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I suck in a huge breath as I emerge from the vision, but only in preparation for the scream clawing its way up my throat. It takes a second, but it finally breaks through the barrier of my teeth. My shield comes up hard enough that it cracks the stone island I’m clinging to, the hiss of the stone cleaving into pieces rattling through my chest.
My sight hasn’t returned yet, and I don’t know where Rhys is. My fingers reluctantly release the rubble of the countertop as I reach out into the darkness to find him.
“Rhys,” I shriek, grasping at nothing. “We have to go. We have to go right now. Rhys. Where are you? We have to go right now.”
Fates, it’s never taken so long to get my sight back after a vision. Even after the bad ones, it’s usually only taken a few moments.
Where is he? We have to get out of here before they come. Stumbling a little, I plop gracelessly onto the hardwood floor.
The shuffling of feet and the thud of something large—maybe a person—hit the ground, quickly followed by a mumbled curse. Definitely a person. And by that curse, I’m going with it being Kyle.
“Baby, I’m here,” Rhys murmurs, his hands cupping my face as he smears the wetness there.
“Your eyes are bleeding, baby,” he says in gruff concern, his voice low enough to be classified as a whisper.
I realize now that there are many people in this room. I knew Evan was here, but now I sense the signatures of several people—possibly the whole house—are here with us.
“I don’t care. We have to go right now,” I repeat on a hiss. “Get my keys and go-bag and anything you need. We have to leave this house.”
Blinking, the blackness starts to fade as light finally blooms, lifting the pall of blindness. When my eyes focus on his face, he clutches me to him, turning us, so his back is to the gathering crowd.
“Whatever you saw, can it wait a few hours?” he mutters into my hair. “We have a huge fucking problem.”
His fingers massage my scalp, trying to calm me I suspect, but even his touch isn’t helping right now.
He didn’t see.
“I don’t know. I know once the rain starts it’ll be too late. Soldiers are coming, and people will die here. I was wearing this outfit, meaning it happens today. We. Have. To. Leave. Do you understand? They are coming for us.”
“I know,” he assures me, “but I need you to stay calm and hang in there a little while longer. We have a hiccup we need to iron out before we go.”
Bracing myself for whatever has Rhys in such a twist, I spot a flash of red hair that makes me freeze. Standing behind the protective trunk of Kyle’s arm is a bitch I hoped I’d never see again. Before he knows what hit him, I’ve forced Rhys behind me, my arm thrown back to prevent him from going forward, enveloping us in my shield.
That’s new. Didn’t know I could do that.
“John. What in the hell is that bitch doing here?” I snarl, my voice distorted from speaking through clenched teeth.
Yeah, I’m steadfastly ignoring the fact I’m doing something that should be impossible.
“I’m only here to help you,” Nicola insists, her blind ice-blue eyes trying to meet mine but missing the mark.
She’s the only oracle with her eyes still intact since she was born blind. Because of that defect, her visions have been “pure” since birth. She is the only oracle with zero bonds to Iva and probably the only one able to usurp her.
But did that little bitch help me?
No. She didn’t.
She betrayed me instead.
“And I should believe that why, exactly?” I growl. “I remember how much your ‘help’ worked last time.”
Nicola sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose like she’s trying to gather the patience to talk to a toddler. “I merely told you the rules of the covenant—you chose to do what you wished. I cannot control the actions of the people around me. And I cannot foresee every action by every person. I’m not omnipotent, and I’m not infallible. And I tried to right my wrong. Who do you think pulled the soldiers from your cell so he could get you out, hmm? If you think he did that one on his own, you’re sadly mistaken.” She nods in the general direction of Rhys.
“You told me my daughter would be beautiful,” I croak, tears clogging my throat. “That even though she would have my eyes, she would grow up outside the Legion, never to be mired in the chains of the Primary. You told me she would live. You lied.”
It kills me to know that I’m more torn up about the baby I lost than the husband I took to the funeral pyre. I had Lucien longer—I knew him, loved him. But the more I think of how much I missed not seeing my child come into the world—not seeing her smile, not hearing her laugh—the more I hate Nicola for giving me that hope.
In my gut, I knew we weren’t going to make it—knew something bad was going to happen. I just assumed it would be a complicated birth, not that I wouldn’t even get to have her at all.
