Page 156 of Hospital for Immortal Creatures

That was the name her parents had given her, and the name with which she would meet her end.

Gea died.

Amelia opened her eyes wide. The crisp scent of winter pierced through her senses. She jumped to her feet and walked to the window, eager to glimpse the mountain with her new sight.

But the blizzard outside concealed the view.

***

Zacharia pulled out a heavy chain holding a cluster of keys. Mikhail had tossed them at him, ordering, “Go and bring Amelia some food.”

Zacharia didn’t enjoy shoving his nose in other people’s business, and even less so when someone tried to drag him into theirs – especially if that someone was Mikhail Korovin, whom he had been serving loyally for years. He didn’t need a supernatural sense of smell, nor hyperintelligence, to recognise that the case had come to exceed the manticore’s aspiration for life-saving.

“I have an urgent meeting with the Council. I can’t go now… And I suspect Amelia has a health problem. You are the only one I trust,” Mikhail had explained, passing him a box of food along with the keys. As if he couldn’t have postponed the Council meeting by fifteen minutes.

But Korovin was avoiding the human, which meant that whatever was going on between them, had headed south. Which led Zacharia to believe that the woman would be upset. And he hated dealing with crying women…

Well, a job is a job.

The last floor resembled a fortress. The lift required a chip to unlock it, and the door could only be opened by entering a ten-digit code on a digital panel. Multiple locked latches concealed the staircase that began in the lobby and extended to the heart of the tower. Padlocks secured both ends of the wing where Amelia resided. A metal bar and an additional lock obstructed access to the opposite wing.

Zacharia struggled with inserting the keys into the double door. Succeeding on the fourth try, he marched down the hallway. A noise guided him to a slightly ajar door. When he walked through it, Amelia was staring out through the only window, her back to him.

“I’ve been expecting you,” she said, still not facing him.

She probably thinks I’m Mikhail.

“I came to check on you, Miss Amelia.”

“I was informed someone will come.”

Probably Mikhail informed her? Zacharia inspected her blonde hair, her back. Something was different. The air was heavy with a new smell.

Amelia turned to him, and his nostrils finally deciphered a familiar scent. He sniffed again and narrowed his eyes. “You carry the energy and scent of the Oracle, but you’re not the Oracle. Who are you?”

Amelia’s lips curled. “I am the Oracle, but I prefer you still call me Amelia.”

Zacharia stared into her deep blue eyes. For the first time in a long while, he couldn’t decide on a plan of action. Whoever the woman before him was, she was not human any more.

He would have almost preferred a crying woman over this dilemma. Scratching his temple, he debated what to do, while the silence between them stretched…and stretched.

Does Korovin know about this?

“I know you saved the Oracle from her death,” Amelia said. “You’ve always been special to her.”

Her words seemed strange. The Oracle, the previous one, had never even spoken to him, not before or after he’d found her half-dead, all those years ago.

“Zacharia, I need to go to the Council meeting…”

He hesitated. “Let me warn Mikhail.” The manticore probably didn’t know anything about what was happening, because he would have warned Zacharia. It was… huge, after all!

Amelia held up a hand, shaking her head. “He wouldn’t understand.”

“I think you underestimate him. I’m convinced that he’ll be very understanding,” Zacharia said, and took out his phone. No, he really won’t. Mikhail would freak out when he heard about this.

But what could he do? Just take Amelia to the great hall and introduce her as the new Oracle?

“Zacharia…”

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