“I feel a little lightheaded,” Clem said. “And my memories seem a little foggy. I remember a vision of our future, something about a prison, but I can’t hang on to the details. They keep slipping away from me.”
That was a good sign. It meant that Clem’s destiny was no longer tied to that scene of me in captivity. It also meant that Abi was no longer destined to die here. Despite all the risks and dangers that still lay ahead of us, my heart soared. This would work.
“Okay,” I said. “There’s just one thing left to do.”
My fusion blade appeared in my hand, its crystalline edge thrumming with jinsei. With a single sweep, I severed my friends’ cords and mine. I watched the bound threads and was relieved that none of them leaked any jinsei, and no warped appeared to devour us. Stitching our threads together had sealed them off from the warped and the Grand Design.
My relief vanished when the world lurched beneath my feet. An avalanche of future memories that my visit to Eric had stirred up poured through my thoughts. All those atrocities I’d committed, all the darkness I’d inflicted on the world to save it, crashed across the surface of my mind. But they had no weight or substance, and they evaporated like dew in the morning sun. One by one, the shadows melted into nothingness.
“That was something,” Clem said, her legs a bit unsteady. “I’m okay, though. You think Abi’s all right?”
That was a good question, but I didn’t have an answer. Abi’s core was strong, and his thread of fate was still bound to mine. He was unconscious, though, and I wasn’t sure when he’d wake again. He needed medical attention, and he needed it soon.
“Let’s go see Eric,” I said. “He won’t come out of this illusion until he sees all of us. I’ll guide you two to him. Should be easy...”
And it was. With my advanced core, I fell into meditation with no effort at all. I found Eric’s thread, faded to almost nothing, a mere charcoal smudge through the air. I chased after it, racing along its length with my mind, Clem and Abi in tow. By the time we reached Eric in the palace of his destiny, the thread was invisible.
And I was shocked to see Abi back on his own two feet, his legs whole. It was as if he’d never suffered those grievous wounds back in the ruins. Maybe because in Eric’s version of the world, he hadn’t. I wondered if Abi remembered losing his legs, but now was not the time to remind him if he hadn’t.
“Welcome back,” Eric said, an uncertain smile twisting the corners of his mouth. “That was fast. Didn’t even have time to pour drinks for you.”
He reached into the cabinet against the deck’s railing and produced a pair of clean, chilled glasses that he placed next to the ones he and I had been drinking out of before I left. He splashed a couple of fingers of whiskey in each one, then lifted them and offered one to Clem and the other to Abi. She took hers without hesitation, but Abi rejected Eric’s offer with a shake of his head.
“I don’t drink,” he said. “Never had a taste for it, doubt I ever will.”
Eric smacked his palm against his forehead. “I forgot,” he said. “According to Jace, you’re all still in school.”
“Enough games,” I said. “I told you I’d bring them back, and I did. They’re both bound to me, now. It will only take a few seconds to do the same for you. Then we can get out of here and finish this mess before—”
“Before what, Son?” my mother asked as she emerged from Eric’s house. Blood stained her tattered robes, still red and sticky, and crimson dripped from her fingertips. “Go on, I’m not here to interfere with your plan.”
“Great,” Eric said with a smirk. “A family reunion.”
The Severing
CLEM RAISED HER GLASS to Eric, then downed it with a single gulp. “Delicious. Wish I’d had time to sip it.”
My fusion blade appeared in my hand of its own accord. My serpents curled up out of my aura and hooked around me like the bars of a shark cage, heavy and unyielding, ready to protect me against the coming battle. “Don’t make me kill you,” I said to my mom.
She hadn’t stopped walking toward me. A sticky red trail stained the deck behind her, bloody footsteps flanked by red drops from her stained hands. For the first time, I noticed the ugly fishhook of scar tissue that pulled the left side of her mouth toward her eye. Our time apart had left her battered and bloodied, and she’d emerged all the deadlier for it. It was hard to reconcile this vengeful revenant before me with the woman who’d trained me and kept me safe from all the dangers of the labor camps.
“You’ve grown,” she said, “but so have I. There are so many things I want to show you. So many techniques that only I can teach you. You haven’t even begun to unlock the true strength in that precious core of yours. Put down your weapon, Son. Come with me. We’ll complete your quest and then fulfill your true destiny. There’s no need for violence in our family.”
I took a step back to stay out of her reach and held my weapon between us, its tip aimed at her heart. “Take another step, and it will be your last.”
To my surprise, she stopped and raised her red hands above her head. Her smile had faded, and the light in her eyes winked out like candle flames before a storm. She didn’t move, she didn’t speak. She waited, watching me for any sign of weakness or attack.
I took a moment to analyze my mother’s strength. Her core was bright and vibrant, the same level as mine, but it was surrounded by strange
