“I’m not the one that got captured,” I said, crossing my arms.

Darkness slowly blinked. “Is that right? Not even once?”

“Shut up,” I said, puffing out my bottom lip.

Darkness laughed as he held out his hand. “Let us be on our way, then. At least, if we get captured again, it will be together.”

“Then who will save you?” I retorted, biting back a laugh.

“You must think you’re amusing,” Darkness said flatly, fixing his stony gaze on me.

I shrugged as I looked at my fingernails. “A little.”

“Let’s see if you’re still laughing after we travel to The Oracle,” Darkness said, turning toward the bedroom door. “Come.”

We stepped out from the safety of Darkness’s house and into a chilling drizzle. I shadowed his determined stride along a short path to a concealed shed nestled inside the gnarled branches of a dead tree.

In an instant, we stood before The Oracle’s house. My stomach churned as the front door creaked open.

“She will see us,” Darkness said, placing his hand on my back and guiding me along with him to the front door.

The Oracle paced the living room floor as we crossed the threshold. With a dismissive flourish, she gestured toward a pair of chairs, her head shaking.

“I know why you’re here,” she declared, her voice tinged with an unsettling tremor as she wrung her hands. She stopped and studied us both for a long moment. “I see. The recent developments between you do not help my vision, but it is good to see you doing better, Mace, The Bringer of Darkness.”

“Thank you, Oracle,” Darkness said, clasping his hands together and resting them in his lap. “I am feeling better.”

“It is not yet enough,” The Oracle said.

Darkness nodded knowingly. “I am struggling to sleep—”

“You haven’t yet tried,” she said, raising a brow.

“I will struggle because of my worries. We need to know what to do next,” Darkness said, leaning forward.

The Oracle grimaced as profound unease twisted her features. “I can not see what is to come.” She turned to him with a desperate intensity that sent a chill down my spine. “All I see is a tide of annihilation. Complete and utter destruction. Chaos.”

“What can I do?” I asked.

“You are the key. You are Balance,” The Oracle said, bowing her head. “Bringer of Balance, we need you to accept your role to stop the end of the world.”

Darkness shifted in his chair. I could feel his eyes burning into me with an intense urgency.

I abruptly turned to him. “You believe all this?”

“Years ago, Balance was destroyed in The Underworld,” The Oracle said, clearing her throat.

“My sister,” Darkness said, taking my hand in his. “We’ve mourned her loss and waited for far too long for her return. My brothers and sisters had started to lose hope until I found you.”

“I’m not your sister,” I scoffed, jerking my hand away as I got to my feet, taking a step away from both of them.

The Oracle’s head tilted, her gaze softening. “Balance is created when two people, one from heaven and one from hell, create a new Bringer of Balance. I have strong reasons to believe that is your role. This is your destiny.”

“I don’t believe in destiny,” I said with a dismissive laugh. “We all make our own destiny. I failed my family, and that is why I’m destined to suffer.”

“You are not,” The Oracle said confidently. “Your parents wanted to selfishly protect you from your fate, but they knew since the moment you were born how powerful you are.”

I shook my head. “This is ridiculous.”

“Balance had been lost to us for so long,” The Oracle said, pressing her palms together as she smiled. She looked me up and down before nodding. “Yes. I am positive. You are Balance reborn.”

I shook my head. “I wish I were, I guess, but I’m just a girl with a strange medallion stuck on her wrist.”

“If you can see and accept what you really are, perhaps the future will become more clear to me,” The Oracle said, her eyes opening wide with hope. She turned to Darkness, frowning when she saw the concerned look in his eyes. “If not, perhaps all will be lost.”

“Look, I wish I could help,” I said, tugging at the medallion. “I’ve tried to remove this so I can give it back to Darkness. I never meant for any of this to happen.”

The Oracle took a cautious step toward me, wrapping her hands around my wrist to hold the medallion in place. “It is yours. There is no doubt, as the medallion only wants to be with you. Just as it wanted to be with Balance before you.”

“I can’t even use it,” I said, clenching my teeth. “I don’t know how to convince you, but I’m not who you think I am. You’ve got something wrong. Perhaps the woman… Balance is still out there somewhere. Maybe there is still a chance to stop all this if we can find her.”

“I have an idea,” The Oracle said, sticking her finger into the air as her eyes gleamed. “Wait here.”

Darkness kept his eyes forward as The Oracle zipped out of the room. I sat back down on the chair next to him, placing my hand on his thigh.

“I’m not Balance. I’m not your sister. I’d like to help, but I don’t have any special abilities or anything.” My brow wrinkled with hopelessness. “Please, take it.”

“I can not do that,” Darkness said, meeting my gaze with an icy look.

I frowned. “We’re wasting time.”

“I don’t believe that is true. We need you,” Darkness said, shifting his eyes toward the noises in the next room. He exhaled slowly as his eyes focused on the medallion. “I believe with my entire soul that you are The Bringer of Balance.”

“I’m not your sister! We just… just…. Darkness,” I stammered, covering my mouth as I searched for the words. “I’m not who you want me to be, and I’m sorry for that, but you have to try to understand.”

Darkness laced his fingers slowly. “I know you are not my sister. Balance can enter any soul created in the way The Oracle explained. I know my sister is dead, but Balance somehow found its way inside you. You are The Bringer of Balance reborn.”

“If you die, then there will be a new Darkness?” I asked.

“There could be. I’m born out of fear,” Darkness said, swallowing as he met my eyes. “There was a Darkness before me, but I do not know of those times other than what I’ve been told.”

“What were you told?” I asked, staring into his eyes.

Darkness shook his head as he turned away. “It’s a long, haunting story. No one should have to be born as The Bringer of Darkness. But Balance is good. Balance is necessary. You are her. Please accept that.”

I was about to protest when The Oracle returned carrying a small onyx orb. “This will convince you!”

Chapter