Chapter 26
SORROW
The strange phenomenon of families such as the Millars and Villentes was first noticed two centuries ago.
Every child born to them emerged before their fourteenth summer.
In the case of the Villentes, it’s thought the family was blessed in return for Chastity’s legendary (though probably mythical) battle with Vyrus.
The Millars’ role in earning Evella’s favour has never been clear.
Despite rumours of a third line, this has never been confirmed.
— GLESNI GRACE’S ADVICE FOR MENTORS: THIRD EDITION
Isbeth’s face split in a macabre grin, her breaths rattled. A hooked hand sliced into Matthias’s thigh as he turned his wide eyes onto me.
‘No,’ I cried, grasping, pleading, begging the thread to return.
Pablo yelped, drew back, staring at me, his eyes asking a question I couldn’t answer.
Isbeth held on with a strength she’d never possessed in life, glee dancing in her cloudy eyes as Matthias cried out.
I clutched her hand, screamed at her iron-stiff fingers, blood seeping from Matthias’s leg as he stared between his mother and me, too shocked to fight.
‘Not again,’ I cried, kicking out as Isbeth stood, her knee twisting at an angle that would have floored her in life.
She lunged for his eyes and finally, Pablo flew at her, jaws latched onto her arm.
‘Mum?’ Matthias cried. Pain and shock laced across his face as his mother lunged again and again.
He crossed his arms over his face, still unprepared to fight the evil cloaked in his mother’s flesh.
Blood soaked through her clothes, spilled dark ribbons over her skin, and I no longer knew which were her wounds and which were Matthias’s.
It was the same. The same as Mama. Pablo snarled, his feet off the ground as Isbeth shook him free.
I threw myself over her back, praying to Evella I could floor her.
She shrieked, her elbow flying into my side, winding me, and I fell to the path.
Matthias stood, shaking, still believing this was his mum, before bloodied fingers hooked through the back of his tunic, choking him as he fell forward. The image of Enfys etched into my mind as he grunted. The corpse slammed him into a tree, clawing for his eyes.
‘Sorrow, please—’
She gripped his hair, smashed his head against the trunk.
‘No.’ Tears streamed down my face as I sensed the link to the thread revelling in his destruction, his pain.
I called it back, my heart splitting with effort as it reigned over Isbeth’s form.
Dry screams caught in my throat as Matthias’s head collided with the tree again.
And again. And again. Sobbing, I bit, slashed at her.
Dark blood stained the trunk. And his eyes, the pain, the hurt in his eyes as she slammed his head back once more.
Pablo lunged, straight at her waist, ripping it open.
‘No,’ I screamed, tugging and desperate as Matthias’s eyes shuttered. I dug my nails across Isbeth’s face, gouging into her eyes.
I’d lose him. The fucking fates delighted in my pain and I’d lose him. I shook my head, every fibre of my body trembling with the greatest fear when the words of Glesni echoed through my mind.
You do not flinch before Death, Sorrow. Not when you command her.
Resolve built like a tempest. She was right. It was I who mastered these tainted gifts, who directed their will. There was not a single force in this universe stronger than my bond to Matthias fucking Elmswood.
And fate would not steal him.
The wind whipped my hair and I pushed it back from my closed eyes.
With a roar, I reached across the dusty path, dug inside and grasped hold of the thread with a grip stronger than the finest Vyrium.
The violet thread shuddered, annoyance quivering through the ribbon as I grappled with the rogue gift.
It trembled, tried to defy me and burrow itself deeper into the woman who’d borne the man I adored.
I screamed, raw and furious and poured all my strength, my pain, my love into the link.
My eyes snapped open and Isbeth slumped.
Her head twisted towards me, but her time was complete.
Matthias scrambled back, slipping and falling as blood oozed from the myriad of wounds.
The thread made a final attempt to corrupt the dead queen, to resist. Her arm twisted, lunged towards the son she’d loved.
No. I screamed the command, the thread cowered, before I dragged it back.
It slipped into my chest, and I collapsed to my knees.
My hair spilled across my blinkered vision as I crawled forward.
Matthias. The urge to simply hold him, ensure he still breathed, overwhelmed me.
Ignoring the sting of rocks against my palms, I glanced up and found Pablo already by my husband.
A smile curled the corner of my lips, before the wolf snapped his amber gaze onto me and uttered a pained whine.
Barely able to grab in a breath, I crawled to Matthias, a streak of russet marking his path down the trunk.
His mouth worked as my fingers clutched his matted hair, the blood soaking through my clothes.
Was it his? His mother’s? His face was as pale as the winter moon.
Sticky blood was already drying in clumps amongst the tangles of his dark hair, but his chest rose and fell.
I cursed Evella for failing to grant me the gift of healing as I pressed my trembling fingers against the back of his head.
With a hiss, his eyes cracked open and the smile I’d die for broke across his face.
Pablo nuzzled Matthias’s blood-streaked cheek. Groaning, he pushed the wolf away.
‘We’ve got to find the others,’ I whispered, as I brushed the hair from his eyes.
He narrowed his gaze. ‘Others?’
I nodded, helping him to stand on his shaky legs. I may have commanded the threads, but if they defied me again, I couldn’t be sure Matthias would survive another attack. I just needed distance.
Matthias staggered and the wolf left my side, slipping beneath my husband’s hand. Pressing my hand to my chest and breathing a sigh of relief to find the warmth of the ruby still nestled safely against me, we stumbled away.
And looking at the hurt and love in his eyes, I knew the man at my side was finally the boy I’d so adored.