BLAISE
Nox dead on the beach.
I rip the thread from its binding and start again.
Nox dead in the cavern.
Again.
Nox dead in his sister’s arms.
No.
Again.
Nox dead. Again. Nox dead. Again. Nox dead.
Not again not again not again.
Rip.
I stare down at the limp piece of torn thread in my palm. The color fades from its fibers, as if bleeding out into the surrounding air.
No.
The frayed end splays from the tapestry as if to mock me. As if to say, “This is the moment that determines Nox’s death, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Maybe that’s it. Maybe I simply haven’t been unwinding far enough. Maybe there’s something in the tapestry, something that happens earlier that ends in his death, and if I can only figure out what that moment is, I can rework it. I can change his Fate.
I can change our Fate, and then he and I can be happy. Happy, like Evander and Ellie are happy.
The sight of her bulging belly assaults my mind, and I hate myself for the way my heart sank when I saw it, detest myself for the envy that writhed within my heart at the sight of their joy.
Tears sting at my eyes as I try again with the tapestry.
Again, Nox dies.
A scream wells within me as I rip the thread away. A scream that encompasses all my pain. The pain of being without Nox, the agony of losing my baby, the sorrow of putting my child’s spirit to rest, the shame that Evander and Ellie didn’t tell me, because they knew, they knew the ugliness that would fester inside my heart at their happiness.
My baby is dead.
Nox is going to be dead, and I can’t stop it, and now that Piper’s contacted Marcus, informing him that Abra is taking her to Mystral, Nox is going to stay dead.
They’ll turn around. They’ll turn the whole caravan around, and Asha will want to go with them.
We’re so close. We made it so close.
And still, I’m going to fall short of saving him.
“Blaise, I know Lydia already told you about Piper. I just wanted to let you know…Blaise?”
I turn to find Asha in the doorway of my tent. Her voice is tinged with concern, but she’s not looking at me. Her gaze fixes on the tapestry, scanning the likenesses as they make their way across an abandoned island.
“What sort of thread is that tapestry made of?” Asha asks, her hand drawing toward the fabric, as if by its own volition.
I brush my braid from my neck and it swats me on the back. “I’m not sure. It’s just thread I picked up back in Othian. I’ll have to remember the shopkeeper’s name, but I can ask her when we return.”
Asha’s gaze flicks between me and the tapestry.
She schools her features too late.
She knows I’m lying, and even if I hadn’t glimpsed it on her face, I would have sensed it, scented it in the fear coursing through her blood.
“I’d like that.” A smile lines her lips that might have been convincing to anyone else, anyone who couldn’t smell her dread. “The way the dye takes to it; it’s stunning. I had no idea you wove.”
“It’s more of a dabbling,” I say, rising to my feet.
Asha’s throat bobs. “Well, I just thought I’d…” But she can’t seem to find the words. Either that, or she’s decided perhaps I can’t be trusted with the plans. “…check on you.”
“Right. Keep me updated about Piper.”
Asha nods her head, then makes to slip out of the tent.
She doesn’t make it.
Asha’s blood tastes of anguish and Fate itself on my tongue. Any other time, I might have found the taste too intoxicating to stop, but I’m not biting her to feed.
The venom coursing through the tips of my fangs and into her bloodstream leaves a strange bile-like taste to her blood, I suppose because I made a mental note to inject more than I would normally.
