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“Okay, okay.” The words left my mouth but didn’t reach my ears. Sound didn’t exist in this place. “Don’t worry, guys. I’ll save you. I’ll save everyone,” I said, looking around. “I just have to pick a thread that isn’t too close or too far.”
A riot of threads crisscrossed, looped, zigzagged, and encircled me. It was impossible to know where they began or ended. It was impossible to know which was the right one.
Taking a deep breath, I lit on a piece of thread above me. If I stretched, my fingertips should just reach it. Gods willing, I’d get back the last few days. I raised my hand.
A hard, invisible force slammed into me, throwing me and my fingertips clear. I snapped back to consciousness as a sparking, electric orb floated out of Alex.
“What? No, no! That’s impossible.” I railed against my bindings. “Let me in,” I gritted. “Let me in!”
I came to in the thread space again. Not wasting a moment, I snapped up, reaching for the—
The force slammed me again, throwing me out.
I tried again, and again, and again—sobbing my despair in the temple of the queen of sorrow. I knew even as I begged and pleaded with the goddesses who didn’t heed me, and the followers who didn’t care—the thread space was closed to me. Power I couldn’t comprehend had decided this was to be my fate, and I wasn’t changing it.
Tears soaking my face, I gazed at Alex. My love didn’t wear so much as a grimace. He lay there serene and still as if in sleep. His life was taken from him, and he didn’t get a chance to fight for it.
One after the other, my screams fell on uncaring years as Remis killed Tycho and Sirena, and gave the writhing mass of evil in the box their power.
“What about this one?” Remis asked, peering at Nitsa. “Our goddess already has power from the queen of the sky.”
“She’s useless,” Vasili dismissed. “Kill her.”
The knife flashed, splitting Nitsa’s throat. All I could do was cry. This was the true reason the seer told Vasili not to put me back to sleep. For all the trouble I caused her—my power stopping her from seeing my future and making everything harder for her—she wanted me to suffer.
“My goddess, today you rise, for we have found the perfect vessel for your might and power.” Remis picked up the box. “You will have form, you will have legs, you will have eyes. You will walk amongst us again.”
She brought the leaky, disgusting box over to me—
“No! Get that thing away from me.” I fought harder than before. “Get away!”
—and kept going.
Bypassing me without a glance, she carried Pandora over to Daciana.
“To our goddess, we give you a vessel unlike any other. A female alpha werewolf. Within her lies a power untold and unknown to any other species.” The followers gathered aroundthe stone table, each holding the box level above Daciana. “The power of creation. Within her lives the gift to spawn an entire generation, and it is her honor to give that gift to you—that you will be remade stronger than ever before.”
Together, they tipped over the box—spilling the horrifying, writhing mass on my best friend.
The world imploded.
Power, force, wind, something unknowable blasted from Daciana, blowing the acolytes off their feet and slamming into me so hard, it was a physical blow to my body. A cyclonic torrent of wind swept through the temple—blowing out the candles and throwing the dead leaves, making it almost impossible to see.
Almost.
Ghostly figures rose above Daciana. The hideous, winged, snarling creature painted on the temple walls, and a wolf.
My eyes widened far as they could go, then farther. It didn’t matter. Taking it in didn’t make it any more believable. The creatures reared back on their haunches, and attacked.
Snarling, clawing, ripping, biting, tearing—it was a battle for Daciana’s very soul.
The wolf swiped Pandora’s face, opening vicious wounds on her cheek. Pandora’s scream reverberated in my chest, caving in my stomach. I almost threw up.
Pandora snapped back, claws cutting the air and heading for Luame’s stomach. Luame whipped around to meet the blow, and didn’t see the wing coming behind her.
“Look out!”
Pandora’s wing smashed into her hindlegs, throwing her off balance. That split second was all the goddess of despair needed. Her claws tore through fur, flesh, and bone.
