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The threads. That man we’d been tracking had carved through the threads around him. I hadn’t stopped to think about how that might affect the world. If a thread was severed, would it cut off a phone’s connection? I didn’t really know how to test that theory. It wasn’t like I would grab a thread and cut it myself.
My whole job was to keep the threads from being severed.
The thought made me bolt upright. “Suck it, Hel. Maddox isn’t the problem!”
I waited for everyone to turn to look at me after I blurted that out. No one moved. Even the motes of dust in the air stilled.
“Ah, shit.”
Hel laughed. She appeared beside me as if she’d been there the whole time—much like how the portals to the afterlife worked, I noted. She stepped around the front of me and bent to stand face to face with me.
I gave her a worried smile. The human half of her face was lined with disappointment. I should have expected as much.
“You’re trying to find a loophole in my demands, granddaughter. I do not appreciate your defiance, though I can admire it.” Hel never took her gaze away from mine.
I looked away first. The carpet was full of cat hair. When was the last time I’d vacuumed? I guess I hadn’t really been around all that much lately. Thankfully, my cat was already dead. It wasn’t like I could kill her with how negligent I’d been.
Making a mental note to be a better pet parent, I lifted my gaze once more.
“That other man was the one breaking the threads of fate,” I said.
Was that something that really just came out of my mouth? Why did I have to deal with thethreads of fate itself? That seemed like a job for someone much more experienced. I wasn’t a good fit for this job.
I was barely keeping my own shit together as it was. How did Hel expect me to keep the whole world and the afterlife in one piece? It was asking for disaster to strike.
Hel lifted my chin as she stood upright. “You will put an end to that abomination. He should not exist. I will not allow you to keep him as your pet.”
I jerked away from her touch. “He’s not a pet. Maddox is aperson.”
Hel cocked her head. Realization dawned on her face. “You love this abomination. I can see it in your stance. Your heart bleeds for this monster you helped create. I hope you understand that he will shatter that fragile heart one way another. Will you let him shatter the world, too?”
“Get away from me.” Shaking my head, I backed up.
The backs of my knees hit the couch and sent me crashing into it. Time stuttered and rushed forward once more. The living people in the room startled as I suddenly fell out of nowhere. Luca simply looked up with a hint of confusion on his face.
“Hel,” I said, grumpily.
I’d been in the middle of a breakthrough when she’d grabbed me. The old hag could take her demands and eat them for all I cared. I wasn’t going to let anything break, be it the world or my own heart. I had the power to make fate bend to my will.
Wasn’t that what my arcana granted me? I held power over death itself, which was a part of fate. Was it not? I wouldn’t allow some damn divine being to come into my life and make demands when I’d been left on my own all my life.
She should have shown up much sooner if she wanted my cooperation.
“Okay, so we have someone who can break the threads of fate,” I said as I reached for a piece of paper. “I can’t tell if he’s doing it on purpose or not. It seems random so far.”
Vi poked her head through the door. “And he’s hunting you. We know that, too. Why else would he come all the way from Maddox’s part of New York? Syracuse isn’t exactly a top tier tourist destination. That’s what the Thousand Islands is for.”
I jotted down both facts. “What else do we have?”
After half an hour, we had a long list of information that didn’t seem connected in the least. There were the faulty afterlife portals, silence in Heaven and Hell, and Ness’s heart failure. Cerri added that she’d been trying to experiment with the power she came into not long ago, but it’d been a struggle, as if something was pushing back at her.
“Could that be Beryl?” I asked.
Cerri’s lips twisted to the side in thought before she shook her head. “Beryl makes her presence known. She’s not shy. Not in the least.”
“Queen Beryl is known for dramatics,” Luca said in agreement.
The only other reason behind Cerri’s arcana malfunctioning had to be the torn threads of fate. My stomach flipped when I realized that the same had happened to me. I hadn’t been able to connect with the dead around me, especially when we were close to that man or his murders.
I looked around for Perse. She still hadn’t shown up. That wasn’t like her. The woman was nosy and loved being knee-deep in everyone’s business. She wouldn’t have passed up an opportunity to meet a vampire, either. When I spread out my arcana, I could feel every small dead thing around me.
Luca flinched and glared at me. I would have apologized, but my thoughts kept me distracted. I realized that it wasn’t that I couldn’t see Perse, but that she wasn’t here at all. In fact, everywhere I’d been lately had been devoid of ghosts.
When the portals to the afterlife closed, had the ghosts been cut off from the mortal plane, too? If that was the case, then how was the corrupted woman still lingering? If I was going to get answers, then I would have to find her.
And any other victims still trapped here.
