I could feel my face scrunching up. She was that irritating. “What an interesting answer,” I replied.
Her tinkling laughter filled the air, and I felt a stupidly uncontrollable urge to join her in laughing. Maybe this bitch was part centaur.
Her laughter cut off, and for the first time she was looking at me like she really saw me. No vapid, cold, empty shell, instead a fire burned deep in her soul, and the color of her eyes morphed to a bright, almost blinding, purple.
“We could be friends,” she stated. “I didn’t think it was possible. But maybe many of the impossible things have just yet to meet you.”
“We’re forming a girl gang,” I told her dryly, half kidding. “If you want more than one friend.”
I mean, why the fuck not? The rest of us were our own brand of weird. This chick would probably fit right in.
She smiled. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
She started to walk again, and this time I followed silently.
Chapter 24
The snowy landscape started to scale up, like we were walking to the top of a cliff. It got steeper and steeper, but I never lost my balance, or had to reach forward and use my hands to steady myself. Just call me a mountain goat, or whatever those little furry things on the side of the cliff were.
As we elevated, I hoped to gain some perspective over this land … to truly see what was out there. But that persistent veil of darkness never lifted, not from above or below.
Whatever this place was, it hid its secrets well. Or it hid hers.
Heptashia didn’t falter in her trek up the mountain either, and again she never looked back for me. Just when I thought there was no way we could continue to climb, considering we were almost vertical now, it leveled out, and we ended up on a plateau above the clouds.
Yeah, there were clouds now, because this land was fucking insane.
“Here is your final judgement,” she said, no smile, no inflection, just a wave of her hand as the clouds drifted away to reveal a giant scale.
“Now this is more what I expected,” I said, stepping forward to examine it closely. The scale was golden, shiny like the path I’d walked along earlier, and shot through with white writing. The script wasn’t in English, and my brain didn’t automatically translate it for me, so I had no idea what it said.
It fit my knowledge of scales, with two sides balanced over a middle stand. One side was empty, nothing more than a flat space. The other side was filled with a swirling … magic, maybe. It was hard to know exactly what it was, with no corporeal part to the mass.
“This judges your future,” the woman said.
I hadn’t forgotten she was there, but I also hadn’t heard her move so close to me. Schooling my face to hide my surprise, I turned minutely. “My future? How can I be judged for things I haven’t done yet?”
Her eyes widened like she was shocked. “Easily, of course. Your path is pre-ordained. Your future actions are already in motion, even if they haven’t yet come to pass. And right now, if this scale determines that you are beyond saving, you will forfeit your life and walk forever in this land of nothing.”
Well, with that recommendation…
“And if I refuse to step on the scale?”
The model-perfect bone structure of her face started to change, morphing into something that no longer resembled the silvery woman. There was a new snake-like quality to her now, dark lines marking her cheeks, eyes larger, and pupils diamond shaped.
“Best not to find out,” she hissed, and I swallowed roughly, because … dude. What the hell was that?
“Fuck it,” I muttered. The fact that I was more than over this bullshit propelled me forward.
I stepped on the scale.
The moment my feet were flat on the gold surface, energy locked my body in place. Old fears resurfaced, and I forced myself to bring up an image of Asher. The best calming tonic I had. Asher was my peace … my sanctuary.
The magic on the other side of the scale started to swirl harder and brighter; white light bisected through the midnight energy. The woman watched it all without any inflection on her face, so I had no idea if it was going well or not. None of it actually affected her, and she didn’t care either way, but it would have been nice to know if I was failing miserably.
Red lights split the white, and then they turned black. My pulse started to pound until I could feel it in my throat.Was I evil as hell in the future, because that was a ton of black…
The woman walked forward. “I’m sorry,” she said, her gaze locked on my face. “I would have enjoyed being part of your girl gang.”
