Page 119 of Zomromcom
But if these were the horrors powerful oracles saw?
More piddling shit, please. Piddling shitforever.
By the time Gwen gathered herself again, Max was already answering Sabrina’s question. “—been considering my various contacts on SERC and in the human government too. I think—”
“No!” Gwen shouted, pushing herself up on a shaking arm. “You can’t—”
“Hey, hey, hey. Gwen, honey, I’ve healed you as best I can, and as far as I can tell, the baby’s fine, but please don’t…” Sabrina strode over and dropped to her knees beside Gwen. “Let me help you back down until we figure out what happened to you, okay?”
Downapparently meantonto a very large pile of leaves, which was serving as a makeshift mattress. The work of the Girl Explorers, Gwen presumed.
Lorraine came racing toward them. “Careful, bro! You were bleeding from your nose, and you passed out for a good while, so you can’t just—”
“You have tolisten. I collapsed because of a vision. A huge one.” Gwen looked beseechingly up at Max, who was definitely a terrifying dick vampire but had also been nice to her, and when he came closer, she grabbed both of his hands and shook them for emphasis. “There was a massacre. Endless piles of bodies. Supernaturals. Enhanced humans. All dead.Allof them.”
“Gwennie…” Sabby spoke gently. “You’ve never seen anything like that before in your visions. Are you sure it’s not…I don’t know. A trauma response?”
Gwen shook her head frantically and almost vomited at the jostling agony. “No. I swear to you, it’s real. It’s a genuine vision, and oh fuck, it’scataclysmic.”
“We believe you, little oracle.” Max freed his hands, squatted beside her leaf pile, and helped support her with a strong arm across her back. “Can telling us about it wait until you’ve rested more?”
“You need to know now.” She swallowed down the acid creeping up the back of her throat. “There’s no time to waste.”
“Okay.” He didn’t seem entirely happy with that answer, but he didn’t argue. “Did you see what caused the massacre? Was it the fae, or warfare between humans and Supernaturals, or…?”
“It was the fae,” Gwen whispered. “But not only the fae.”
His brows drew together. “Who else?”
When he handed her a bottle of water, she only managed a single swallow before nausea twisted in her belly. “Common humans in uniform. They were working together with the fae. Using fae powers and military weaponry to slaughter…everyone else.”
“Holy fuck,” Sabrina whispered.
Max’s mouth tightened. “Holyunfortunateness.”
Sabby kicked his shin, and Gwen couldn’t blame her.
“Even if we found someone in the human government who was discreet, strategic, and powerful enough to take action, I don’t know how we could possibly trust that person not to be part of whatever conspiracy Gwen witnessed.” Lorraine leaned against the nearest tree and rubbed her eyes. “We don’t know enough about it to eliminate anyone, and if we went to the wrong official, the information would go nowhere.”
Sabby pinched her temples between her thumb and forefinger. “And our lives would be forfeit.”
“So that leaves SERC,” Max said.
“Yeah.” Poor Lorraine. Maybe she hadn’t been snacking sufficiently, because even her bright red hair seemed limp and exhausted. “We need a SERC rep who fulfills averylong list of requirements.”
“A councillor who’s discreet, strategic, powerful enough totake decisive action, unbeholden to the faeandthe human government, and also willing to believe Gwen’s prophecy.” Max met her stare, his blue eyes kind but unflinchingly honest. “I imagine that last bit’s going to pose a problem, little oracle.”
Her breath hitched. “You know what happened? When I was eighteen?”
“Yes.”
Her stomach churned harder at the confirmation, even though there’d been no judgment in his tone. “Then you know how hard it’ll be to find a councillor fitting that description.”
“I don’t know of such a paragon.” His head tipped to the side as he studied her. “But I get the sense that perhaps you do.”
Yes. She did. Unfortunately.
Too bad she’d rather gargle razor blades than ever see him again.
“I know someone,” Gwen said, surrendering to the inevitable. “He’s all the things you want. If I tell him what I saw, he might even believe me.”
Fresh hope dawned in the expressions of everyone but Max, who simply waited patiently for the rest of it.
She sighed. “And he’s a real pain in the ass.”
“Paragons usually are,” Max said, and patted her arm consolingly. “I mean, just look at me.”
When she vomited all over his expensive leather hoodie, it was exactly what hedeserved.
