Page 228 of Oracle Returns: Time will Stop

“You do not have my permission to be here,” Lucian said, as that darkness slithered into the space.

There was sick laughter.

“Hello, Oracle. Fancy meeting you here. You’ve been hiding from me. We’re about to meet. I’m about to win.”

Lucian couldn’t go deeper to find out who it was. With Ridge, he’d be able to. In his mind, he could trap him here, and he could pull him apart to find his identity.

“Set them free,” Oracle said. “You know you cannot keep them for yourself.”

He laughed.

“They are already gone. I devoured them, and with a few more, I’ll be stronger than you.”

Well, until then, Avalon knew what she needed to do.

She cracked open Raven’s home and called for Trey, right before she shoved this darkness from Lucian’s mind, and pulled all three of them out of the static.

The darkness screamed as they slipped away.

When they came back, there were their gasps as they ‘woke’ up.

On the floor, Raven was out cold, and Booth didn’t look any better.

“What the fuck was that?” Josh asked, breaking the circle to get to Genesis.

She went into his arms and held onto him.

“That was what is hunting here,” Avalon said, as Nate helped her up. “I had to pull from Raven’s energy and break us free.”

Lucian didn’t like that.

Normally, in the static, he was strong.

Had Avalon not pulled them out, they would have died there.

“Are you guys okay?” Booth asked, grabbing Raven’s wrist to wake him up.

Lucian nodded.

“I’m good.”

With a moan from the floor, slowly, Raven woke up, and he had the mother of all headaches.

“Oh, that didn’t feel good,” he said, rubbing his head.

Oh, Avalon knew. She’d purposely weakened him, so he’d not feel the spell on his house being broken.

By the time he did figure it out, hopefully, the dead would have done their job.

Now, she had to hope they did it.

When Lucian’s phone rang, he grabbed it from outside the circle. On the screen, he saw his wife’s face.

“Hey,” he said, lying flat on his back as he stared up at the ceiling.

The room was spinning.

A fast ride out was like being on an out-of-control roller coaster. The vertigo would stop in a minute or two, but until then, he was going to feel the aftereffects.