"Sofia, Han tells me you've gotten quite good at reading people," he said. "The quarterly council meeting is tonight. You'll get to meet all my council members."
Dread trickled through her.
"You can tell me who the traitors are."
"Is this what Oracles do?" she forced herself to ask.
"Oracles do many things, but this is one of them," Dustin responded. "It's unfortunate you don't have a mentor to show you more about your talents. The ability for you to determine a traitor from a loyalist is one of your most valuable talents. It's also what makes people hate Oracles."
"People hate Oracles?" she repeated, distraught.
"Let me rephrase-people fear Oracles. It's a good thing. The more people fear you, the less they'll fuck with you," Dustin said.
She rested her chin on her knees, gazing at Damian.
"You'll identify the traitors," Damian continued.
"Then we take them out back and-" Dustin ran his finger across his throat.
"You kill them?" she whispered, horrified. She gripped her throat with one hand.
"Bad people," Damian said. "People who would kill you. People like Czerno. Dusty takes care of these kinds of people."
"Yep," Dustin agreed.
She shuddered as the distant sensation of burning returned. If any man deserved death, it was Czerno. But did any man deserve death? And if she told Damian who to kill, did that make her worse than them? Her eyes slid to Dustin as she tried to reconcile the executioner with the man who liked presents. She met Damian's gaze.
"Ours is not a pretty world, kiri," he said firmly. "This is what you are."
It wasn't the reassurance she hoped for.
Stop Claire, Darian all but demanded. Trust Damian.
The dead man was getting annoying. The plan to identify traitors made sense, as ugly as it was. Who better to weed out traitors than the one who could see them for what they were?
"I wanted to see if you're to the point where you don't need human touch," Damian said, gesturing to the pictures.
She shook her head. She leapt up and closed the door behind her, turmoil in her breast. She didn't belong in the human world anymore, and yet, she couldn't just dump it. Her thoughts darkened and returned to Cody and Jake.
No, she could never become as cold and accepting of death as the men around her, even if they were at war with a monster like Czerno.
But it's my fate.
*****
Damian's gaze lingered on the door after the Oracle fled. Something more than Dusty killing bad guys was upsetting her.
"Wasn't expecting that. Wanna visit the sector?" he asked, turning his attention to Dusty. "I'll show you what Rainy's guys found."