Puck scratched the side of his face. “Well, after the, erm, misunderstanding in Hokaido, I decided I should probably put some distance between myself and temperamental snow-maidens. So, I headed out to Belize and was poking around these cool Mayan ruins, when all of a sudden the oracle pops in outta nowhere, being all mysterious and spooky. I think she tried to scare me with the dust and the light show, but I’ve seen so many things jump out and go boo, it’s just kinda sad, now.”

I started. “The oracle?”

“Yeah.” He shrugged. “She said I needed to hightail it back to the Nevernever, because you and ice-boy were gonna need my help soon. Didn’t give me much else to go on, only that the three of us had to be together to get past some big nasty coming up in our future. Naturally, I thought the two of you had gotten into some kind of trouble, so here I am. Uh, minus a few hitchhikers I picked up in Belize.” Puck crossed his arms, giving me an appraising look. “So, what’s the big emergency, princess? You and ice-boy look fine to me, and the Nevernever isn’t crumbling around us. What’s going on?”

“I’m pregnant, Puck,” I said quietly, and watched his eyebrows shoot into his hair. Briefly, I explained what had happened at Elysium, the oracle’s mysterious appearance and invitation, and Grimalkin’s instruction to meet him at the Wishing Tree. By the time I was done, Puck was still staring at me openmouthed, struck mute for maybe the second time in his life, and I would’ve laughed if the situation wasn’t so serious.

“Oh,” he finally managed. “That’s, uh…wow. That’s not something you hear every day. Not exactly what I was expecting, though the entire prophecy thing does get old after a while.” He shook himself, seeming to regain his composure, and glanced at Ash. “So, it’s the ever so popular Firstborn Child of Doom prophecy, huh, ice-boy? How very cliché. Why can’t it ever be the third nephew twice removed who’s fated to destroy the world?”

I felt a twinge of exasperation that Puck was being so flippant about a very serious matter, again…but that was Puck. His way of coping with the situation. I guess you couldn’t blame him. I had just dropped a rather large bombshell in his lap; it wasn’t every day that your best friend told you she was pregnant with the future Destroyer of the World.

Oh, great, now I’m making jokes.

Ash gave Puck a weary look. “We don’t know anything yet,” he said, glancing at me as if he knew what I was thinking. “We have to find the oracle and see what she can tell us, what she’s offering. Until then, it’s useless to worry about something that hasn’t happened yet.”