“What in tarnation?” I whispered.
And then I remembered how Narcissus said he'd share his illusion magic with me. I'd wished for a drink, and his territory had supplied it. Could it be that he'd never taken back his gift after his little demonstration?
“I wish I could find the Fates,” I gave it another go.
A hallway appeared in the wall before me. No door; just an open passage.
“Well, would you look at that?” I whispered as I rubbed a hand over my tummy. “We may have a chance, after all, Vero.”
Vero shifted and then settled.
“Yeah; I'll take it from here.” I grinned. It was nice to know he had faith in me.
I headed down the corridor but immediately jerked back. I thought I saw someone inside it, but it turned out to be my reflection. I chuckled to myself and shook my head; I shook it into infinity. The corridor was coated entirely in mirrors, and I was the only thing in it so I seemed to go on forever in all directions. It was disorienting, but the passage wasn't long. It opened into another room and the entry was already crowded with three women who peered in at me calmly.
“It's about time you got here,” Atropos huffed when I stepped out of the corridor. Her bottle-green eyes flashed and her auburn hair hung wild about her disapproving face.
“Excuse me?”
“We've been expecting you,” Clotho smiled brilliantly. She looked lovely; her chocolate-brown hair done up in fat curls and her sky-blue eyes filled with warmth.
“You knew!” I hissed.
“We had a brief glimpse into the threads,” Lachesis said calmly. “We knew that Narcissus would be coming for us but saw that it was necessary for a better future for all of us.”
Lachesis was the Alotter—the one who cut the thread of a human life—and she had ironically gotten the short end of the stick when it came to the looks department. Although she seemed to be young, her face was gaunt, making her black eyes appear massive as it aged her. The way she wore her black hair pulled back severely from her face emphasized her skeletal appearance, and she belted her gray toga just as tightly as her hair. A pair of scissors hung ominously from it that belt. I was surprised to see the scissors; I would have thought that they'd have disappeared into the mirror-border along with her magic.
“Change is coming for the Gods,” Clotho announced. “It will be rough, as all change is, but it will be good too.”
“You put yourself in danger to make the future better?” I asked in disbelief. “I hope it's significantly better.”
“We must all make sacrifices, Vervain,” Lachesis said sternly. “Nothing has been asked of us until now.”
“It's our duty to tend the threads,” Atropos added. “And being separated from our magic briefly is hardly the worst sacrifice.”
“Others have given their lives,” Clotho whispered respectfully.
“You knew about them too?” I asked in horror. “You could have warned Nemesis.”
“We didn't know about the murders until it was too late,” Lachesis protested. “But that was a blessing. We would have been tempted to stop them, and they needed to die.”
“Poor Hephaestus.” Atropos shook her head. “He was never fated to be happy. Perhaps he'll have better luck in his next life.”
“You didn't happen to see how I get us out of here, did you?” I asked.
“We didn't actually see you getting us out.” Clotho looked nervously at her sisters.
“What?!”
“We saw that it was necessary for us to be here,” Lachesis took over again. “And so we are. We trust in Fate, Vervain. How could we not?”
“Great,” I huffed. “Except Fate has stuck us in Mirrorland without any magic while our captor has loads of it at his disposal. It seems that Fate is laughing at us. Perhaps laughing and pointing.”
“Fate never laughs,” Lachesis said with the utmost seriousness.
“Okay, okay!” I held up a hand. “Let me think.”
“This will take awhile,” Atropos muttered.
“You know, it's a shame Horus is already married to Hekate,” I said snidely. “You two would have been great together.”
“Cease your yammering and relieve us from this irksome confinement,” Atropos tossed back.
I gaped at her. “Did you just quote Guardians of the Galaxy to me? Movie quotes are my thing! I'm getting really tired of people copying me.”
“I thought perhaps if I spoke a language you understood, you'd get on with it.” Atropos smirked.
“Fine.” I gave her a sassy look. “I wish I could free us from Narcissus' prison.”
“Great; that'll work.” Atropos rolled her eyes.
“Um...” Clotho pointed at a wall.
We all turned to look at a new corridor that had opened up. The one that had brought me to them had disappeared but this one seemed identical to it; completely coated in mirrors.
“What the fuck?” Atropos blinked at it.
“Narcissus gave me access to his magic,” I explained as I hurried to the hallway. “Not enough to get my magic back, but enough to give me whatever I wanted within his territory.”
“Within his territory,” Lachesis repeated. “Which means that it won't let us out.”
“And yet, it's given us a path.” I waved a hand toward it.
Atropos scowled at me and stepped into the corridor... and then promptly screamed. She lurched back into the room, shivering as her sisters rushed to help her.
“What is it?” Clotho looked from her sister to the corridor with trepidation.
“The... it... showed me things,” Atropos whispered. “I can't... no; I can't walk through there. I'm sorry.”
“What are you talking about?” I went to the corridor and peered in.
A few seconds were all I could handle before I jerked back into the room. My loved ones were in that hallway; each one being tortured in horrendous ways. The scenes lingered in my eyes; traumatic even with that brief flash. I didn't want to know what Atropos had seen.
“The territory can't refuse your request, but it won't let us go easily either,” Clotho whispered.
“We must get through that corridor,” Lachesis said. “We'll
