I frown, and chills run down my spine.
Talk about foreboding.
Sin’s words about Morgana return to me. “Sin mentioned you had informants watching me over the last few days. Is that it?”
Please let it only be that. I can deal with some mostly innocent stalking.
Morgana leans forward, her elbows resting on the table. “Dear girl, I have been watching you since Atlantis.”
I gape.
Rosie hands me a glass. I take a big gulp and try not to choke.
It’s wine.
Coughing and sputtering, I try to remember how to breathe air instead of alcohol.
Rosie whispers, “You’re going to need it.”
“How? Why?” I ask Morgana when I’ve finally got myself back under control.
“Do you remember the week you were killed?” Morgana asks mildly.
I close my eyes, trying to call back Cassandra’s memories.
Leon and I are lying in bed together, blankets tangled around us after making love. He tells me people from his realm are coming to Atlantis. They’re powerful like him, but Leon assures me he will keep me safe. He says they visit Atlantis during the season of prophecies to hear our oracles speak.
My eyes open, and I nod to Morgana. “It was the season of prophecies. People from the Otherworld were coming to Atlantis.”
Morgana smiles. “Very good. And we did visit. Need, other important Council members, and I came. I was working with the Council, trying to find ways to bring them down from within. Your realm has never held much value to us, but admittedly, it’s the only one that ever produced decent oracles.”
I frown. “What does that have to do with Cassandra? She didn’t attend the prophecies.”
“She didn’t need to. She was in one,” Sin grumbles from beside me.
I blink. Once, twice, waiting for Sin to tell me he’s messing with me, but he says nothing.
Morgana continues, “The oracle foretold of a mortal who would love a Creator – but be reborn to love a Destroyer. That she would bring about a new era to all the realms,” she finishes, giving me a knowing look.
Rosie looks at me pityingly. Magnus and Damien look grim but not surprised.
They’re all in on this.
My vision starts to tunnel. This is a sick joke.
“The Council felt threatened by the prophecy and determined on the spot that Atlantis had to fall. The oracles could not be allowed to make such claims again. The Council already knew Leon was in love with a mortal. He’d met with us to gain permission to stay in Atlantis with her. So, we had high confidence that the prophecy was about you. You were the threat,” Morgana continues.
Are these people for real right now?
“But, how? Why? This is ridiculous. Oracles are just people high on drugs, spewing out nonsense,” I sputter.
I’ve seen the documentaries. Oracles were abused girls. Not magical.
Morgana leans back in her chair, looking at ease. “I assure you, they were very much correct on all occasions. And so, we acted. The Council ordered me to uncollar Sin so he could bring down Atlantis. He was instructed to attack the temple last so Leon would have time to get you out. They decided the only way to stop the prophecy was to make you immortal and to lock you away.”
“But Leon didn’t get me out,” I whisper, trying to make sense of it all.
Morgana smiles. “No one expected you to resist being taken to safety. Leon was given strict orders not to interfere with the battle, lest he get any ideas about seeing his city fall. So, when you refused to leave with him and started preparing the others to escape, you became off-limits to him.”
