“Is that why you won’t feed from a live human? Because to do so means you will become what Sig and the Tribunal want you to be?”
I swallowed hard. “Probably.”
“Oh, Secret.” She touched the crown of my head delicately. “I should have been honest with you long before now, but Sig said it would only confuse you. But I think you’re stronger now than you were all those years ago.”
“What’s wrong?” I couldn’t hide the quiver of worry from sneaking into my voice. Her buildup made it seem like she was about to tell me I had a terminal illness and was living on borrowed time. Although in my line of work all time was borrowed anyway.
“Do you know how I do what I do?” she asked.
“How you…oracle?”
Her hand dropped from my hair, and she leaned her head back. “Fore—” She sighed, and I was familiar with the sound. I made the same exasperated exhalation whenever I was with my vampire protégée Brigit. Not a good sign. “Close enough,” she concluded.
“I assumed you had visions or something.”
“Not exactly.” Calliope grabbed my hand and turned it palm up. “All mortal beings have a path. And most of them will follow it precisely as it is laid out for them.” She trailed a manicured fingernail over the long line down the middle of my palm. “For most people I can tell what will happen to them because I can see their path.”
“Ohhh-kay.”
She ignored me and grabbed my other hand, putting the palms side by side. “You aren’t like most people.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
“All right.” She traced the line on my left hand. “Yours is a destiny divided.”
I looked at my palms, hoping they could explain what her cryptic words meant. Her nail followed one line, then moved to the right hand and trailed along the middle line there, which was significantly longer, bisecting the entire palm where the one on my left hand was only about two inches long.
“What do you mean by divided?”
“You have two potential destinies.”
“That’s impossible. You just said everyone has a path, we follow that path, live our lives and die. A person can’t have two destinies.”
Calliope pressed my hands together and put them in my lap. They began to tremble.
“No. I said most people, not everyone.”
“So what are my paths?”
“You are part of two worlds, Secret. Each one of them represents a path. Whichever world you choose to align yourself with is the path you will be on. I cannot see all the way, and you haven’t chosen your path yet.”
I unclasped my hands and stared down at them. “What is the line in the middle?”
“Your lifeline.” She held up her own palm, and it was utterly smooth, not a line in sight. As a true immortal, I gathered trivial things like lifelines didn’t come up very often for her.
“One of mine is shorter than the other.”
“Yes.”
I didn’t say anything. Part of me wanted to ask her which path was which, and what it meant that one line was so much longer, but I had a pretty good idea. The long line must be my vampire life, and the short one if I choose to stay with the wolves. I pressed my palms back together.
“What if I keep going as I am now? Living in both worlds.”
“Is that what you’re doing, Secret? Living? Or are you being torn apart?”
My eyelid twitched, and I got to my feet abruptly, hurt by her words. “I didn’t ask for this, you know. I was born this way, and I’m doing the best I know how with it.”
Calliope nodded and watched me, but there was sadness in her eyes I couldn’t ignore.