The Forbidden Oracle Read online

  I prayed for any kind of sleep.

  Although I knew, somehow, that nightmares would persist for the rest of the night.

  Chapter Two

  There was a ton of chaos coming from the kitchen when I finally awoke. I heard clanking, the rush of the water from the sink and chatter from a few different voices. My eyes blinked toward the window, where it seemed the Louisiana storm had completely dissipated. Sunlight beamed down on me, the kind of sunlight in the south that seems almost impenetrable and thick.

  I walked to the window to peer down at the forest, where I had found Aunt Maria the night before. Funny enough, it looked completely void of any sort of chaos—just the regular wooded area behind our house, which I had played in every single day of my life.

  I studied the voice downstairs for a second. My aunt’s voice, of course—and another, her best friend, Zoey Winters. Their familiar chit chat of conversation gave me a sense of calm. Normally, Aunt Maria wasn’t the kind of woman to ask for help, but if Zoey was over, so soon after last night’s incident, then something was up.

  Maybe that meant everything would be okay?

  There was a crack at my bedroom door from the floorboard. I whirled around, wide-eyed, to discover my best friend, Celeste Winters—this curvy, lovable, wild teen, with long, jet-black hair, enormous breasts, and this wicked smile that reminded me that always, forever, she was up to no good.

  She stood beaming at me in the doorway, her green eyes dancing over my body. I glanced down, realizing I was still wearing that ratty t-shirt from middle school.

  “Jesus, Ivy,” she shot in a playful tone. “I can’t believe you still have that.”

  “You guys are here so early. Sorry I couldn’t make myself presentable before you barged into my room.” I shrugged and then rolled my eyes, showing my annoyance.

  Celeste laughed and leaned against the door jamb. “Girl, it’s after ten. I know it’s summer vacation and everything, but you have to get your shit together.” She then bounded toward my bed and sat on the edge. She started speaking again as she inspected her neatly manicured nails.

  “And you know what? I think Mom and Maria have a lot to go over,” she stated and looked up at me with a blank expression. It was almost as if I was supposed to know what the hell she was talking about.

  “What do you mean?” I asked and raised an eyebrow. Did Celeste already know about my aunt’s little incident? I swept a strand of blonde hair behind my ear, gaping at her.

  “Just between you and me...” Celeste continued.

  “I don’t know who I would tell,” I affirmed. “And you’re driving me absolutely fucking crazy!”

  “Mom said something about Aunt Maria possibly enrolling you at the academy this year.” Celeste stopped playing with her nails then. She looked at me, strong and confident and sure—her eyes enormous.

  “What...” I frowned and shook my head. “That’s crazy. You know I’m not like you.”

  I hardly knew anything about the academy that Celeste attended, located just outside of town on ten thousand acres of absolutely stunning Louisiana land. The rules surrounding the academy were incredibly strict, which meant that I had never even been allowed to visit Celeste there when she had started as a freshman the previous year.

  The academy was for supernaturals only.

  Celeste herself was a witch, along with her mother. They had come from a long line of very powerful witches, with her great-great-great-grandmother moving over from England and creating a coven right here in Louisiana.

  Celeste nodded ferociously. “Yeah. I heard Mom talking to Maria on the phone this morning. She was like, ‘Do you really think it’s time?’ Then she said something about application papers and getting approval from the headmaster.”

  “That makes no sense, Celeste. I’m a mortal— 100% mortal. The only thing I’m good at is music and soccer.” I said in a desperate tone. I was so confused and my mind ran a mile minute as I tried to put everything in perspective. I came to the conclusion that there was so much I still didn’t know. So much that was being kept from me.

  Celeste shrugged. “Maybe it’s because of your mom? I don’t know.”

  At that, I shoved my fists on either side of my waist and stared at Celeste hard. I was starting to get annoyed with the conversation. “She’s been dead for over four years. I’m sure if she had arranged this, there would have been something left behind indicating so. I would know about it. And besides, she said that I was human. I do not have any of her bloodline!”

  I pressed my lips in a flat line and I could feel a headache start to brew across my forehead.

  This was strange, indeed. Even my Aunt Maria had been very forthright that I “didn’t qualify” for the supernatural academy, despite my mom and my aunt having a supernatural bloodline.

  I had asked endlessly when I was younger, but my mom would just shrug it off and say, “Your powers never came, baby. It’s just not going to happen, okay? Your father is human, and so are you. And humans are entirely perfect, just the way they are. You should be grateful for it.”

  Why would my aunt even entertain this idea now?

  “You make it sound pretty boring, though?” I said to Celeste, trying to change to the topic to her. I reached into my closet and drew out a white dress. I flashed my ratty t-shirt across the ground and exchanged it with the lace dress, then pulled my hairbrush through my long locks.

  “Really?” Celeste smirked. “I wonder who would have told me to do that?”

  I spun around almost too quickly. Again, I gave her a curious look. “Are you saying that every time I’ve asked you—how’s school going? Or, what have you been up to at the academy, and you literally say, ‘oh, god, it’s so fucking boring, Ivy...’, that you’ve been lying?”

  Celeste shrugged and looked away.

  “And you’re saying that someone actually told you to lie to me about it?” I continued staring her down. My heart pumped in my throat. What the hell was going on here? I took a delicate step toward my best friend. “Celeste, we’ve been friends since we were babies. I don’t know why you thought it was okay to lie to me.”

  Celeste’s shoulders drooped, but her eyes remained this infectious, electric green. She was always so fucking witchy. “I know, I know. But you can’t blame me, really. Hopefully, I can explain everything soon. Like, wouldn’t it be great if I could actually show you around!”

  I continued to gape at her. “Celeste! I’m literally a human. That’s always been enough for you.”

  But she just stood off my bed, gripped my hand, and yanked me toward the staircase.

  “Okay, okay. Who cares! Maybe that’ll make you even more popular when you’re there. Everyone will think you’re fascinating because you can only use human sarcasm to fight back, or whatever.”

  I shuffled after her down the staircase and then approached the kitchen. The sounds of Aunt Maria and Zoey’s voices grew louder, echoing through the house.

  My head still spun with confusion.

  A human— I had always been just a human.

  I didn’t belong at the academy with Celeste.

  “The visions are getting much worse,” my aunt said, her voice in a soft whisper. It was obvious that they were trying to hide their conversation from us.

  “That’s not good. I’m almost certain that means they are close,” Zoey Winters said. “If they’re close, there is no telling what could happen.”

  “I know. Jesus, I wish Coralia was still here.” Aunt Maria said and swiped a hand through her hair. She looked thoroughly frustrated. “These visions are like a loop, but each day a new piece of the puzzle is added and I can feel it getting closer and closer as each day passes.”

  What the hell were they talking about?

  I paused in the foyer, not wanting to continue so I could just eavesdrop. I was tired of being lied to. It had felt this way for quite some time; that everyone in my life had some sort of secret that they weren’t willing to tell me. It was like I was a c
at and they had a string with catnip on the end that I needed badly.

  “Come on!” Celeste mouthed to me in the doorway of the kitchen.

  Zoey and Aunt Maria had finally noticed we were there. I could tell because they immediately transitioned into another conversation topic.

  “So, what’s on the agenda for the day?” Zoey asked, gazing down at the yellow yolks in the skillet.

  “There they are,” Aunt Maria said. She gave Celeste and me a warm smile.

  I walked toward her and gave her a hug. “Good morning,” I said and walked over to the counter. I turned to look at her toy with the eggs. “So you why is it you wish that Mom was still here?” I asked and crossed my arms over my chest. Mom took a few strides to the other side of the kitchen and hovered near the open cabinets, looking at her wide selection of spices.

  “I JUST REALLY MISS her.” She said. I knew she was lying and there was no point in pressing the matter. When and if there was something to tell me, I knew she would on her own terms.

  “Did you get any sleep?” I asked her. My heart pounded and I wanted to scream, demanding what the hell was going on.

  Aunt Maria clucked her tongue. “I thought I still had some leftover basil... Ah. Here it is!” She latched her hand around a plastic baggie, where she kept the dried basil she had grown in the garden. She turned back to the skillet, then shuffled a bit of basil over the roasting potatoes.

  “How’ve you been, Ivy?” Zoey asked. She drew her hand over my head and ruffled my hair like I was a much younger kid.

  “Fine,” I said grumbling. My eyes flashed toward Celeste, who was tearing into some freshly baked bread. She bit into it and chewed slowly, her face glowing with pleasure.

  I felt like I was in someone else’s play, but that no one had given me the script.

  “We had kind of a traumatic night last night,” I tried, choosing to stir the metaphorical pot.

  Aunt Maria didn’t look up from the potato skillet. Zoey shrugged, saying, “It was really a huge storm. I think we lost some of the tiles off our roof. I’m a little too afraid to look. I told Timothy that he needed to fix them as soon as possible. We don’t want the house to flood.”

  “It’s almost hurricane season,” Aunt Maria added. “I guess we all need to be prepared.”

  Celeste tore off another piece of bread. Zoey began to set the kitchen table with four plates, four glasses, a big vat of glowing orange juice.

  “Celeste said something about me enrolling in the academy,” I said, loud enough for everyone in the room to hear.

  She stopped stirring the potatoes for a moment and then her hazel eyes flashed toward mine. A chill ran down my spine as I realized that she actually looked frightened for a second.

  Did this have something to do with Mom or their bloodline? What the fuck was going on?

  I never saw her like this before. But I knew very little about supernaturals, mostly folklore. I had asked plenty about it before, but my mom had kept so much from me, yanking me away from what was actually going on.

  “There’s been some discussion,” Aunt Maria said, her voice heavy.

  “I mean, you know how much I wanted to go. But I didn’t think it was possible since I’m like Dad. I’m human, right?” I said, pressing her a little. “But I was also so lonely without Celeste and I don’t see why, if I have a supernatural mom, I shouldn’t...”

  My aunt rolled her eyes, interrupting me. “You made plenty of friends. That team you were on? What was it?”

  “Aunt Maria. I played soccer,” I answered, borderline horrified that she hadn’t remembered. I had been one of the greatest members of the team, surging up to varsity during my freshman year, at the age of only 15. I had come home with sweaty outfits and torn-up cleats, wild with adrenaline.

  “That’s right. You were always so dirty,” she said and laughed.

  I let out a sigh. Zoey and Celeste sat down at the kitchen table. It seemed to me that they were exchanging a glance that was difficult to read—like they had a language of their own. My mom and I had been like that before. My aunt and I had that sometimes. I felt as though it was becoming more so more often now that I was getting older.

  Aunt Maria placed the eggs, potatoes, and freshly-toasted bread onto our plates. She poured her and Zoey large cups of coffee, while Celeste and I settled for orange juice. Outside, the birds chirped, casting a feeling of hope over everything. But my heart still hammered with everything I didn’t know.

  “Can you tell me what it’s like to live at the academy?” I asked Celeste.

  Under the table, Celeste kicked me in the shin. I knew better than to make any kind of noise to alert my aunt that this had happened. Celeste gave me a dark look like I was asking too many questions.

  “Thank you for breakfast, Maria. It’s really good,” Zoey beamed and looked around the table at all of us.

  Aunt Maria gave her a wide grin. “Thanks, Zoey. Girls, when I first moved to Hillside, your mom was one of the first people who befriended me. I was a little bit older and I felt like I didn’t know how to make any friends.”

  Celeste and I exchanged curious glances. Aunt Maria and Zoey almost never talked about when they had first become friends. Hell, she hardly ever talked about her past at all.

  Zoey’s grey eyes softened and then she looked at me. “I grew up with your dad. You knew that, right?”

  I shook my head. “No. I didn’t.” Why did it suddenly feel like I didn’t know a single thing about my life?

  “Sure. I went to the academy. All the women in my family did. But before that, I went to Hillside Falls Middle School with Joseph Whitestone, the champion football player. God, he was handsome. But he never had eyes for anyone until he saw your mother. I guess it must have been that day at the diner. We always met there and acted like complete idiots. Getting stoned and eating French fries.”

  “Mom!” Celeste said, her eyes sparkling. “I didn’t know you got stoned.”

  Zoey chuckled before taking a sip of her coffee. She looked mischievous. “Those are stories for other times, but just remember I was teen once too, my dear.”

  I stared down at my eggs and bacon. With all this talk about my mom and dad, I wasn’t sure I could eat another bite. Their death had happened over four years ago, during the summer when I was twelve.

  It was portrayed as an accident, but I had overheard several times that it wasn’t. There was just too much foul play involved.

  They were murdered.

  This hadn’t been the word my aunt used when she first told me after it had happened, though. She had arrived in my bedroom just after midnight. I had still been awake, trying to will myself to sleep, but I had cried so much that I thought my head would rupture from my headache. When I saw her hovering in the doorway, I noticed she was shaking. I’d told her to come into bed with me, but she had just perched on the side of my bed, gazing down at me. She had placed her hand over the blanket, rubbing at my shin and I could see her bottom lip quiver and tears spill over her eyelids onto her cheeks. Aunt Maria was always so strong, even in situations like these and I had never seen her in a weak state before. She not only looked sad, but there was something else etched with her features. I think it was a look of fright.

  It had been enough to push me into the first real depression of my life.

  But it hadn’t been till I had read the newspaper on-accident at Celeste’s a few days later, right before the funeral that I had discovered the word the police were using.

  Freak car accident.

  The words rang through my head and it was impossible to understand.

  Being only twelve, I had a really hard time accepting the incident and trying to make sense of everything.

  Zoey, Aunt Maria, and Celeste dipped their forks through their eggs, eating as if it was just another ordinary day. I glanced again at my aunt, my head buzzing with confusion and questions. How could everyone go on pretending everything was all right when I had literally found her in that trance talking as
if someone were there and then been told that I “might” be heading off to boarding school in the next few months?

  A boarding school for supernaturals?

  Someone was going to have to start explaining soon because my patience was growing thin.

  I forced myself to eat a bit of breakfast since I knew I would get tons of flack from Aunt Maria if I didn’t. Then, Celeste tugged me out of the house, explaining that we needed some girl time downtown. I could have gone without it since my head was all swirling with all the new events. But as we walked along silently from mom’s house, I found my mood improving.

  “It felt like they needed more time to talk,” Celeste said suddenly, turning her dark eyes toward me.

  “I hope Aunt Maria tells her about how I found her in the woods last night,” I said and dug my hands into my pants pockets. “It really scared the shit out of me.”

  “I already heard them talking about it,” Celeste stated. She kicked at a stop sign with her right foot as we waited for a large truck to pass by. “Hell, I don’t know. It must be shitty getting old.”

  “I think people get old all the time without sleepwalking into the woods,” I retorted.

  “Maybe. But there’s so much you probably don’t know about your mom and aunts bloodline or their powers.”

  “She’s never fucking told me. Neither of them.” I said in an irritated voice. “I guess because I’m a human, Aunt Maria doesn’t think I would understand? I don’t know.”

  Now, Celeste sighed.

  “It must be weird for you, anyway,” I tried.

  “What?”

  “Being friends with me.” I continued. “Like, you get to run off having this exciting life, learning your powers and doing what you’re supposed to be doing. And me? Maybe I’ll be like—an accountant or something. Do they have accounting at the academy?”

  Celeste nodded at me gravely. “I know it probably sounds crazy, but you still have to do your taxes when you’re supernatural. We all have to live in this society one way or another.”