Page 60 of The Dragon's Perfect Omega
The priestess' lips drew into a thin line. "So you haven't been able to stay away from the human."
I narrowed my eyes at her. How did she know my mate was human? I'd never mentioned that part.
She seemed to read the question on my face. "You're forgetting that you're not the only one who gets visions."
Right. That part had slipped my mind. Now I couldn't help but wonder what she'd seen.
"There's several ways this could go," she said. "I've seen them all."
"So therearedifferent futures."
"The future is always in a state of flux," she confirmed for me. "Even I struggle to see all possibilities at all times, but I've taken a special interest in you and your mate."
"Just tell me that there is a future in which he and the babies are fine."
"There is," she said. Hope lit up my heart like a spotlight being turned on inside of it. But then she shook her head. "I don't know how to reach it. It's hazy."
My chest squeezed painfully. How could she dangle a brighter future in front of me and then take it all away like that?
"I'm sure you could figure it out if you looked," she offered. "It's more closely related to you. The events that touch us personally are always easier to see."
"I don't know how to do it." I'd never tried to force a vision. All the ones I'd had had been random. I dreaded having them, so I never learned how to make them happen. "Please, you have to help me. I can't lose him." Even just the thought alone was so painful that I was willing to plead with this woman. I didn't care about my pride. Not if it couldn't save Zim.
The high priestess looked me in the eyes. "Will you join the shrine?"
I held her gaze. "Please don't make me leave him. If you'veeverbeen my mother..." I shook my head. "How do you think I could serve an organization that tore my mate away from me?" There was no way I could do that without resenting everyone around me. I needed Zim, and he needed me. I wasn't going to let him raise our children by himself. No, I was going to stick by his side.
"I really wish you could see things in a different light," the priestess said.
"And I really wish you cared about me at all."
This seemed to give her pause.
I took the chance to continue speaking. "You know, over the years I've thought a lot about who my real parents might be and why they gave me up. I tried to tell myself that they did itforme, to give me a better life somehow. That there were reasons they couldn't care for me the way they needed to. Do you have any idea what it feels like to find out that your birth mother has never seen you as anything but a tool?" I couldn't help the emotion that seeped into my voice. I'd never talked about this before, not to anyone, and until I uttered the words, I didn't even realize how heavily this was weighing on me.
Faced with my outburst, the high priestess was lost for words. "I didn't... That's not..." For the first time, I saw cracks in her priestly facade, as if there was a real woman hiding behind all the decorum. "I know what you must be thinking, but it wasn't easy for me to give you up. You were my baby. I'd carried you under my heart." Her hand went to her chest as she said this. "I did only what the Gods asked of me."
"I know the Gods wanted you to have a child," I said, trying not to let her words get to me. "Did they also tell you to give it up?"
She fell quiet. For at least a minute, she said nothing, maybe trying to remember what exactly the Gods had said to her. It was all a long time ago. "I'm the high priestess," she said eventually. "I couldn't have a child. It was unthinkable."
"But dragons came up with that rule," I pointed out. "Not the Gods." The thought comforted me at least a little bit. If there were higher beings, they never told my birth mother to give me up.
"I suppose you're right," the priestess admitted. "I am sorry, for what it's worth. I would not have chosen this fate for you."
"We're not puppets to our fates. You just said it yourself. The future is constantly in flux. We can change the outcome of events."
"Having the ability to do something doesn't always mean that it should be done," she said. "Not all events can be changed for the better without greater consequence."
"I don't care about the consequences of saving my mate."
"No, I guess you don't." She licked her lips. "If I agree to help you, will you at least consider using your abilities to serve this community in the future?"
"As long as it doesn't mean leaving my mate."
Slowly, she nodded. "You have to meditate," she said then.
"Meditate?"
