by Amy Reece
Oracle
The Seeker Series: Book Four
By Amy Reece
Oracle
Copyright © 2015 by Amy Reece. All rights reserved.
First Print Edition: August 2015
Limitless Publishing, LLC
Kailua, HI 96734
www.limitlesspublishing.com
Formatting: Limitless Publishing
ISBN-13: 978-1-68058-220-8
ISBN-10: 1-68058-220-8
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.
Dedication
For the girls who are waiting
for their happily-ever-after.
And for the boys who are
right there with them.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Epilogue
Part One:
Determination
Chapter One
“O waste no fears on me; look to thyself.”
—Sophocles, Antigone
Dear Jack,
I want to come home. I know we haven’t found Luc or any of his people yet, but I want to come home anyway. Is that too selfish? Would I be putting everyone in danger? Rémy is away on yet another business trip; maybe this time he’ll discover something.
I finished my last exam today and turned in my last paper. I don’t want to spend another year here at this university. I haven’t registered for classes for next semester. I talked to my advisor at UNM and she can get me signed up for student teaching if I come home.
I’m still afraid, but I miss home so much. I miss you. I love you, Jack. I hope you still love me. Help me figure out what to do.
Love,
Ally
I hit “send” before I had a chance to re-read and talk myself out of it. I sighed and closed my laptop as the waiter brought me another cup of herbal tea. I preferred coffee, but I still had to limit my caffeine intake due to stress-induced stomach issues.
“Merci, Marc. Comme vous vous occupez de moi! Comment va votre femme?” My French had improved immensely over the course of the past year. I stopped by this small cafe nearly every day on my way home from the university, so I knew the wait staff fairly well, including Marc, who was a new father.
“Ah, elle est épuisée. Le bébé prend toute son énergie. Il nous empêche de dormir.” Marc smiled as he said this, obviously exhausted by his new son, yet bursting with pride. I admired the newest pictures on his phone and then settled back to drink my tea as he hurried away to wait on other customers.
As I sipped, I thought over the events of the past year: Rémy, Mina, and I had rushed here to Rouen soon after Michael’s funeral to alert the Conseil des Voyants to the danger that Luc, one of their members, posed as he attempted to force the Seers to use their abilities to gain political power. Rémy had spent the last year traveling for his family’s import/export business and looking for any hint of Luc’s whereabouts. He had found several tantalizing clues, including the name Les Dépaysés, supposedly what Luc and his cronies were calling themselves, but nothing about where they might be hiding. The name roughly translated into ‘displaced from one’s home or country,’ which made me angry, because they had displaced themselves, if anything! Nobody asked them to try to take over the Seers and grasp for power. We were incredibly frustrated with the lack of progress, but Kate and the rest of the Conseil didn’t seem as disturbed as I thought they should be. I knew she was happy to have her grandson home and to have unlimited access to the heir apparent to the Oracle, whichever one of us that might be.
I tried to relax as I watched people hurry by on the busy street. A young mother pushing a stroller stopped and sat at the table next to me, motioning to the waiter for a coffee. She wilted in her chair only to sit up again and fuss with the sleeping baby’s blanket. She noticed me watching and we exchanged smiles in that universal way of women admiring a beautiful baby. I looked away and sighed. Would that ever be me? I was twenty years old, living in a foreign country, and I was lonely. Jack and I communicated every day—text, FaceTime, email, etcetera—but it wasn’t enough any more. I needed to be with him: to hold him, kiss him, live with him, and yes, sleep with him. I was ready to move on with my life, but this unresolved situation with Luc was holding me back. As if I had conjured a response with my thoughts, my phone dinged a text notification. It was from Jack and consisted of a two word response to my email:
Come home.
I smiled and reached to wipe away a tear as I prepared to text him back.
“Cherié! I thought I might find you here!”
“Rémy! You’re back early!” He kissed both my cheeks before taking the chair opposite me. I noticed he and the young woman at the next table giving each other a once-over and rolled my eyes at him.
“What?” He shrugged.
“You just can’t help it, can you?” I laughed. “Flirting is like breathing with you, isn’t it?”
He shrugged again and caught Marc’s attention to order a beer. “Where’s Mina? I tried to get her on her mobile, but it went straight to voice mail.”
I cocked an eyebrow at him and smirked. “She turns it off when she needs to concentrate. I’m sure she’s at home working. Drink your beer and then we can go see her.” Although we had all improved our mental communication abilities over the past year, we had also agreed to respect each other’s privacy to a much greater degree, only invading each other’s thoughts in the case of a true emergency, which had not happened so far this year. In fact, this year had been mostly an exercise in boredom, filled with school, training, and waiting.
***
“So what have you decided?” Rémy asked as we walked toward the apartment I shared with Mina. Both were well aware of my desire to return to the United States and were trying to be supportive of whatever decision I might make.
“Did you find anything?” I asked instead of answering his question. I hoped his early return was because he couldn’t wait to tell us what he discovered. My hopes were dashed as he shook his head sadly.
“Sorry, cherié. It was a complete dead end and I came back as soon as my meetings were finished. So?”
“I need to go home, Rémy. Jack wants me to.” I kicked a pebble into the street as I stopped to gather my thoughts. “I’m still afraid, but I can’t hide here any longer. I have a life waiting for me back home. At least, I hope I still do.”
“Of course you do, Ally. Jack is like a faithful dog waiting for you to return. Oww!” He rubbed his arm where I punched it.
“You don’t have a whole lot of room to talk, buddy. ‘Where’s Mina? I’ve been home for five whole minutes and I can’t reach her!’”
He ducked his head and smiled a bit shamefacedly. “Yes, well…never mind. And if I really sound like that I’m going to go shoot myself.”
“Yes, that’s exactly what you sound like. I have a gift for mimicry.” I tried to maintain a superior tone and a straight face.
He laughed out loud. “No, you definitely do not. And I’m simply concerned about Min
a’s safety, the same as I am about yours. It’s my job to protect both of you. That’s all.”
I stopped again and stared at him. “I worry that you’re actually starting to believe that, Rémy. Plus, we don’t know for sure you are the Shield the prophecy mentions. You’re only guessing.”
“Whether or not I am the Shield, it’s still my job to protect you and Mina. Don’t go getting your feminist panties in a twist,” he said as I began to sputter. “That’s simply the way it is. I know Jack would agree.”
“Of course he would, but that’s entirely beside the point. I don’t for one minute believe you’re simply worried about Mina’s safety. I just wish you would admit it and move on.” I harped on this argument frequently.
“Weren’t we talking about you wanting to return to the U.S.?” He deftly changed the subject. “I worry Luc will try to stop you, but I also don’t see any continued value in you remaining in France unless you wish to make it your permanent home. No, I didn’t think so.” He smiled wryly as I shook my head.
“I need to go home, Rémy, but what does that mean for you? What does it mean for Mina?”
“Cherié, you don’t need to worry—”
“No, Rémy!” I wheeled around to face him, grabbing his arms. “Just stop, okay? I’m tired of you doing that! I’m not a little girl any more. I need to make my own decisions, live my own life, and you need to live yours instead of following me around, trying to protect me! I’m so sick and tired of trying to live up to what some damn prophecy might or might not mean! Aren’t you sick of it yet? How long can you go on living like this? How long can you put off your own plans and dreams? I know you’re in love with—”
“Don’t say it!” He broke free of my hold and whirled away from me. “Please, don’t say it,” he begged, running his hands through his hair.
He sounded so miserable. I stepped forward and put my hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry.”
He turned and put his arms around me, resting his head atop mine. “I know. None of this is your fault, cherié.”
“Yeah, well it’s not yours, either. We deserve a life, Rémy.”
“I agree. I just don’t know how to make that happen.” He kissed the top of my head and pulled away. “Let’s go.” He took my arm and led me toward the apartment.
***
I felt it as I reached for the doorknob of my apartment: the hair on the back of my neck raised and goose bumps appeared all over my arms. “Something’s wrong.” I pulled my hand back from the door.
“Get behind me.” Rémy pushed me out of the way. Normally, I would take exception to this kind of manhandling, but I could sense something was terribly wrong inside the apartment. He reached into his back waistband and pulled out a handgun of some sort.
“Where did you get that?” I whispered furiously.
“Shh!” He pushed me against the wall and reached for the doorknob. “Stay out here until I find out what’s going on.” The door was unlocked, which was unusual, and not like the ever-cautious Mina. Rémy pushed it open and entered the apartment, gun drawn. I heard him walk through the rooms calling for Mina, heard the bathroom and bedroom doors crashing open as he checked. He popped his head back out the door, saying, “It’s clear. You can come in.”
“Where’s Mina?” I asked as I walked through our apartment, which showed clear signs of a struggle. He didn’t answer and I walked back into the living room to find him seated on our couch, head in his hands. The entire apartment was buzzing with energy from the events that had occurred there earlier. I began moving through the apartment again, this time touching all the various pieces of furniture and surfaces, concentrating on what the energy remnants told me. I had learned this talent from all the times Grams had rifled through my stuff and had honed it in Cassie’s office over the course of many months. Now was my chance to use it; it was one of the few powers I had that Rémy sucked at.
Mina had been sitting at the kitchen table, coding a website for the Giles family business. She walked over to the stove when the kettle whistled and began preparing a cup of tea. The knock on the door startled her, causing her to slop hot water on the counter. Ever cautious, she looked through the peephole before opening the door to sign for a UPS package. Her welcoming smile turned to fear as the package was shoved into her stomach and the fake UPS man, followed by Luc and two other men, pushed their way into the apartment. She hastily dropped the package and ran toward the bedrooms, grabbing her cell phone along the way. Her kitten screeched and high-tailed it to the back bedroom. The UPS impostor caught Mina as she reached the kitchen bar, grabbing her hair brutally and pulling her backward. She screamed, clawing and scratching at his face and arms as she tried desperately to get away. Her earring was ripped from her ear in the struggle. One of the other men came up behind them and injected something into her neck. She stopped struggling and sagged limply, unconscious.
“What do you see?” Rémy asked as he stood from the couch. “I can’t reach—”
Stop! I yelled mentally. Don’t say anything! I had seen what Luc and the other man was doing while the other two subdued Mina. They bugged the apartment, Rémy. They’re listening to us! Don’t say anything! I don’t know what they are hoping to hear, so be careful! “Fergie!” I ran to Mina’s bedroom and looked under her bed. Her kitten, a birthday gift from Rémy, was huddled in the far corner. He meowed pitifully when he saw me. I finally coaxed him out with a can of tuna and carried him to the kitchen, setting him on the counter to eat.
“I found her phone.” Rémy came into the microscopic kitchen with Mina’s phone, now sporting a shattered screen, as if it had been stomped. “I should have bought her a guard dog,” he whispered as he roughed the kitten’s head.
“It was Luc and several of his cronies.” I told him everything I had seen as I moved through the apartment. I felt safe stating the obvious as Luc had witnessed demonstrations of my ability to touch objects and know what had happened or where they came from on numerous occasions. He would definitely know I would use it on this occasion. There was only one thing we had systematically kept secret from both Seer groups over the years: our ability to communicate mentally with each other. I suspected the listening devices had something to do with this. “Why would they take her, Rémy?”
He didn’t answer as he bent down to examine something on the tile floor. He stood up holding a silver object in his palm.
“That’s her earring!” I leaned closer to look. “Is that blood?” I slid down the cabinet as my knees gave out. Rémy sat down beside me. “They tore it out of her ear in the struggle. Poor Mina!”
Rémy stared at the bloody earring in his trembling palm. “I will find her,” he vowed. “And I will kill Luc.”
“She’s not dead! We would know, wouldn’t we?”
“I would know,” he growled through clenched teeth.
My heart melted at his fierceness. I wove my arm through his and leaned against his shoulder. “You are in love with her, aren’t you?”
He nodded miserably and leaned his head against the cabinet. “And when I get her back, I’m going to tell her, finally, and beg her to forgive me for being such an ass. No prophecy in the world will keep me from her any longer!”
I said nothing, but rubbed his arm, hoping to soothe him. They had lived in denial of their love for each other for so long.
“I am beyond done with this!” Rémy said through clenched teeth. “That bastard wants to force something, to force us to do something?”
“You think that’s why he took Mina?”
“I do. He’s as tired of this cat and mouse game as we are.”
“What is he trying to force?”
He shook his head. “I’m not sure.” He stood, holding out his hand for me. “We need to get to Grandmére.”
***
I packed Fergie into his kitty crate and we caught a taxi to Kate’s estate. Rémy leaned forward, head in his hands. “I can’t reach her.” He sighed as he lifted his head, the most miserable ex
pression I’ve ever seen on his face. “Nothing. She’s never been able to block me out this completely. She must still be unconscious.”
“Shh,” I warned, noticing the driver glancing at us in the rearview mirror. We have to be careful. Nobody can know about our abilities. It may be our only advantage.
Do you think that could be why they planted the bugs? he asked.
I don’t know, but I think we should keep it secret, now more than ever. I don’t know what Luc expects to gain by bugging our apartment.
We remained silent the rest of the way, hesitant to speak of our secrets in front of the driver. Rémy texted his grandmother and she met us in the circular drive of her estate.
“Oh, my dears!” She pulled me into her arms. Her perfumed embrace caused my fragile emotions to crumble into tears.
“Kate, they took her! Mina’s gone and we don’t know where she is! They hurt her, Kate!” I sobbed against her shoulder.
Rémy paid the cab driver and joined us on the front steps. Kate set me aside gently and hugged her grandson. He remained stiff in her arms for a few seconds, but relented as she whispered to him in French. He put his arms around her, clutching her desperately. “I need to get her back, Grandmére,” he said as he pulled away. My stomach clenched in sympathy as I watched him wipe his eyes.
“We will, Rémy,” she said as she held his face in her hands. “I promise you we will.” She let him go and ushered both of us inside. She led us into her private sitting room and asked André to bring a tea tray. Rémy eschewed the tea and went straight for the mini bar, pouring himself a healthy amount of amber liquid, which he downed quickly. Kate and I exchanged sympathetic, worried glances.
