He tilted his head.
“It’s not what I want. Though I have been waiting… such a long time.”
“Who are you?”
Because whatever it was, it was not Thomas anymore.
“You know my name.” The voice now came frombeneaththe skin, not from Thomas’ mouth, but from somewhere far older than the body it wore. “You can feel it.”
I did. Somehow, I knew.
It rose in me like an instinct, like a memory that had never belonged to me but lived in my bones.
“Elspeth—The Courier of Death,” I breathed.
Her smile widened. “In the flesh.”
“So I’m to die, then.” My voice was flat. Empty. “You’re here to kill me?”
“I am but the messenger,” she crooned. “Fate will take you all on its own.”
“How much time do I have?”
“Not long,” she said, with a chuckle like shattered glass. “You’ll be with Anam before the sun rises.”
A cold sweat coated my skin. My mouth was dry, but I forced the next question out anyway. “Why are you here?”
She cocked her head. “I wanted to meet you. I’ve been watching you for quite some time.”
“Why?”
“You avoid death like a flame dodges the wind,” she said, eyes narrowing with something like admiration—or hunger. “Peculiar, isn’t it? Haven’t you ever wondered why?”
I swallowed hard, the dryness of my throat scratching like sandpaper. “I’ve avoided it before. I can do it again.”
Elspeth’s head twitched. Her smile faltered.
“Not this time,” she said, suddenly sharper. “Not even you are powerful enough to evade what’s coming. Your name belongs to Him now—and He always comes to collect.”
The air grew heavier. My limbs went numb. Her words rang like a bell inside my skull.
The glow in her eyes dimmed, the blinding white fading back to Thomas’ hazel.
Thomas blinked, disoriented. He was back in control, and his body sagged as if cut from an invisible string. He looked down at his hands as if he didn’t recognize them. Then his eyes flicked to mine; confusion and fear shone there.
“Mavis?” he asked hoarsely.
I said nothing.
I couldn’t.
Because the weight of her words sat in my chest like stone.
You’ll be with Anam before the sun rises.
And for the first time, I truly wondered… not if I was ready to die—but if I were ready to be forgotten.
What if this were it? What if all the pain, all the fighting, all the fractured hope led me here…
