Page 129 of Crown of Darkness
The oracle will show you a glimpse of the future or the past, but it comes at a cost.
“No,” Thiago says sharply. “Vi’s lost more than enough of her memories. She doesn’t need to lose any more.”
“I’m merely presenting it as an option,” Thalia says, spreading her hands. “The oracle isn’t technically immortal—she passes from body to body—but she’s a repository for all the memories of all the oracles that have come before her. And those memories she’s taken in payment from those who journey to see her.”
Silence rings throughout the room.
Thiago’s still shaking his head, but he’s not the one who makes this decision.
“How do I get there?” I ask quietly.
Every head in the room turns toward me. Thiago’s nostrils flare, but I hold up my palm.
“We need to find the crown,” I tell him, and our eyes meet as I try to remind him why this is suddenly urgent. “No matter what we must do.”
OceanofPDF.com
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The saithe oracle lives alone in a swamp deep in the heart of Unseelie.
My stomach keeps tying itself in knots, and I don’t know if it’s purely worry or because I actually am carrying Thiago’s child.
“Relax,” Eris says, hauling back on the oars of the little boat we rented from a hob. “You’re knotted tighter than my bow. The local fae are going to start looking at us closely if they notice how nervous you are.”
“Sorry.” I stare across the waters, trying to fight the urge to tap my fingers. “I’m just tired. Every time I think we get closer to the crown, my leads shrivel up and die.”
“You have over eight months to find it,” she says.
I think I’m going to be sick.
“Vi?”
Sometimes I forget how perceptive she is, but then she was born on a battlefield, and she’s spent her entire life reading the room.
“I’m late.”
Unlike Thiago, she understands immediately.
“Well, fuck,” she says, tugging out the flask she carries and taking a swig from it.
“We were always careful. But somehow….”
“Fate,” Eris says roughly. “Sometimes it doesn’t matter how much you try to prevent such a thing, it still happens. How certain are you?”
“I don’tknow. Five days late, maybe. Tired. Hungry. But I don’t know if my mind is conjuring symptoms simply because I fear they’re there, or if I just need a week in bed.”
Eris hauls back on the oars. “Then we find the crown, pay your debt, and kill the Mother of Night.”
The breath explodes out of me. “Do you have any idea how difficult that would be?”
“Everything can be killed. Even a goddess.”
I slump back in the boat with a weak laugh. “Sometimes I wish I had your assurance. And if the entire alliance couldn’t kill her—could only lock her away—then what makes you thinkIcan manage to do it?”
“We,” she corrects. “The darkyn prince of Evernight and his queen, theleanabh an dan; his cousin, one of the salt-kissed; a general who once belonged to the Grimm; a dangerous sylvaren warrior; and me.”
“The scariest fae in the world.”
