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She wasn’t a potion crafter anymore, at least, not completely. Cerri was the light to my dark. Where I had one foot in the void of death, Cerri had a hand in the well of life. I’d called upon her today with the hopes that, together, we would be stronger. She was the one who brought Vi and Ness along.
Not that I was complaining. They had lives, though. Ness was trying for her first child. I didn’t want her getting caught in a fight that could risk that…but she wouldn’t be able to start a family if there was no world left to live in.
I rubbed my face and tried to summon the will to fight. This was exhausting, but when Vi clapped me on the back and tossed a quip in Ness’s direction, I found the will to keep going. We had a lot to live for, and I wasn’t about to let Fenrir take it from us.
As we discussed our plan of action, I silently reached for the weave of fate. I hesitated, at first. When Fenrir fed, there was a recoil along the weave that knocked me on my ass. I didn’t want to have to deal with that again, especially if we were going to face him soon.
But I needed chains, too. How else was I going to lock Fenrir away?
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Maddox and Ryder talking in a corner. Ryder waved his hands in the air like he was trying to beseech Maddox. The look on my husband’s face told me that this conversation wasn’t going well. Maddox’s attention was on the floor, but a dismal shadow had taken over his eyes.
I wished I had shifter hearing. For once, there weren’t any ghosts lingering around, either. I couldn’t ask them to go eavesdrop and report back to me like I had back when I thought Perse was just the ghost of an old cat lady. I’d asked agoddessto creep on people for me.
I steadied myself and shoved the alarming thought from my mind before reaching for the weave of fate. I needed to figure out where Fenrir was. Any ripple in the weave would show an anomaly, and every anomaly could possibly point towards the world-ending wolf.
I became aware of several sets of eyes on me when my skin prickled. I cracked open an eye and found both Cerri and Maddox watching me. Maddox’s lips were pursed. He gave a gentle shake of his head before looking towards Ness. My heart flipped as the meaning behind his gesture sank in.
Cerri’s countenance was filled with curious jealousy. I didn’t know how to explain the way the two emotions showed up. It could have been the tight scowl on her lips or the rise of her brows. Either way, I could tell that what I was doing upset her.
“Why canyoutouch the weave of fate?” she asked out of nowhere. “I always thought you were just a necromancer. This is…a lot more than power over death.”
I paused. It was a question I’d wanted to ask, too. I’d been thinking about it for a while, and I was pretty sure I had something resembling an answer. Was it the truth? I had no way of knowing.
The gods had all the answers, and they wouldn’t tell me anything.
I rolled my shoulders back and lifted my chin to pretend like I had any sort of believability. “The Norns tend the roots of the world tree in Hel’s domain. They’re the keepers of Norse fate. I think…I think they’re in the underworld because fate leads us all to the same place for the most part. It ends in death for all mortals. Since my power lies in death, I have some control over fate, too.”
“Huh,” Cerri muttered.
I couldn’t tell if she liked that answer, but I didn’t have anything else for her.
“If it helps, I hate doing this. I’m scared of what I might be doing. Since fate threads are all connected to a greater weave, I can’t help but wonder if I’m disrupting other threads every time I mess around with my own fate.” I lowered my head sheepishly.
I wasn’t lying. After this, I was done changing fate. I wanted to go back to playing with dead things, as awful as that sounded. Ghosts and zombies were far easier to deal with than gods and fate. I honestly missed those days. They’d been a lot simpler.
“Where are we headed?” Ness interjected.
“You’renot headed anywhere,” Maddox said.
My head snapped up just in time to catch Ness turn a burning hot glare in my husband’s direction. I swear, she turned so slowly that her neck should have creaked for dramatic effect. Maddox remained unflinching, though. Others would have run out of the room, but my husband held Ness’s glare like she wasn’t his Alpha’s mate or a Barghest that could strike him where he stood.
I licked my lips nervously. Vi glanced from face to face with a scrutinizing twist to her features. Cerri’s eyes went wide as the realization hit her.
“You’re pregnant,” Cerri blurted out.
Vi threw her hands in the air. “Why didn’t anyone tellme?”
Ness crossed her arms over her chest. “Because we weren’t going to tell anyone until it stuck. It takes three months to know if this will be a sure thing. I didn’t…I didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up.”
Vi jumped up and down excitedly. She went to throw her arms around Ness but came up short. Raising her brows as she tilted her head, Vi silently asked Ness for a hug. Ness’s annoyance broke and a grin spread across her face. She opened her arms to Vi and let the demi-angel rush in for a hug.
“Ah! I’m so excited! Does that make me a godmother? Oh, wait. Holy shit. That makes me anaunt!” Vi spoke so quickly that I felt like her train of thought was going as fast as a bullet train. It left me with whiplash.
“Go home,” Maddox said. “Go build a crib. Pick out nursery paint colors. You don’t have to be here.”
Oh, Ness wasn’t going to like that.
All eyes turned towards Ness. She opened her mouth, but when she looked from face to face, all the fight bled out of her. Her eyes turned watery with unshed tears. I nearly fell out of my seat in my rush to reach her. I threw my arms around her, and the other ladies followed suit. We held her and cried tears of joy for this new chapter in Ness’s life.
