke routine. That was fine. I didn’t plan on making it a habit.
“Thank you for investigating this, Gordon.” We walked through the gate together.
He nodded. “I’m shocked how little time it took to figure out. Assuming this is a demon. Almost like the book was waiting for me.”
“Our lives work like that. In my case, I’d say divinity, but you can look at it any way you’d like. Not everyone is comfortable with the idea that they mess with our lives.”
He shook his head. “It’s impossible to be here and not believe. Maybe the feeling, the idea of intervention will fade when I leave the proximity. For now we’ll call me invested in the idea.”
I hadn’t been out of the gate since I’d walked through it, and I didn’t remember doing that. This was the first time I was seeing the outside world with my eyes. I stopped to look around. The sun was setting, and soon it would be dark. If I wanted to enjoy a little of this, I had to do so right now.
Some of this I could see through the gate and the windows in the main house. Still, I’d never thought about what the road looked like. I bent and touched it. Gravel. Who maintained this? Who came by and put the substance down? I never saw anyone.
“Mika? Is there a reason to touch the road? Like can you sense things?”
I raised my head. Poor Gordon. I was going to drive him crazy. “I have no memory of the time between the other Sisterhood and here. I just wanted to see what the road was like.”
“I see. So nothing to do with the weather demon.”
I shook my head. “No. We’re just going to have to walk for a while. It’ll have to be some luck if we find it.”
He took my hand in his. “Well, maybe divinity will give us a break. You do good work on their behalf. It would be nice for them to make this easy on you.”
“I think part of the agreement I made when I set out to do this was that nothing would ever—and I mean ever—be easy.”
Gordon grinned from ear to ear. “You must be out of your mind to have done this on purpose, Mika.”
That was me. I was downright crazy.
“Tell me why we’re doing this without telling Anne.”
I sighed. “I have no Guards. I may never have them. But I’m a Sister. If I ask permission to just do this, then what do I really have to offer? Teagan would just do it. Daniella wouldn’t think she needed to ask if she should. I can do this. I’m not even going to fight the demon. I just want to find it. I want to prove I’m not done. Not yet.”
Gordon sighed. “All right. Then let’s find this demon.”
9
After half an hour of walking, we hadn’t encountered any weather demons. I knew we drew demons to us as Sisters, but maybe it wasn’t as instantaneous as I’d thought it would be without Guards. I might have been making the situation a little too dramatic. That didn’t mean I was safe for others to be around in the long term.
“I asked Ren what his favorite part of the trip was so far, and he said here. I think he was being sweet.” It was the kind of thing that was said in the dark. Maybe. I didn’t have much experience with this. “What’s yours?”
He squeezed my fingers. “Here.”
“Oh, come on. We’ve yelled at each other. You can actually tell me the truth. Which place was the best?”
He stopped. “This place is the most memorable. I’m going to be telling stories for the rest of my life about how I was here with you. But the best? When we stepped off the boat from Peter’s, we arrived in a little town called Reginald Cove. I’d never been there. Neil had. He grew up on boats, but for the rest of us, it was the first time we left the island. I know when we talk about it, we make it sound really nice, and it is. It’s also an island. In two to three days, you can walk across it and see all of it. Sometimes it’s stifling. That moment when I stepped off that boat and onto the mainland? That was the best moment.”
I loved that answer. “What did it feel like?”
“Feel like?” He shook his head. “I don’t know exactly. It tasted like freedom, like I’d finally stepped on the right path.”
Something moved in the distance, followed by a shout and a scream. I took off in that direction, Gordon right by my side, and abruptly slid to a stop as soon as I saw the scene i
n front of me. My powers shot to life.
The weather demon had a woman in front of him. She was on her knees. He looked human—the creepiest demons always did—and he had his hands out in front of him while he sucked the energy straight from her. Above his head, the weather raged.
Well, that was how he did it. At least it made sense. For all the damage he could do, his need for human energy that told me he had more in common with the Succubus than the Chaos Demon.
“I…”
Gordon put his hand on my arm. “You’re going to save her. The whole idea of getting help is gone now that there is a person who is going to die. I see it. I get it. What do you need?”
I swung around to look at him. “I need you to go back and get Anne. If I fail, she has to help this woman.”
He nodded. “All right.”
That was something I really liked about Gordon. He didn’t waste time on things that didn’t make sense. He didn’t argue with me that I should let him stay and help. He did just what I asked of him. The same guy who could simply let me know we wouldn’t be kissing would go and get help because I needed it.
The weather demon turned his eyes toward me. I was used to demons having red eyes, but his were blue. I turned my head to the side to look at him as I walked in his direction.
“Sister Mika.” He continued to pull at the woman, she screamed as her body flopped bonelessly. I continued approaching him, cautious. If I thought running would save the woman I would do so, but this was new territory for me. I had to do this smartly or not at all. I couldn’t save her if we both died.
“How do you always know our names, foul creature, when I do not have the pleasure of your name?” There was power in names. Sometimes, if we could trick a demon into giving us theirs, then we had control over them. It rarely happened, but it was always worth the shot.
The demon laughed. In this human form, he had blond hair. Blue eyes and blond hair. A dimple in his left cheek. I had to wonder if he was some kind of incubus gone awry.
Could demons do that? Switch types? These were not questions I really wanted answers to.
“I would not tell you my name. I was not created yesterday.”
I nodded toward the woman he still abused. This close to him, I could actually see that he had a pile of bodies behind him. This evil being was attacking people in view of our gate and we’d had no idea. I could not save the world from behind the safety of a locked gate—Guards or no Guards. There would have to be changes.
“Let her go, and face me. Or are you afraid of one such as myself?” I used my hand to indicate my person. “I’m alone. Guardless. And surely something as big and powerful as you doesn’t need to hurt regular humans when you could feed off of me.”
They were powerful yet egotistical beings. It wasn’t at all hard to goad a demon into doing what I wanted. In this case, seeing that his current victim didn’t end up in the pile of bodies behind him took precedence over anything else.
He roared and dropped the woman to the ground. She didn’t move, but she breathed. For now, that would have to do. Goosebumps broke out on my body. They hurt. Some Sisters had this side effect every time their powers turned on. That wasn’t usually the case for me, but it did sometimes happen.
“I am not afraid of you, Sister Mika. You are nothing but a secondary thought. Sister Anne or Sister Teagan and I might be afraid. You are nothing, and you never will be.”
I didn’t take the bait as easily as he did. “That is probably true. They are much more powerful than me. But I do have a reason to want to be rid of you more than they do.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Why is that?”
“I am really, really tired of the rain.” I raised my hand and shot power at him. He gasped. The demon seemed actually surprised. Had he thought I might let him walk away from this unscathed? “Sick of the rain. The thunder. The mud. The lightning. You wanted attention. Well, you have it.” I twisted my wrist. “What did you hope to accomplish? Are you seeking death? You can have it.”
I’d actually never felt more powerful than I did in that moment. As when I pulled the demon out of the girl and saved her life, I didn’t even feel taxed from my abilities. Maybe the burn out had been helpful.
“I… I need to speak to the Master under the house.”
Did he mean Bob? He was some kind of Master? That was a new piece of information. “And you thought you could come and—what—flood him out from under it?”
“We have to take the power. You shouldn’t be able to do this. You shouldn’t have this power.”
I twisted my hand, sending him up in the air. I could see the particles that made the cells that formed his demonic body. I could see how to turn him into dust.
“There is no should and shouldn’t. There is no yes or no.” I didn’t know where the words I spoke came from. From somewhere deep inside of me. “There is good, there is evil. There is what there always has been. And you shall be no more.”
Time became meaningless. Instead, all I could see were the faces of babies. Hundreds of Sisters who were yet to be. Their souls sought bodies, their bodies sought souls. And all of them turned to me.
Oracle…
He disintegrated into nothingness. “I forgive you.”
There was quiet. For a moment, I stayed completely still and just let the silence of destruction drift over me. I dropped to my knees in front of the woman. She wasn’t possessed, and although I was lit up like a lantern, there was nothing I could do for her.
“Mika?” I turned at the sound of Anne’s voice. She rushed to my side. “Where is the demon?”
I touched Sister Superior on her cheek. She was so young—five years my junior—and she worked so hard for all of us. If Anne hadn’t stood against Katrina, none of us would be here now; for that I would be grateful forever. She glowed in white light. My powers must be riding me hard. I wasn’t usually quite this… filled with tenderness and thankfulness.
“Everything you do… thank you.”
She gripped my arm, holding onto my elbow. “Where is the demon?”
“Gone from this earth.” I smiled at her. “I’m the Oracle. I don’t want to be, but that’s all there is to it.”
Her mouth fell open. “The Oracle?”
“Yes, that’s me. Please don’t lock me in a room. I don’t want to steal babies. Why would they do this to me?”
Anne shook her head. “Mika, I don’t know. I had no idea that there could be more than one Oracle.”
“Well, there’s more than one Sister Superior. There’s you, there’s Katrina. And the one up there in divinity.”
Anne took my hands in hers. “We represent Her on Earth. Or at least we should have. Katrina is a false Sister.”
“Well, maybe I represent the Oracle here. Only, I don’t want to. I decline the job.”
Anne actually laughed. “I don’t think that’s an option.”
“Well, it should be.”
My knees threatened to give out. I would have fallen forward, but then Gordon was there, catching me. “I’ve got her.”
He turned me around, carrying me in his arms. I wasn’t at all surprised to see Anne’s Guards watching us. There was no way Anne could have charged out of the Sisterhood without them. Wherever she went, they went.
That was how their relationship worked.
“I’m not going to faint.”
Gordon snorted. “Well, you could if you wanted to.”
“No.” I really wasn’t about to blackout. “Thanks for getting help.”
He carried me like I weighed nothing at all. “You didn’t need any, as it turned out.”
“If you hadn’t gone for it, I would have needed it. That’s how these things work.”
The skies were clear. For the first time since I could remember, there wasn’t a cloud to be seen anywhere. Tomorrow might actually be a sunny day.
“Are you drunk? Like on power?”
That was a very good question. “I’ve never been drunk.”
> “That we can do something about.”
Wrapped in a blanket, I sat on Neil’s lap in front of the circular table in the guesthouse. I’d started to think of it as their house and that was dangerous, particularly because Neil had just let us all know he thought they had only one more week of work ahead of them.
Just one more week until they moved on. Gordon walked over, set down six glasses on the table, and took the seat right next to Neil. On our other side was Wayne, while Lennon and Ren took the other spots at the table.
“Really?” Neil nodded toward Gordon. “Are we going for getting her drunk?”
I pointed at the glass with the brown liquid in it. “Where did you get alcohol?” It was really hard to find.
Wayne laughed. “Gordon is a guy who knows how to find things.”
“I do,” Gordon answered. “And she’s never had it. So, I thought maybe we were just the fellows to introduce her to the joys.”
Neil lifted a glass and handed it to me. “Sip until you know how it will affect you.”
The taste was bitter, and I set it back down on the table. “I don’t like it.”
“That’s because it’s gross.” Lennon shook his head. “If we’re going to introduce her to drinking, then it shouldn’t be this sludge. She’s a lady. Do the women at home drink this? No they don’t. They have better sense.”
Ren elbowed him. “Some of the women do. Not everyone has the opportunity to drink the good stuff your mother sips.”
Lennon elbowed him right back. “My mother never drank anything other than lemonade.”
“Oh yeah, right.” Neil laughed, and I bounced slightly in his lap.
These were the moments I was certain I wouldn’t forget. People in my life weren’t easy like this. I couldn’t imagine one of the other Guards elbowing another Guard here. Maybe they did behind closed doors. I didn’t know.