“There’s one problem with it.” Olivia checked the time. “It’s getting late in the day. We might not be able to get to Fogg Lake before the fog rolls in. You can’t drive through that stuff. It shuts down all traffic on the old highway every evening like clockwork. If we get caught in it we’ll have to spend the night in the car on the side of the road.”

“It’s that bad?”

“It’s not normal fog. It’s infused with the paranormal radiation from the lake and the caves.”

“But the worst-case scenario is that we end up sleeping in the car?”

“Yes.”

“Not the end of the world.”

She raised her brows. “You haven’t experienced that kind of fog, have you? It’s not the end of the world, but it is . . . disturbing.”

“Understood. Can you handle it if necessary?”

“Yes,” she said. “I can handle it.”

She sounded as if she were speaking through gritted teeth.

Everything she was saying sounded logical and sensible. But her lack of emotional reaction to the near-death experience they had both gone through in the past few minutes worried him. Oracles were notoriously delicate. Fragile. The nature of their talent made them acutely sensitive to psychic trauma. He wondered if Olivia was in some sort of fugue state. The paranormal radiation in the burning mirrors had been very strong. Maybe it had affected her senses.

He gunned the engine coming out of a curve and shot Olivia a quick look, trying to get a fix on what was happening to her. He had to know what he was dealing with. The last thing he needed was to lose his oracle to a psychic crisis. She looked okay, as far as he could tell. In control. But no one knew better than he did that looks were deceiving.

“Stop that,” she said. Frost coated each word. “This is not my first rodeo. I’m not going to fall apart on you. Not until it’s over, at any rate.”

“Good. That’s good.” He hesitated. “What do you mean when you say that what happened back there was not your first rodeo?”

“When I was in my teens my friend Catalina and I witnessed a murder. And I told you, a while back I was kidnapped. The other night I took down a serial killer using a paranormal artifact that looks a lot like a camera.”

“Oh. Right.”

“Today I survived an explosion created by a bunch of paranormal mirrors. I am now on the run with a man I barely know, a monster talent who carries a gun.”

He clenched the steering wheel. “I see what you mean.”

“I know you think I’m an oracle and that my ability makes me a wild card. Unpredictable. You’re afraid I’m at the mercy of my talent rather than in control of it.”