Dark Oracle (23 page)
Even Harry showed no inclination to do anything other than leave the body there. DOJ had summoned him back to the New Mexico field office to file a mountain of reports, and she’d reluctantly let him go. She knew she’d see him again, but the bed in the upstairs bedroom felt much too large without him.
But there was still unfinished business to attend to.
A match flared in the darkness, as the Pythia walked through the screen door, patched with duct tape. Tara watched her, waited.
The Pythia didn’t speak. She stood beside Tara, dragging on her cigarette.
Tara was first to break the silence. “You knew this would happen. You knew that Adrienne would come back, and that Harry and I would be forced to kill her.”
The Pythia tapped ash from her cigarette. “You know as well as I do that seeing the future only shows possibilities.”
“You grew that monster in your own backyard. Here.” And Tara feared for what that meant for Cassie. Under the watchful eye of the Pythia, would she grow into a monster, like Adrienne? Or would she become a hollow shell, like Tara?
The Pythia seemed very old to Tara, as the tiny ember outlined the sagging skin under her chin, the kohl smeared under her eye. “No matter into what fire I looked, I saw that Adrienne would grow into a powerful oracle. You have no idea how much I wanted her to follow in my footsteps.” She shook her head. “No idea. I felt her turning away, moving into the darkness, and I was powerless to stop it. We all were.”
Tara glared at her. She wasn’t buying it.
“What about Cassie? What are you going to do to make sure she doesn’t follow in Adrienne’s footsteps?”
The Pythia puffed out a ring of smoke. “Cassie will be a wonderful Pythia. Someday, she will turn that title over to your daughter.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Tara growled. “I can’t have children. The Gardener saw to that.”
The Pythia snorted. “You’re not the type of woman who believes what she’s told.”
Tara reviewed her cryptic conversations with the Pythia. “You said I would be the one to bring you the new Pythia.”
“And you will.”
The Pythia faded back into the house, leaving Tara alone in darkness. She considered what the Pythia had told her. The future was about possibilities. Perhaps the Pythia had been right, and some new ones had been opened to her.
Her emotions reeled. She had taken a long time to forgive her mother for dying, and to stop blaming Sophia. It would take even longer to forgive the Pythia. If that ever happened.
But she now had good reason to forgive, to stop fighting destiny.
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