Page 11 of Revels on an Angel’s Grave

Reign and Ruin.

“Always so demanding,” Emmeline tutted as the words pounded repetitively through her mind.

Sighing, she dug into her satchel and pulled out a small jar of fruity oil she’d purchased at the incense den. Metrina really wasn’t her first choice tonight, but the Fate of Prophecy and Demise was insistent, and Emmeline would never be able to read another if she didn’t do this first.

Emmeline popped the lid and set it on the ledge beside her, nestled in the trailing vines of a pothos plant. Not wanting to be found, she opted not to light incense sticks. With how hyper-sensitive her readings had become, the gentle aroma wafting off the blend was enough to trigger her magic.

Emmeline closed her eyes, reaching for the Fate ties within her, and the pressure in her head and chest exploded.

She bit down on her tongue to keep from crying out, the tang of iron flooding her mouth.

She wasn’t sure where she was in the reading, but it wasn’t the dusty landscape with towering spires in the distance from earlier. Lilac and sky-blue swirls of stars whipped around her, downy soft feathers raining down calmly.

Emmeline dug her palms against the rooftop, grounding herself in the grainy stone that scraped against her skin. The session pulled her further, begging her to give herself over, but she couldn’t completely. Being in a new city, she needed to keep her wits about her in this realm.

“What was meant by the reading I received earlier?” Emmeline was determined to get something out of Metrina if she was forcing her way into this session. “What did they mean by: A fortune spun by Fated hands. A choice taken from forsaken bands. Two hearts staked through with malice.”

Eleven constellations flashed overhead, there and gone like a lightning strike, but each stretching out to her, pulling on her magic. She gritted her teeth against them.

That is an answer we cannot give you, Metrina said, a star-strewn, shapeless form springing to life before Emmeline.

“Why not?” she shouted as the storm of ether and raining feathers picked up.

Because you are not ready.

Emmeline dug her palms harder against the roof. Refusing to get frustrated, she chose a different topic. “I know you will not tell me of my sister, but can you tell me where in this city I will find hints of her? Where do I begin?”

The Fates had never indulged her requests in the more than twenty years since her sister had been taken, but Emmeline had never been in Valyn before.

Metrina hummed. There is much to speak of regarding your family. Seek the riches of nine, and you shall unveil truths. Do not overlook that which lies beneath your feet, the history written in the walls around you.

Shops and narrow streets flickered before Emmeline’s vision, a hand-painted sign with swooping letters there and gone in a blink, so quickly she almost missed it. Crushing, she thought it said before it was engulfed in orange peels and flower petals, more feathers raining around her.

Emmeline exhaled. Though it wasn’t precise, relief bloomed in her chest. This was more of a hint than she’d ever been given by the Fates before.

And perhaps if Metrina was feeling generous…

“What does Dryvius want?” Emmeline called into the wind, the raw wound in her chest pulsing. “Why did he do this to Roremar?”

We speak not of him. Metrina’s voice rushed around her from all directions, Emmeline’s braid whipping through the air.

“What can you speak of?”

In time, everything. You must only turn beyond the veil, collect the pieces, and all will be revealed.

“What does that mean?” Water rushed in the distance, silver ropes slithering along Emmeline’s arms, binding her wrists. “What⁠—”

She will lead you if you are brave enough to follow, but you will need him, too. Two parts of a whole—two ends of a tie.

Lightning flashed, the towers silhouetted in the distance. Dark clouds wrapped tightly to their masked facades, enough to obscure the details. The starlight and ether surrounding Emmeline were unable to penetrate that spot.

“Who is she? Where will she lead us?” Emmeline choked out, eyes locked on the scene.

The towers disappeared, and the sky wavered with shades of soothing blue that dripped down like watercolors over canvas. They melted to the ground, sticking to Emmeline’s feet in thick, glassy pools.

At her back, light exploded, and Emmeline spun. A dawn of breathtaking amethyst broke the horizon, streaming violet rays across a star-strewn land.

Each place the sun touched ignited, each inch of glassy colors at her feet tugged at her, like there was some place she was supposed to be that she’d never known.