Page 2 of Commanding Scythe and Sky

I thought about how badly I needed to pee. How scared Mamma had looked. How big the shadows were.

I hoped this was another nightmare. One I would wake from in her arms, where she would wipe away my tears while I told her all about it, like always.

But the shadows were very big, and their voices were loud—like dogs growling when the boys threw rocks at them.

“Where is she?” one of them snarled.

Men.

There were men inside the shadows.

I shifted, trying to find Mamma as my body began shaking like I was cold, but all I could see were their monster faces. Horns that curled from their heads. Dark holes where their eyes should have been.

A scream rose into my throat, but I clamped my mouth shut and covered my lips with both hands, trapping it inside.

I promised to be quiet.

Promised Mamma I wouldn’t make a sound.

“Who?” Mamma asked, but her voice sounded wrong. Like she wasn’t breathing.

“Your daughter,” one of the shadows said, and my belly sank.

“Dead,” Mamma lied.

Why was she saying that?

Her warnings echoed inside my head.

True Fate Weavers are worth killing for, so you can never tell anyone but Mommy what you see, Stasia.

That was what she always said.

Were they here for me?

Mamma cried, and the sound made me so angry I wanted to scream. If they were here for me, and I came out, would they leave her alone?

I shifted, reaching one hand toward the door—but my body froze when one of the monsters’ dark eyes snapped toward me.

Toward the crack between the doors.

Ice spread through my body.

He moved, walking like a lion hunting on TV.

He was the biggest of the shadows, and as he crept around the bed toward me, I heard Mamma sob.

Then the world went dark.

I stared up into the blackness as the light vanished. Mamma screamed, and I bit down on my hand, trying so hard to stay quiet. To be a good girl, just like I’d promised.

“I lost her!” Mamma cried. “I lost her when Solskivall fell!”

I wanted so badly to cry with her as she lied. We weren’t supposed to lie, but she sounded so honest.

“I was wounded in the battle—I had a stillborn!”

What did that mean?