"What gift?" Jonny asked, facing her again. "What am I meant to do?"
"What you think you're meant to do."
His mouth worked without producing a sound, and his eyes watered. Jonny wiped his face. He took a deep breath and tried again.
"I'm meant to do what Talon said-- kill the Black God."
"Yes, Jonny, you are," she said. "Only with you taking the Black God's place can the balance between good and evil survive the week."
"I can't be like Talon. I'm not like Talon!" he said. "I can't be!"
"You must fulfill your role, or humanity is lost this weekend."
"How can you ask this of me?" he demanded, emotions wild on his face.
Sofi watched him, her own transition from human to Oracle causing fresh pain. She still didn't understand the depth of her talents or how to control the visions, and being alone and away from her mate made some days unbearable. Even so, her own fate was nothing like Jonny's, a good kid who would be forced to take on the Black God's mantle and spearhead the forces of evil.
He flung himself down in the chair again and propped up his forehead with his hands. Tears spilled down his face. She braced herself and reached out to him. Unlike touching Czerno, whose dark memories had overwhelmed her just standing near him, Jonny had only one bad memory, that of his first kill that turned him from human to immortal. She felt the same streak of cold within him that she'd felt in the Black God. It was a part of him, just as being an Oracle was a part of her. Their gifts were inseparable from themselves.
"How long do I have to do this?" he asked. "A few years?"
"A few thousand. The next god-slayer won't be born for thirty or forty thousand years."
"Oh, god!"
"You must do it, Jonny." She felt ill the moment the words left her mouth. She was condemning a good person to a fate of darkness and despair, and yet, if he didn't understand the importance of his role, humanity would be annihilated.
"I can't be like him!"
"You don't have to be, but you must fulfill the duties of the Black God. He does them now with no regard for the lives of innocents. You can make your own rules within those duties," she said. Even as she spoke, she saw pieces of his future blink in her thoughts.
There was no such thing as a good Black God, and Jonny would be no exception. Sofi's own eyes watered at the revelation of his fate. He would be nothing like any Black God before him, but he'd be far from the hopeful, kind youth he was now.