Revealed in Fire by K.F. Breene
Nine
Penny satat a round table in Callie’s living room with Emery, across from her mother’s intense scowl. A couple of days ago, her mother had gotten a reading she didn’t much like. It came down to this: she couldn’t do the job herself. She would need help. Presumably help from the Red Prophet. Since then, she’d pulled out all the stops, taking to her crystal ball, cards, you name it, trying to get a different reading. Any other reading. No go.
“I just don’t see what sort of help I could possibly need,” Karen said, crossing her arms over her chest.
Callie and Dizzy walked amongst the other tables, identical to the one in front of Penny, usually pulled out for mage meetings or cards. This time, though, they were planning stations. It was generally agreed upon that tonight would be the meeting of the minds, and tomorrow they’d do whatever the Seers worked out.
The warrior fae had shown up ten minutes or so ago, along with Devon and his pack, and they were just waiting for Reagan and the Red Prophet.
“Nice setup you got here, Missus Banks,” Steve said, stretching back in his folding chair with his hands clasped behind his head and his elbows flared out to the sides. “The mage business pays well.”
“Beauty pays well. The mage business pays in the form of ulcers,” she replied, pouring wine for Romulus.
“She’s got that right,” Karen murmured.
Reagan burst into the room with a hard scowl, leather pants ending in thick-soled boots, and weapons strapped all over her person. Darius strutted in behind her, followed by Roger and Alder. The shifters in the room straightened up immediately. Romulus looked around with interest.
“By all means, come on in,” Callie groused. “Why bother knocking?”
“Like a bunch of barnyard animals,” Karen intoned.
“Oh, great, they’re joining forces in their bad moods,” Penny murmured.
“Still no sign of the Red Prophet,” Roger told Romulus as he took the few stairs down into the room. Roger sat in the empty chair in the corner, his back to the wall, facing the room.
“She’ll turn up.” Romulus crossed an ankle over his knee and leaned back. “This is her way. Though you might want to have someone do a sweep of the yard. It’s possible she tucked herself into a tight spot and can’t get out.”
“The Red Prophet.” Karen huffed. “Anyone that needs to use a stage name isn’t the real deal.”
“Mother, shh,” Penny hissed. “You’re embarrassing me.”
“Penny Bristol, how can I possibly be embarrassing you?” She turned a little to shoot her glare at Penny head-on. “I am not the one suspected of wandering the yard like a lunatic, calling myself ridiculous names— Oh Lord, what on God’s green earth…”
The Red Prophet stood halfway up the stairs to the second floor. Given Callie and Dizzy’s jumps, they hadn’t known she was in the house.
Her fire-red hair frizzed around her head like some sort of tumbleweed in motion, wilder than if she’d stuck her finger in an electrical socket. She wore a long plaid coat tied at her waist with a dirty rope she’d clearly found on the street at some point. Or a construction yard. A brown suede skirt dusted her shins, and worn black snow boots covered her feet. She held a bright orange clutch that looked empty, and she was staring down at Penny’s mother.
“You…” she said, followed by raising a gnarled finger.
“Oh, you have got to be kidding.” Karen turned in her seat and reached for her tea.
“Red Prophet, meet your nemesis, Karen Bristol,” Reagan said, a grin on her lips as she moved through the tables. She chose an empty seat at Roger’s table rather than one of the two open spots next to Penny. She probably knew Penny was going to yell at her for sneaking away, unprotected.
“Yes, fantastic,” Romulus said. “Let us begin, shall we?”
He uncrossed his leg and leaned forward into the suddenly quiet room. That was, until Karen said, “Isn’t someone going to make the nutter on the stairs sit down?”
“Oh, I don’t think any of us want to try to wrangle someone like that,” Dizzy said with a calming smile. Karen harrumphed.
“I have some new information to share,” Darius said, sitting near the door in the last seat at the table hosting Devon’s pack. Rod, the big kid a little younger than Penny, gave him a confused look. It was clearly a day for strange occurrences.
The room listened as Darius laid out the chat he’d had with Vlad not that long ago, and though he didn’t show it, Penny got the distinct impression he was irritated with Reagan. Maybe that was why she’d taken a seat across the room. Romulus spoke of Charity’s quest changing again. She’d had another vision, apparently, and this time she’d found herself looking at Vlad and Lucifer again.
“I think our next steps are clear,” Romulus said when Darius was finished. “We need to go to the Flush to take care of some business.” It was clear he didn’t want to openly discuss what business. But then, no one liked airing family-related dirty laundry, and the issues he was having with his mother were just that—Penny had been there to witness. “After, we have to present Charity to the elf royalty. The presentation and following meetings will help us figure out how best to proceed. Until then, we have no idea whether the elves will be amenable to us aggressively resuming our roles in the Realm.”
“Shall we consult the oracle?” Darius asked. “I was given to understand that was a chief function of this meetup.”
“Yes, of course.” Romulus smiled pleasantly at the Red Prophet, who had not moved an inch, including her outstretched, pointing finger.
“Oh, for heaven’s sakes,” Karen said under her breath after a glance that way. “I’ll take up my post in the formal dining room. My supplies are already laid out.”
Now the Red Prophet did descend the stairs, much faster than a human could’ve. At the hall landing, she jumped the last couple of steps down into the living room and said, “Hah!”
“It appears she is at her most dramatic this evening,” Romulus intoned. “It can be trying, but this is when she does her best work, I assure you. Granted, I am usually not on hand to actually witness her readings, but…well, hopefully it won’t take too long.”
A grin tickled Emery’s lips.
“What?” Penny whispered.
“I’ll tell you what,” her mom butted in, pushing up from the table. “The last thing he wants to do is be subjected to this…this…nutcase and her crazy antics. Most dramatic,” she grumbled. “Batshit crazy, that’s what he ought to say.”
“You’ve Seen me,” the Red Prophet said, crouching down to walk and waving her hands over her head like a chimpanzee. “You know.”
“Bah. I don’t know anything.” Karen batted it away, walking ahead with a stiff back. “I’ve been wrong before. There was this pizza episode…”
* * *
Charity watchedin utter fascination from the edge of the dining room as Karen started shuffling her tarot cards. The fog in the crystal ball rolled and boiled, lights sparking within it. By Karen’s glances at it, her brow furrowed, that obviously wasn’t normal or expected. The Red Prophet sat on the actual table like some sort of centerpiece, looking on. Karen was doing her best to ignore the situation as she worked, but it couldn’t have been easy. Charity was having a hard time concentrating with it herself.
“Why does she…turn on the dramatics?” Charity whispered to her dad, who was standing next to her, watching. Darius, Roger, and Emery stood in the room with them, wanting the information as it came. Reagan had flat-out refused to attend. She didn’t much like Seers,it seemed. So Penny had stayed with her in the outer room, and Charity got the idea it was to keep her from taking off. Reagan was as bad as the Red Prophet, she gathered.
“She is very old,” Romulus answered. “And she has done a lot of mind-altering substances. She—”
“That’s not why,” the Red Prophet interrupted, her gaze drifting toward the ceiling. She stuck out her tongue and placed a little white square onto it. “Your mother is why. She is a very exacting woman, and she likes to have her way. I am something she cannot control, not even with her magic. I remind her of it, often, which is why she keeps me…apart.”
Charity tried to keep from stiffening. Though her dad wouldn’t admit it, he was having a lot of anxiety about what would happen with Grandmama’s situation. The First had kept her people hidden away for years. She’d divided them, essentially forcing those who didn’t want to remain idle to leave. She’d torn Romulus from Charity’s mom in the Brink, and created a hostile situation for the visiting shifters. She had a lot to answer for, but she was also family. She was the matriarch of their people, and had been for a long time. Calling her down would be a terrible burden on them all.
“Can I have a little quiet, please?” Karen asked.
“You don’t need quiet—you need to stop being so stubborn,” the Red Prophet replied. “You have a block for a head.”
“Says the drug addict.”
“I am not an addict. I am a crackhead.”
Karen blinked a few times, then minutely shook her head. “We’re not going to get along, you and I.”
“Correct. I look forward to our arguments. It’ll create all the energy we could possibly need.” The Red Prophet looked behind her, at a spot on the wall. She nodded.
“Right but…you’re here now, and Grandmama isn’t,” Charity said to the Red Prophet. “There’s no need for any kind of ruse.”
“True. Old habits, as they say. Though…these Brink mind alternants seem to promote exaggerated behavior. It’s best just to go along with it, I think.”
“Only a hack needs drugs to use her Sight,” Karen murmured, placing the cards as the crystal ball cleared for one solid moment. Energy rolled over Charity’s skin. From Romulus’s shiver, he clearly felt it too.
The Red Prophet jumped down from the table. “I will go and enter—”
“You need to go to the Flush,” Karen told Charity and Romulus, “that’s true enough.”
The Red Prophet hissed, straightened up, and faced Karen. “We must record our findings in private, so we can reflect on them before we speak with the others. That is how it is done. Then we must—”
“We have a job to do,” Karen spat back, “and that job does not entail making everyone wait while you dream up more dramatics.” With a closed-down expression, she looked at Romulus. “When you get to the Flush—”
“No. That is not to be revealed,” the Red Prophet said, and climbed back onto the table.
“I know very well what is, and is not, to be revealed, thank you very much. Or didn’t you know that I foresaw Charity’s journey into the Flush?”
“You are too rash, but even still, we make an excellent, powerful team,” the Red Prophet said, now smiling. “We are the best in the world when we work together. We will hate it immensely.”
“Good God,” Karen said. “Anyway, Romulus, you must take care of your business in the Flush, then make your journey to the elves as planned. That much is very clear. With you, to both of those destinations, must travel the Triangle of Power.”
“Yes. I Saw that, as well,” the Red Prophet said, and Charity noticed her sudden gravity. “The Triangle of Power is very important to this journey. But what is it?”
Karen straightened up just a little, her chin lifting. She clearly liked knowing something the Red Prophet didn’t. “I Saw this in the past, as well. It’s not a new grouping.” She looked at Darius, then Emery.
“Reagan, Penny, and I,” Emery said, dipping his hands into his jeans pockets.
“They were the driving forces behind the victory against the Mages’ Guild,” Roger added.
“Yes, the three of them working together are incredibly powerful,” Darius said. “But they are not leaders, per se. The ladies are…largely unpredictable.”
Emery chuckled. “Reagan or Penny, when working alone, are unpredictable. Together they’re in another league. They’re a natural disaster. They can’t even be led, never mind doing the leading. They have to be corralled, at best.”
Charity noticed Roger nodding. Charity wished she’d been there for the mages’ battle to see all this in action.
“This is why they must stay with the fae,” Karen said. “He and Charity, with their people, will guide the powerful trio. They will stabilize their might. It is essential.”
“You will need your wits about you, boy,” the Red Prophet said to Romulus, and it wasn’t often someone talked to him like that and called him a boy. Charity was pretty sure the Red Prophet didn’t notice. “You have been sheltered for a long time, and the world is not as you’ve imagined it. Working with the shifters will be your greatest strength. Hold on to that asset. Trust in the Alpha Shifter’s morality, but do not always trust in what you see. Or feel.”
Karen shot Darius a grave look. “You will have to leave your people behind. For a while, at least. The Pyramid of Power is important, but so is the team you’ve created with Reagan. She will need her most loyal supporters by her side to start this journey—to keep her on the right path. It is necessary. You can…corral her like no other.” Charity stifled a grin. She didn’t know Karen well, but it was clear the woman knew how to control a space, and using the right language in times like these was clearly important in that, especially with a vampire. “You must start this journey with her if you hope to end it with her. But then what you dread will come to pass. When it comes time to visit the elves, you will need to let her go, come what may. She will take more risks and charge into the unknown, as is her strength. You will strategize and plan. Manipulate and enlighten, sometimes with lies, sometimes with truths, always with an agenda. You need to be the reason people should never trust vampires. Only if you are in your element, and Reagan is in hers, will your pieces of the puzzle work toward the greater good. And they must.”
“Seek the one you once sought,” the Red Prophet said, looking skyward. “The most dangerous will prove the safest. The newly awoken will be your ace in the hole. Use her, and allow her to use you. It is in this partnership that a new path shall be forged. Beware the trickster, for he will ruin you.”
Karen turned in her seat and looked at the Red Prophet. “I didn’t get that in the reading.”
“You will not get everything. Just as I will not get everything. It is foretold.”
“By who?”
“By whom…”
“Jesus Chri—” Karen turned toward the others again, her face red and her tolerance for the Red Prophet completely dried up, if she’d had any in the first place.
“If Reagan travels with the vampire, it’ll be immediately clear it was they who went into the Underworld,” Romulus said. “Especially if Charity is traveling with them.”
“Correct,” the Red Prophet said. “And if she travels without the vampire, it’ll be almost immediately clear who she is. The dam has burst. She has been unknowingly waiting for this moment since she was born. It is time she spreads her wings and challenges the lord of the Underworld.”
“Buckle up,” Roger said. Darius nodded grimly.
“Will you be going?” Romulus asked her.
“No. I must stay behind for now. Thankfully. I’ve had about all I can take of the Flush. What a boring waste of time.”
“What joy is mine,” Karen said sarcastically, looking over her tarot. She glanced back up at Darius and said, “It isn’t clear to me what is in store after you make it to the elves.”
“That journey is not yet written,” the Red Prophet said.
“I am not doubting you ladies, since I have seen your—at least one of your—merit in real time.” Darius slipped a hand into his pocket. “But you heard about my exchange with Vlad earlier. If I leave him unchecked, even for a few days, the damage he could do…”
“You must,” the Red Prophet said.
“Leaving him will do more good than harm.” Karen tapped a card. “I am in agreement with the nutter. You must. It is the only way to protect the heir. Otherwise she’ll never make it to the elves, and that would be the end. She must make it to the last battle.”
“She must,” the Red Prophet added. Karen rolled her eyes.
Darius shifted his weight in frustration, but he did not argue. Although Charity hadn’t been in the magical world for long, she knew a Seer’s reading was like a cheat sheet for a final. These Seers agreed on the path forward, even though they hated each other, which inspired plenty of trust.
Still, Charity worried about what would come. It was pretty clear from all her dad had said that there would be a trial. That Grandmama would be judged and might even be asked to step down. Tensions would be high. Charity hadn’t assimilated very well in the Flush, and she’d been actively trying. From what she’d seen of Reagan, she assumed Reagan wouldn’t try at all. That would drive Grandmama crazy, which would add even more complication to an already complicated situation.
“You must leave behind a small force to protect the back door, Romulus,” Karen said.
“The Brink being the back door, of course,” the Red Prophet added.
“The power players must take the heir into the Realm…” Karen wiped her brow and shook her head. “That is all that has been revealed at this time. There are a lot of moving parts. After a break, I’ll try to look again and get more details. For now, however, we’ll have to go with the bigger picture.”
“All of this is about what we’d deduced,” Romulus said, and Roger nodded. “It gives us confidence. I thank you for that. You relay your findings…quite clearly.”
“I’ll try not to take offense,” the Red Prophet said, and cackled.
Romulus ignored her. “I do wonder, however. What is our end game?”
“The shifters have shown you what duty means,” the Red Prophet said, and jumped off the table like a cat. She straightened up and swiped at her hair. “You must do your duty, regardless of the outcome.” She sobered and her eyes cleared. She met Charity’s gaze. “Your quest is incredibly important—not just to the Realm, but to all the worlds. Your task is to restore order. It is to find balance. You have all the pieces. Now they will be set in motion. At the end of this, you will either have righted the wrong, or you will die, and your family and friends with you.”
Adrenaline spiked through Charity’s blood and shivers washed over her. She’d gone from a lonely, poor kid to all of this in a matter of months. She couldn’t believe anyone would go along with her role in all of this, but there was no question that they were.
“No pressure,” she mumbled, and the Red Prophet cackled again.
