Chapter Forty-Two
Fate Comes for All in the End
Quinn Abernathy’s Room
The temperature in the room drops so suddenly that it jerks me from my sleep.
Ice spreads across the floor. The windows frost over before spiderweb cracks form.
“They’re here,” I whisper aloud to no one in particular—just a confirmation of the inevitable.
Maddy mistakes my words as an address to her, and she asks, “Who’s here?”
“Well, isn’t this just precious?” I hear Fate before I see her.
My eyes dart around in the dimly lit space until they land on her, standing at the foot of the bed.
I move instantly, pulling Maddy behind me and reaching for Ifaísteio in one smooth motion. My body shields Maddy before Fate’s eyes even register what’s happening.
“Get out,” I snarl, my blade raised.
“How touching,” Fate says. Her voice is colder than the ice spreading across my floor.
“The devoted reaper and his little ghost girl, finally reunited and so close to making it. Very romantic. Very Romeo and Juliet. If Shakespeare had written a sixth act. But he didn’t, did he, reaper?
No. That romance, like all the great loves of human history, ends in tragedy.
And would you look at that? This story seems to have entered its fifth act now.
Act Five, Scene One … Fate enters in the darkness. ”
“I’m warning you,” I say, stepping forward. “Get out of here, or I will cut you down where you stand.”
Fate laughs, the sound like breaking glass.
“You cannot hurt me, reaper,” she says. “I am a deity. You are a dead man with a blade. We both know how this ends.”
“Only one way to find out.”
I lunge.
The blade cuts through the air where she was standing, but she’s already moved. She’s incredibly fast, impossibly elegant, and she’s smiling like this is a game.
I swing again. Again. Each strike is faster than the last, fueled by desperation and rage. I’m not thinking anymore, just reacting and trying to drive her back, to get her away from Maddy.
She sidesteps every single strike like I’m an unruly bull and she’s a seasoned matador.
“Is this what you think you can do?” she asks, almost playfully. “You think you can fight me? You think your little blade means anything?”
Her hand rises, and suddenly, I’m flying backward. My back slams into the wall so hard that the impact cracks the plaster.
“Tommy!” Maddy screams.
I push off the wall and charge again. This time, Fate doesn’t dodge. She catches my blade in her bare hand. Actually wraps her fingers around the edge of Ifaísteio like it’s made of plastic.
“You think this is some storybook where everything works out because you deserve it?” she hisses, her face inches from mine.
“You think you get to choose each other? I am Fate. I make the decisions around here. You want this wretched mortal? This cowardly creature, too frail to face the epilogue in her own story? Well, I’m so sorry, mortal.
My stories are written with my blood. No rewrites. ”
“You’re a shit writer,” I growl. “And everyone loves a good redemption arc.”
Her eyes flash with pure malice. She twists her hand, and pain shoots through my arm. It’s like nothing I’ve ever felt. I scream.
“Everyone’s a critic,” Fate says, her voice cutting like a blade. “When someone else is doing all the writing, all of a sudden, everyone thinks they’re Sophocles.”
She releases my blade and grabs me by the throat, lifting me off the ground.
“But they have no idea how difficult it is to weave a tapestry for every soul. To craft stories realistically, not idyllically. You think I like the downturns? You think I get off on human misery? I don’t, Asher.
But needs must. And I have an obligation to all souls, all stories.
And I already”—Fate’s grip on my throat tightens on each word, punctuating her point—“wrote. Your. Ending.”
“Haven’t you heard,” I choke out, clawing at her hand, “of a sequel?”
With all the power I can muster, I kick her in the stomach in a desperate attempt to create space. To my shock, Fate lets out a sound of surprise and possibly pain as she releases her grip and stumbles backward, clutching her abdomen in shock.
“No …” she hisses, rubbing her side. Did I hurt her? How? Deciding it’s better to ask questions later, I grab Ifaísteio and charge toward her. Before she can react, my knife is plunged into the spot I previously kicked. She grips my shoulders as her mouth opens in shock.
“I’m the author of my own story,” I grit out, twisting my blade. “And I’m writing you out.” I yank Ifaísteio out and step back as she falls to her knees. Maddy rushes to my side, and I put an arm around her protectively.
“Funny,” Fate says weakly as her hands splay across the floor.
“I’ll be honest with you, Asher. With all that self-loathing oozing off of you, I didn’t think you had this in you.
If you hadn’t ruined my favorite dress, I would be more impressed.
” She continues to stare at her hand on the floor, and I furrow my brow while shoving Maddy behind me.
Fate’s face jerks up, and her silver eyes glow as the golden threads contained within them pull taut.
“You wretched souls forget who I am.” She growls as gold threads trail over her skin like pulsating veins.
“You forget what I am capable of,” her body vibrates as the threads run over the floor, toward Maddy and me.
“Maddy, move!” I yell.
“Oh foolish reaper,” Fate laughs maniacally. “It’s time this world remembers its place.” Her grin turns into a snarl as she lifts her hand before slamming it against the floor. Hundreds, maybe thousands of gold tendrils fly from her, across the floor and toward Maddy.
“NO!” I scream as the threads bind her and me. I am unable to move as they slam me against the wall and pull Maddy to Fate. I try to break free of the ice-cold strands but they don’t budge.
“Fate! S-Stop! Take me! Leave her!” I beg the deity, as I remain incapacitated and reduced to nothing more than these sad pleas.
“No,” Fate says as she stands. I notice her illuminating glow flickering.
She casts a grey pallor. Perhaps the blade I speared her with has had some effect.
Perhaps she’s not infallible after all. “I’ve had my fill of alone time with you.
Now I think your little ghost and I should get better acquainted. ”
Fate’s voice drips with ruthlessness and control, as several of the silken threads bound to Maddy begin to writhe and tighten and move her closer to the unhinged deity.
“Tommy!” she screams. “Tommy, don’t let her take me! Please!”
I’m trying. Fuck, I’m trying. But I can’t move. Every muscle in my body screams in pain.
“Where are you taking her?” I ask, no more begging. Not because of my pride—there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to protect Maddy—but because I know it won’t do any good.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Fate shrugs, and I note the smallest wince when she does so. She’s hurt, and maybe if I can keep her here long enough, I can incapacitate her and free Maddy and myself.
“It doesn’t matter. Maddy is mine,” I continue, steel in my tone. “Fate, you may have brought us together in the beginning. But destiny will keep us together in the end.”
“How romantic.” She seethes. “Pathetic. Untrue. But romantic.”
Fate’s golden strands have pulled Maddy all the way to her, and I have made no progress loosening my own binds. All I have is bravado now. “Hey, Fate?” I pause until she looks directly at me. Then, with my eyes burning into hers, I tell her, “There is nowhere you can go where I won’t find you.”
“We shall see. All in good time. Though Time hasn’t felt all that good recently.”
“Please,” Maddy begs as she’s lifted into the air. “Please, I don’t want to leave you. This can’t be happening. It’s too cruel. To have been given a sliver of hope, only to have it ripped away—”
“No, Maddy. Every moment matters. Life is written in joy and sadness. There is meaning in the pain. And I will be with you in the hurt, until I find you again.”
“Blah blah blah,” Fate rolls her eyes. “How touching, but I grow bored of this. And so, goodbye, reaper,” Fate says. “Forever.”
“For now,” I correct with the last bit of strength I have.
And then they’re gone—both of them. The space where they stood is empty, and all that’s left is the frost on the walls, the broken furniture, and the sound of my own desperate, helpless rage.
I collapse in a heap.
For the first time since I became a reaper, since I clawed my way through centuries of pain and loss and regret, I feel something break inside me that I don’t think I can fix.
Everything inside me screams. Not from pain, but from loss. From despair. From the crushing realization that I had her back for moments before it was all ripped away. And then the world goes black.
When I come to and lift from the darkness, I see that the nightmare I just endured was real.
Maddy is gone. But I am not alone. On the floor of Quinn Abernathy’s unceremoniously vacated flat, I am surrounded by Rue, Kane, Big D, and a woman of incredible power and beauty that I’ve never seen before.
For a moment, no one speaks. I don’t know how long they’ve been standing there or how they even found me. I try to stand, but the effort is more embarrassing than the shame of lying on the floor. I am able to pull myself to sitting.
Kane walks over quietly and asks, “May I?”
I don’t answer, but I don’t refuse. He grabs me under the shoulders and pulls me up off the floor, setting me in a chair. My upper body rests against the table in front of me, and I am grateful for the quiet dignity of that moment.
“Thanks,” I say softly.
“Tu seras toujours mon ami.”
“What’s that mean?”
“Nothing. Just a French saying.”
The silence that follows is a welcome moment to gather my wits and my strength. Eventually, Rue breaks into my thoughts.
“Asher, what happened?”
“She’s gone.”
“Who’s gone?” The mystery woman asks, but I don’t have the strength or desire to ask any questions of my own right now.
“Maddy. My Maddy.”
“So, you made it to her,” Kane says reverently. “Well done.”
“All for nothing.”
“No effort made in pursuit of love is ever wasted.”
Rue and the mystery woman both look at Kane. Big D hums.
“Fate took her,” I say, my voice raw and breaking. “I couldn’t stop her. I tried, but I couldn’t—”
“Where did they go?”
The intensity in Big D’s voice surprises me.
I expect I’ll be regaining my strength, only for him to punish me in unthinkable ways.
Though, I cannot imagine a pain worse than this feeling of loss.
I wish I had never known that Maddy was out there.
But the second I think that thought, I know it’s a lie.
“She’s gone,” I whisper. “And we won’t be able to find her. That’s all Fate said.”
The room goes very, very still.
Big D turns from the window slowly. His eyes are their normal black, but there’s something absolutely terrifying in his expression.
“The Moonless Mountains.” The mystery woman speaks before D can. It’s not a question; it’s a statement.
“How do you know?” I say, my voice barely above a whisper.
“She’s my sister. Call it … twintuition.”
“You don’t have to call it that,” Kane chimes in, and D chortles.
“Are you …” I ask the question and don’t need to finish it.
“Yes,” Mercy answers.
Big D walks closer, his movements deliberate. He commands the attention of the room now. He bends down and picks my blade up from the floor.
“Ifaísteio,” he says, running his thumb over the lettering. “In some cultures in the mortal realm, they believe that volcanoes are forces of creation, not destruction. An invitation from the universe to build something new.” When he speaks, his voice is perfectly calm.
Gone is the flamboyant, over-the-top ruler we all know. Which somehow makes him more sinister.
“Fate is reaching the end of her loom,” he says, almost to himself.
“And Time seems to have disappeared.” He looks over at Mercy, who holds his gaze while he continues speaking.
“Seems like a great time for a little destruction and a little creation.” D holds the hilt of my blade and stabs the tip into the table in front of me.
He turns to face me, and his eyes have shifted to that volcanic red.
“What do you say, reaper?” Big D asks, his voice measured. “Wanna create a little mayhem?”
He looks at me, then glances at Kane and Rue.
“In this lifetime and every lifetime, Maddy belongs to me.”
“Then there’s only one thing to do,” Mercy chimes in.
“What’s that?” I ask.
“Fulfill your destiny, Asher comma Thomas.” Big D grins wide and stands to his full height. The red in his eyes flashes with tiny bolts of lightning. “Looks like we’re going to war.”