Thea Harrison - Oracle's Moon

Grace said, “We used that stove hundreds of times, and it worked perfectly.”

Khalil looked at Grace. “This was the first time you used the stove since yesterday’s work day, wasn’t it, when you had so many people over?”

“Yes.” She went a little numb.

The twins looked at each other. One of them asked, “Did you leave the house for any length of time?”

Twelve people, not including Olivia, who knew each other well. They looked her in the eye and ate her food and mowed her lawn. Did twelve people do this?

She nodded and whispered, “For about forty-five minutes.”

Khalil’s rage flared red-hot against Grace’s senses. His face was vicious. “Brandon Miller has metal devices like this in a hidden workshop. Along with tools with which to alter them.”

Chloe knuckled her eyes. “Did our lunch break the house?”

Grace’s arms tightened. She shook her head at the others, silently warning them to stop the conversation, as she said, “It seems so, baby girl.”

The Djinn returned from their various errands. The first to arrive were the two who had gone to Boston. Then came the one who made the travel arrangements. Ebrahim was the fourth, laden with packages. He had the new diaper bag, stuffed with everything Khalil had requested, and a large plastic shopping bag filled with three different kinds of cheese, crackers, juice, pudding, fruit and animal cookies. Grace opened packages of food so Chloe could nibble, and she ate too, mechanically, because she needed the fuel.

The messenger to Katherine and John was the last one to return. The Djinn wore the form of a reed-thin girl with a gleaming fall of chocolate-colored hair.

“They are coming,” she said, her voice as light and airy as a flute. “Katherine told me to tell you, of course they will come. She is shocked and saddened and extremely angry.”

Khalil said, “Make sure they arrive safely.”

“Yes.” She vanished again, and two of the others went with her.

Khalil spread out the new cotton blanket beside Grace and Chloe, and he eased the sleeping Max onto it. Then he went with the rest of the Djinn to look at the house. He returned soon with her knee brace, the hated cane, and Chloe’s Lalaloopsy doll.

“They will see what is salvageable of your possessions, and if possible, they will work on repairs,” he said to Grace, his voice softer than ever, for Chloe had fallen asleep too. He set Chloe’s doll on the blanket beside Max and knelt to help Grace buckle the brace into place.

“They must be in a lot of debt to you if they’re still working to cancel it out,” Grace said.

“None of the Djinn owe me anything anymore,” Khalil said. “Now they’re working for you.”

Her eyes rounded. “No pressure, right?” she muttered. “That’s a hell of a burden of hope they’re piling on my shoulders.”

“I have been talking to them. I promise you, nobody will expect anything more than you can give.” He brushed at her face lightly with the tips of his fingers, eyes burning. Then he leaned forward to kiss her with tautly controlled passion. His hand dropped to circle the base of her throat. I think this time you scared the immortality out of me.

I’m sorry , she said again.

He leaned his forehead against hers, and he said in her head so softly she barely heard him, Grace, you almost died. I don’t want to know what that’s like.

She didn’t need to say that she was going to die sooner or later while he wasn’t, because the fact hung over their heads like the sword of Damocles that dangled by a single hair. She stayed silent and stroked his face, her eyes closed, and absorbed the hot comfort of his presence.

But because the Oracle’s moon could be a freaky bitch too, it didn’t care if there were only so many epiphanies a girl could take at a time. The endless day wasn’t done with her yet, as the dark sea took her again, the riptide filled with beginnings and endings, all potential futures and the past.

This time the vision that took her was sharp as a blade’s edge, and she saw that the real sword hanging over their head was not her mortality, but something else entirely. Image upon image of possible futures bombarded her. She flinched back with a gasp.

Khalil grabbed her shoulders. His touch snapped her back into the here and now. He studied her with a sharp concern. “What’s wrong? You’ve gone completely white.”

She stared at him, heart pounding, then her expression turned grim. “No,” she said. “One thing at a time. Right now we’ve got enough on our plate.”

“Gracie,” he said between his teeth.

Gods, she loved it when he called her that, with his perfect blend of exasperation and tenderness. She put the knowledge of the vision behind her for the moment and opened her eyes wide at him. “I don’t recall when I said I would tell you every little thing that went on inside my head. I sure don’t remember you bargaining for it.”

He looked infuriated and unpredictable and actually a little evil, and there it was; she tumbled head over heels in love with him for the fourth time that day. She thought she would really love to spend whatever time she had in this life, tumbling head over heels every time she looked into his eyes and fell into forever. Always loving, always falling.

“I will get it out of you,” he growled, so very softly over the heads of the tired, sleeping babies.

“Wow, you really can’t stand a secret, can you? Are you going to spend Christmas with us? Teasing you about presents is going to be a blast. ”

He let go of her, slapped his hands on the tree trunk on either side of her head and leaned over her. He looked fierce, like he might explode, except she could feel his emotions in truth. Sparring with each other had become a game they both loved to play. All of his real rage was directed elsewhere. “You are such an impudent and disrespectful human.”

“Indeed, that is what you are wont to call me.” She grinned at him. “See what I did there?”

One corner of his sexy mouth twitched. She stroked her presence along his, aligning with him softly.

His hands slipped on the tree trunk. He sank a fist into her hair and just held her, looking into her eyes with a steady promise. Her home might be in ruins, her life forever changed, and the sword might fall and cut them, but right in that moment, she had never felt so alive.

He let his fingers loosen and stroked down the back of her neck as he turned his head. Then she heard voices. Katherine, John, their kids and the Djinn escort had arrived to take Chloe and Max safely away to Houston. Khalil gathered Chloe off Grace’s lap. Using the cane, Grace levered herself to her feet.

Katherine had clearly been crying, and John, who had loved Petra and Niko too, was grieving and enraged all over again. They stared in grim, shocked silence at the ruined back of the house. When they collected the sleepy kids, they did so with a special tenderness. As John and Khalil carried the children to their minivan, Katherine squeezed Grace’s hand so hard it hurt. “John told his boss he had a family emergency, and it’s true. Don’t worry about the kids, all right?”

“I won’t.” Grace squeezed her hand in return.

The older woman’s eyes glittered. “Get their killers. Get all of them.”

“I promise you, we will.”

She walked around the house with Katherine and gave her a fierce hug good-bye. Then she stood beside Khalil and watched them drive away with the last of her family and with four Djinn as invisible guards.

That was when Khalil released his iron grip on his temper, and his rage whipped the air in a vicious whirlwind.

He turned to her, his face stern and deadly, and she knew what would happen if he sent his renegade angel’s voice ringing through the sky in a call to war. She had seen it in the vision as one of the possible futures. It would bring the sword down on them.