Hellbender - Dana Cameron Page 0,8

out not too long after,” Rose corrected. “Zip, boom, squish.”

“We’ll be twenty-one next year,” Ash added.

“We always work together,” said Ivy.

“But we can work with other oracles easily, which is kinda rare,” Rose said.

“It’s a real gift,” Ash said. “We get a lot of work because of that.”

“It’s nice to meet you after focusing on you for so long,” Ivy said.

“I’ve been seeing you for ages,” Rose said.

“Like I said before, she nagged and nagged until we came here.” Ash sighed.

“We usually wait until two of us have it, but this was different, somehow. So, yeah, I nagged.”

“And it was a good thing, too.” Ivy nodded. “It was the missing part to a puzzle the oracles had over here. They were expecting someone.”

“It took them a while to realize that we weren’t the ones they were expecting.”

“Because we’re totally famous.”

I was starting to get the hang of them continuing each other’s sentences, one complete thought shared among the three of them.

“Now, now,” Ash said suddenly. His voice took on something of Okamura-san’s quality, when I noticed her hand on his. “That’s enough talk about you.”

But the triplets had to have the last word. “Perhaps you’ve heard of us?” Rose said.

“Um, no,” I said. “Sorry.” Maybe it was a triplet thing, that finishing a sentence for each other, but I was willing to bet that like other oracles, they were completely weird. They were bright enough, but they certainly didn’t act as though they were from our planet.

“She’s a stray,” Ivy explained.

“That’s not a nice word!” Rose protested.

“Baka!” Ivy spat back.

“And that’s a worse one!” Ash said. Then his voice changed. “I think that will be enough,” Okamura-san via Ash said. “Now!”

“We’re sorry,” all three said.

“Well, it’s true, I wasn’t raised in the Family or with Fangborn culture. ‘Stray’ is as good as anything to describe me, I guess. Is there anything you can tell me about what you saw?” I said, setting my chopsticks down.

“I saw the mess in Boston coming,” Ivy said. “That’s why everyone thought we should be there.”

“I saw the mess in Boston, too,” Rose said, “but I saw you, and you weren’t in Boston. You were here.”

“So we hightailed it over here, having exchanged a few emails first.”

“And nothing more about me?” I asked. “Or why I’m here?”

“No, nothing like that yet.” Rose laughed.

“But we can do a reading tonight,” Ash said.

Silence from the other side of the table.

Ash and Rose stood up. “Ivy?”

She’d dropped her chopsticks. Her eyes were blank, staring straight ahead.

“Ivy?” the other two said again.

Ivy screamed.

Chapter Three

Somewhere in an unoccupied part of my mind, I heard the crash and tinkle of breaking porcelain. It occurred to me that this was exactly how pottery entered the archaeological record, and I wondered briefly if it could be repaired.

The other 98 percent of my brain was riveted on Ivy’s screams and the reactions from everyone around the table.

Rose and Ash pulled out soft gloves and put them onto Ivy’s hands. Once that was done, they held her hands carefully. Ash stroked her head as she continued to scream. Rose dipped a napkin into some water and brushed her cheeks with it.

Okamura-san got a notebook, a pile of maps, and a pen.

Ivy’s siblings joined hands and closed their eyes. Ivy gasped a bit longer, then began to speak. “One of us, in the dark. One of us, in new enemy hands. One of the enemy—how quickly he appeared!”

“How close?” Ash asked.

“Medium range,” Rose said.

Ash kept his eyes closed; Okamura-san picked up the map, glanced at him, and then took a pair of dividers and found the scale. She put one point on a part of the map and turned the dividers in a small circle, no more than two inches across. She pointed at where the line intersected a fresh red mark and paused, staring intently, waiting for Ash’s next unspoken communication.

“Ivy’s telling us the Order has made an attack on one of our safe houses,” Ash said, “which is not far away. They used one of our oracles to time it. They’re fighting now. Somehow someone who shouldn’t be there is.”

A sick feeling began to well in my stomach. I was pretty sure I knew who it was.

“It came with you!” Rose said. “That new enemy! You brought it here.”

“Please,” Ivy pleaded. Her eyes were open now, tear streaks drying on her cheeks. “We need to get them out now. Who is this new guy?”

I nodded. “If it’s what I think, it’s a member of