Page 58 of Oracle
It truly was a beautiful realm, and I supposed there were worse places to spend who knows how long.
The silence I was left with without Lux in my head was odd and it made me wonder how I had spent so much of my life without her before shifting.
Resting my head on my tucked knees, I forced myself to think of the happy memories I’d managed to experience in my final weeks with my loved ones. I’d done everything I could to make sure they had the chance to live, despite knowing it would be hard without me. My only hope was that they did as I was right now in the hard moments, and thought of the great times, not of all of the lost chances of the future.
It wasn’t long until Selene’s voice drifted with ease in the wind, “Kira, will you join us?”
Taking a deep breath, I stood and headed back in, confused as they stood at the top of the steps, smiles on their faces causing me to pause and ask, “What’s going on?”
“You’re going home!” Lux exploded, unable to contain her excitement as she bounced on her feet.
My first reaction was exuberant joy as I ran up the remaining steps and yelled, “What! How?”
Then, the excitement was replaced with trepidation. I was physically shaking, stunned at her words, feeling almost sick to my stomach with the nerves creeping in. I didn’t want to get my hopes up because it was too good to be true.
“It’s true,” Selene confirmed, causing me to let just a thin thread of hope appear in my mind.
“We get to go home,” I gushed, grabbing Lux and crushing her into a hug once more. But she didn’t return it or return the sentiment with words.
Instantly I pulled back, gripping her upper arms lightly, searching her gaze for the problem. “What’s wrong? Why aren’t you excited?” I asked. “They’ll be so excited to meet you!”
She took a shaky inhale of breath before blowing it out and answering, “I’m staying here, Kira. I’m taking your role as Oracle so that you can return to live out your life.”
“What,” I muttered, eyes stinging with her revelations. “No, Lux…” I trailed off, my throat closing as emotions engulfed me, pulling me into a bottomless pit of sadness. “You can’t.”
She sniffled and then cleared her throat, clearly trying to keep her own emotions tucked tightly down, attempting to be my pillar of strength as she always had. “I can and I will. I already lived my life before,” she reasoned. “This was a second chance to experience more, but now it’s your turn to have the life you deserve after sacrificing so much and having a heart of gold throughout.”
Selene interjected, reaching out to brush away my tears with her finger, “You deserve this, Kira. Lux’s soul is the only other pure one out there besides yours, right now. My powers simply search for a host worthy of my gifts, and I can easily pull them from you and transfer them to her.”
I didn’t know what to say, how to react, or what to do. On one hand, I was getting my one wish, to have the life we’d desperately fought for, but it came at the loss of the woman who had become my other half. The one who had been there with me through thick and thin, always convincing me that I had it within me to step up and be the shifter the world needed.
“I can’t lose you,” I whispered, looking back into her eyes that were now brimming with tears.
They began to fall as she pulled my hands into hers. “You won’t lose me. Live your life knowing that I am watching over you all, always looking out for you. When you miss me, simply look to the moon and know I am looking back with a shit-eating grin on my face.”
Despite her attempt at making this moment light-hearted, I couldn’t bring myself to come to grips with this.
“It’s time,” Selene told Lux, and her grip tightened on my hands, making my brows furrow. It was a bruising, almost painful grip. But as Selene’s eyes closed and she chanted, my body began to glow like the blue flames in the vats on either side of us and flowed through my hands into hers.
She had to touch me to transfer the powers. I realized it as Lux began to glow like me and I tried to rip my hands out of hers, but she was prepared and doubled down on her grip. “Stop, Kira. It has to be this way.”
My voice broke as I felt the last remnants of my powers leaving me and flowing into her. My skin returned to normal as she was fully lit up, a smile still on her face as I broke. Finally, she released my hands and I fell to my knees, sobbing, knowing this was the end.
This was goodbye.
“Kira,” she pleaded, dropping to her knees in front of me, now as emotionally broken as I was as she pulled me to her chest. “Don’t hate me for this.”
I shamelessly gripped her, sobbing into her chest as I cried. “I could never,” I choked out. “You are giving me the most precious gift I could ever ask for.”
“Thank you for everything you have done, Kira,” Selene said from her position above us and with the finality in her voice, I knew I was going to be sent away any moment now.
“I love you, Kira,” Lux wept, dropping her head to rest on my own.
“I love you, Lux. Forever,” I bawled.
And then my physical hold on her faded and I tried to open my eyes to see her one last time, but all I saw was darkness.
Forever.
