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“I could, actually,” he said, playing with the silverware in front of him.
“Okay. I’ll bite. What destiny?”
“Their destinies as determined by man. Is that better?”
“Not really. You said you knew who I was before I knocked. How?”
“The oracle called me thirty minutes ago.”
Tristan and Dixon exchanged a confused glance.
“She said Chief Randolph would be along this morning with a couple of friends. She said you’d be suspicious of us at first, b
ut I was to tell you what I could, since you had enough information to dig it all up anyway. I don’t trust you, though, and I don’t feel comfortable telling you a thing.”
“But you’ll talk?”
“Only because the oracle wills it. You’re a highborn. You don’t give a damn about the rest of us unless it affects your family’s bottom line. You only serve yourself, your family, and your kind. If the news I saw this morning is true, then you just had your best friend arrested last night. So what does that mean for me and mine?”
Tristan studied her, questioning her with every blink.
“I have your husband in a holding cell right now,” she said. “I can make his stay far more unpleasant with one call. Tell me what that means for you and yours.”
“That really doesn’t inspire me to talk.”
“It should. As the oracle said, I’ll just figure it all out anyway. You don’t want me pissed off when I do.”
Jake pursed his lips. “Fine. The little one is called Valerie. The older girl is Vivian. Finn and I changed their names, of course. It’s why I’m tutoring them at home instead of enrolling them in school. They’re struggling to remember their new names and identities. They’re struggling with lying about who they are. It’s all very hard for them. They don’t understand yet.”
“I don’t either.”
“According to the official records, Vivian was pronounced dead in a La Verde hospital several months ago. A car accident, from the original report. Valerie died from seizures.”
“You took them.”
“No, they were given to us. They have the sickness.” Jake fiddled with the silverware in front of him once more.
“Seizures? The girls are future oracles?”
“Their mothers didn’t want that future forced upon them. They wanted the girls to have a proper childhood, to have a choice when they came of age.”
“If they have the seizures, they need to see a—”
“They have a doctor. One who is sympathetic to the New Bristol oracle. He’s treating them, though you’ll never see a record of it. Luckily, he’s been able to control the girls’ seizures with medication. They couldn’t have been smuggled out otherwise.”
“Smuggled?” Lila pinched the bridge of her nose. “So the oracles are responsible for the kidnappings and deaths of their own children?”
“That’s alleged kidnappings and alleged deaths.”
“Why did the women choose you and your husband to take care of the girls?”
“Finn and I wanted children. We both have fertility issues.”
“You can’t adopt?”
“Of course we can adopt. Chief Quinn had to drop those stupid charges on lack of evidence, but the adoption agency said we’d still be okay for a placement. We decided to move for a change of scenery and to get away from Quinn, though. About a month after we moved, we read through the adoption papers again, just to make sure we were on the same page about what we could deal with and what we couldn’t. We were both fine with taking in a few older strays,” he said, the corners of his mouth quirking. “The New Bristol oracle called us the next day. She said that she had a vision of us, asked us to come see her.”
He put down the silverware. “You see, they were already laying the groundwork to smuggle Valerie and Vivian out of La Verde. In her vision, the oracle saw us taking care of them. The girls were from La Verde. I had the right accent to make the ruse work. My sister died recently, giving us a plausible backstory.”
