Using his hold on her nape, Grayson turned her into his arms and held her tight. “Not a surprise, Cass. You were traumatized.”
Traumatized. Gods, I hate that word with a passion.
She pressed her hands against his chest as a bitter laugh escaped her. “No, I was a self-centered bitch.” She tilted her head back and met his gaze. “As much as I blamed my parents for not protecting her, I blamed myself even more.” The cutting remarks of her parents, when they fought, had just added to her suffocating guilt. “What good was my ability if it couldn’t save someone I loved? And if it was the only part of me that my parents valued, then I was determined to make sure they never got access to it again. So I got my hands on a subversion spell.”
Tension snapped through Grayson, horror brewing in his dark eyes as his hold tightened. “Dear gods, Cass.”
A familiar shame slid through her as she looked away and nervously fiddled with his tie. “I know.”
“How?”
“There was a guy at school with questionable connections.” She left his tie to rest her hands on his waist. “He set me up with a hex dealer.” Looking back, she knew she was lucky to have survived, but at the time, she was desperate to get rid of the magic that made her an Oracle. “I was so angry, but even then, I couldn’t help but think the risk was worth it. If I died, so be it. At least I wouldn’t hurt anymore.”
His fingers left her nape and trailed down her back. “You took a hell of a chance, considering high-quality subversion spells have a sixty percent success rate,” he said with no hint of judgment. “And even then, some of the long-term impacts can be devastating. For under-the-table spells, those numbers drop significantly.” The soothing motion stopped, and the heat of his palm seeped into the base of her spine. “You said you were broken. I’m guessing that’s because of the hex…”
She pressed her lips together and nodded.
He gave her a light squeeze. “Tell me.”
“It was a few months after Thena died.” After another fight with Mother that left me hollow. “My parents were out of town, and Sofia was at her friend’s house for a sleepover. Yaya had wanted me to stay with her, but I refused and stayed home. It was one of the few times I was alone, so I made the most of it. Yaya saw an omen, knew something was up, so later that night, she rushed over and found me. She called in a family friend who happened to be a Key. By the time she was able to stop it, the damage had already been done. Still, she did her best to repair what she could.” Something flickered in Grayson’s eyes, so she asked, “What?”
“When I searched you yesterday, I found those repairs.” He studied her closely. “Her work is good, Cass. Extremely good. What I think is you’re not broken, just a little scuffed up. If it had been a less talented Key, things might not have turned out as well.”
She wanted to believe him, but it was hard. “Maybe.”
Instead of arguing, he simply said, “Tell me what changed.”
She worried her bottom lip. “The best way to describe it is to say my prophetic roots were weakened and warped. If I don’t go far into the future, I can still walk the clearest path without distraction, but if I reach too far forward, I tend to get lost, which means I’m more likely to cascade out.”
Concern lit his eyes. “So you have to be careful how far into the future you look?”
She nodded. “But that wasn’t the only change. Sometimes, the line between the recent past and the near future blurs.”
Confusion flickered. “I’m not following.”
“Typically, Oracles work only in future possibilities. They travel along the various paths an individual’s decision creates, and if they choose to, Oracles can provide decision points for the person to pick which of the dominant futures they prefer. Whatever trigger the hex flipped gave me the ability to create specific decision points, which in turn allows me to create the future I want to happen, regardless of the petitioner’s choice. Even worse, there are times I’m not really aware I’m doing it, because I’m so far along that future path that I don’t realize I’m the one creating it.”
He studied her for a long moment. “Okay, that’s scary.”
She grimaced. “Tell me about it.”
Even scarier was realizing the only thing that held her back from taking that power and running with it was her personal moral code. The first time it had happened, she’d tried to explain it away, but when it happened again, there had been nowhere to hide from the truth. Already shaken by her close call with the second-rate hex, she’d gone to Yaya, scared and feeling more alone and out of control than ever. Her grandmother hadn’t batted an eyelash but instead had carefully curated information that helped Cass learn how to rein in the impulse to play goddess.
“All right, I’ve got to ask, and not because I’m a dick but because I’m truly curious—how difficult is it not to use it?”
“Very.” She wished she could answer differently.
Grayson’s expression gentled. “But you’ve done it.”
She gave serious consideration to lying then remembered the cards and gave a slight nod.
“Tell me about it?” It was a request, not a demand.
“Before I do, I need your word that what I tell you, you’ll never share.” If it got out that an Oracle had forced someone’s path, it wouldn’t be her parents but the Alcmene Family who would ensure that it never happened again.
The arm at her back disappeared as he brought it between them, his palm facing hers. “Promise.”
Reddish-gold power ignited into an oath rune and hovered above his palm. She called up her magic, a stormy mix of pearl white, beaten gold, and flecks of iridescent sparks, which fired into a mirror image of the rune. The two runes merged into one, the colors shifting into rose gold, as the promise was offered and accepted. When the power faded out, he curled his fingers around hers and pressed her hand to his chest.
