Chapter 23
N o. No.
I lunge for the tapestry, taking the seam ripper to it. I wrench the threads from the fabric, mauling the image of my husband, of my husband…
I attack the fabric, ripping it to shreds, but to my horror, as soon as I’m done, the threads reweave themselves, painting the same awful picture—the Middle Sister intertwined with my husband.
What have I done?
My heart hammers in my chest as I try again and again to undo the threads, but no matter what I do, they always grow back.
“Not as simple as you would think, changing one’s fate, now is it?”
Sweat drips off of my forehead and onto the floor as I crane my neck. Behind me, in front of the fire, stands a woman. Or rather, the silhouette of a woman.
When she steps closer, I recognize that she’s not a silhouette at all, but made up entirely of shadows.
“You,” I hiss, but the woman shakes her head.
“No, I’m afraid you and I have never met.”
Realization washes over me. This voice isn’t the sultry, deep voice of the Middle Sister. Instead, it’s almost sickeningly sweet, cloying in its nature.
“Are you…?”
“Don’t bother finishing that sentence, Darling. You already sound too hopeful. I’m afraid I’m not who you’re looking for, though everyone always did prefer our Youngest Sister, even our father.”
“You’re the Eldest,” I say, hand still on the seam ripper, my other clinging to the tapestry.
She glances back down at the tapestry. “Mortals always get so perturbed with us, blame us for how their fates turn out. They think us more powerful than we are. They expect that because we’re keepers of the Thread, we’re responsible for anything and absolutely everything, no matter how many of their own sorrows and predicaments came by their own hands.
No matter how many times they make decisions without considering the consequences. ”
“Please,” I say. “I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
The Eldest Sister laughs. It’s almost a childish sound. “Of course you did. You desired to save your husband’s life, did you not?”
When I don’t answer, she says, “You only thought to lengthen his life. To save him from dying this very night. But you didn’t consider the consequences. What might happen during the time he wasn’t meant to have.”
I think back to Renslow, to my last words to him as I slit his throat. Some of us weren’t meant to live.
“Oh, don’t worry, Darling,” she says. “I’m sure he has a good reason.” She stares down at the image of Nolan kissing the Middle Sister. “Your husband is quite devoted to you. He’ll probably end up chained to my Sister from a bargain meant to save your life, or something heroic like that.”
“It wasn’t his faithfulness I was concerned with,” I say through gritted teeth.
“No, I would say not. I really did pick well with the two of you, didn’t I?”
“If you’re so proud of yourself, why not help us? I know you’re no more of a fan of your Middle Sister than we are. You’ve been punishing her for the death of your lover for centuries. Surely you don’t want to see her win.”
The Eldest Sister scoffs. “And what is it that you would have me do?”
“Reweave the tapestry, use your gifts, please, anything to help.”
The Sister shakes her head. “What’s done is done.
Besides, I’ve tried. I’ve tried to weave your husband’s tapestry to my liking.
Several times. The man is incessant. Will not be controlled.
Surely he told you that he came to me, and all I had to offer him was a ripped half of a tapestry.
Are you aware of how rare that is? For a mortal to rip their own tapestry, just from sheer stubbornness? ”
“I don’t believe you,” I say.
“What? You think I’m intentionally withholding my help? Girl, I’ve tried to give your husband a happy ending. He keeps getting in his own way, and so, frankly, do you.”
I breathe heavily, glancing around.
Again, the Eldest Sister’s laughter echoes through the room. “You think you’ll find her here? That my darling Youngest Sister will reveal herself and save the day? Look around, girl. When do you think my Youngest Sister last set foot in this cottage?”
My heart turns to lead as I note once again the filled kettle left to go cold on the stove, the thick layer of dust on the bedsheets, the dead herbs.
“Where did she go?” I ask in a whisper, dread making me wonder if I even want to know the answer.
“She always was the favorite of our father, always meddling too, in that which wasn’t her business.
It was her belief that we should stay out of the affairs of mortals, leave our abilities to rot, leave the Thread to pile up unused.
Let the tapestries write themselves. But the mortals couldn’t be trusted with their own Fates.
She never could see that. She thought if left to their own devices, mortals would learn from their mistakes, as well as the consequences of others’.
But mortals are much too proud for that.
And though my Middle Sister and I didn’t have complete control over their fates, we could at least intervene.
But my Youngest Sister couldn’t understand how we could stomach it—not knowing how far our actions would spread.
We might save a life here, only for another life to be taken in its place.
It drove her mad, and she was always going behind our backs, trying to clean up what she called our messes.
“Something had to be done. It was the first thing my Middle Sister and I agreed upon since my lover died at the hands of hers. So we saw to it that she would no longer meddle.”
“You killed her?” I ask.
“No, nothing so ghastly as that,” says the Sister. “We simply…locked her away.”
I think back to the book from the library, the one that noted that the Youngest Sister had disappeared from the legends centuries ago. “You’ve kept her imprisoned for centuries?” I ask. “Because she disapproved of the havoc you two wreaked on the lives of others?”
“No, my dear,” says the Sister. “We locked her away because we grew weary of the girl who gained our father’s love without even trying.”
My laugh is wry. “Well, at least if you’re going to be jealous, you’re honest about it.”
The Sister cranes her head at me, and though I cannot distinguish the features of her shadowed face, I get the sickening feeling she’s peering into my very being.
“You should go to your husband, child,” she says. “Enjoy the little time you and your Mate have left.”
Before I can respond, she snaps her fingers, and the world goes black.