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“Enough! This is my power. I am the mistress of the past. I control my fate! I’m not asking you, forces of the universe, I’m telling you. LET ME IN!”
The storm winked out. I roughly rubbed my eyes, coming to in the silent, still place between everything that is and everything that isn’t. The threads were as unreadable to me as ever, but I’d done this enough times to figure the threads closet to me were my recent past.
I didn’t need to go far.
I FLINCHED, TURNINGaway from the burning sun. I was dry, upright, and standing before a door.
“Oh my gosh, I’m so happy you still have this.” Mom held it to her chest, smiling softly. “This knife is special, love. Have—?”
“Give me that.” Snatching it back, I grabbed her arm, hauled her before the swirling abyss, and drop-kicked her inside. “Bitch.”
“Ahhh—!”
I slammed the door on the creature’s wails. The jungle disappeared instantly, flinging me back into the world of storm and rain.
“Aella!” Ionna raced through the mud. “Aella, stop. Wake up, it’s not real!”
“Ionna, it’s okay.” I caught her when she threw herself at me. “I’m okay. I’m awake.” My gaze flicked over her shoulder. “But Tycho isn’t! Quick, I’ll get him. You get Daciana.”
We didn’t waste a moment. I tore across the plain and wrestled Tycho inches from the edge, hauling him to the ground.
“What the fuck!” He snapped around, then groaned—clutching his side. “What’s going on? What happened?”
“Not enough time to explain.” I searched the gloom for Jason. “What matters is that you’re safe now. Stay here and don’t—”
Jason lit up by a crack of lightning, running. If I didn’t know better, I’d think the chamber knew it was running out of time, and was trying to kill us faster.
I ran.
There wasn’t time to shout, plead, or warn. Taking a running leap, I tackled Jason, bouncing his skull off the ground.
“Argh,” he roared, snapping out of it. “What the hell! What— Wait, where are we?”
I was about to answer when I saw Ionna take Nitsa down hard. She spun around, leg swiping an arc through the mud, andkicked the legs out from under a running Theron—dropping him flat on his face. Shouts, bellows, and cries of confusion abound.
But they were safe.
“What was that?” Daciana ran to us, shouting over the howling wind. “I was with my dad. He heard I was in trouble and came to help me. Then, he was gone.”
“It wasn’t real. None of it.” Ionna helped Nitsa over. A cut on her forehead bled red and clear from the rain. Better than the crumple mass of broken bones and skin she’d be if she’d hit the bottom of that pit, instead of taking a hit from Ionna. “This was Aphrodite’s test, and it’s frightening how easily it would’ve worked. If I hadn’t had that vision in time, we’d all be gone.”
Grim truth tightened my jaw. We were gone. All of us. Love’s test would’ve killed us all if not for my gift of fate.
Standing there huddled with my friends, trading echoes of relief and thanks, it was all too clear to me why the prophecy named me, and only me. No mortal—man or monster, dead or alive—could win against this hell. No one... except me.
It had to be me because no one else could undo every mistake. Every death. All these thousands of years, it was me.
The child of the Fates. The final key.
“Key,” I cried, rising up. “Where is the key?”
“It could be anywhere in this,” Jason said. “It could be down there.”
“No, it couldn’t. I refuse to believe love is that cruel.” Theron gently set Tycho down. The son of Persephone didn’t look good. Not at all. “We’ll spread out. We keep each other in sight. It has to be here some—”
“There!” Daciana pointed up at the sky.
“Where?” Rain pelted my eyes. “I can’t see anything.”
