Page 121 of World's Okayest Oracle (Reluctantly) Seeks Demon

“As a child, I always heard that demons were able to recognize their other half almost immediately, but I never believed it. Or at least, I didn’t think it would happen that way for me.” Slowly, a brilliant beam of a smile lit his beloved, angular face. “Then you arrived in my life twenty years ago, Gwen. And here we are.”

“Here we are indeed,” she agreed cheerfully. “And…Hugh?”

His head bent toward hers, and his stare focused on her mouth. “Mmmm?”

“I don’t need a prophecy to tell me that we’ll be together forever, aboveground and below, happy and in love,” she told him. “Starting right now.”

Then she reached up, grabbed her future by the horns, and greeted it with a kiss.

Epilogue

Thora Creekwood perched calmly on a rickety chair inside a small but cozy coffee shop, sipped her espresso, and waited for further instructions.

As always, the place had cleared out shortly after darkness fell. The owner, Carlo, was taking his usual lengthy smoke break out back and watching a soccer game beside his open rear door, and he wouldn’t return unless the metal bell attached to his business’s front door jingled and summoned him back to the counter. Which it wouldn’t do, because she’d flipped the OPEN sign to CLOSED and removed the bell in preparation for her boss’s arrival.

During their previous meeting, shortly after he’d returned from the Realm Below, he’d filled her in on everything he’d learned about the fae conspirators with whom she’d been embedded for the past year. Their names, their plans, the identities of various minions who belonged to other species, the location and purpose of Josiah Goodling’s encampment of captive oracles.Everything he told her fit what she’d seen over the course of her assignment. She was simply ashamed that she hadn’t put the puzzle together herself, well before Goodling had managed to murder still-unknown numbers of Zone inhabitants and several kidnapped oracles.

For that matter, she was also ashamed over her failure to recognize that malicious jackass as a fae. A glamour that powerful—so powerful and rare that she hadn’t heard of its existence, even as a half-fae—must have cost Josiahdecadesfrom his life.

But he was dead and gone now. The other fae conspirators had been discreetly arrested and interrogated, although only a select, trusted circle of SERC officials knew the precise reasons why. Josiah’s minions had been taken into custody too…including Hugh’s mother, Marlee.Thathad been awkward.

Somehow, amid all the familial hubbub and unpleasantness, Hugh had also interviewed and arranged protection for the freed oracles.

And now…and now…

What? Where did he intend to direct their continuing investigations now that the group Thora had so carefully infiltrated had essentially ceased to exist?

She didn’t know. But he’d told her that he wanted to meet her at their usual rendezvous point tonight, face-to-face, to discuss that very issue—after he got Gwen settled into bed with a cheese platter, her favorite streaming show about, yes, cheese, and all the healing amulets and spells one human women could possibly wear.

Thora liked Gwen—who was, even now, apparently organizing an oracle union of sorts with the help of her fellow formercaptives—and Thora’s earlier intelligence failures had caused the seer harm. Had gotten countless other innocents killed too. Whatever new assignment Hugh wanted to give her, however abhorrent, Thora would accept without complaint.

Right on time, he silently slid inside the coffee shop, locked the door behind himself, and joined her at the table farthest away from Carlo’s break spot. For a demon who’d briefly died a mere week ago, he looked remarkably lively and absurdly pleased. Tired, yes, with deep blue pits of fatigue beneath his golden-brown eyes, but those eyes sparkled with happiness, and the usual frown that pinched his forehead was missing for once.

They’d already touched base on an encrypted call earlier that day, so he didn’t preface his remarks with any personal matters. Instead he launched directly into the point of the meeting.

“Now that the most powerful fae conspirators have been identified and captured, I want you to focus on the insurrectionist faction within the common human government.” He spoke so quietly, even someone seated at the empty table next to theirs couldn’t have overheard his words. “They’ve been remarkably wary and elusive to this point, and we still don’t know their identities. That said, their first attempt to incite an interspecies war fell through, their parade plot got exposed by the kidnapped oracles, and all their fae allies have been arrested. They’ll be in disarray and desperate to salvage their plans.”

Unfortunately, the virulence of their xenophobia wouldn’t allow those common human insurrectionists to simply give up. Especially not when their organizational structure was intact, all their ranks remained free, and they still retained the power of whatever positions they held in the government and military.

Hugh added, “They’ll also be eager for fresh allies within the fae community and any money or power those allies might be willing to lend them.”

Ah. Now she understood. “And that’s where I come in. I can glamour myself as a fae they’ve never met before, one sympathetic to their cause.”

He inclined his head. “How do you want to gain their trust?”

That was one of many reasons she appreciated her handler. While he was more than capable of giving orders when necessary, he also respected her own instincts and intelligence. If possible, he always asked for her input before formulating a plan.

They made a good team. And she had an equally good idea to share with him.

“My informants have indicated that you’re correct: The common human insurrectionists are desperate to restock their supply of fae allies. So much so that they intend to woo potential new fae conspirator couples at a luxurious weeklong party in Norway.”

He nodded. “At the Freyjasdal Resort.”

“You’ve already heard.” Foolishly, that dulled her momentary glow of pride. “Do you want me there, assuming I can garner an invitation?”

She would find a way to attend, even as a single participant. No matter what it took.

“Yes.” He hesitated. “But not alone.”