I’d outsmarted the Fates.
“A deceiver!”
“A sinner!”
I was almost there. Almost free. The threads of all my lives were gathered in my hands now, a radiant, pulsing weave of power.
“What once was scattered, now made whole,”the sixth verse rang out, my voice echoing through the cavern like a struck bell,“one body, power, mind, and soul.”
The sisters united their assault. Their combined threads crashed against my defenses like a battering ram. I felt the immense weight of their will, the sear of their magic cutting from all sides. Blood streamed from countless wounds, but I held firm.
The final line rose from within me.
“By blood and thread and ancient right,”I sang, and as the last word left my lips, I felt the curse—the chain of a hundred deaths—shatter completely,“the Queen and Goddess returns to claim her might.”
Chains fell away. My full power rose, a torrent rushing through my veins, filling every hollow part of me.
“You dare?” Atropos hissed, straining against the threads that still held her.
“And with this final thread,” I called out, my power rocking the very walls, “I bind your tongues. You will not speak of me—to god, mortal, or anything in between.”
I cast the binding thread toward all three. It coiled around their throats, sealing their mouths, silencing my secrets forever.
“You’re just as trapped as we are!” Lachesis screamed. “You’ll never leave this room. An entire Fae kingdom guards this place.”
Power brimmed within me. More than I had ever held. More than I had ever dreamed.
The third circle of my threads erupted into flame.
Not ordinary fire. This was the fire of the goddess of death—a blaze that could destroy what should never be destroyed, burn what should never burn.
The flames caught the other threads in the cavern and spread instantly. Within seconds, the entire chamber was ablaze. Billions of threads igniting, the Fates’ most cherished treasure curling to ash before their eyes.
I burned them. I did not cut. The distinction mattered. Cutting would sever lives. Burning simply erased the predetermined paths. Now mortals and immortals alike would write their own stories instead of following scripts spun by the Fates. They could own their destiny. Choose wisely.
“What have you done?” the sisters screamed, watching eons of work turn to cinders. “Our work! Our purpose!”
“And who are you to decide everyone’s fate?” I said coldly. “Who gave you that right?”
“You have unbalanced the universe!” Clotho cried, tears curving through the ash on her cheeks. “This was what we saw! This was why we cursed you in the first place!”
“And here I am,” I said, watching the destruction I had wrought. Flames reflected in my eyes, burning thread-ash swirling through the air like black snow.
They’d seen the end of the threads. They’d been right about what I would do.
Their attempt to prevent it had caused it.
“I’d love to chat more, ladies,” I said. “But I have somewhere to be.”
I turned and lunged toward the tidal pool at the chamber’s heart. The flames parted for me—myflames.
I dove.
Chapter
Seventeen
Bloom
