Page 9 of A Sea of Fate and Starfire

“A petty theft,” the third voice remarked. “Her crime against me was more severe. A Naiad sharing with a human that which they must covet.” She fixed harsh eyes on me, the shine of her stars blinding. “If you are to cross, I demand payment.”

“You’re the Fates,” I breathed. “Time and Truth.”

“And Love,” the first voice cooed. She twisted herself into the sky, more colorful than her astral sisters. Her boundaries radiated with soft nebulas of green and blue and pink, each swirling slowly within her. Death shimmered again at her entrance, flying in a wide arc around my shoulders.

Love leaned in, her celestial face growing in size as she brought herself close enough to study me, forcing me to shield my eyes at her light. “This one stole from me as well.”

5

Maren

I’d entered the Gateway to Darkness knowing I’d stolen from Time. And once Truth had described my crime, I couldn’t deny that I’d broken the ancient blood laws of Naiads by transitioning in front of Kye, even if I hadn’t done so under my own free will.

But I couldn’t imagine how I might have stolen from Love.

She read my confusion with a growing smile that cramped the corners of my stomach. “Do you not remember, young mortal? The promise you made?”

I blinked away the brightness of her light. “What promise?”

She swirled the stars with a lazy finger until they settled in a constellation over the palm of her hand. The burning outline of a young woman bent over a man as he lay in the snow, pumping madly at his chest.

Please. Please bring him back, the distant stars chanted softly.

I’ll never blame anyone for my vows.

I’ll never complain.

I’ll never argue.

I’ll resolve myself to my oath and never want otherwise.

I’ll do what I’m told. When I’m told. How I’m told.

Please give him back.

The starlit woman wrenched the man’s coat open, thrusting her palm flat against his sternum, and my eyes closed as the familiar crack of Kye’s breastbone reverberated through my fingertips.

“We could have taken him then,” Love said, watching the man sit up heavily. The pair dimmed and faded until the constellation in her hand disappeared. Luminous eyes shifted to me. “But I let you keep him a while longer, under the promise that you would obey. Did you obey, mortal?”

“No,” I murmured.

“No,” Love echoed, and though her voice was sweet and flirtatious, her edges flared like drops of fire. “No, you did not. You returned to your master, the one you swore your blood to, and then betrayed him.”

“I was meant to betray him.” My leg ached under my weight, but something in me refused to show the Fates any sign of weakness. They gazed at me with equal stares of calculation, and I suddenly became very aware of what it must feel like to stand and wait for judgment before a jury. “My mother lit a Morai candle. A flame of blood and moon. I was fated to leave Thaan’s power. Fated to become a siren queen.”

“And fated to lose your bond,” Truth said.

My jaw worked in silence, chewing the words that tangled in my mouth. “You took my promise knowing I was fated to break it. So that you could collect payment from me here.”

A small giggle flitted from her lips. She rolled onto what might have been her back, tilting her head to gaze at me upside-down. “You’ve traveled far from your little beach on an island. But we are endless. We are eternal. We are bored. Amuse us with a trade that will truly challenge you. We are not like Darkness, saving an unknown recompense for some time in your future.”

I frowned. “What else would Darkness ask of me?”

Death drifted to the silver dust path. A small plume sparkled as he landed, vanishing like a cresting wave into the sand.

Time’s falling stars ticked softly at her corners. “Love’s toll need not be the one you pay. We are the guardians, keepers of the sky, and you seek to pass through to the Gateway to Perpetuum. To the truly dead, crossing the sea of stars is a mere step through the dark, escorted by Death. But you are not dead. Nor are you alive. You could pay any one of us for the right to passage.”

Death flicked the tips of its wings, still buried in the dust. I watched as ash stirred and fell still again. “What would you take for payment?”