“Only if you’re absolutely certain,” her mother said at the same time as her father added, “Riley, sweetheart, if you need us, please tell us. We get a little distracted sometimes. And we haven’t always been so great at facing the world. But we want to be there for you. We’ll do whatever it takes.”
“I know you will,” she replied. And she did know. Deep in her heart, maybe she always had. “I love you too. I’ll call you if I need you, I promise.”
They ended the call slowly, with several more promises and “I love you’s” until, finally, she was left holding the silent phone and facing a room full of wide-eyed, sleep-mussed Dru-vid.
Zach wrapped his arm around Emma. Kay stood with Ethan. David hovered beside Elizabeth’s shoulder with Bryn at his other side. But James had positioned himself as far away from her as he could get. And she couldn’t even blame him.
She cleared her throat. “So… I take it the green man means something to you?”
Kay stepped forward, set her laptop on the table, and opened it to a sophisticated website with black-and-white images and subtle green highlighting. And there, as part of the stylized logo, was a surreal head surrounded by unfurling leaves and vines.
James leaned back against the wall, his arms crossed defensively over his chest as he muttered one word. “Oracle.”
“It makes sense,” Kay agreed.
“It does,” Emma agreed. “He’ll use every tool he has. And this is a sharp one.”
Riley’s mind churned through everything she’d learned since finding James in Wales. “Isn’t Oracle a front company Gordon used to get close to Westminster? I thought it wasn’t real.”
“The attacks Oracle predicted weren’t real,” James explained, shoulders hunched, “or rather, we set them up ourselves. But the firm… that’s very real. And because it relied on a combination of Seers and staged incidents, its credibility is high enough to warrant a meeting with the Prime Minister.”
“We assumed that now that Gordon was able to arrange the meeting he wanted, he wouldn’t need the consultancy anymore,” Kay said, continuing the explanation. Her eyes flicked to James, full of understanding. “Especially now that he doesn’t have help with running it.”
Zach grunted. “We never considered that Gordon might use it to attack us in the Duine world.” He pulled Emma to stand with her back against his chest and wrapped his arms tight around her. “Oracle could identify us all as threats to global security, and within a day, we’d be on every watch list in the world.” He pressed a kiss to Emma’s hair, whether to reassure her or himself, Riley couldn’t guess.
“We’ve been hiding from the Circles,” Zach continued. “Ethan paid so we didn’t use Order cash. We stayed away from the Circle House and far from Order property. But Oracle changes everything. The Order would no longer be our biggest problem. We could find ourselves in a Duine prison without any way to prove our innocence.”
James looked at her over the top of the screen, his expression bleak. “If the people who love you are dreaming about Oracle, then the danger is very real. And the threat is right now.”
“I should have known,” Emma said, her voice full of regret.
“No,” Elizabeth reassured her firmly. “We couldn’t have Seen this. Gordon has been hiding behind wards since the beginning.”
“Everything Gordon does is under wards. He was married to a powerful Seer and he learned how to get around her,” Kay added, and Emma nodded slowly.
Riley shoved her hands into her pockets, forcing her voice to remain even and calm and her Shadows to stay contained instead of reaching desperately for James. “But surely someone should Seesomething? My parents did. How can the Order truly not know how bad this is? Why is no one coming to our defense?”
“We See the visions that are most relevant to us, to the people we love,” Elizabeth replied, eyes flicking toward David. “Our Seers will be aware that we’re at a cusp, a pivotal time, but unless it impacts them directly, even the most powerful Seers might only have a sense of unspecified danger.”
“And they’ve been trained to believe that when the Order is in danger, they should turn to the Council,” David added. He settled his hand on Elizabeth’s shoulder. “We tried to tell them, but they’re too bound by the secrecy of the old ways. They’re too used to doing what they’re told.”
Elizabeth reached up to hold David’s hand. “Gordon is hiding behind years of tradition and faith in the Council,” she said quietly. “Never reveal the Order—it’s the first rule we learn. And the most strictly enforced. How could we imagine our own Council breaking it?”
“Ishould have imagined it,” James murmured. “I’m sorry.” His face was even more starkly drawn than usual. His eyes were dark and full of misery, and it took everything Riley had not to go to him.
“It’s not your fault, James,” David said firmly. “All of this is on Gordon. All of it. And on the Council full of cowards who’ve supported him through everything. Who put their own power and prestige ahead of everyone else.”
“I’m getting fucking sick of the Council,” Kay muttered dryly before James could argue the point.
Everyone chuckled, but none of them were happy.
“We know everything will come to a head before the solstice, which is only three days away,” Kay said when the room fell silent. “And if we know anything about Gordon, it’s that he’ll want the Prime Minister under his control before then—and all of us out the way and safely in custody through Oracle.” She sighed. “We don’t have time to sit on our arses, considering our next move. We need to take the fight to him, and we need to do it now.”
“I agree,” Emma stated firmly. “My father will use every weapon he has to come after us. His ploy to get James failed. His attempt at following Elizabeth also failed. He’s getting desperate.”
“What if this is exactly what he wants?” Zach asked. “What if flushing us out is his plan?”
Emma wrapped her arms over his, holding them against her belly. “It probablyishis plan. But he’ll expect us to run. He won’t expect us to walk up to his front door,” she replied.
