The Final Prophecy (The Oracle Series Book 3)

by N. J. Cooper

  She threw out a plasma shield at the ghoul, trapping it quickly inside. Everyone stopped screaming and stared at her. She moved the shield with the ghoul who was screaming from inside it, over to the cell that it was meant to be locked in. She locked it in with her powers then looked over at Zarek who had his sword out and stood next to Shemar, they both stared at her with the others, wearing the same empty expression as Wyatt had been. Shemar and Zarek nodded at her, she smiled and nodded back then went back to her body where it sat with the small boy vampire. She gasped as she came through, weakness sinking in her body. She took her wrist back from the boy who looked up at her with a nod. She smiled timidly then looked back for Wyatt and Sky, but they stood silently across the street in front of a concrete barrier. Kyla frowned and looked around as the scenery began to change. She looked around her and found the city turning in on itself. The buildings were rubble, fires and screams wreaked havoc over Velatem. The boy was gone, and life came back into Wyatt and Sky’s faces. They ran forward, blood and scratchings covering their bodies as tears and ash streaked their faces. Kyla gasped and stepped back as they came to stand beside her. She looked around quickly, trying to find the threat, find who was hurting her friends when Wyatt got down on his knees and cried into her legs, grabbing her hand, kissing it. Kyla frowned and looked up at Sky as she placed a bleeding, bruised hand on her shoulder.

  “Kyla please. We’re sorry. Velatem is sorry. We get it okay. You need to stop.” Sky begged. Kyla gasped and looked over Sky and then herself. She was covered in blood, but she wasn’t hurt. That’s when Kyla saw her hands, her immortal blade was in it; but it was black. Kyla shook her head, tears springing to her eyes as her chest tightened. Kyla’s hand went to her chest as she looked at Sky again then around at the damage that she had caused. People were dead in the street, bleeding, beaten and everything was destroyed. If Kyla really had done that, there was only one way to stop her doing anything more and she knew it was the reason for this test because she had already had to ask herself the hard questions when she was separated from the Oracle.

  “I did this.” she stated, already knowing the answer. Sky nodded.

  “Why?” she asked.

  “The realm denied you and Zarek. They refused you as their Queen. You got angry.” Sky explained quietly. Kyla nodded, tears falling down her cheeks.

  “Then the answer is easy.” Kyla stated as Sky and Wyatt tensed and moved back with that same empty expression. Kyla took a deep breath and placed the immortal blade at her chest. She clenched her eyes shut and forced the steel through her heart.

  Kyla gasped as she came awake, her eyes stinging as her heart clenched. Sweat came over her body as it shook. She checked where she was, sighing in relief as she felt the cold leather of the dentist chair and the beady eyes of the staff. She leaned back and drew in enough breath to stop her from passing out then looked over at Zarek. He came forward and brushed her hair away from her face.

  “You okay? The serum can be hard to get used to.” Zarek asked. Kyla nodded but didn’t speak because it would expose her lie. “They’re going to give you another one, this one will take a look at your memories and find the moments you were humane. Times you showed humanity and compassion. They have to find three or more to pass.” Zarek explained. Kyla pulled in a few short breaths then nodded and accepted the cup of serum from the attendant. She looked at the liquid that was bright yellow and intimidating. Did she want them going through her memories, was it safe? She wasn’t sure whether it would be able to report on what had happened between her and Zarek and didn’t want to get him in trouble but he didn’t seem worried, and if he was, he didn’t show it so she gulped back the serum and leaned back in the chair. Kyla looked at Zarek as a black screen began to fall over her sight. She gasped as her mind spun so fast, she thought she was going to hurl. Finally, it stopped, and a projector screen flashed on the darkness. Kyla frowned; she was literally watching her life. The memory that flashed on the screen was in a familiar room. The living room at her ‘Uncle’s’ place. A dirty house with broken bottles of liquor that she had never questioned and old pizza boxes. Her uncle came around the corner from the kitchen, wielding a knife.

  “Get your ass back in that kitchen, girl. You think after everything I’ve done for you since your parents died, that it is too much to ask to have dinner ready when I wake up, huh? This ain’t a free ride, girl.” Her uncle had screamed at her. Kyla had just finished a double shift at the restaurant she had worked at to pay rent while he spent all her parents money. She had finished school, gone straight to work and hadn’t had a chance to even get out of her uniform before her uncle was on her case and yet she had been terrified of the mean, old drunk and done what he asked. The Kyla on the screen nodded timidly.

  “Yeah of course, Uncle. Sorry. I’ll just get out of my uniform and fix you something.” Kyla had said quietly but it hadn’t made a difference. He had come forward, the knife aimed at her and in hindsight she should have known he wasn’t her family, but she had been so naïve. She let him chase her into the kitchen and when she had gone to ask what he wanted; he had struck her across the face. Kyla had fallen to the floor, a bruising cheek, more tears and her uncle had sneered before going back into the lounge with another beer from the fridge. Kyla had cooked him dinner and brought it to him just to find him passed out in his own vomit on the couch. Kyla had sighed, put his dinner down and helped him up, cleaning him up and put him through the shower before putting him to bed with water and painkillers. At the time, she had done it because she didn’t have anyone else and since he was her only family left, she had needed that but as the memory played, she realised why. She could have left him on that couch in his own vomit. She could have treated him in the same horrible way he had treated her but she hadn’t and maybe she was just too tired and overwhelmed by her parents death at the time to argue but she had done what she could handle, and that had been the result. The memory flickered closed before another one came up.

  This time Kyla was fighting Onyx in the throne room with Zarek and decided to arrest him instead of killing him. An act of mercy that she wished wasn’t in there because despite being humane, was one decision she regretted.

  The next one was her hiding with Zarek in the bathroom stall at the hospital, trying to fix Wyatt up so nobody could see that he was addicted and had been very nearly drained. She wasn’t sure why that one was in there, but she assumed it was because she had been compassionate to Wyatt but she wasn’t so sure that had been the best decision for the realm.

  Her mind collapsed back to darkness after the three memories played and began spinning again at an unbearable speed until it stopped and cleared on the room she had started in, in the dentist chair. Kyla heaved as she shot upwards, clutching her stomach, her bones unsteady and shuddering. One of the girls was there with a paper bag but Kyla shoved it away. She didn’t need it, only to get out of the room where it still smelled of that serum, a heavy, sweet and sickly smell that had her heaving again. She climbed slowly from the chair as Zarek grabbed her and helped her off the small platform.

  “Did you see three normal memories?” He whispered. Kyla nodded weakly, unsure what he meant by ‘normal’. He smiled. “Good, that means you passed the first part.” he revealed proudly in a hushed voice. Kyla tried to form a smile for him, but she was rushed off before she could. The Queen was announced then as Kyla was led into another room where the others were all in thick chairs with IV lines in them. She was seated in the next available one and hooked up. She didn’t have the energy to find out what the hell they were doing but the lady who took her, explained it anyway.

  “We’re just getting your fluids back, the serum can have some nasty side effects if we don’t rehydrate you.” She said but Kyla could already feel those side effects and just leaned her head back into the chair, dreading the idea of doing that for the next two days. Kyla wasn’t sure how much time passed but eventually others began getting unhooked and taken back to their rooms and the
Queen was escorted into the chair opposite her. She looked as horrible as Kyla had felt so she couldn’t tell how her test had gone but Kyla was better now and stood from the chair, pulling her line out herself and walking over to the Queen who had been left to be rehydrated.

  “How’d it go, your Highness? Your acting skills pay off?” Kyla taunted as she bent down to the Queen. The Queen scowled at her, brow shaking.

  “I have been Queen for years. The amount of times I have let creatures get away with things or helped beggars, I had plenty of humane memories to choose from. Try again, Oracle.” She wheezed. Kyla hid how much her words annoyed her and smirked.

  “I will, tomorrow when you have to go through this again. Being humane is one thing but what about loyalty and morality? I don’t think even your acting is good enough to cover your true nature. Have a good night, your Highness.” Kyla said before leaving to her room.

  ~ 15 ~

  “I wish you could tell me what you saw.” Zarek sighed as he held her against him in her bed. She smiled and kissed his peck, shuffling in closer to him, pulling the blankets with her.

  “I wish I could tell you what I saw, are you sure I can’t?” She asked, running her fingers down his arm. He kissed her head and nodded.

  “Yeah, I can’t know before I watch it in front of the realm, or it will be considered a biased decision and you would be disqualified.” he admitted. Kyla sighed and tucked her leg between his.

  “Can you tell me what you meant before about ‘normal’ memories?” Kyla asked.

  “If you see the memory exactly as it was then it is true, if it is a lie or the memory doesn’t reflect what you truly wanted in that moment then small details would have been changed about what you saw.” He explained. Kyla frowned and tried to think about what she saw but she was pretty sure it was exactly what happened. She hoped that didn’t mean the Queen had passed, she hadn’t mentioned anything changing or being different but maybe she didn’t know that was an indicator. Kyla had to hope that was the case.

  “So, if in one of the memories, I did something that was not what I actually wanted to do, that would be a fail?” she checked, he tensed and pulled back, looking her in the eyes.

  “Kyla, is that what you saw? Is that what happened in yours?” He demanded, grabbing the sides of her face. She shook her head quickly, trying to think of how she could get out of it, without telling him about his mother and her acting. She needed to know if the Queen was going to get outed no matter how good her acting skills were.

  “No, it’s just hypothetical.” She tried. He looked in her eyes, before releasing his tension and kissing her.

  “The serum scans your mind, your feelings, your emotions, your desires during the memory. What you wanted, what your motivation was and reads the memory based on that. If details were changed, it means that when I see it, it is going to show me what would have happened if you could have done whatever you wanted at that time. If the memory was shown exactly the way you remember it then that’s what I will see.” He explained. Kyla nodded and hoped with everything she had that it would mean the Queen was going down. She hated that it meant that Zarek would have to confront his mother and what he did to his brother. She hated that the Queen couldn’t have just been happy with King Carrick, but she couldn’t do anything about that. All she could do was save the realm from being controlled by the one who wanted to see its downfall. She just had to take the risk that the Queen would fail because if she didn’t then Kyla had just put her in the High Council and screwed everything up, which is why Kyla had to pass so she would be put there too and could counter her. Everything rested on these trials. She pulled in a tense breath as Zarek kissed her again.

  “Don’t worry, Kyla. I know you’ll pass, ever since you got here, you have made every decision based on the best for the realm, and that is the entire point of these tests.” He tried to reassure but he had no idea what was riding on them. She nodded anyway and leaned in to kiss him again, harder and in a way that said she was done talking for the night.

  The same routine followed the next morning and as she laid in the leather, dentist chair for the second time after all the others, she was just as nervous. Zarek had announced that it was the loyalty test and it was the one she was sure the Queen wasn’t going to be able to act her way out of, but Kyla wasn’t sure whether she would even pass. Had she been loyal? Was she loyal? Kyla hoped so. She took the purple serum again, took a breath before drinking it and letting it take her away. She landed through the darkness in a chair, her wrists and feet bound to the metal legs and arms with onyx chains. Kyla frowned and checked where she was, gasping as she saw the same surroundings as when she had been tortured by Byron. The warehouse with the leaky pipe that dripped too loud in her ear, the small platform, and the tray of torture tools he had used. Kyla shook her limbs, trying to get out when a familiar laugh snickered through the air.

  Byron.

  He came around from a set of rusted shelves, holding an athame that he pricked his finger with, then tasted the blood and grinned.

  “Nice to see you again, Oracle.” He taunted. Kyla’s heart was so tight; she couldn’t go through his torture again. He knew where to hit her and she didn’t think she could endure another round with him, especially one on one. She struggled against her binds again, but he laughed and walked over to the tray, his pale fingers dancing over his instruments before he picked up a pair of pliers.

  “So, you know where the Elders are hiding, I need to know. Tell me or we start to have some fun.” He bit, stepping closer with deliberately slow steps. She understood now, the weird way Zarek had been acting, the constant ‘stay strong’ messages and the unusual way he acted as if he didn’t want her doing it. He knew how they were testing for loyalty. Torture. Well, that was one thing she knew she could get through because she had done it before. She just wasn’t so sure about the whole Byron part of the test. She wasn’t sure whether she could restrain herself from attacking his face that resembled his father’s, way too much. She pursed her lips, as long as she held in her temper then the secrets were safe with her, no matter what he did.

  “Just get this over with. No matter what one of your little tools you use, I’m not telling you a thing.” She set her resolve. He grinned that creepy smile, his dark eyes crinkled at the sides.

  “I was hoping you would say that.” he smirked then walked forward and begun his ‘fun’. Kyla wasn’t sure how long she stayed strapped to that chair, but she had underestimated what evil would do to get their information. She had been burned, pierced, suffocated, drowned and physically pulled to her brink. She was pretty sure every bone in her body was broken and she was guessing she was somewhere close to her blood loss limit as well, judging by the pools that soaked into her shoes. Her head rolled to the side as he came forward with another knife. He paused before her.

  “Last chance, Oracle. Tell me where they are, or I kill you.” Byron said holding the knife at her heart. Kyla coughed, blood spurting over his face before breathing harshly.

  “I’m giving you nothing.” she bit before he grinned. He ran the knife down her face before scratching the skin by her heart then he looked at her. He turned his head then looked over her body.

  “Hmmm. Maybe you’ll change your mind if I change tactics. Maybe it isn’t pain that scares you.” he said before running his hand slowly down her arm then his fingertips over her thigh. Kyla’s breath hitched as his hand went wandering over her stomach and then up to where her tattered shirt exposed her bra. She swallowed hard as she realised the route that he was taking to get to her. She clenched her eyes shut as he leaned in, his face so close to hers she could smell the stale blood on his breath. He gripped her jaw and made her face him, using his other hand to run back down her, stopping on the button of her jeans.

  “Where are they?” he whispered. Kyla tried to answer that she wasn’t going to say anything, but the words caught in her throat. She knew what it would mean but surely they weren’t going to let anyth
ing happen in a simulation? She had to believe they were going to pull her out in time.

  “I’m telling you nothing.” She said but her voice shuddered, and he grinned. It was the first sign of weakness she had shown. He undid her jeans and she struggled against the restraints, but he stopped before anything happened and looked behind him before stepping back and away, fading out. Kyla frowned and leaned forward, her entire body aching as she wondered where he had gone when her mind snapped into darkness. It was abrupt and disorientating as her body was healed and she was surrounded by emptiness. She frowned and waited for the next test. It came in the form of a white screen dropping down. Two statements appeared on each side of the screen before a centaur came up to her.

  “You said you had information? What is it?” She asked, the centaur’s long hair running down her naked chest that was covered in dark skin that blended into her dark horse back. Kyla frowned and looked back at the statements. One read;

  ‘There is a traitor in the mansion, I know who it is, but I don’t have any proof.’

  And that struck scarily close to home. The next one said;

  ‘I saw someone poison the alcohol; we have to destroy it.’

  Kyla frowned, was she meant to tell one or both?

  “Choose the one you think would be most important to mention should you need to reveal both.” The centaur explained. Kyla nodded and already knew which one because the first one she was stuck with and she hadn’t told straight away, no proof meant no conviction whereas if the alcohol was poisoned it could provide the proof needed, so she turned to the centaur with confidence.

  “The second statement. I saw someone poison the alcohol; we have to destroy it.” she said before the centaur nodded and left.