Hellbender - Dana Cameron Page 0,65

under the circumstances, was not as reassuring as it could have been. The ravens barked out harshly and flapped once or twice, and got more agitated as Jason worked to regain his composure.

“Knock it off, you guys,” he said at last.

That was better. He sounded more like himself. The birds settled, only partially reassured.

“So now what’s so funny?”

“You. I guess I don’t have to worry about you, despite what just happened,” he said. “If you were really interested in world domination, you wouldn’t have thought ‘obey me’ translated to ‘give me a pedicure.’ ”

I stood, getting pissed off. “You really, really need to tell me what’s going on, and how you got from ‘obey’ to ‘world domination,’ and why you’d think I’d want it.”

He opened his mouth to speak, and then a look of alarm spread across his face. “That’s gonna have to wait. We need to get you out of here.”

“What? Where? Why?”

“Up.” Jason snapped his fingers, and Jack and Jill flew to his shoulders settling in protectively. “Someone’s screaming pretty loud in a lot of heads—you saw, I wasn’t the only oracle to get the message.” He put the glasses back on and turned toward me. Both birds swiveled their heads along with him. It was eerie, being regarded times three.

“How many others?”

“Dunno yet, but from the shape of it, all of the oracles.”

I was about to protest when I heard shouts down the hall.

“What are you doing, bitch!”

“Oh my God, Frances drove off the road! I felt her die!”

There were more screams. Will grabbed me.

“C’mon, Zoe. We need to get you some place safe.”

A young boy, probably not even old enough to have finished Fangborn Academy, stopped in the hall when he saw me and went on one knee. “What do you require, Hellbender?”

I ran.

Claudia Steuben found us later; Jason, Will, and I had holed up in an empty conference room and I’d responded to her anxious text. She looked haggard, and I kept forgetting that just because I was having adventures didn’t mean my friends weren’t also overwhelmed with current events. We were only days out from the Boston battle, only days, maybe hours away from I-Day.

“How are you?” she asked.

“Confused.”

Claudia’s professional demeanor as a psychiatrist was still reassuring to me. “For good reason. It seems you’ve been reaching a wide audience, Zoe.”

“It’s not me. I swear.” I started pacing. “Did everyone hear the same thing?”

“Yes. Every oracle sensed or heard ‘Hellbender.’ Which was interesting, because while no one really knows you by that name, they all had an image of you in their heads.”

I swallowed. “Okay, I’m pretty sure it was the Makers.” I explained what I thought I knew about them. “The uh, head one? I don’t really know his name, but think of him as the Administrator. He said he’d give me some help, because he wants me to be their . . . uh, contact person, for . . . sorting everyone out.”

“Sorting?”

“Well, he thinks things are a little chaotic here and wants me to make it less so.” I told her about the meeting and how Fangborn were supposed to be the ones running the show. “It’s just that we didn’t turn out the way they usually expect, and the dragons are powerful but old and sleepy. And rather than us killing bad guys, we should be . . . ruling.”

Claudia looked at me quizzically. I nodded, my eyes wide: It was exactly as bad and big as I was saying.

“Claudia, it was only months ago I found out I was a werewolf. Then Pandora’s Box gave me the bracelet, and that led to finding other artifacts that are playing havoc with me, turning me into an armored monster. Suddenly I’m dealing with things—the Makers, dragons—that most Fangborn don’t know about! I am talking to politicians! About I-Day! I mean, WTF?”

“Zoe—”

“We’ve, you’ve, been hiding from Normals for millennia and I’m a complete noob and now . . . I’m the one who’s going to start outing our entire Family? I am not far enough up the food chain of command for any of this!”

“Okay, we need to tell Heck and the others. We’re going to have to get this information out fast.”

Claudia put out her hand. I nodded, took it, and got up. “I can add it to the formal statement I’m working on with the congresswoman and Senator Knight.”

“I think you ought to. And, Zoe, you might want to brace yourself for what we run into out there.” She nodded to