“Forget the damn backpack,” I cry, waving a hand dismissively.
“No, we need to go back and get it. I know what the writing on the box means,” Mom says, clutching my arm.
“What?” I ask, unable to fight the panic telling me to run. Run like hell and never look back.
Mom exhales, her eyes closing for a moment in concentration. “It says, ‘Gift to the ones with the power to wield it. Prison for the sins that lay waste.’ Autumn, do you have any idea what this means?” Mom asks, her hazel eyes flashing.
“Not in the least,” I mutter, wishing it made even a semblance of sense right now.
Her eyebrows tug in and her jaw sets. “Autumn, I think you were somehow gifted Pandora’s Box.”
I shake my head and back away. “That can’t be right.”
“Of course it can be. The box was lost in antiquity, but somehow it’s made its way to you. There has to be a reason for it. Some way we can use it to our advantage,” she says, her words coming out in an urgent whisper.
“I have absolutely no…”
Suddenly, everything is all too clear. Sin-eating, the box, the end to the curse. All of it.
For the first time in forever, hope floods my being and I look back into my mother’s confused eyes. “I know what I need to do,” I say, my mouth dropping open.
“What is it?” she asks.
A high-pitched scream erupts down the hall, making us both jump. It’s closer than before.
“There’s not enough time. You’re right, I need to go back for the box,” I say. “But I’ll have to do everything from the room. ”
“Let’s go. Whatever you need, I’m with you,” Mom say, reaching for my hand and giving it a squeeze. “I tried keeping you from this life. But I’ll be damned if I’m going to let it take you from me without a fight.”
I tip my head, stepping forward and wrapping my arms around her neck. “Thank you.”
“I love you, sweetheart. Now, let’s put an end to the apocalypse.”
Together, we rush back to Wade’s room. There’s a trail of blood and scattered body parts at the far end of the hallway, and it takes everything I have to walk back into the place where all of the devastation started.
“I’ll stand guard,” Mom says, sliding into the room and closing the door behind us. “But whatever you’re planning, do it fast.” She mutters something under her breath and the seams of the door light up in a bright light that etches itself into the creases.
Scrambling to the other side of the room, I dive to the floor and pull my backpack close to me. I can’t believe all this time I held onto something so powerful and it was just sitting in my backpack.
I wrench the bag open and pull out the small wooden box, staring at it with a completely different perspective. If my mom is right, if this is the box that inspired Pandora’s myths, then maybe…just maybe I can do something to set things right.
“What are you going to do?” Mom asks, turning to look at me.
I glance up, settling into a strange sense of calm. “You’ll see. No time to explain.”
Her forehead wrinkles, but she nods.
Outside, another scream makes us both jump. “He’s coming, Autumn. If he senses either of us in here—”
The door suddenly throbs with the force of an explosion, but somehow manages to stay on its hinges.
Mom stumbles back, her arms raised in front of her. “Hurry!” she yells, her eyes wide as she turns back to the door. She splays her fingers wide as she mutters words I have never heard before. Bright light emanates from her palms, intensifying the light binding the door.
My heart thumps against my ribcage, and all I can think about is how this is the only thing that makes any sense. If it doesn’t work—nothing else will. This will be the end of the line.
I flare my nostrils and inhale deeply. “All right, Autumn. I sure as hell hope you know what you’re doing,” I mutter to myself, turning my gaze to the small wooden object in my hands.
Closing my eyes, I focus on the box with the extrasensory sight Abigail had me work on. In my mind’s eye, a pattern emerges on the outside of the box. The bright, neon-like light moves almost slowly, edging from piece to piece. A sense of relief swells, but I don’t have time to give in to it. This might still blow up in my face if I’m not careful.
There’s no way I’m about to do as Lachesis suggested. It might make sense to her, but even if I trusted her, it’s not enough.
Releasing Abigail and Warren’s sins won’t stop something like this from happening again to Wade. Even in another timeline, even in another life, he could be called forth as a Horseman. There could always be another reason.
His father knew this was coming. He knew how big this was about to become and how devastating it would truly be. There were so many ways he tried to stop it from coming to pass, but he had one fail-safe.
This box.
There’s no way he entrusted me with Pandora’s Box, a box that can trap sins and the evil of this world, simply to save my own family.
No, it’s much, much bigger than that—and I intend to see it through.
Settling into the energy of the box, my fingertips work swiftly to unlock the wooden puzzle. As it begins to open, one small wooden component at a time, the gravity of this situation consumes me.
This is what I was made for. Understanding the delicate balance of life and death…knowing how important it is to wield the power wisely was only the beginning. It brought me into alignment with my ultimate destiny—to put an end to fate itself.
I need to consume the sins of the Moirai.
Chapter 24
The Box
The vibration in the air
