The Prophecy (Daughters of the People Series Book 1) (29 page)

James cupped her
hand. “Did he say who?”

“No. He just
said he’d been looking for the Prophecy and something about his dad. I think
something bad happened. You know, to make Mr. Alexiou crazy.”

“Why didn’t you
tell me this before?”

“I didn’t want
you to be mad at me.” Amelia’s face crumpled and a sob escaped her throat. “Mom
was trying to protect me when that guy killed her. It was my fault she died.”

“No, honey.”
James rose and pulled her into a hug. “It’s not your fault. You had nothing to
do with that, ok?”

Maya and Dierdre
slipped out of the room, tears trickling down Dierdre’s furious face. She and
Amelia had grown so close, and from Dierdre’s expression, it appeared she’d
taken Amelia under her protective wing, much the way her mother had done with
him.

He held Amelia through
a storm of tears and quiet sobs, murmuring softly to her, reassuring her that
everything would be ok, even if it never was again. How could it be when her
mother was gone? Linda might not have been the best parent when it came to
remembering the little things, but she’d loved Amelia so much. She’d been a
good mother, and he hated that Amelia had lost her, that Linda’s life had been
wasted on the whim of a madman.

Amelia’s tears
wound down. James dried her tears and, when he was sure she was ok, encouraged her
to get ready for bed. As soon as she’d scooted off toward the safety of
Dierdre’s friendship, he began cleaning dishes off the table. Maya joined him a
few minutes later.

“Dierdre ok?” he
asked.

“Yes. Amelia?”

“She will be.”
Somehow, some way, his daughter would be fine, no matter what he had to do to
help her get to that point.

Maya helped him
load the dishwasher, and after, he sent her off to rest on the couch while he
finished. Somehow, the girls had managed to strew flour from one end of the little
kitchenette to the other, and had dirtied what looked like every pot, pan, and
cooking utensil while they were at it.

James scowled at
a gooey egg beater and dunked it under running water. He’d been lumping Dierdre
with Amelia as if she weren’t just his daughter’s friend and the child of his
lover, but part of his family. He and Maya hadn’t quite settled things that
afternoon, but they would, and soon. He loved Maya and he knew she loved him,
too, but they couldn’t keep playing at being together. If they were going to
act like a family, they should
be
a family.

He was just
old-fashioned enough to want to be married to the woman sleeping in his bed
while his daughter was under the same roof. If he had his way, that’s exactly
where Maya would be later on that night, and exactly where he wanted her to be
for the rest of their lives.

He stuffed the
last dirty dish into the dishwasher, turned it on, and padded into the living
area. Maya was curled up on the couch fast asleep, her face half buried in the
pillow. She’d overdone it. Hadn’t he told her to take it easy for a while?

He scrubbed a
hand over his hair, ruffling it into an untidy mess. Ok, there were only two
beds in the apartment. The girls were in one, and it might be manly, but he
wasn’t sleeping on the couch, not on Maya’s first night home. He strode into
his bedroom and turned down the covers on his bed, then crept into the living
room and carried her through the apartment. After everything they’d been
through, he couldn’t stand not having her near. Tomorrow they’d settle the
issue of family, and soon, maybe they’d be one.

* * *

The next
morning, Maya and James dropped Dierdre and Amelia off at school. Maya stared
through the passenger’s side window of James’ car, following their progress
through the school grounds as they mingled with their friends and disappeared
into the school’s entrance.

James had insisted
on driving, though the entire IECS campus was scarcely a mile across. Hardly a
difficult walk on a bad day, let alone a bright, fall morning like that one. Maya
hadn’t argued nearly as hard as she should’ve. She was still a little weak and
her shoulder wasn’t healing nearly as quickly as she was used to her body
healing. She sighed and rested her forehead on the window. Maybe it would never
heal properly, but it was a small price to pay, all things considered.

“She’ll be ok, won’t
she?” James asked.

“She will be,
once she’s had time to adjust.” Maya shifted in the seat, facing him. “Kids are
more resilient than we give them credit for being.”

“Yeah, I guess.”
He glanced away and ruffled his fingers through the hair at his nape. “Are we
in a hurry?”

“We don’t have a
set time we need to see the director, if that’s what you mean. Why?”

His mouth
thinned. “This isn’t how I wanted to do this.”

“Do what?”

“Ask you to
marry me. We never really got around to that yesterday.”

“Hmm.”

“I mean, I
thought I might ask you to dinner and give you a ring or something.” He huffed
out a short laugh and shook his head. “Lame, I know, but it’s traditional,
right? But here we are in a car watching our daughters walk to school together
and…”

Maya laid a hand
gently on his forearm. “Here’s fine, especially if you’ll just go ahead and
ask.”

“Yeah?” A slow
grin curled the corners of his mouth and crinkled the corners of his eyes into
a smile. “I love you. Marry me.”

Her own lips
twitched into a grin. “Ok. When?”

“Today would be
great, maybe tomorrow. A week, tops.”

She laughed and
kissed him, savoring the slow press of his mouth against hers, the warmth of
his skin, the quiet love they’d found. Her heart turned over and something
beautiful and light bubbled through her, spilling over into their kiss.

“Mmm.” She
pulled back, breaking their embrace before they got carried away. “Director
Upton’s waiting.”

He groaned. “You
had to remind me.”

He started the
car and eased into the road, and a few minutes later, parked outside the
building housing the director’s office. Rebecca was waiting for them and sat
quietly through James’ update on his recent findings, her hand palm down on the
report he’d given her, covering his translation of the Prophecy of Light.

“Thank you, Dr.
Terhune,” she said. “I hope you’ll consider continuing your work with the
IECS.”

He leaned back
in his chair and glanced at Maya. “Actually, my work with the Sandy borg
artifacts is nearly finished. I’ve even managed to piece together a loose
narrative based on them.”

Rebecca arched
an elegant blonde eyebrow. “So you’ll be leaving us then?”

Maya smiled. “I’ve
almost convinced him to stay on permanently, Director. James has asked me to
marry him.”

“And you said
yes. Congratulations to the both of you. Will you be holding a traditional
ceremony?”

“A traditional
ceremony?” James asked.

Maya groaned.
“She means a traditional wedding of the People.”

“And that’s
different from a regular ceremony, how?”

“You don’t want
to know,” she said firmly. To Rebecca, she said, “We haven’t gotten that far
yet.”

Rebecca tilted
her seat back. “You will, of course, take him to see the Oracle.”

Maya nodded. There
were some traditions worth keeping, and that was one. “Of course, Director.”

“Good then. Dr.
Terhune, please let me know what I can do to assist with any additional work
you do regarding the Sandby borg artifacts.”

“There is one
thing. I understand Tom Fairfax has been updating the Archives’ cataloging
system and adding better inventory lists.” James leaned forward and met
Rebecca’s gaze evenly. “I thought we might want to search the Archives for
documents related to Sanctuary, anything that might help us understand the
records from the Sandby borg site better. Would it be possible for him to do
that while I work my way through the rest of the Sandby borg items? He probably
has the best grasp on how to find things at the moment, and we could really use
some help.”

“Yes, of
course,” Director Upton agreed. “I also have another recommendation, someone
who assisted heavily when we first began building the Archives here. I can’t
guarantee she’ll come, but I’ll try to persuade her of the importance of the
work being done here.”

James rose and
shook Rebecca’s hand. “I appreciate that.”

“Anything to
assist with your work, particularly if it helps us locate Sanctuary,” Rebecca
said.

Maya and James
left not long after. As soon as they were in the car, he said, “Ok, I know you
guys have a long history together, but sometimes I feel like you’re speaking a
different language. What is the Oracle?”

“If you’ll drive
to the Archives, I’ll show you.”

“The Oracle is in
the Archives.”

“Yes and no. I
promise I’ll explain, but it’s better if you see this with your own eyes.” She
gripped his hand, a silent plea for understanding. “Much like the origin myth.”

“Ah. Ok.”

He drove them to
the Archives’ parking area and helped her out of the car, his hands gentle. She
let him, not necessarily out of a need for assistance. She enjoyed his touch,
enjoyed having him near, and she was beginning to rely on his strength as much
as her own.

Maya signed out
a golf cart and showed James around the Archives. He’d never been beyond the
reading room before. As they traveled deeper and deeper into the mountain
housing some of the People’s most valuable items, she outlined its history.

“Members of the
People who originally settled here came because it was a frontier, a place
where they were free to live as they chose. They befriended the local tribes,
including the Cherokees, and eventually founded the town of Tellowee.”

“So Tellowee is
a Cherokee name?” James asked. “I wondered.”

“It means ‘white
oak grove,’ and yes, it’s Cherokee. The People discovered a system of caves
here and eventually expanded and modified them into the Archives, as technology
improved and necessity demanded. The mountain is solid granite, but the caves could
be humid.”

“Hence the need
for technology.”

“Right. More
importantly, the People could fall back here in an emergency, and they often
did.”

He gazed around
them, his eyes roaming over the concrete-lined halls and the doors spaced at
irregular intervals. “I can imagine. This place is huge on the inside.”

Maya turned into
one of the older, narrower tunnels and slowed their speed. “We’ve added to it
over time. The area we’re in now is part of the original cave system, whereas
the Archives is housed in the newer sections. Technology,” she reminded him.
“And because we have the room and the security, many of the other settlements
of the People have opted to send some of their holdings here.”

He jerked
around, facing her. “Wait. Tellowee isn’t the only one?”

She shook her
head, sending a mass of kinky curls flying around the sides of her face. “There
are a handful of places like Tellowee around the world, places where the People
can live in relative peace.”

“How many of you
are there? Surely not that many.”

“There are
nearly three thousand immortal Daughters at the moment, more or less, and more
mortal Daughters and Sons. We stop counting the number of mortals after the
second generation from immortality.”

Maya eased the
golf cart to a stop outside the entrance to the Oracle’s chamber and nodded to
the two Handmaidens flanking a large, heavy door. “Here we are.”

One handmaiden
entered information into a keypad affixed to one side of the door, then waited
while Maya pressed her thumb to the scanner plate and entered a second code.
The door’s lock released, and the Handmaidens pulled the door open, allowing
James and Maya to enter.

Here, the tunnel
was even narrower, wide enough for just two people to walk side by side. The
light fixtures were recessed into the walls and gave off a scant glow. The dim
lighting combined with the close quarters and a damp chill turned the tunnel
slightly spooky. In spite of the creep factor, younger Daughters somewhat
irreverently called it the Tunnel of Love.

After twenty
feet, the tunnel widened into a roughly round room with concrete walls, floor,
and ceiling. Seven alcoves were evenly spaced around the room, each containing
an artifact lit by a small spotlight, each one believed to have been a
possession of one of the Seven Sisters. Two Handmaidens guarded the tunnel’s
terminus. Two others stood at attention in the center of the room at the foot
of a rolling gurney draped with cloth. A fifth Handmaiden sat in a chair next
to the bed, book in hand. She glanced up when Maya and James entered and smiled
sweetly at them.

On the platform,
a woman lay prone. She was dressed warmly and covered from head to toe by a
transparent veil. A quiet reverence filled Maya. This woman had come to play a
central role in the People’s rituals, binding them together as surely as any
legend or prophecy or shared history.