Guardians of the Boundary (Book 3 of The Conjurors Series)

Chapter 34

The next morning, sounds from the kitchen woke Valerie up. Her heart lurched. It wasn't Oberon, and never would be again. She turned her head and let her tears soak the pillow. The box she'd tried to stuff her emotions in wasn't holding. Her loss was too big to be contained. How did anyone put one foot in front of the other and keep on living after something like this?

Henry pushed the door open, and he had a plate of pancakes in his hand. It only made Valerie cry harder, but for some reason, it hurt a little less.

"I bet they taste better than Dad's," she managed to say.

"They couldn't be any worse," Henry said, and she managed a watery smile for the brother who had set aside his loss to help her through hers.

They padded into the kitchen. Through the window, she saw that Gideon was outside, practicing his martial art forms in the rising sun.

"Did he stay all night?" she asked as she bit into her brother's pancakes.

"He's here for good, I think," Henry replied. "Didn't bother to ask either of us if that's what we wanted, either."

But Henry didn't sound mad. He sounded tired and grateful that someone had come to watch over them.

"Azra came last night, too, but Summer wouldn't let her stay until you woke up," Henry added.

Valerie guessed that Azra's presence was the reason why she'd been able to sleep at all.

"Is she still doing okay?" Valerie asked.

"She's going to drop her foal soon, but yes. She wants you to come and visit her," Henry said.

"Let's go together. I'd like to see a new life born into the world, instead of another one leaving it," Valerie said.

Henry didn't say anything, but she could sense that his feelings mirrored her own. An unlikely burst of gratitude made her swallow a lump in her throat. She was an orphan again, but she was not alone.

Henry paused and then glanced behind him. "Someone's here to see you. She's at the door."

Sure enough, when Valerie opened the door, she found Sibyl fluttering a few feet off the ground.

"I heard of your loss. My heart is with yours," Sibyl said, and in her eyes, Valerie saw an echo of her own pain and knew that Sibyl was remembering losing her own mother not so long ago.

"Does it get better?" she asked, sitting on the steps and staring at her father's garden.

"You learn to live your life around the pain. It will always be in your heart, but, if you let it, it can live next to your love for others and joy in life," Sibyl said. Valerie wondered if all Oracles were so gifted with words.

"Gideon said that your input into which battle strategies would work best was invaluable," Valerie said, unable to talk about Oberon any longer without crying.

"Though it was in service to pursue a path of light, it was difficult for us to advise on tactics of war," Sibyl said. "It is not the way of the Oracles to solve problems with violence."

"Now that the Fractus are scattered, we could try to recover the Roaming City for you and your friends," Valerie said, though the amount of effort that would be required made her want to crawl back into bed.

"The time is not yet right," Sibyl replied, to Valerie's relief. "I came here today for another purpose. Not as an Oracle, but as a friend, which I hope I am."

"Yes," Valerie said, meeting Sibyl's eyes and absorbing the warmth there. "You are."

"As an Oracle, I am bound to keep prophecies secret, but I am not in the Roaming City now. As your friend, I would break that rule today," Sibyl said. Mystified, Valerie watched as Sibyl's wings fluttered nervously for a moment. "I received a prophecy for your friend, Cyrus. It led to the path of light, and I was duty-bound to deliver it to him, though I knew it would hurt him very much."