Page 121 of Scars Beneath a Serpent’s Scales

Regardless of the emptiness of the nights, she didn’t want Myrella and Nico to get closer to her. Not now that she was tracking—and was a target of—a serial killer all on her own.

She’d pushed people away all her life. What was a little more time behind her steel walls?

The temple ruins, the vast starry sky, and the lively jungle.

That would be enough for her.

She sat on the cliff, bare feet dangling over the edge. Given the time of year, she should have boots on, but she needed to feel the air on her skin. Wanted it to sting.

A shift behind her caught her attention, but based on the soft, padded footfalls and gentle swish against foliage, it was only one of the jungle cats. Soon, a night-black panther was lying beside her, her tail curled protectively around Emmeline’s back. She looked into the feline’s jade-green eyes.

“I don’t think I’ve seen you before,” she whispered. A tiny spot of grey marked the cat’s fur, right in the center of her head, between her eyes. Emmeline squinted at it. “A crescent moon? No, I certainly would remember you.”

Gently, she brushed her fingers over the beast’s mark, stroking along her nose. A deep, content purr rumbled through the panther’s chest.

“You can sit here if you’d like,” Emmeline whispered, the words thick as her chest splintered, “but I can’t keep you.” The panther leaned its head on her lap, its body warm against the chill of her leathers. “I can’t keep anybody.”

For a few moments, she stroked the animal’s silky fur in silence, telling the stars her worries and asking them for guidance in return.

“Okay, Emmeline,” she whispered to herself when the sadness didn’t feel so large it was going to burst her lungs. “We won’t pity ourselves for our decisions. There’s still a murderer on the lose.”

She wouldn’t forget that beneath all the regret in the world. Not for Liana and not for any other Starsearcher with an Anphrosia Fate tie.

Shifting carefully to avoid upsetting the sleepy cat beside her, Emmeline dug through the vials in her satchel. She withdrew small portions of crushed rose petals and jasmine, dousing them in a gentle myrrh oil. Setting the combination aflame, she exchanged a glance with the feline now blinking curiously up at her.

“Wish me luck,” she whispered, anticipation bubbling in her chest.

Then, she took a deep breath and opened the connection she’d been avoiding for days.

A tunnel of starfire sped around her, deep amethysts whirling with silvers and whites. The stars bloomed and died at alarming rates, like all the fortunes she’d been shoving aside were racing to the surface now.

Emmeline, the Fate whispered. A female form shimmered within the burning white fire, outlined in silver and made of stars, a veil rippling around her. Her features were indiscernible, but Emmeline knew her. In her bones she knew her.

“Anphrosia,” she breathed. It had been ages since she’d spoken to the Fate of Cruelty and Adoration, this vixen who left a train of ruined hearts in her wake. “Have you seen what’s happening? The women dying?”

I have, child of the stars. I have.

Tears stung Emmeline’s eyes on this other plane, stars swirling past them in hurried blurs. On Ambrisk, she ran her fingers over the dark, silken fur of her new animal friend, grounding herself in the connection.

“Why is it happening?” she whispered.

To disclose that would shift too much.

“But can you tell me how to stop it? Who’s guilty? I’ve—” Her voice caught in her throat. “I’ve ruined so much trying to uncover the answers.”

The female form flickered in the fire as she searched for an explanation, white flames rippling down her frame like a waterfall.

As much as Emmeline’s magic had taken in her life, as much as she spent years trying to hide from and compress it into something smaller, this was a part of it she loved. When communicating with the Fates felt like a conversation more than a one-way imparting of fortunes where she was nothing more than a vessel. When she was one of the stars, that was when she felt alive.

What is it you hope to achieve in this endeavor? Anphrosia asked.

“What?” Emmeline gasped. “What do you mean what do I hope to achieve? I want to save the women being pointlessly killed.”

How are you so certain it is pointless?

“Because they don’t deserve to die!”

But doesn’t all life lead to death? If this is their time, then it has been written in the paths of fate for all eternity.