But I guess I can’t put it off all day, so I pull up my big girl panties and hop back to the academy. Today will probably be the last day I can go wherever I want willy-nilly and that makes me kind of sad. Although then I focus on the golden threads of light pulsing inside me and feel instantly warm all over. I’m no longer aimlessly flitting around. I have a direction. Three tethers.
Madame is waiting for me in her office, looking her usual mix of terrifying and inscrutable. She smiles and I suppress a shudder. She then raises one perfect eyebrow and looks pointedly at the space beside me with a little hum of disapproval.
“Jet’s decided she’s going to continue doing her own thing,” I tell her. “And I’m requesting that you let her. I’m sure you’ll be keeping an eye on her anyway, but I can’t see her causing you any problems, considering she hates using her powers.”
Which is something I don’t really understand. She could have had the burden of them taken away from her today, but clearly decided that it was too close to her dancing to Madame’s tune. She’d rather continue having powers she hates and keep her distance. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like she’s cutting off her nose to spite her face.
“And you?” Madame asks, breaking me out of my thoughts.
“Like I said before, I’ll be staying in the garden. I just want to have the opportunity to leave to see Brogan’s family or to take trips out of the garden if we choose to. I think…” I hesitate, unsure whether I want to say what I’m really thinking and risk pissing her off. “I think if there had been opportunities to leave the garden more regularly and more freely, the whole thing with Wren might have been avoided.”
She blinks once, then twice, before answering. “You’re right.”
I’m struck speechless, actually flabbergasted. Madame hasneveragreed with me about anything. Ever.
“You’ll go through the ceremony to tether you to the garden, but I will allow for you and the other members to leave as you wish. I see that you’ve done some good, untangled some threads of fate while you were on your little journey of self-discovery over the past few years.”
I’d guess she’s referring to the times I helped Manon out in Stoneraven, since I can’t imagine any of the tours that I ran have done much good for either fate or destiny.
“Okay then.” This was a lot less painful than I expected it to be. “Did what happened to Andrew, the, er…” ‘the prick’ as Cam calls him. “Did your people manage to pick him up?”
I have no idea what ‘people’ they have working for them, but I guess there must be some people out there that go around cleaning up messes.
“He was gone when we arrived to pick him up. We apprehended the woman, though, and she’s being dealt with accordingly.” Madame’s tone is ice cold and I shudder at the meaning behind those words.
My stomach drops. “He was gone?”
“We arrived only moments after you left, but somehow he had disappeared by that point.”
Probably high off a ton of power from all three of us. He only took a bit from me, but I bet that combined with Cam and Wren’s power, it was enough to get him the hell out of that apartment.
“So he’s still… out there somewhere.”
Madame is matter of fact, emotionless as she nods, like this isn’t a massive issue.
Scary as hell to think he’s freely walking around, pumped up with stolen power and ideas of becoming godlike.
And then Madame drops the bombshell.
“He drained the last of Wren’s powers. She will not be returning to the garden with you.”
I gape at her before my brain and mouth connect and I can form words. “What? But—”
“As of today, Wren is no longer a fate weaver. I will need your assistance in moving her out of the academy.”
Like she’s a problem that needs sweeping under the rug. I wonder how the guys are going to feel about this, howWrenfeels about it.
I’m still reeling when I’m dismissed from Madame’s presence, sent on my way. I head to the entrance hall where I find Wren waiting with a bag at her feet and Cam and Leif standing nearby. Wren looks a whole heap better, after being treated at the medical wing for dehydration and exhaustion and the effects of being kept in a cold basement for weeks. She’s now clean, and no longer looks half-starved, greeting me with a brief nod as I approach.
“Everyone okay?” I ask.
“Just peachy,” Cam says.
I bite my lip, unsure how to phrase this next bit. “So Madame tells me you won’t be coming back to the garden with us.”
The look that Wren gives me is impassive. I don’t really know her at all since we didn’t exactly get time to bond in the basement, so I have no idea how she’s feeling about everything.
“Yep,” she says with zero inflection. “Meet your new fate weaver.” She waves a hand at Leif and Cam mutters, “Lucky us.”
