by Patti Larsen
I pulled at the bow of the thread, letting it separate, watching in my magic’s eye as I lost the connection to Piers and shivered when it was gone. He smiled gently at me, reaching out to pat my hand. The moment he touched me my magic tried to reacquire him. I had to pull back, tucking my hands under my thighs, shaking my head.
Piers nodded, leaning away, just as sad.
Damn it.
“We must go to Center.” Max stood, Mabel beside him. “And talk to the Fates.”
Probably a good idea. Zoe rose with me, Piers letting her go as she gestured to the drach.
“I will come with you,” she said. “This transition won’t be easy for them. But, Creator has a gift to grant I hope will ease their pain.” She managed a small, sad smile. “They have guided me my entire life, though I knew not their true identities. It is the least I can do to help in any way I can.”
I found myself frowning. “Did they know your destiny?” That would suck, seeing your own end coming and not being able to stop it. But that didn’t sound right. Neither Fate seemed to understand what was happening to them.
Zoe’s slow head shake answered me. “The Universe is only now coming together,” she said. “They could only see what could have happened if Gabriel never opened the first Gateway. All Fates they’ve seen since then, before their fall, were false.”
I was glad I wouldn’t be explaining it to them.
“There is one thing I must warn you about.” Max’s brow furrowed more deeply. “They’ve become frustrated of late.” I’d only witnessed a little of that, the day I took Gabriel to see them, the same day Zeon told us of the dead race my son attempted to save. “And they’ve been asking for the Gateway.”
Not a chance. “He’s not going back there.” He’d only just seemed to recover his heart after the terrible break caused by his choices. I was not subjecting my son to any more damage if I could help it. Not on purpose.
“Understandable,” Max said while Zoe squeezed my hand.
“And unnecessary.” She let me go. “Gabriel and I will meet when the time is right. For now,” she turned to Piers while I pondered that and wanted to ask what she meant but for some reason held my peace, “my love I must ask you to return to your people. They need you and I must go.”
Piers obeyed automatically, though he took a moment to kiss her, deeply enough I blushed and turned away with a grin on my face. “Be safe,” he said, stepping through the black tunnel he made, waving to me and the drach before disappearing.
My sorcery sighed sadly at his leaving and, for the first time, I felt with keen regret his loss, almost as though he’d died and left me.
How many others had I latched onto and refused to let go? And did I have to release them all to keep them safe?
Zoe’s brown eyes smiled at me when she offered her hand. “Lead the way, maji,” she said to me. “Fate awaits.”
Irritation seared through me as I opened the veil and realized, a moment before I stepped through, Jiao had been listening in all along.
***
Chapter Nineteen
Rather than put us through the transformative phase of landing in the courtyard and climbing the steps to the huge open air building where the Fates resided, I simply altered our sizes in transit and deposited us in the garden where sister Fate lived. Not surprisingly, both Fates were in residence. Brother Fate seemed to have abandoned his own place in Core with the dark maji, spending all of his time with his sister. Only the maji, Iepa, seemed to care for them, the woman I once looked to for guidance now reduced to a servant to the fallen Fates.
She greeted me with a gentle hug, lines on her youthful face I’d never seen before. The maji didn’t age normally, adopting whatever appearance they chose. But, these etched wrinkles seemed genuine, as though the Fates were drawing the life from the maji in an attempt to sustain themselves.
I pushed power into her, felt her strengthen, the lines easing around her eyes and mouth, but she shook her head at me with a small smile when my anger surged.
They’ve earned the right, she sent. And I asked them to try.
As long as it was voluntary. Still.
Since when had they turned into leeches?
Sister Fate was on her feet, head tilted, soft desperation on her face. “My love?”
He went to her, the tall drach sinking to the edge of the fountain, taking her hand. I could see the energy transfer now I was looking for it and winced. He’d been feeding her, too? Dear elements, this was horrible. And yet, it was his choice.
She shuddered, but shook her head, pulling away from him in disgust and anger. “It doesn’t work,” she snapped. “The only thing that will is the Gateway.” She paused, sniffed. “Sydlynn is with you.”
Brother Fate’s lips twisted into a small smile. “Welcome,” he said, cynicism biting. “Come to ask us to see your future?”
“Where is the Gateway?” Sister Fate turned toward me, blind eyes focused on me though I knew she couldn’t see. “We need him, Sydlynn. Bring him to us.”
“For what purpose?” Zoe spoke then, soft and gentle. Sister Fate paused.
“Zoe?” She seemed suddenly small, almost childlike. “What are you doing here?’
“Answer me, Bellanca,” Zoe said. I’d never heard Sister Fate called that before. But hadn’t Zoe said they’d guided and protected her for her entire life? “For what purpose do you wish the Gateway?”
“So we can see!” Such anger, a surge of it, backed by thin magic that felt like it was dying, decaying. Now I understood the truth that touch saddened me while making me wary.
“We’ll watch over him.” Brother Fate couldn’t hide his eagerness. “He can open a permanent Gateway here, in Center. We will use it to see again.”
Like that was ever going to happen. “My son isn’t a source of power for you two,” I said. “Not a chance.”
“Selfish.” Bellanca—I couldn’t think of her as Fate anymore—spit at me. “His power is all that will save the Universe. Without our sight, you are without guidance.”
Zoe sighed, soft and sad.
“You disagree?” Brother Fate spoke up, though with sadness of his own. Did he suspect, I wonder? Did he know what she was going to say before she said it?
She didn’t get a chance. “Gabriel’s power can’t be used that way, my love,” Max said, a lifetime of sorrow in his voice. “A sustained Gateway could give the Order in Dark Brother’s Universe a way to gain foothold.”
“You don’t know that,” she snapped at him.
“I do,” he said. “The creatures that have made it to this side, those we’ve fought the last few years, if it weren’t for their imminent threat, would have died on their own without our interference.” He met my eyes. “Much as the race Gabriel attempted to save perished on a plane not their own.” Don’t remind me. “Even with a Gateway, at times, survival isn’t promised.” It troubled me, actually. Gabriel’s power should have protected that race from dying on another plane—that was the whole point of the Gateway, wasn’t it? To remove the blocks keeping the races from crossing over the veil? “When I examined the bodies of those Gabriel attempted to save, I uncovered the reason for their deaths. Not the plane itself, but that the foodstuffs available had bacteria and poisons in them they simply couldn’t digest.”
Now it made sense. “Which still leaves us with the Order,” I said.
“They could guard against such issues,” Max said. “Using magic the dying race didn’t have access to. With a Gateway anything becomes possible for the Order.” He shook his head. “Gabriel setting up a permanent Gate could give them the doorway they need to cross to our Universe. It creates a certain energy I can feel.” He turned back to Bellanca whose pinched expression told me she wasn’t really listening. “That you can feel. The Order could have the opportunity to hijack the connection.” He sagged, hands in his lap open, palms up, fingers curling. “The short time Gabriel normally maintains Gateways doesn’t concern me, at least not much. But what yo
u suggest… prolonged maintenance could spell disaster.”
His love turned her back on him. “Without our guidance,” she repeated, “you’re as good as lost anyway.”
“You know that’s not true, Bellanca.” Zoe stepped forward, crossing to the two now-defunct Fates. Brother looked up at her with his blind eyes from where he sat on the fountain’s edge, but his sister refused to look at her. “Thanos.” And now he had a label. So weird to shunt them into more human terms, though my mind couldn’t help but embrace their new identities knowing what I knew and feeling about them as I did. “You both understand, have from the moment I arrived. You can feel what I am. What I’ve become.”
Thanos groaned softly, covered his face with both hands. But Bellanca snarled, spun on Zoe.
“No,” she said. “It can’t be true. Creator would never abandon us.” Her words ended in a wail, to the counterpoint of Iepa sobbing.
“It is true,” Zoe said, soft and firm, hand reaching for Bellanca. “Your task is done. And I am Fate.”
Before anyone could react, including the Helios oracle, the former sister Fate screeched her fury and attacked.
***
Chapter Twenty
I have no idea how he knew to stop her, or even where she was standing. But before Bellanca could leap on Zoe—who did nothing to protect herself—Thanos stood and grasped his sister in his arms, holding her while she thrashed against him, screaming in an increasingly piercing voice that thinned and turned to another wail as she collapsed in his arms to weep.
Iepa stood to one side, tears pouring down her face, soft sobs escaping her while she watched the siblings collapse together to the ground, though she held her distance. Gave them the space they needed to mourn their loss.
I could only imagine how terrible this blow was to them. Sure, I’d lost my own power once, when I was young, to Demetrius Strong when he was still the leader of the Chosen of the Light. I knew what it felt like to be helpless, to have no access to magic, to be useless where once my talents had been needed.
But I only understood from a tiny perspective, from a mere fraction of their loss. All those centuries, all the ages spent seeing the future only to be left here bereft of the one thing they could always count on besides each other.
Devastating didn’t begin to describe it. But it was the only word I had.
Movement from the entry drew a groan from my lips as Zeon, his pompous, imperious magic preceding him, thrust a thick finger in my direction, booming voice filling the grotto with arrogance.
“This is your doing!” The few maji who stood behind him stared at me with giant eyes, whispering among themselves while Zeon went on. Reminding me even the strongest and wisest of races could be absolute assholes. “You evil one, light in disguise, have brought ruin and damnation upon the Universe!”
I dearly wanted to just smack him, once, upside the head. But it turned out Zoe had a better idea.
“Hear me, Zeon of the maji.” Her voice carried, growing in volume and depth, her eyes flaming once again. I heard Creator in hints and timber, saw Her in Zoe’s face as she spoke, and did my best not to fall to my knees in awe. “The only way the Universe will fall, that you will fail, is if you continue this path you choose to tread.”
He swallowed visibly, seeming shrunken as he faced her. “Creator,” he whispered.
Even he got it. Amazing.
“Your hate and jealousy serve you not, Zeon,” she said. “The time for selfishness is over. The very fabric of the Universe is at stake. You must choose to do what you must to ensure the safety and protection of all, or see to it, through your actions, the destruction of what we’ve made.”
If I’d just been firmly chastised by Creator, I’d be on my face begging her forgiveness. But Zeon was too far gone, despite the terror on his people’s expressions, in his own. With a spluttering curse, he chopped one hand through the air at Zoe.
“False prophet,” he snarled. “Get thee gone from here.” Instead of waiting for her to leave, he spun and led his people away. And though it took some time, they did go, watching Zoe over their shoulders as they retreated.
She sighed, turned to me, Creator leaving her visibly. “I fear the end will signal only the beginning,” she said. Cryptic much? She didn’t give me time to ask for more, instead turning to the former Fates. “Bellanca and Thanos,” she said, so gently I wanted to cry all over again, “Creator isn’t cruel and she loves you, as she has loved you all along. This end was never her intent, but only the best she was able to arrange.”
Thanos nodded but his sister refused to acknowledge Zoe.
“Take now this gift from Her, so you might see again, though not in the way you used to.” A small gesture, a simple surge of magic, though one I’d never be able to decipher if I lived forever.
Thanos’s eyes filled with tears even as the milky whiteness of his blindness faded and vanished entirely, a pair of clear, blue eyes looking back at me while he blinked away the last of his darkness. Bellanca cried out, staring at her hands, horrible, hurtful sobs wracking her body. Her brother sagged, nodded, turned away from his sister. This gift might be considered so to Creator, but I knew better. To the two former Fates, it was the end.
My power touched them both, realized the gift was twofold.
“You are now again maji,” Zoe said. “With all the power your race possesses. She urges you to use that power wisely, in support of our need. And when the time comes to do what you can to help us save our Universe.”
Thanos turned back, nodded. “I am yours,” he said, voice dull.
But Bellanca’s fury grew from her like a cancer, spewing out in a flare of magic. Max reached for her, only to be hurtled back by her power. Though I knew he was far stronger than her, from the startled look on his face he hadn’t expected her to turn on him.
“It can’t just end this way,” she said. “After we gave everything to Creator. To this Universe.”
“My love,” Max said, choked up.
She spun on him, blue eyes cold, face a rock of rigid fury. “You,” she said, her words a slap. “You dare. You who conspired to strip me of my power. You never loved me.” Her magic hit him in the chest, so hard Jiao hissed and lunged for her. Max’s power pulled her back. “Take yourself from this place and never return.” She spun. “Better yet, I shall do the deed.”
Thanos watched her go, face a mess of emotion, not the least of which was regret. “How cruel, fate,” he whispered, before going after her.
Max stood, came to my side. “And now you see,” he said, soft, just for me, “why it is the small things hold us back.” Shoulders slumped, heart shattered, he stepped through the veil and left me there, Jiao trailing behind him with the oddest look of compassion on her face.
I just couldn’t believe that of her. Turned back. Iepa’s shoulders shook, though she no longer sobbed openly. “How could Creator do this to them?” She appealed to Zoe. It wasn’t lost on me the youngest, freshest life in this space held the most power. How ironic an ageless maji begged a twenty-year-old girl for answers.
“Creator loves them,” Zoe repeated, hurt in her own voice. “And asks you to continue to care for them if your heart can stand it.”
Iepa nodded, wiping at her face with the hem of her robe’s cuffs. “I will do my best,” she said. “As always.”
She left us, following the former Fates, while Zoe sighed and turned to me.
“This is always the hardest part,” Creator said through her mouth, directly to me. “You understand that, Syd?” A casual conversation with Creator? Okay then. “No one really gets it.”
“You’re asking for my consent or something?” Holy. “I don’t think I’m qualified.” This was freaky.
Zoe smiled. “Please know,” she said, “of all I’ve made, you are my most beloved.” Zoe blinked while I gaped at her, exhaling a sharp breath, herself again. “You know what that means.”
If I was Creator’s favorite and she treated those she loved like she d
id the former Fates…
I was in deep, deep trouble.
***
Chapter Twenty One
So weird to stand there in Fate’s grotto with Zoe, even more so to realize this was probably the last time I’d visit. For some reason, I doubted she’d want to live here. Not with Piers waiting for her back on my home plane.
“Let me guess,” I said, offering my hand which she accepted. “Things are going to be a little different around here from now on?”
Zoe laughed, squeezed my fingers. “That’s why She loves you, you know,” she said, the capitalization of the pronoun sounding exactly right all of a sudden. I’d never think of Creator in small letters again. “You make Her laugh.”
Awesome. I made Creator laugh. Excellent detail to add to my resume.
Fire engulfed me, pulling me toward Zoe. The black ribbon on my wrist twitched and went still in response to her power.
“Where are we going?” I usually felt weird allowing others to take the reins and do the traveling. But, for some reason, Zoe’s control felt natural, even more so than Max’s.
“To Demonicon,” Zoe said, even as we faded into the flame and out again, stepping across into my sister’s office while the tall, stunning demon behind the desk stared with her amber eyes wide at our appearance.
“Syd.” Meira stood up, circled her desk, came to shake Zoe’s hand.
I made the introductions as the giant, gray form of Mabel entered the room through the open window, morphing from drach to humanoid in the blink of an eye. She stood beside Meira, eyes locked on Zoe, as the slim young woman bowed her head to the drach.
My sister stared a long time at the Helios oracle, absorbing what I told her, before clearing her throat. Someone peeked into the office only to have Meira slam the door with a burst of power in their face.
