The Oracle Series: Vols. 4, 5, & Grave Endowments

by Cynthia D. Witherspoon

  “No, but you are very pale, Daughter of Apollo. Have a seat and calm yourself.”

  I took the glass, moved over to the window, and held it up to the sunlight. I don’t know why I was so anxious all of a sudden. Hermes had come to me to help get rid of Elliot, not the other way around. So why was his sudden act of kindness so strange to me?

  I sat down in the armchair and sipped on the water. The god of thieves gave me a tight smile before turning his attentions back to Joey and Cyrus. They discussed the fight against Elliot in Montana. They talked about the Elliot I had known before. The one who swore he loved me. I downed the rest of my drink as if it were my favorite wine when the three of them started scheming.

  “If we can draw the beast into a tight space, then we can flank him.” Hermes jabbed his finger against the coffee table. “Joey here can shoot him down while we come in from the sides.”

  “What about me?” I closed my eyes as a wave of drowsiness hit me. “Where do I come into play?”

  A second wave of drowsiness rushed through my body. I felt my arms go numb as my fingers released the glass. It bounced against the carpet and I heard Joey cry out as I slumped forward. Cyrus was by my side in a second. He grabbed my chin and lifted up my head.

  “Eva? Little One…” He breathed out my nickname before he snapped. “What did you do to her?”

  “Sleep dust.” Herme’s voice broke through the fog in my brain. “Got it from the nymphs. The weakest link has been taken care of, slave. When she awakes, the beast will be slain and no harm will come to her. Now put her to bed. My sources tell me the beast and the dragon were seen together at Waterfront Park. We’ll cut them off there.”

  I felt Cyrus lift me up. Even in my haze, I could feel the anger radiating off of him. I wanted to scream at him. I wanted to tell him not to leave me behind.

  In the end, my own body betrayed me. I breathed in Cyrus’ scent and fell asleep nestled against his shoulder.

  ***

  To say I was groggy when I woke up was an understatement. I laid still in the bed and forced my eyes to stay open as the potion Hermes had used against me began to wear off. It took a minute, but when the events of the afternoon rushed forward, the exhaustion that consumed me shifted into anger. Hermes had betrayed me. He poisoned me, for gods’ sake.

  I buried my face into the pillow and listened to silence around me. They were gone. Cyrus and Joey to avenge me. The god of thieves? To avenge himself. I tried to turn my anger onto my loved ones, but I couldn’t do it. I knew all too well how we were forced to follow the orders of the gods. Cyrus, though he loved me, had no choice but to do as he was told.

  A soft noise broke the silence and I sat up with a start. Nothing but shadows surrounded me. Night had fallen while I was passed out, so my room was dark. I kicked off the covers then waited. Nothing. No noises. No movement. I sighed and buried my face in my hands. Perhaps Hermes was right. If I had gone with them then I would have done something stupid. I would have rushed in, attacked Elliot, and ended up being a liability.

  I stood to walk over to the window to stare out over the water. I bowed my head when I heard the noise again. A rustling. I glanced up to see a reflection in the glass behind me. A man I was all too familiar with was staring back at me with an expression of utter hatred.

  I whirled around, but the sleep potion slowed my reactions. Elliot Lancaster was on me within seconds. He crashed against me and forced my body against the back wall. I cried out when he grabbed my hair to shove my head against the picture behind me.

  “Little Evie.” Elliot snarled. “Poor little Sibyl. I’ve come for you, doll. Just like I said I would.”

  I gritted my teeth when he shoved my head back a second time. I willed the spots dancing in front of my eyes to disappear when I wrapped my hands around his arms. I jerked my hair free from his grasp and kicked out for his knee. I slammed my elbow across his face and grinned when I heard the satisfying crunch of a bone breaking. My enemy stumbled back with a growl, his hands cupped over his nose.

  “You wanted to play, Elliot?” I circled away from the wall to give myself room. I forced myself to focus on how to will my sword in my hand. I didn’t take my eyes off of my opponent when I felt it in my grasp. “Let’s play.”

  Elliot lunged forward, but I was ready for him. I stepped aside and swept my sword downward. It slashed across his back before he rolled away.

  “Why?” I moved to my right as he rose to his knees. “Tell me why.”

  “You know why.” Elliot hissed. When I didn’t answer, he laughed. “You stole my mother from me. I thought I’d return the favor.”

  “What in the hell are you talking about?”

  “You knew!” Elliot roared. He shoved himself up. This time, he wrapped his arms around my waist to bring me down to the ground. I grunted as I lost my grip on my sword. I tried to roll over to grab it, but Elliot was faster. His punch connected with my cheek to knock me flat on my back. “You knew about Kathy Carter and you didn’t tell me. I could have stopped her from dying, damn you!”

  I turned to stare at him in horror before he hit me again. I didn’t have time to consider what he told me. Elliot reached into his back pocket to pull out a silver dagger I had become very familiar with during his capture by the Erinyes.

  Athena’s Blade. The only weapon that could steal my immortality away from me.

  “You kept my mother from me, bitch.” He exhaled ragged breaths as he pressed the tip of the dagger against my chest. He rested it over my heart. “You knew I was searching for her. You knew I had spent years trying to find her. And you knew where she was the whole time. You should’ve told me.”

  I had to get up. I had to find a way to get him off of me. I shifted beneath him in an attempt to get a hold of my blade as Elliot tapped his weapon against my shirt. He seemed to shift from rage to calm within seconds because he started humming to himself.

  “I can’t decide if I should kill you now or let you suffer more.” Elliot gave me his brightest smile. “Do you know Janet begged for you before she died? It’s true. I had to chase her down. It wasn’t until I had her cornered in the bedroom that she started calling out for you to help her.”

  My blood turned to ice as I remembered the blood in the upstairs bedroom. My enemy chuckled as he wrapped his free hand around my jaw to force my head back. Elliot leaned in, stopping just short of kissing me. Instead, he whispered.

  “You look like her, you know. Except for your eyes. I wonder if your blood will be as golden as your eyes.”

  I saw the shadows shifting behind Elliot’s head. I felt the sweet security that announced Cyrus’ presence. I caught sight of a pair of silver eyes glowing from the kitchen. I wasn’t alone. Not anymore.

  “Your dad was a different story.” Elliot gave me a bloody grin. “He hated you for leaving him. Hated me for taking you away. He had no idea what was coming until it was far too late.”

  I couldn’t think about my parents. I couldn’t listen to his crazy ramblings. To do so would prove Hermes right. My heart could prove to be my own undoing. I shifted my focus to getting free from Elliot’s grasp. I had to. I had no other choice. He would succeed in killing me with Athena’s blade if I didn’t.

  I forced my arm to go as far as it would until my fingers wrapped around the handle of my sword. I slammed it against the side of his ear and rolled as the force of my blow knocked him off of me. I scrambled to my feet.

  “Coward.” I was surprised at how steady my voice sounded as I held my sword in front of me. “You said you loved me. You promised me forever, Elliot. And look at what you’ve become. Twisted. Sick. Filled with rage. You’re my own worst enemy and I will hate you forever.”

  “You betrayed me first!” Elliot screamed. “You abandoned me! And for what? A slave!”

  He lunged forward for a third time, but he never had a chance to reach his target. Cyrus was in front of me within seconds. My keeper caught Elliot by the throat and slung him aside. Elliot collided with
the coffee table before he turned his hateful face onto us. I stepped forward to stand next to Cyrus as Joey and Hermes appeared around me.

  “Touch her again.” Cyrus kicked Athena’s blade to the side, but he kept his eyes on Elliot as he spoke. “And you will beg for the tortures that await you in Tartarus.”

  “Kill him.” Hermes sounded bored. “The beast has been long overdue for transport.”

  “Beast?” Elliot lowered his head as his ghastly grin returned. “Is that what they are calling me?”

  I watched as Elliot began to shift into a wolf. I’d seen him do this before in Montana. But it still shocked the hell out of me. I started forward when Cyrus’ arm held me back.

  “He’s not alone.” My beloved nodded to the bedroom. I glanced away from Elliot long enough to see a woman come through the threshold. “Kampe.”

  “Very good, Cyrus of Crete.”

  The woman I had attacked on the streets of Charleston flipped her hair over her shoulder when she joined us. She placed her hand on Elliot’s head. She squared her shoulders as she took us in. Finally, her wicked orange gaze fell upon Hermes.

  “My, how the mighty have fallen.” She bared her razor sharp teeth. “The great Hermes! Mingling with the meek and mild.”

  “Kampe. Pleasure as always.” Hermes tipped his hat in her direction. “Tell me you aren’t working for Hera now. I don’t think I could recover from the shock of it.”

  The woman raised her hand and a ball of fire appeared. “The Sibyl has to be contained, Thief. You know what a threat she is to us. Yet, you stand by her side.”

  “I am not concerned with the girl.” Hermes shrugged. “My task is to reclaim the soul your mistress stole from me.”

  “She is a threat.” Kampe hissed. “Take her in place of the mistress’ pet. He will serve us well.”

  I listened to them argue, but I was too busy watching Elliot. He was pacing behind the woman, staring at me with his toxic green eyes. He waited until she stepped forward before he struck.

  Elliot rushed past her. He ignored Cyrus when my keeper stabbed his golden broadsword into his shoulder. My enemy snarled as he snapped his massive jaws within inches from my nose. I reared back and smashed the hilt of my sword right between his eyes. He fell back as my companions focused on him.

  Elliot attacked Cyrus next. My keeper mirrored my earlier movement by slamming his sword against Elliot’s throat. Our opponent gasped as Joey aimed his firearm at Elliot’s head and fired. I started to rush forward to help them, but a hand grabbed my wrist. I screamed as fire erupted from the woman’s hands. She grinned when she thrust Athena’s blade into my side. The fire burning my flesh was nothing compared to the fire filling my blood as the immortality granted to me by Apollo seeped away.

  “Now, dog!”

  Kampe screamed along with me. The world seemed to slow down when Elliot rammed himself against me one last time. I heard the window pane behind me shatter as I went through it. I felt the shards of glass slicing through my skin as the floor was swept out from under me.

  I felt myself falling and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

  Chapter Fourteen

  I heard sirens first. The screams second. I frowned as I rose to my feet. The world seemed hazy outside the hotel. I looked up to see a broken window right above me. I watched Cyrus and Joey rush outside. They both fell to their knees onto the sidewalk beside me. I wanted to ask them what they were doing. Weren’t we in the middle of a fight with Elliot? Kampe?

  I couldn’t speak. Not when I saw myself lying on the sidewalk. My body was broken. My eyes, which had been golden for two years now, had returned to the green I had been born with. I heard Cyrus make a strange choking sound as he lifted my head up to cradle it in his lap.

  “Don’t do this, Little One. Don’t.” Cyrus lost his ability to speak for a second before he brushed my bloody hair away from my face. “Wake up, damn you. Wake up.”

  “Cyrus.”

  I reached out to him when I saw the one thing I never thought possible. My beloved had tears streaming down his face. He cursed at Joey when my friend tried to touch me. He ignored the paramedics who were circling around him. Instead, my sweet, strong Keeper held me and began to pray to Apollo.

  “You have a choice, you know.”

  I turned to see Hermes step out of the fog that was thickening around me. The god was still dressed in the suit he had worn to the funeral, but there was one massive change to his appearance. A set of massive silver wings rose up above his shoulders. He snapped the feathers downward when he tilted his head back to look at the window as I had done.

  “I’m here to take your soul below, Eva.” Hermes looked to the scene that was causing tears to spring up in my eyes. “Your immortality was ripped away from you. Your physical body shattered due to a villain’s madness.”

  “Elliot?”

  I turned back to see the paramedics had put my body on a stretcher. Cyrus and Joey both climbed in after the men in white loaded me up. Hermes stepped forward to stand next to me.

  “Gone. The dragon, too. Yet, they are the least of your concerns right now.”

  I took in what I had seen. What Hermes was telling me. Elliot had succeeded. I had died. I glanced down at my hands. I took in the street around me. The crowds that had gathered before I turned back to the thief.

  “You said I have a choice.”

  “You do.” Hermes kicked at a stone. His foot passed right through it. “Kampe stole your immortality, that is true. But there is a thread of your power left within your body. That is why we are talking here instead of on the side of the River Styx.”

  The god shrugged. “You can return to your body. Let the wound caused by Athena’s Blade to heal on its own. Then your immortality will be restored. You’ll be as good as new within a few days. You can resume your vengeance and in assisting me.”

  “What’s the other option?” I stared at the pool of blood that remained. “The underworld?

  “Yes.” Hermes nodded. “I will escort your soul below. You will cross the river as any other mortal.”

  “Will I get to see them?” I whispered. “Will Apollo’s ban be lifted?”

  “That is up to Apollo.” Hermes clasped his hands in front of his stomach. “But know this. My dear brother will not be happy with you for abandoning your oath to him.”

  I stood in silence for what felt like forever, though I’m sure it was only a few moments to Hermes. He was incessantly patient as I weighed the options he gave me.

  Peace through death. Or continue living the life I adored with Cyrus?

  There was really no choice. Yes, it broke my heart that my parents were gone. Yes, I dreaded the idea of being weak while I recovered. But Elliot was still out there. He believed he was victorious against me. Not to mention poor Cyrus.

  I wanted to weep at the sight of the tears in my beloved’s eyes. I felt something break within me when I had heard the despair in his voice. As much as I needed Cyrus, I knew he needed me, too. I loved him too much to leave him in such a state.

  I opened my eyes to study the feathers that decorated his wings. He had the appearance of ever angel I’d seen in pop culture.

  Except this angel was a smartass. Who got on my nerves.

  “I want to go back.”

  “Spoken like a true human.” The god chuckled. “Very well. But you must promise not to let him throw you out of a window the next time you meet him. Otherwise, I’ll have to ask Zeus to give you wings instead of a sword.”

  “Ok. So what do I do now? Click my heels three times?”

  “What?” Hermes frowned. “Don’t be stupid. Say the official oath swearing to aid me and I will return your stubborn soul to where it belongs.”

  “I, Sibyl, Daughter of Apollo.” I looked Hermes in the eyes as I spoke. I had to. It was the only way to cement the oath Cyrus had taught me over a year ago. “Swear upon the throne of the Most High Zeus to fulfill my obligations to Hermes. I will aid him. I will find the beast
known as Elliot Lancaster and destroy him.”

  “Now, that’s more like it!” Hermes gave me a wide smile when he stepped forward. “Go. Relieve the pain your loved ones are in. For some reason, they don’t understand that you are too damn stubborn to die.”

  The god of transitions tapped me twice between the eyes and the world around me faded into nothingness.

  ***

  I gasped for breath as I jolted awake. I almost gagged for my efforts. The commotion I had heard after my fall returned. Except this time, it was Cyrus and Joey yelling to someone in the background that I was awake. I tried to struggle against the wires holding me in place until Cyrus put his hand on my forehead.

  “Don’t move, baby. It’s alright.” His voice wavered. “Just relax. I’m here.”

  He kept my hand clasped in his as an army of nurses in blue swarmed my bed. They checked the machines. They checked the wires. Hell, they even checked my eyes. I couldn’t feel anything and for a moment, I was afraid I was paralyzed. Before the panic could set in, I caught a glimpse of a man dressed in white appear.

  “Mr. Alexius, may I see you outside for a moment?”

  I almost giggled. It was so strange when people called Cyrus by his last name. I was so used to him being addressed as Cyrus of Crete, I had almost forgotten that Alexius was his true surname. My beloved shook his head.

  “I am not leaving her side, sir. You can tell me here or it can wait until she is healed.”

  “That is what I wished to speak with you about.” The doctor sounded serious. I would have raised up to look at him, but I was too woozy. “Ms. McRayne suffered from a number of critical wounds. Yet, she is healing at an amazing rate. The very fact that she regained consciousness is a medical miracle in itself.”

  “Are you still administering the pain medication?” Cyrus began rubbing his thumb over the back of my hand. “She may be healing, but she is not there yet.”

  “Yes. Morphine. We will lower the percentage of her next dose to see how it affects her.”