Page 48 of Oracles Always Win

“Youaren’t making any sense.”

Irubbed my forehead.Thesame placeOldThomhad hit me with the bottle cap last night.Ididn’t thinkI’dbeen hit that hard, but it was starting to ache again.Gagegently pulled my hand from my forehead and brushed his thumb over the spot.Justlike last night.

Astrange pulse of…something… throbbed through the air.Wasthat something supernatural?Wasit coming fromGage?

“Oh,Isee,” he muttered, more to himself than to me.

Thenthere was a tugging sensation in my head.RedfilledGage’seyes as the oppressive feeling intensified.Whatwas he doing?Cursingme?Ifmagic was real, curses had to be too, right?Itried to pull my head back, but whatever he was doing to me held me in place like an invisible chain was linking something in my head to his fingers.Gagefisted his hand, then yanked it back.Myhead snapped forward.

“Yes,I’vealmost got it,”Gagesaid.Iswore he hissed when he spoke, as his tongue—oh, wow, was his tongue actually forked again?—curled over the words.Heput his hand up against my forehead again, made another fist like he’d grabbed hold of something, even thoughIcouldn’t see anything in his grasp, and then jerked his hand away fast.

Icried out as my body jolted.Somethingshattered.NothingIcould see or hear, but there was an intangiblesomethingthere one minute and gone the next.

“Whatthe fuck?”Istumbled back.

“It’sgone.”Gageextended his hand, and smoke curled up from his palm like he was holding a burning piece of paper.Exceptnothing was there.

“Wasthat some kind of parlor trick?What’snext?Pullinga rabbit out of your horn?”

Gagelifted his eyebrow, then barked out a laugh.

“Right.I’mhilarious,”Imuttered.

Ibrushed my fingers over my forehead again, surprised at how goodIfelt.WhateverGagehad done, it’d eased my headache.Myhead was clearer than it had been in a long time.Ipushed my fingers into the spot where my headache had been throbbing just a moment earlier. “Whatdid you do?Ibet you’d make a good living on a miracle cure tour.”

“Youwere cursed.Notvery well, mind you, but still cursed,”Gagesaid. “Ididn’t recognize it immediately because it’s old and starting to deteriorate.Whoeverdid this was an amateur and didn’t know how to weave a proper curse, which is good for you.Ifa more skilled practitioner had cursed you, it would have taken a lot more time and effort to remove it, possibly even a coven of mages.”

“Thereis apropercurse?”Iasked asIslid down the wall untilIwas sitting on the floor.

Alittle smile tugged atGage’smouth at my question. “Perhapswell-executed would be a better description.”

Istared straight ahead asImulled over what else he’d said. “Socurses are real.Someoneput a spell on me.That’smessed up.Whowould have done something like that?”

“Spellsare different from curses,” he explained. “Thecurse might have something to do with stifling your oracle abilities.I’mguessing as the curse degraded, more of your natural gifts pushed through.”

“I’mnot an oracle.”Iscrambled to remember what that was.Ireally should have taken thatAncientArtHistoryclass in art school. “Idon’t even know what that is.”

“Right.Iguess we haven’t talked about that yet.”Gagesighed and crouched down in front of me. “Anoracle is someone who passes along messages from theEternalMagic.Theyare visions of the future.Prophecies.”

“Yeah,I’mdefinitely not that,”Iargued.

“Thoseblack-and-white paintings in your room tell a different story.”

Wellhell, didn’t he just have an answer for everything.

“IfI’man oracle, what are you?”

“I’ma demon.”

“LikeLuciferandGodand the bible and everything?”Icringed.Ididn’t know much about any of those things, just whatI’dlearned in my art history classes.Mymother had been adamant nothing like that would ever be discussed in our house.SinceIwas home schooled afterIturned seven,Ididn’t have the opportunity to find out much untilIwas an adult.I’dalways just thought demons and angels were symbolic.

ApparentlyIwas wrong.

Gagerolled his eyes. “No.Humanshave perverted and warped the history of demons and angels both.Justlike they have with every other supernatural being.Thinkof it like playingTelephone.Occasionally, a tiny bit of the truth survives, but most of the message is nothing like how it started.Wewere once universally known as daemons and considered neither inherently good nor inherently evil.Later, our name modified slightly todemonand became associated with evil.”Heshrugged, like it didn’t bother him one way or the other.

“Okay,”Isaid slowly asImulled over what he said.Itmade sense.And, weirder yet,Ibelieved him.

Mybrain had stumbled over the whole demon thing—helpfully supplying images of medieval art where a gigantic devil was stuffing his mouth full of bleeding and mangled people—but my heart and my gut saidGagewas trustworthy.Andif my oracle alter-ego had painted all those images of him, that had to mean something too, right?Likeif he wasn’t trustworthy, those pictures wouldn’t make him so appealing.I’dnever created an image of himIfound disturbing or grotesque.Ofcourse, that meant accepting the oracle thing was true… well, and that supernatural creatures existed too.