Jessa’s arms swooped under her shoulders, dragging Elysia upright against her chest even as her bones became brittle and skin hot to touch. Maya strolled into view with a light pink gas mask strapped to her face. Walking over to the fates, she administered the antidote to her glue potion and muttered an incantation over the locked chains.
Staggering out of Jessa’s hold, Elysia fell to the hard concrete, snatching the scissors and crawling over to an unconscious, face-down Daphne. Fire roared through her body, and she stopped, panting as her vision blotted out with black. Girding herself, she clung to consciousness with everything she had.
The power it took to kill a god was destroying her. A punishment for daring to wield an immortal weapon. She knew she couldn’t kill them, but if she was going to wield scissors that would cause her death, then she had wanted the satisfaction of stabbing them first. They might not be able to die, but they could still bleed, chained up and forced to watch what she did next.
Out of the corner of her eye, most of her crew disappeared into thin air. Her relief burned away as the pain scorching her body battled on. Rolling Daphne over onto her side, she grabbed the thick tapestry out of her hands.
She knelt and held the tapestry in the air, waving it like a flag. Her fingers cramped painfully on the golden-bronze handles of the scissors, delirium carrying her on.
“I might not have the strength to kill a god, but I can rip fate.” Voice thin and fading, it still reached the fates’ ears, and she smiled as their faces changed. She wanted them to see her shred the nightmare they had painstakingly crafted over the millennia.
Channeling every last drop of her strength and magic, Elysia ran the scissors through the fates’ tapestry as she ripped and ripped and ripped. The scissors tore fate in two, the tapestry fluttering to the floor in pieces as the threads turned black, disintegrating as they fell. Body bowing, she ripped like she never had before, drawing it all in and stealing the power they had wasted in their twisted manipulations. Her body sprung back as she collapsed, but Jessa was there, hoisting her to her feet as the power of the fates coursed through her like violent electricity.
Her mortal bones weren’t made for this just like she wasn’t made to wield the scissors, but she had done both, knowing full well how it might end.
Because now the slates were clean.
She’d ripped fate and wiped the odds, leaving destiny open.
Open for a mortal prince to kill a demigod king.
Open for a mortal girl to rule death.
Endless paths blinked into existence, waiting for them to rise up and rewrite their endings.
Bloodcurdling, pain-filled screams shook the warehouse as Jessa dragged her to the door. Adla keeled over on their knees with a bone needle in hand. Monica lunged for the shriveled tapestry, holding one half in the air with a gasp. Skiel simply stared, unmoving as if they couldn’t believe it had happened at all.
Maya was ashen, slowly backing away before sprinting past them out the door.
“We have to get out of here.” Elysia’s voice was nothing more than a reedy rasp.
Nervous, Jessa’s catlike eyes settled on her. “Do you trust me?”
“No,” Elysia grunted, pointing at Daphne still on the floor.
Her heart beat strangely now, the off rhythm fast and pounding in her ears. There was no way she could travel herself, much less another person.
Fearful gaze stuck to the writhing fates, Jessa’s words were almost silent. “Me neither.”
Grabbing Daphne, Jessa awkwardly hauled them both out of the warehouse. She dropped Elysia once they were out, carrying Daphne off and dumping her beneath a tree. Elysia tripped over her own feet, slipping on sleet and ice as she tried to follow them. She didn’t have much time, her body was giving out, but she didn’t want to leave them here.
Hurrying back, Jessa slung Elysia over her shoulder and brought her to rest beside Daphne. Ducking to a crouch, she slapped Elysia’s cheek, forcing her away from the edge of blackness. “They can’t die, right? A mortal can’t kill them?”
Elysia blinked slowly, her friend’s words like mush. She shook her head. “Can’t die.”
Jessa nodded resolutely, her nostrils flaring as she put her hands on her knees and pressed back to standing. Stalking closer to the warehouse, her hands became fists and her whole body tensed. A foreign, ear-shattering hollow bang rocked the atmosphere, deafening Elysia as it passed. Brick became ash as the warehouse exploded into nothingbut flame.
Dazed, she watched the flames grow. This was nothing like what Jessa had done in the Endless Forest. There was a crater where there had once been a massive building.
Jessa stalked back over, her cheek bleeding from shrapnel, and looked down at Elysia warily as if expecting her to recoil or cringe.
“That…was incredible.” Rust and metal filled her mouth, her vision fading before the internal fire finally consumed her whole.
Chapter 44
Elysia wokein a cottage with the smell of sea in the air. Unlike in Kava, the briny scent rustling in through the cracked window didn’t smell of rot. It was clean and fresh with a meager sun shining through the blue sky and clouds.
Her golden strand-marked arm had tight white bandages wrapped around her elbow, and overnight her joints had become stiff and arthritic, detesting even her slow, careful movements. Propping herself upright, she took in the room with a sinking gut—lace curtains and delicate half-drunk teacup on the wooden stool beside a rocking chair with a knitted blanket tossed over its arm.
