Little Red (Twisted Dark, #4)

Chapter Four: Oracles

I was starting to feel like I was on a wild goose chase. I had explored the Emporium and had even gone into the Broken Crow to try and get some traces of what had happened. The place had been ransacked, and not just in a 'someone broke in' way but more in a 'the moment people realized the shop was unoccupied they took everything that hadn't been bolted down' type of way. It hadn't given me as single sense of what had happened to Violet or what werewolf had taken her.

Then asking anyone about it had been difficult as well. Even me threatening to break bones hadn't really yielded me much information beyond 'the werewolf took her through the main portal back'. Which pissed me off because that meant I had nothing to go on. I ground my teeth together as I stared at the cobblestone streets, wondering just how I could figure out where I could start to look for Violet since this route was a complete dead end.

I was half tempted to call mother to ask her but I also knew she was more than likely way too busy and I didn't want to be seen as incapable. I needed to figure it out and I needed to figure out who I could go to, who could see things that were from before or even where they could be. At that I froze and blinked. "See things that were from before... or where they could be." I emphasised the word before I snapped my head up and ripped open a portal. My magick surging through my wildly.

I jumped through the portal into a rather dusty looking living room. "Fayette!" I called it out, my voice echoing slightly. Fayette was manifesting her Oracle abilities and Oracles could see the past, present, and the future. If anyone could tell me where Violet was, it would be my little sister. I understood this whole Oracle business was rough on her, it was rough on every single one of the witches who had to endure it. Having your magick shift and change into something nearly uncontrollable and then going blind on top of that was a big adjustment for anyone. I honestly didn't know how Fayette dealt with it.

"You do not just barge into the Oracle Transition Coven unannounced." At the sharp words I turned to see a tall witch, her face pinched and her grey hair pulled back into a severe bun.

"Can it, granny grey witch. I want to see my sister." I marched towards her and she pulled out a wand, holding it up at my chest level

"You do not barge into the Oracle Transition Coven unannounced or uninvited." She hissed the words out and I smacked her wand away from my chest with a sneer.

"And I want to see my goddamned sister Fayette. So either you let me see her or we're going to have a problem." I hissed the words right back at her. "As it stands, Fayette and I are blood, you can't just bar me from her." There was no way I was going to let this trumped up witch tell me I wasn't allowed to see my own flesh and blood.

"I am the Keeper. I make those decisions." She spat the words at me and I narrowed my eyes at her. "You do not barge into the Oracle Transition Coven unannounced or uninvited." At the repeated and clipped words I set my jaw and shook out my hands. The old bitch was going to get knocked the fuck out if she continued. I wouldn't be held back from seeing my family, not when I needed her help.

"Not uninvited and not intentionally unannounced, Keeper Gertrude." At the rasping voice I glanced over. There was white haired witch, stooped heavily with age, that moved towards us with shuffling steps, her eyes filmy and nearly white with her blindness. "I am simply too old to move as quickly as I used too." She waved one papery looking hand and I returned back to glowering at Gertrude. She was glaring at me just as intensely. "I saw she was coming. I should have said some thing but she got here far quicker than I anticipated." She shook her finger in my general direction, looking around sightlessly. "And stop making that face. You look like you have been sucking on lemons." The old witch grinned, showing off her gums with a only a few teeth still hanging on.