whatever she was looking for. She turned, slowly starting toward the creek bed. Her footsteps were quick but not jerky. The antsy energy she’d been feeling all day would eventually grow. Crippling pain would assault her again soon as her tolerance to the Elixir grew and Seth started pecking away at her.
And if I didn’t give her a larger dose along with a booster compulsion, the bond between them would form again.
Closing my eyes, I tipped my head back. There had to be another way. We couldn’t keep doing this to her. Sooner or later, the effects of the Elixir wouldn’t wear off. She’d be like this forever—forever stuck between the tenacious and strong-willed Alex and this naive, watered-down Alexandria. To do this to her wasn’t right. The wrongness of it coated my mouth and throat like bile. It was acid churning in my stomach, burning a hole through my soul.
And Apollo… he was giving up, even if he didn’t want to admit it—giving up and preparing to kill Alex.
Clenching my jaw, I opened my eyes. Alex sat on a fallen log near the slow-moving creek. She held something in her hands—flowers? Her face was turned to the side and her lips were pulled down at the corners. Sadness had crept into her features.
I pushed off the tree but stopped as she picked off a petal and placed it on the log. Then another and another, until ten or so petals formed a loose circle beside her. She placed two more, completing the circle, and then two more inside the circle.
My chest tightened and, without any warning, a fissure of energy skittered over my skin. I turned, expecting to find Apollo—or worse yet, an unfriendly god. I sucked in a sharp breath.
An ethereal glow surrounded the feminine form and slowly faded, revealing a slender woman who stood taller than me. Lilies adorned the brown hair that had been piled atop her head in an intricate maze of braids. A sheer white dress covered her body and left very little to the imagination. I felt I should look away but couldn’t. She was almost painfully beautiful—unreal.
A faint smile appeared. “Hello, Aiden.” Her voice was a symphony, and I started to bow, but she stopped me with a raised hand. “That is not necessary. Unlike my brothers and sisters, I do not have a taste for formalities.”
It took me a few moments to find my voice. “You’re one of the Moirae… one of the Fates.”
“I am Clotho.”
Fear formed a cold, hard ball in the center of my chest. Clotho was responsible for spinning the thread of human life, but she also decided when gods could be saved or put to death. I glanced over my shoulder at Alex. Did her powers extend to god-like creatures, too? I moved to block Alex from her view.
Clotho’s laugh was soft and melodious. “I am not here to harm her, and even if I were, I cannot cut her thread. Neither can Atropos.”
Relieved by that piece of information, I faced the goddess. “Why are you here?”
“I’ve been watching you and her.” She stepped to the side. Sunlight broke through the branches, cutting across her bare shoulder and over her dress. The material shimmered. “It pains you to see her like this, I know. You love her so.”
I saw no reason, no point, in lying to a goddess of Fate. “More than anything in this world, and without her.” Clearing my throat, I looked away. I couldn’t finish the sentence, let alone the thought.
“Going on would be like existing with a piece of you missing?” She nodded when I looked at her again. “Your threads are intertwined. Not by my doing, you see?”
I didn’t see a damn thing. Now I understood Alex’s frustration when she’d spoken to the oracle. I opened my mouth but closed it. Understanding slid over my skin like thick oil. “She was Fated to be with Seth, wasn’t she?”
She looked at me and her smile faded. “She was, but Fate has many plans for her.”
“What will happen to her?” I asked before I could stop myself. Somehow I knew that asking a Fate that kind of question equaled poor social skills.
“You do not ask for yourself?”
Sure, curiosity was there, but my fate didn’t matter. I shook my head.
Her brows rose. “Most would not pass up a chance to learn their fate, but I cannot tell you what lies in wait for your Alexandria. Some things are even unknown to us.”
Disappointment seeped into me, wrapping its way around my bones likes a too-tight binding. I turned back to Alex. She was watching us, eyes wide and hands stilled over the petals.
“It’s okay,” I called out to her.
Alex didn’t move for a full minute, and then she gathered all her torn petals, tossing them one by one into the creek.
Clotho watched Alex too. “Their threads are intertwined closely—the First’s and hers.”
My hands clenched. “And there’s no way that can be undone?”
She tilted her head. “No. Just like yours cannot be undone. Fate is fate, you see, but there is one thing we do not take into consideration when we spin the threads of life, not even when we cut it.”
Part of me didn’t expect an answer, but I asked, “What is that?”
“Love. We do not take love into consideration.”
I looked at her. “Seriously?”
She laughed and it carried on the breeze. “Love is such a wild and reckless creature. It cannot be planned or threaded. It cannot be controlled. Love can coexist with Fate, or it can undo it. Love is the only thing more powerful than Fate.”
The words were slow to sink in as I stared at the goddess. Was this why the goddess had made such a surprise visit?
Her white eyes burned and hummed with electricity. “You want to know how to break the connection?”
My breath caught. “Yes.”
Sympathy creased Clotho’s brow. Stepping forward, she placed a small hand against my chest, above my heart. “There is no god or person who can break their connection, but there is still hope.” She dropped her hand and stepped back, nodding. “There is the heart, Aiden. There is love, which means there is always hope.”
Then Clotho shimmered out of focus and disappeared. Feeling as if my nerves were exposed, I stalked around the fallen branches and overturned trees. Reaching Alex’s side, I realized I was holding my breath.
Something was building inside me, clicking together.
Alex turned to me, her shattered eyes meeting mine. The mix of brown and gold was as beautiful as it was heartbreaking. I really looked into them, seeing the trust that had always been there, devotion and love buried deep inside her. No bond—no connection—could fully extinguish that. It was why she’d hadn’t destroyed the necklace I’d made her.
There was still hope.
Clotho had said that love was stronger than Fate. Was that really the answer we’d been searching for? Love—our love for one another?
Then I remembered what Alex had said to me. “I
Somehow I’d forgotten that. I’d believed that she’d forgotten who she was, but in reality none of us, especially me, had had hope once she’d Awakened—not that kind of undying hope that saw people through the tough stuff. Granted, this wasn’t the ordinary tough stuff that most couples faced.
And what had I told her then?
Lowering her lashes, she opened her hand and the rest of the petals fell from her grasp, fluttering to the ground like thin, torn pieces of paper. “It’s beautiful here… and quiet. Can we stay for a little while longer?”
I wasn’t sure what I was doing when I placed my hands on her cheeks, tilting her head back. “Alex…”
Instead of correcting her name, she let it slide. Her eyes searched mine. “Aiden?”
My lips curved into a smile for her—always for her. “Do you believe in love?”
“Yes,” she said without hesitation. “Do you?”
“I do.” My hands slid to her shoulders and she shivered. “I believe in love.”
Thick lashes fanned her cheeks again and a grin tipped her lips. “I think I am in love.”
Six words stopped my heart when facing down a horde of daimons couldn’t.
She bit her lip and a faint blush stained her cheeks. “I feel it in here,” she said, placing her hand against her
