The sun shined brightly and had for the last five days. I smiled to myself. It was nice to know I had something to do with the great weather. The next time it rained, hopefully that would be all it was—weather. No demon attached.

The guys—I couldn’t afford to think of them as my guys—were working furiously. I hardly saw them, and I’d started to wonder if that was on purpose. Maybe it was time for them to make a break from me. Or I’d done something to upset them.

As much as I loved the sunlight, I dragged my feet toward the house. Going to see if the horse carriage had brought any deliveries was exhausting. It was hard to sleep without them and that was a giant problem. I’d been alone for four nights. I had to get used to it again, fast, since they were leaving in three nights. Or sooner, from the looks of things.

“Ah, damn it.” Gordon jumped, pushing away from the house. I hadn’t seen him do it, but I bet he’d smashed his hand, again. The plumbing was done, and it looked like he was helping with the finishing touches.

Daniella’s husband, Max, looked at Anne’s Bryant then up at the sky. Bryant shook his head. I wasn’t sure what that unspoken communication was about, but Gordon held Bryant’s hand for a second before he shook it, hard.

“This is your fault,” he shouted at Lennon who turned around slowly. He dropped his screwdriver and rounded on Gordon.

I’d never seen Lennon get upset before. His eyes were huge, and he pointed his finger right in Gordon’s face. “It’s not my fault you are so clumsy you can’t use your hammer.”

Gordon shoved him. “Say that again.”

“Hey,” I called out, and they both turned toward me. Gordon stepped away from Lennon, and Neil shoved himself into the space between them.

“They’ll be fine. Little hot out today, that’s all.” He put his hands on both their shoulders. “Keep it together.”

Gordon nodded, picking his hammer back up. Neil nodded at me. “Hi, Mika. How are you?”

“I’m fine.” What I wanted to do was beg him to invite me to play cards with them or have dinner, but I wouldn’t do either thing. They knew I wanted to be there. If they weren’t asking me, it was purposeful. I had to respect the separation, even if it was killing me. I tried to smile. “How are you?”

He cleared his throat. Nearby, Bryant spoke to Milo. “It’s like watching someone take a beating over and over. Why fight it?”

“Can’t interfere,” Milo answered fast. “Sometimes a person declines their given path. We can’t make what should happen, happen.”

I didn’t know why they were talking about destiny right then. Didn’t they ever discuss just simple things? Like… what to have for dinner?

“Can I speak with you?” Neil touched my arm. “Over there a bit?”

Since he’d practically run away the day before when I’d approached, I was surprised he wanted to speak. I nodded and followed him toward the guesthouse.

“You’re okay?” He was asking me again?

I nodded. “Yes.”

“I… I know I haven’t been talking. I, um, we’ve been trying to figure out if we could make it work to stay here. Like open a shop in the nearby town and be with you. If that could work, is that something you would want?”

His words banged around in my head; they were so unexpected. “Is that something you want? All of you?”

“The reason we’ve been taking a little space is to figure that out. We seem to move in waves whether we think that’s a possibility or not. Then we realized as we were going back and forth… we don’t even know if it’s something you want.”

I swallowed, trying to be rational in my response. It wasn’t working.

“Neil, I understand what you’re trying to say to me. I really do. And…” I shook my head. Tears threatened to clog my throat. “I can’t make you want to stay with me or give you reasons why it’s a good idea. In fact, hearing you say that you had to discuss it? That you went back and forth? That you’re deciding? That is awful. Please don’t stay.”

The men I liked wanted me to tell them if I wanted them to stay? Anne’s men crossed the country to pull her out of a cage. Granted, these were not my soul mates. In the real world, people thought with their heads as much as their hearts. That was the problem. I wanted my soul mates. Where were they?

Once I opened the floodgates, letting my tears out, it was too much. I wasn’t going to be able to stop them. That was why I never went down this train of thought. I simply didn’t allow it. I bent over and grabbed onto my knees. I had to breathe.

“Mika, I think you’re misunderstanding me.”

Ren appeared next to Neil. “What did you do to her? Are you okay?”

I held up my hand. “Do I want you to stay? That is what you asked me. The answer is not yes or no.”

Ren groaned. “You asked her that?”

“I thought…”

I interrupted him. “Enough is enough. I want you to be so overwhelmed with the thought of leaving me that you couldn’t possibly consider doing so. That’s not fair to you. That’s something my destined soul mates should have felt. But I was… wrong somehow. It didn’t work out. That’s my burden to bear. I can’t expect you to have those kinds of feelings for me. You’ve known me weeks. So, no, don’t stay. Don’t. Because if you stay, I’m going to expect you to be that.” I choked on my words and reined them in. I had to keep it in. I had to. I stood straighter. “Go find your destinies and leave me to mine.”

I turned my back on them and tried not to flee. It was harder than it should have been. I just wanted to run. Neither one of them called out to me. The other three I passed turned to look at me and said nothing. They’d made pros and cons to stay with me. I bet I could list my cons.

I rounded the corner to the house and took the stairs two at a time. By the time I got to my rooms and closed the door, I was vibrating with pain.

Con—Has a crazy life. Can’t ever leave the Sisterhood without drawing demons.

Con—Is unwanted by other men. Who wants someone so clearly flawed that destined soul mates preferred to stay away?

On my worst days that was what I thought. I knew there might be other reasons, but right then? This was what came.

Con—Cursed and so therefore will never sleep well again.

Con—Can’t drink alcohol without shattering a glass.

Con—Has to steal people’s babies.

Con—

A yell outside caught my attention, and I darted to the window to look out. At the gate were Teagan and her Guards. I cried out, glad to see my friend. But my moment of joy faded as I saw she had what looked like fifty Sisters with her. They traveled out of carriages, each of Teagan’s men helping them. They wore the garb from the other Sisterhood, everything but the masks.

Some of them rocked back and forth, just as I had. Oh no. What had Katrina done? And…

I gasped. No! Behind them was a sight I’d hoped never to see. They were supposed to be gone. Demon wraiths.

They were the stuff of legends. Creatures so vile that the demons themselves had eliminated them. They were pale, thin. Almost non-substantial. They wore black cloaks that covered their bodies, showing only their pointy chins and red eyes. They were more smoke than solid, and they ate us alive. We couldn’t fight them.

Left to their own devices, those demon-like creatures would kill everyone and there would be no one left here for the regular horrible demons to abuse. The demons had wiped out the wraiths. Or they were supposed to have.

We couldn’t kill them.

I rushed from the door. The creatures floated in the sky. I could see them. The others might not yet. I rushed down the stairs and out the front door nearly colliding with Krystal, who was doing the same thing.

“Is that…,” she cried out.

“Yes,” I called back. “Go to the children. Get to the nannies and the kids. Get them into a closet. Something. Protect the kids.” No, that wouldn’t do. There was no hiding from wraiths. Only running. “Krystal, you need to take all the non-divinity touched people and you need to get them away. Carriages. Start with them. If we’re going to survive this, there is only one thing to do.”

I ran from the house, leaving Krystal to do what I asked of her. She didn’t have powers anymore but that didn’t mean that she couldn’t be counted on. She would help.

“Wraith. Wraith. Wraith.” I pointed at the sky and everyone in the vicinity turned to where I indicated. Only the Sisters would see them. That was half the problem. Regular people never saw them coming. They just thought their friends and loved ones had died suddenly, not that they had been sucked dry by a demon wraith.

Anne called out first. “Run.”

I nearly collided with Neil, who reached for me. “I think you misunderstood.”

This was not the time but he wouldn’t be able to see the wraiths. He wouldn’t even know what they were. “Run.” I pushed at him. “You’re in mortal danger.” That got his attention. “You need to run. Go with Krystal. Go now. Out the back gate and don’t stop until you are far, far from here. Listen to her. Go, Neil. All of you, now.”

“What are you going to do?”

He didn’t need to hear the details. I didn’t know if I could save us or not. A woman screamed, and I whirled around. One of the Sisters Teagan had brought with her was in the embrace of the wraith. She writhed, seized, screamed. He fed from her and my powers lay dormant, as they would remain. We didn’t have the power to fight wraiths.

There was no beating a wraith.

Neil stared at the scene. “What’s wrong with her?”

He couldn’t see them. “She is being killed by a demon wraith. There is no stopping it. There is nothing I can do. I need you to go. Now. Before they kill you. Now. Go. You were going anyway. Go now. Go.” I shoved at him, hard. He didn’t budge. Neil was pure muscle. That was fine. He had to listen to me. “Go before you get killed.”

I ran from him even as he reached for me. I didn’t know what he would have said. Goodbye, maybe? We had once chance. There was more screaming, and Anne giving orders. I dove into the crawl space under the main house.

Only demons could beat wraiths. And we had one.

I crawled forward on my hands and knees, as fast as I could. My breaths came in bursts. My heart was in my ears. I was just as likely to be killed under the house. Even with my powers turned on—which they did now that I was near a demon—I couldn’t handle the wraiths. Five. We had five wraiths floating in the Sisterhood. I’d never have thought it possible.

“Bob,” I called out. “Please. Please. Please.” I was begging a demon.

“Oracle? Why are you here?”

“Wraiths. There are wraiths.” He might not care. He didn’t want to be involved. Yet, the demons had always hated the wraiths.

“That is not possible.” He sounded like he yawned. “They are gone.”

“They are here. Five of them now.”

There was silence. Had he gone to sleep? “They dare defile my place of rest? Oracle, if I were you, I would get out of the way.”

I nodded and backed up. Crawling backward was awkward, but I did my best.

The scene in front of me when I got out from under the house was chaos. Anne and Daniella shot orders. I saw Krystal, baby in her arms, jump on a carriage. They took off. My guys were nowhere to be seen. Neither were Brooke and the other employees. Alexander was missing. The wraiths still went after the Sisters Teagan had brought.

Her Guard—Aidan—dragged her backward. She screamed and yet those Sisters didn’t move. They rocked. They were lost in the darkness in their minds. I knew it well. What happened if you died there? Were you stuck forever?

I ran toward them. They couldn’t even run away. I never got a chance to reach them. Instead, our house started to shake. I whirled around. Bob was coming. He was…

One second our house was there, the next it was rubble. Anne grabbed my arm. “What is happening?”

“I got help.” Help that was going to destroy our home. That was okay. It didn’t matter where we slept. We couldn’t die like this. In seconds, our beautiful home, the one my guys had fixed, was rubble. Standing in the center of the rubble was the biggest demon I’d ever seen. Anne wrapped her arms around me and soon Daniella and Teagan joined us. We held each other tightly, their Guards surrounding us in a circle. The other Sisters rocked where Teagan had left them. Two of her Guards stayed with them.

It didn’t matter. The wraiths were picking them off one by one. They’d have Teagan’s Guards in any second. She shouted at them to move. My attention was all on the demon in front of us.

The wraiths weren’t the only things that shouldn’t have been there.

I’d called him Bob. I hadn’t been far off. Anne spoke the words the rest of us couldn’t. “Beelzebub.”

We didn’t just have an original demon under our house. We’d had a creator. My legs threatened to give out. Why had divinity sent us here to live with him?

It didn’t matter. If ever there was a demon who could take on the wraiths…

“Funny.” I swallowed. Or I tried to. “He looks just like his pictures.”

“My baby got away.” Anne didn’t seem to be making sense, or maybe she was. In the end, that was what mattered. “He’s going to need…” She turned around. “Mason, run. Please. He needs you.”

He shook his head. “Too late. I would have if I’d realized what was happening. Krystal has him. We’ll go for him as soon as this,” he nodded toward the demon rising, “is over.”

Daniella shook. “My girls are gone, too.” She bit down on her lip. “And if this is it, then… I’m glad to be standing with women such as you.”

The demon was all black, like night was black, like death was black, like the path in my mind had been black. There wasn’t really a color equivalent for what he was. Yet, he had a shape. From the top of his horns to the bottom of his feet, I could see he was real, he was there, and he was scary as hell.

We couldn’t clear him. We couldn’t beat him. Our powers, even all together, were a joke.

Above our heads, the ravens cawed, the spirits screamed. “Teagan?” I asked her because she could see the future. She was the prophet.

“No future. There is just… nothing.”

I ripped out of their arms. All three of them had things to lose. People who loved them and needed them back. I had nothing but a dream of five men who had discussed and swayed on whether to stay with me. That wasn’t love. I’d had weeks of fun. I had to convince my heart that was all it was. It didn’t matter anyway.

Sometimes the wraiths won. I didn’t want to know if the demon wraiths could beat Beelzebub.

I ran forward. “Hey, Bob.” I’d used that name with him. He didn’t seem to mind. I waved my hands at him. “Hi, there.”

“Oracle.” He acknowledged me. Now that I knew who he was, whatever doubt I had about my own identity fled. I was the Oracle. Okay, that was happening.

I pointed at the wraiths. They drifted toward us. “You see them, right? I mean you’re not blind for having been under the house?”

“No, but you will be. You know that right? They always blind the Oracle.”

What? No, I didn’t know that. Blinded?

“Mika,” Anne cried out, “maybe best not to annoy Beelzebub.”

I nodded at Sister Superior, but still, I wasn’t done. “Could you get the wraiths?”

He laughed. “As you wish.”

The demon raised his hand. At twelve feet tall, seeing all of him was tough. I had to stretch my head back to watch him do so. He spoke in a language I didn’t know, which was impressive because I’d been trained in them all. Yet, I didn’t know what he said. The gravel from the road outside lifted, spinning. The ground seemed to open up beneath it. There was a hole in the earth. He spoke louder, and the wraiths were actually tugged toward the hole. The demon got louder.

Two of our Sisters were sucked into the hole

“No,” I cried out, rushing forward.

Beelzebub shook his head. With his other hand he sent a gush of wind to knock me backward. “They are nothing. You matter.”

“No one is nothing,” I shouted back, trying to haul myself from the ground. “Everyone matters.”

Anne threw herself on top of me. “Stop arguing with the demon, Mika.”

I knew she was right. But I wasn’t afraid of him. I might be out of my mind. But I wasn’t afraid.

The wraiths flew underground. The dirt closed back up. The world was so still that even the birds were silent.

“Nasty pests.” Bob spoke our language again. “I will go. For two years. When I return, this house will be rebuilt.”

And he vanished.

I lay on the ground in the silence. Teagan pulled out of Daniella’s arms and ran toward the Sisters who were still alive by the gate. I did a quick count. Had we really lost twenty? Twenty souls just gone from our Order? That fast?

My hands shook, and I pulled my knees to my chest as Anne got off me to throw herself into the arms of all five of her Guards. Daniella collapsed into the waiting arms of hers. And Teagan, in the distance, hugged each of the Sisters she’d brought who still lived then wept into the shoulders of her Guards, one after another.

I sat in the dirt.

No one came for me. No one would.

The ravens cawed first. They were the first sound I heard again in a world that had silenced. I rose to my feet.

“Brother Reed.” I had no memories of him. Only what I had heard from Teagan. He was the raven with the white feather. The original raven. The soul who collected the very best souls and asked them to love a Sister. Together, with the true Sister Superior, they matched us. Kismet.

The bird did not become a man. He stayed a bird, circling above, ever watching.

“I would have loved my Guards. I would have. I’m so flawed. So… mediocre when it comes to powers, and I don’t want to be the Oracle. I cannot believe I agreed to it. But perhaps I had no choice. I would have loved them. Tell them, wherever they are in the universe, that I would have loved them. As best I could for as long as I could.”

The spirits cried out, and I ignored them. I was not interested in duty.

I had nothing but mess. No home. No things. No loves. Nothing. Just a broken house and a demon who had told me I would be blinded and ordered us to clean up his house.

Why had divinity sent us here?

I sunk back down. There would be lots of time to clean this up.

Alexander came back first. He rushed at me, throwing his arms around me as I stood, staring at what I thought had been the kitchen. No one else was coming. How had he gotten here?

I asked him, and he shook his head. “I ran. I was so scared. I heard about the wraiths. So I ran. But I didn’t get far. I couldn’t leave you here. You’re my family.”

“I have Sisters, and we mean a lot to each other, but I’ve never had family. I’d like to be your family, Alexander.”

He squeezed tighter. I needed that hug. Although I wished I didn’t have to ask, I was compelled to know. “Did you see Neil? Wayne? Gordon? Ren? Or Lennon?”

“They took off, but I haven’t seen them since. The house is gone.” He spoke the obvious in the way only young children could.

I nodded. “It is. We’ll try to rebuild it.”

He squeezed my hand. “You will.”

Where did this utter and complete faith in me come from? I’d done nothing to earn it. Yet, there it was given with no expectation of anything, except the hardest thing in the world which was that I should never let him down. Others had taught him—Anne, Daniella, and Teagan were gifted women. Did he recognize that we were alone together?

The sounds of coming carriages caught my attention. Had the birds told them to come back? I walked forward. The Guards were building fires. Teagan would sleep in the guesthouse—she was pregnant—and Daniella’s girls would when they came back, too. Daniella would try to resist but we’d insist she join them. The rest of us would camp outside. I’d see if they had a bed for Alexander. His only home had just been leveled.

I watched. Each person stepping out of the carriage was a relief. But none of them were my five. They hadn’t boarded the carriages, I knew that, so I didn’t know where the ridiculous hope of seeing their faces came from. They didn’t arrive.

Mason walked over, placed a hand on my shoulder, and smiled at me before he made a fire. There was a rock nearby. I sat on it.

Families were reuniting, and staff that was as trusted as family came back. Krystal plopped down next to me.

“Despite the spirits hollering at Daniella’s daughters—they could hear them by the way—I wasn’t sure if you’d all be dead. Glad to see your face, Mika.”

I smiled at her. Just because I was dead inside didn’t mean that I had to rain on everyone’s parade. “I’m glad to see your face, too. You missed Beelzebub.”

Her mouth fell open. “Tell me.”