by Jada Fisher
The guilt ate at me for a long time. Even as Krisjian and Mal went to college while Sokhanya joined a vocational program along with the tutors that Bronn hired for her, I couldn’t help but think of how those final days must have been for Mallory. First finding out that her parents had murdered innocents, standing through their trial, hearing about everything they had done because of her, losing her best friend, then getting sicker and sicker until her worst enemy tore his way out of her body and killed her.
Sure, we’d had that one conversation. We’d tried to repair that bridge. But that didn’t really make anything about her ending any less heartbreaking.
She deserved better.
And I kept that energy with me as the days passed. And then months. And finally, our first year in our new era of ‘peace.’ Sure, there were bumps along the way, and we still had to deal with the last elder when he kept trying to stir up trouble, but it was nothing compared to the great war that never was.
It was during our second year that I dedicated an orphanage to her and started traveling around the world, finding oracles, dwarves, and dragon shifters alike that were in need and giving them a home. Mickey and Sokhanya ended up being a huge part of that project and took over the reins for me after we were established. I still visited it, of course, and funded it, went on rescue missions and assisted with holidays, but it was easy to see how the orphanage became a passion of theirs, consuming their lives in a good way.
And then, in our third year of peace, Bronn asked me to marry him.
There was a lot of pomp and circumstance around that, of course. Dragons were still dragons, after all. Some hated the idea of their prince—now king—formally marrying an oracle and tried to urge us to have me be his primary courtesan while he married another dragon shifter from overseas to present a unified front. Naturally, we weren’t having that. We stuck to our guns and dealt with the fallout as we continued working toward unification of our people with humans. Which, of course, still wasn’t easy.
It was during our fourth year of peace when I finally got my certification as an ASL translator. I didn’t have many plans to use it other than talking to Sok—who was completely fluent after all her work with her tutors—but it came in handy when a deaf oracle ended up at the orphanage and then a mute one about six months later. Mickey and Krisjian followed a little bit later, while Mal took about another two years to get hers down, but that was mostly because she tended to disappear for months at a time, which had terrified us during the first few occurrences, but we got used to them after a while.
I never did quite learn what she was up to—at least not until our sixth year, when the news was suddenly full of stories about illegal racers that were plaguing the city at night, and the rumors that one of them was a small woman.
Apparently, the end of the world wasn’t quite enough for the mini adrenaline junky. Oh well.
The sixth year was also when Bronn and I married. It was a lavish event, and it was strange to me how it was televised, but I was getting used to being a political figure. Sure, half of the world hated me, but half of them were intensely curious about my life and how I got wrapped up with dragons.
Oh yeah, we kind of didn’t come entirely out about the whole oracle thing. Somehow the shield got blamed on dragons and no one questioned why a tall woman with one hand had such a prestigious position among the dragons.
Our honeymoon was spent in the tropics, and then in France. We went everywhere I’d always wanted to go and then some, returning after three months to deal with an oracle trafficking ring that Mal uncovered with her whole secret racing thing.
One by one, the years slipped by. All of us living and learning. We still cried, we still got hurt, but it truly was an era of peace. A new dawn for oracle-kind. There was no more war, no more evil influence in a pocket dimension influencing things behind the scenes.
Occasionally, I tried to see into the other dimensions to see how all the other oracles were doing, but I couldn’t. Strange, considering that I was supposed to be the shepherd for our kind, but I kind of didn’t mind it. I felt like if I was able to see into other worlds, I would never have a moment’s rest.
And rest was rare, even without Faeldrus or the anti-humanists. There was always something to do or someone to help. Not that I minded, but it did wear on me.
So, when I found out I was pregnant for the first time, I vowed to step back.
That worked for a little while, but of course I drifted back to my old ways. Or at least I did until I found out I was going to have a second child. Twins. As if having the first oracle-dragon shifter mixed kid wasn’t enough, I decided to triple the population.
More years passed. More victories. A few losses. They all built up on top of each other in the vague shape of a happy and full life. It was something I’d never thought I would have, and I couldn’t have been more grateful.
Sure, I knew eventually it had to end, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t enjoy every moment I had.
Epilogue
“Hey, Mama, can you hear me?”
I smiled at my eldest daughter, Gabriella, who was leaning over my bed and looking down at me with concern.
“Yes, I can hear you,” I answered softly. I always spoke softly lately, if I spoke at all. I was growing weaker by the day, but that was the consequence of living a full life. “Did you bring my babies?”
“They’re my babies, you know. And yes, I just wanted to make sure that you were up for it.”
“I’m always up for it,” I said somewhat breathlessly. “Bring them in.”
“Alright then.”
She straightened, groaning as she rubbed her back. Poor Gabriella. She’d had an accident and hurt her back in her twenties and the older she got, the more it hurt.
Strange to think how she was in her early fifties. I could remember when she first came into the world, all pink and screaming. My little pride and joy.
“Oh, and Gabby?”
“Yeah?”
“Bring them all in.”
She hesitated, her hand on the doorknob. “Is it already time?”
“Almost.”
She nodded, her breath hitching, then exited. It wasn’t long before others were filing in. My family, all of them. My four children, my dozen grandchildren, and both Krisjian and Mal, the last of my friends left alive.
At least they always had each other. It hadn’t been easy when Sok passed at the ripe old age of sixty-eight. I always wished she’d had longer but spending nearly two decades in the custody of evil dragons intent on starving and abusing her had taken its toll.
It’d been harder when Mickey had passed about a decade later. I always got the sense that her and Sok had become incredibly close while they were running the orphanage, and she’d never quite recovered from losing her co-head mistress.
I had thought I wasn’t going to recover from either of them leaving me, and maybe I still hadn’t, but I was soothed by the thought that I would see them again.
I just didn’t count on it being so much later. I was approaching my eighty-first year, but I knew that I wasn’t quite going to make it. And that was alright. I was so tired, and I had a whole list of things to do that had been waiting for me in the almost sixty years since we’d defeated Faeldrus.
“Hey, Nana!” a little voice exclaimed while an even littler boy ran in. Ahh, Viggo, named after Bronn’s grandfather. He was the youngest child of my twin boys, and full of energy and completely lacking in any self-preservation skills. “Daddy said it was time to come say good-bye! Why? Are you going somewhere?”
“Viggo!” my son, Bronn Jr, hissed. But I just waved a hand to calm him down.
“It’s alright. It’s the truth. Let’s allow everyone time to get here, shall we?”
There was a terse nod and his brother put a hand on his shoulder, squeezing slightly. Ah, Miguel had always been the nurturing one. I was glad those two had each other. Maybe I was biased, but I always thought that every oracle was stronger with a sibli
ng to share everything with.
It took several long minutes, but eventually, everyone was in and settled. I looked at all their faces, my children, my grandchildren, and my two best friends from the beginning.
“Hey, guys,” I said, offering my still-remaining hand to Mal and my prosthetic to Krisjian. Unfortunately, my hand hadn’t magically come back when we broke the ritual, but as time went on, medical science advanced quite a bit and I ended up with a pretty nice prosthetic capable of simple movements. “I missed y’all.”
“Hey, Nana,” my eldest grandchild said. She was the most like her grandfather, her eyes blazingly green and her teeth just a bit too sharp to be human. She never was able to shift into a full dragon, but she was able to grow full fangs, wings, and long claws along with a scaley layer of body armor. Yeah, that had been fun to work through when she’d hit puberty. Apparently, dragon DNA was known to skip a generation and we’d been completely unprepared. “Did you have any more dreams?”
She was just about to turn eighteen, however, and seemed to be doing well for herself. Were there rumors of a costumed vigilante going through the city and dealing with crime that the cops didn’t want to touch? Sure. But teenagers would be teenagers, after all.
“No, no dreams,” I answered softly. She’d never had a vision herself, but she’d always liked hearing her parents or siblings sharing theirs. “I haven’t had one in a while.”
“Why?”
“Because there’s nothing else I need to see right now. Your nana is going to move on, and I just wanted to see you all one more time.”
To her credit, Esperanza nodded, her lip only trembling slightly. “Sveta said you were going to leave us with a smile.”
“Did she?” I looked at her younger sister. “Did you get a vision about your old nana?”
Sveta was the middle child of my eldest, all blond hair but our tanned skin with dark eyes. “I did. It made me sad.”
“Aw, come now,” I said, pulling my hand away from Mal and offering it to my grandbaby. “I know it’s sad to say good-bye sometimes, but I’ll see you again. I promise.”
“Because you’re gonna be the sheep-head of our people?” That was Viggo of course.
“Shepherd, actually, but yes.” Sveta sat on the edge of my bed, and I gave her my best smile. Sure, maybe I was a bit scared, but I was also so completely happy. Looking at all their faces and seeing the next generations of our people?
We’d once been nothing, hunted and murdered until there were none of us left. And when we’d tried to come back, they’d tried to kill us again. But gazing at my family and thinking about everyone whose lives we touched filled me with so much hope.
We’d really done it. Somehow, we’d come back from the edge.
“And don’t worry, you’ll still have Krisjian and Mal if you ever need advice from us old folks. Right?” Mal nodded, opening her mouth, but I knew what she was going to say before she did. “That doesn’t mean teaching my grandchildren how to hotwire a car.”
“Too late!” one of them called.
“Hey,” Mal said with a rusty sort of shrug. “It helped you out, didn’t it?”
“Fine,” I huffed.
But then Krisjian was leaning toward me, his wrinkled face full of melancholy. He’d really filled out as he aged, his shoulders broadening and his frame shooting up until he was as tall as Bronn. I vaguely remembered him having a few decades where he’d been built, but those muscles had faded as his hair turned white. He was still strapping, maybe even a silver fox, but I still so much saw the boy I ran into on the streets of a country so far away. “I’m going to miss you.”
I smiled at him, soft and full of meaning. “Don’t worry. I’ll see you before you know it.”
“Hey, is that a threat?” Mal asked, still full of that snark decades later.
“You betcha.” I gave her a wink and looked back to my family. Most of them looked sad, which I knew was inevitable, but I didn’t want them to be upset. They didn’t understand that I really had won. I’d had a wonderful, full life. I had all of them. I couldn’t have asked for more.
In fact, I didn’t think I would have been able to even imagine all the joy and happiness they’d given me. And I was going to have quite a bit of eternity to meet more oracles and protect our people.
But I had one last thing to do.
“I love all of you so, so, so deeply. There was a long stretch there where I was sure our people, and all the worlds for that matter, were done for. But I was wrong, and I couldn’t be happier about it.
“Each one of you is a shining beacon of hope, and a testament that our people will never give up, no matter what kind of adversaries we face. I won’t lie to you. There will come a time where evil will find a new form and hate will try to take hold again. There will be pain, and loss, and cries that there is no way to win.
“But I want each of you to teach your children, and your children’s friends, and every oracle you meet of all that we can do. Teach them the power we have in each other, and how we’ve faced impossible odds before but came out on the other side.”
“We will, Mama,” my youngest, Tilde, said. “We promise. We won’t forget what you’ve done for our people.”
“It’s not about what I’ve done,” I said, practically glowing with pride. “It’s about all we can do together. United, we’re unstoppable. Don’t let anyone divide us again, not even our own.”
“We won’t. We promise.”
There was a murmur of agreement then Mal leaned close, her mouth by my ear. “Don’t you worry. I’ll keep these young’uns in line for ya. And I know I’m not an oracle, so I likely won’t be seeing you again, but it’s been real nice knowing ya.”
I looked to the small woman, giving her a smile. “You never know. I’ve never been much for rules.”
“You have a point there.”
We shared a chuckle and I looked over my family one more time. I was so full of love, of happiness. And in that moment, I realized I was ready.
It had been a long time waiting, but it was time for me to fulfill the duties that I’d taken on when I’d transferred that ancient curse to myself.
“I love all of you dearly. And no matter what, remember that I will always be with you.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
And with one lingering look on all their beautiful faces, their beautiful spirits, I let out a long sigh and slipped away.
It wasn’t so bad, dying for a second time. It was much less sad, and much less scary, even when I was falling out of my body until I landed just in front of the hospital doors.
I stood there a moment, catching up. I was aware that several things were different, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
Wait… Fingers?
Looking down, I saw I didn’t have so much skin as I had a smoking, human-shaped husk that flickered seemingly of its own volition. But more importantly, that smoky body had two hands.
“Oh, I missed you,” I murmured, wiggling all my fingers. Oh, my voice was different too. That was weird.
And then someone opened the door and walked right through.
Okay… That was a bit weird too.
I’ve been waiting for you.
I looked to the road where I saw Bronn standing. He was a dragon, of course, so he didn’t look any older than thirty. He could have stayed on earth for another two hundred years or so, but he had decided he didn’t want to live in a world without me.
So, we’d made another sort of curse, tying ourselves together. And him standing there, waiting for me, told me that it had worked.
“I was afraid you wouldn’t be here.”
Are you kidding? he said, smiling at me. I rushed toward him—floated?—and he hugged me. I was promised an eternity with you and I’ve had less than a century. It hasn’t been nearly enough.
“You could get sick of me.”
Definitely not possible.
We shared a kiss and it turned out it w
as just as nice when we were dead as when we’d been alive. He broke away too soon, of course, but I was appeased when he stroked my cheek. He could touch me! We hadn’t been sure on that one, but considering that Faeldrus and Maedryell had been able to fight each other, we’d certainly hoped so.
As much as I love all your attention, there was someone else waiting here for you before I even got here.
“What? Who?”
He stepped to the side and I realized there was someone standing just behind him. A young woman with long, thick hair and familiar eyes.
And then it hit me.
“Mallory!?” I cried, rushing forward.
“Hey, friend,” she said with a smile, letting me catch her up in a hug and spin her around. It was like my body was fifty years younger, not protesting or aching like it normally did. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
“You didn’t have to,” I said, feeling the burning of tears before realizing that none were coming down my cheek. Oh, that was a weird sensation I would have to get used to.
“I know. But… I…” She looked sheepish as I set her down. “Did you miss me?”
“Of course I did. But I’m so happy to see you now.”
My heart squeezed in my chest. Except I supposed I didn’t have a heart any longer. Which was…strange. Yeah. Definitely strange. There was also a twinge of sorrow there, seeing my friend still as the very young twenty-something she had died as. She never got the chance to live. To find a family or pursue more of her MMA career. Stopped before her time because I hadn’t saved her.
“Hey, none of that.”
“None of what?”
“I can see it on your face. You’re feeling guilty. This is our first time seeing each other in over fifty years, so no guilt, okay? Only smiles.”
I forced myself to get out of my own head because Mallory was right. “Okay. I’ll do my best.”
“You better. Besides, I’m not the only one here to meet you.”
She gestured behind me and I turned to see both Mickey and Sok passing through the door, holding hands and looking decades younger as they moved forward to grab my hand as well.
