It had happened, in gruesome detail, before our very eyes. "But she didn't know when. She told me the Oracle doesn't give specifics, and that's why she didn't believe it would happen."

"If the Oracle is telling Bella she'll definitely be in Boston in a few days, doesn't that seem a little suspicious?" Nathan turned to the werewolf. "I don't doubt you're getting visions, and that they're genuine. But you said yourself there were things you couldn't see."

"You think she's setting a trap?" While I didn't question Nathan's intelligence, I did question the Oracle's sanity. "She doesn't seem to have it together enough to do something like that."

"While I'm going to Boston regardless of what any of you chuckleheads say, you do have a point." Max stood and leaned against one of the massive marble columns framing the fireplace. "On the other hand, I've seen her tear a man's head clean off his body, so I'm disinclined to think she's not evil enough to set us up."

"Well, at least we agree on something," I grumbled. "She's capable of killing us all."

"That kind of thinking is not constructive," Bella snapped, glaring at me.

"If you go to fight the Oracle, you will lose." Nathan gripped the arms of the chair and rose to his feet "Don't be so stubborn about this that you get yourself killed!"

"Hey, hey!" I shouted, standing quickly to step between Nathan and Max. The testosterone level was growing to an unmanageable level. "We're not going to get anywhere fighting."

"That I can agree with," Bella sulked, still lying calmly on the floor.

I shot her an angry glance and turned to Nathan. "At the very least, Max and Bella should try to find out more about this Oracle situation. Now, if that means going to Boston—"

"Which I'm going to do, anyway," Max snarled.

I raised a palm to silence him. "If that means going, then maybe they have to go. But they don't have to engage in full-on combat. They can do some recon, find out what she's up to, and get back to us."

I turned to Max. "You have to admit, it's pretty stupid to rush in to kill her when we don't even know what she's got planned. What's to say that if we kill her, the Soul Eater can't finish whatever it is she's started, if she's started anything at all?"

"You have a point," Max conceded.

Nathan wasn't so easily swayed. "And if the Oracle has an ambush waiting?"

"Max and Bella are Movement trained assassins." I refrained from pointing out Bella had been seriously injured and that Nathan and Max had been rendered powerless by the Oracle. "They're more than capable of taking care of themselves. Remember your training?"

"I remember," he said with gritted teeth. "But let's sup pose they go and follow the Oracle, and learn all her secrets. What are we going to be doing?"