“Yes. What’s been shared so far?”
She repeated the story she’d told Tracy then ended the call with “Go, do your job.”
Cass pocketed her phone and inched her way into the room, keeping her back to the wall and staying clear of the symbols glowing around the bed where her sister lay. Grayson sat on the floor in a smaller, secondary circle connected to the larger one through an intricate chain of sigils. In an open palm, he held what appeared to be a piece of gravel wrapped in writhing shadows.
“Don’t come in any farther.” Grayson turned his head toward her. His normally brown eyes were eclipsed by a copper sheen. “I don’t know if they’ve set any other traps.”
“Traps?”
“I tripped one. It’s trying to subvert my protection spell.” He turned back to his previous position.
That did not sound good at all. “Sofia?”
Grayson’s shoulders tightened. “Let me work, okay?”
Her gut pitched in a sickening dive. His gentle nonanswer was an answer. Sofia was in real trouble. Her mind whirling in useless chaos, Cass slid down the wall until her ass hit the floor. She pulled up her knees and wrapped her arms around them, holding herself together. She watched Grayson work as a grim determination wound through her fear and panic. She wasn’t going to lose another sister.
Hasn’t Fate taken enough? She doesn’t get Sofia. Not if I have anything to say about it.
Cold fury blossomed until all that remained was the merciless will of an Oracle determined to best Fate. In her mind’s eye, Sofia’s path began to unfold. Cass’s heart stalled when only two roads appeared, the ending all but determined.
Sofia is wrapped in crimson fire while the malevolent strands of the curse tangle around her, layer after layer.
Grayson fights a bloated spider, their battle a never-ending storm of movement as they move along an elaborate web. That battle masks the stealthy scuttle of a smaller arachnid along one of the darker threads as it creeps steadily closer to Sofia.
Grayson kills the larger spider, but it’s too late—the smaller one has reached its target and sunk its poison deep, and Sofia’s life flickers, dims, then dies.
The second road.
This time, Grayson spots the smaller spider and aims a lance of crimson fire toward it.
There’s a burst of magic as his weapon finds its target, and an inhuman scream tears through the air.
The larger threat rushes Grayson, its attack more focused.
The thread that the smaller one died on glistens in the flashes of power, beaded poison slowly sliding along the nearly invisible thread anchored in Sofia.
Grayson is tiring, his movements slowing, and he’s caught unawares when lethal threads pierce his back, bowing his body, his mouth opening in a noiseless scream.
The true threat sinks into Sofia as Grayson’s life drains away, and Sofia soon follows.
“No.” Cass’s denial echoed in her mind and in her ears.
Fuck that noise. This was her baby sister and the man she was coming to love. She would not lose either of them. Not like this. She called to her magic, and it answered with a roar, power pouring through her until she and it were one. She moved back along the path—not too far, just… there, where Grayson crafted his protection of Sofia. Her hands move steadily as she began to carve a third route, her mind clear as she forced Fate to her will.
Additional protection against the sly and unseen. Another thread to the shield, one that’s barely discernible.
Then she moved forward toward the confrontation.
He turns to fight the larger spider, his movements fast and sure, as if guided by an invisible hand.
The smaller one rushes forward, only to disappear in a bright flash of magic as it trips Grayson’s trap.
Crimson fire races along the threat’s path, searing away the poison creeping along the thread, leaving ashes in its wake.
Grayson kills the larger spider then turns to unwind the curse, slowly at first, then faster and faster until Sofia is no longer bound.
The path under Cass’s feet widened, pulling her forward.
