My arms are held tight behind me. Too tight. I can’t see how I’m going to get out of this one. All around me I see people jeering and splashing some type of water and calling for blood. Tears are streaming down my cheeks as I look around and feel all of the radiating malice directed at me. I’m pulled further back, closer toward the giant doomsday device, and search more frantically for the one face I have yet to see, the one face I need to be absent. Klef can’t be here. I’m strapped into the device and electricity courses through my body, before everything goes black. I can still hear the roar of the crowd, and feel the straps binding me, and taste the blood in my mouth as the sea spray assaults my nose. But I can’t see anything. I try to sense any magic and can’t get anything there either. I’m completely blind. They took my sight and my Sight through this device. I make a choking noise and someone slaps me across my face. “Make one more sound and you die.”
My mouth shuts with an audible click. More electricity pours into my body and it’s all I can do not to scream. Will this be my second end?
I bolt upright in bed, panting hard, and restless. Klef grabs my arm and murmurs, “It was just a dream, sweetheart.”
I look down at his sleepy face and I smile. “Yeah, I know. Doesn’t make it any less terrifying.”
Klef pulls me down and wraps me into a hug. “Now, the best girlfriend in the whole world is going to explain to her boyfriend what happened.”
I sigh. “Just more of the same. They’re getting stronger and more frequent, but the dreams are the same as they were 5 years ago.”
It’s been 5 years since Klef and I came back to my mom’s house from killing Latro. With no one to stop us, technology has leapt forward faster than ever before. And with Klef and I doing jobs together all the time, eventually I gained a crush on him, just days before Klef asked if I was okay getting together with him. I agreed. My nightmares tonight are par for the course, nearly routine now. Klef is supportive, however, lucky for me.
“Melisma to Rides, your boyfriend wants to speak with you,” Klef teases.
I roll into his bare chest and sigh. “Shut up.”
Klef plays with the blanket. “It’s probably time to get up,” he says with disappointment.
“Mm. 5 more minutes.”
“Says who?”
“Says the girl with recurring nightmares.”
Klef pulls a face. “Since when does that give you authority in our relationship?”
I sit up, indignant. “I was murdered!”
“So was I!” Klef retorts.
“Shut up!” I whack him with a pillow and give him the tiniest of smiles before continuing down the steps, around the false wall, and into the kitchen, going over to what Klef affectionately calls the electric ice box. “It’s still working. I think we can call this reverse engineering a success,” I call to Klef.
Klef sidles up beside me and looks inside. All he says is, “Huh. I’ll have fish, then.”
I roll my eyes but pull out a chilled, descaled fish for the both of us to share. I turn on the stove and light the gas to fry the fish up. When it’s done I split it in two and give the larger portion to Klef. 5 years and he still can’t seem to stop eating. “So,” he mumbles as fish sprays everywhere. “Today’s the day.”
“Yep. We’re doing a worldwide hunt today, tomorrow, and until my nightmares come true.”
“It’s a lot of ground.”
I roll my eyes. “I noticed.”
Taking a bite of fish and moving to the dining room prompts Klef to come over and give me a hug. “Treble…”
“Oh, hush. It’s just you and me in here.”
I sigh. “Still, the later everyone finds out the less time we have for them to pick on us.”
Klef steps back and claps once. “Back to work, then?”
I nod. “Back to work, then.”
Klef shoves me. “I’m the joker of the relationship, missy.”
“Sure, Treble. Whatever you say.”
We argue a little bit as we sit down and fool around with some of the rich’s latest scraps.
“It’s a flashlight,” Klef says out of nowhere.
I smile at the old argument. “It’s a torch.”
“Well, whatever it is…” Klef starts.
“...It’s not a glow stick,” I finish. “I thought we’d established that.”
Klef bops me on the head with a thin sheet a plastic rolled into a cylinder. “And that is how we’re dating even though we can’t stand each other.”
“Who’s dating?” Geo asks as he walks into the room rubbing his eyes.
“Uh…” Klef looks over to me. “Just some couple from Rides’ hometown. I don’t think you know them.”
“Oh, you two are getting together?” Geo smirks.
“Not in the way you’re thinking, G,” I sigh.
“How do you know what I’m thinking?”
“You’re smirking,” I shrug. “What else would you be thinking of?”
“I don’t do the do, Geo. You know that. I told you, Nuts, and Bolts all at the same time.”
“Do the do?” I tease.
“I still haven’t found a good euphemism, all right?!” Klef growls.
“Sleep with anyone?” Geo offers.
“You could also be blunt,” I roll my eyes.
“I like my life to be simple, okay? If I go right out and tell everyone within earshot I don’t look at anyone and have the desire to have...that, with them, it’s very hard for that to happen!” Klef sighs.
Geo shrugs. “All right, all right. I’ll let it drop. Are you guys ready to head out yet?”
“We’re always ready, G,” I point out.
“Still. Meeting more Crusaders, trying to come up with a plan to save the world, this isn’t just any trip, you know.”
“No, duh!” Klef exclaims. “An oracle’s dreams don’t happen every day.”
I close my eyes and focus on my fish. It’s always awkward for me whenever someone calls me an oracle. I’ve never seen myself as someone noteworthy, and I’m having trouble getting used to the idea that I could be important to anyone outside my family and Klef. But an oracle has top-of-the-line Sight. And that kind of sense for magic is apparently beyond rare...and incredibly dangerous for anyone around me.
“So...where are we going first?” I ask.
“We’re heading to the Werewolf-Reptile Territory. We have a recent branch forming out there. A top of the line werewolf doctor and her mate are creating a pack to settle down with.”
“Wait...Flo’s a Crusader?” I ask.
“As of recently, yeah.” Geo grins and says, “Everyone else who’s going has left. Coming?”
Klef stands up and I trail behind the two of them, thinking about what I’m about to do. This is going to be hard…
I was angry at my friend,
I told my wrath, my wrath did end...
“All right…” I mutter. “Let’s do this.”
Klef squeezes my hand. “You’ll do fine.”
“I hope so,” I mutter back.
Geo grabs my other hand, and I prepare my old snowflake amulet. Within seconds we’re flying towards the old mountains that used to be the Basilisk’s and Dragon’s Territory, where the Basilisk’s ambassador is. Half a day South is the Crusader’s base, and where I’m going to be a leader for a special task force to take on whoever’s planning to take over the world.
ns 15.158.61.50da2
