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“Stupid girl doesn’t even know it’s an item of power,” Remis continued. “Its value is beyond measure, which means it should be with no one but you.” Turning the hilt around, Remis presented my family heirloom to Pandora.
“Sword!”
A long, deadly, unforgiving blade erupted from the hilt—burying in Remis’s chest. She fell over, dead before she hit the ground.
“No!” Vasili rushed to her, scattering acolytes out of his way.
The distraction was all she needed. Claws shredded my bindings, freeing me. I roared up as Luame faded away.
Racing across the table, I jumped off, flying at Pandora. I didn’t know what I planned to do, other than tear her apart.
Pandora snapped the scepter up to block. My hands connected with the rod, and I screamed.
Rushing, crashing, choking power surged through my body, burning away my muscles and nerve endings, and leaving nothing in their wake. The gods weren’t in my eyes. The gods were me.
I threw lightning bolts from the sky, fleeing all before my wrath. I was the spark of innovation marching societies throughtime. I unleashed towering hundred-foot waves. Struck love in a humble heart. Lifted a soul with the beauty of my music, and destroyed all in my path through the devastation of war. I was everything. I was all. I was fate.
I exploded.
Threads burst out of me.
“What are you doing? What is this!” Pandora wrenched against the scepter. “Let go. Let go!”
Wild, free, zigzagging, crisscrossing threads filled their new home, and there was nowhere to run.
Threads lashed around the acolytes. Wrapping around their wrists, legs, and necks, and hoisting them into the air.
I had a thought. Just one. A simple thought entered my mind and left as quickly as it came.
The threads obeyed.
Vasili thrashed. Kicking and failing around, he belted his pain as his beard grew longer and grayer, and the lines on his face deepened. Once tall and sturdy, his thick shoulders shrank and stooped. Strong bones turned weak and brittle, and thin, leathery skin hung loose off them.
The thread of his entire life played out in a single minute, until it reached the end. An emaciated old corpse hit the ground—still too kind an end for the likes of him.
“Stop this,” Pandora shrieked. She grabbed the top of my head, and visions flooded me.
Me cowering in a corner the night my mom was taken.
My own grandparents marching me to an asylum and throwing me away.
The scary, lonely nights in the hospital, dodging Trixie’s ire, and her sharpened toothbrush.
Standing so close to my mother, and feeling farther from her than ever.
Watching Remis stab Ionna through the heart, murder Alex, slit Nitsa’s throat, steal Daciana’s soul, and kill the strongest and bravest people I knew—my friends.
It all poured into me, filling my heart with despair, and the threads flew.
They flung away the dead followers and wrapped around Alex, Sirena, Nitsa, Theron, Ionna, Tycho, my mom, and Pandora.
“Release me! I command you, you human worm. You filthy beast!” Pandora cried through Daciana’s lips. “Release me at once.”
And then, I had another thought.
Pandora flung herself side to side, screaming untold agony, as she unraveled.
The thread of her life appeared before me—shiny, golden strands hovering around her body like a shimmering halo. It was beautiful.
