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“You are rather interesting, considering how mediocre you are,” Lachesis observed.
“You really aren’t doing great things for my ego,” I muttered.Don’t fuck around, Riot. You don’t want to hang out here any longer than you have to.“I’m here to find out how to restore the soul bonds.”
“Ach,” Atropos hissed. “Centuries of work, undone in one tantrum. We are not restoring anything. Show him,” she insisted, nudging Lachesis with her elbow.
I don’t know how one gave the stink eye when they didn’t have eyes, but Lachesis managed it. With practiced ease, she began pinching the air between her fingers as though she was catching tiny specks of dust, drawing more and more threads out until there was an entire web separating me from the sisters. Clotho never stopped twirling the spindle between her fingers, and I felt vaguely nauseous as Atropos snipped away at some threads, leaving space for Lachesis to reveal more.
I was watching people die right in front of my eyes in the most abstract of ways.
“Do you see these loose threads?” Lachesis asked, holding one up for me to see. It was so thin, I could barely make it out—far thinner than the threads of life. “These were bonds—this was once tied to its match. Now it hangs loose, the lovers’ knot undone by Gaia’s malice.”
“And you won’t… tie it back up again?” I asked, floundering slightly at how to describe it. It hadn’t seemed like a knot when I visualized the bond, it was smooth and seamless in my head.
“That part is easy,” Clotho explained, still spinning, spinning, spinning. “It is thewhothat is time-consuming. We spent so long assigning souls as matches, maintaining Gaia’s tradition when she handed the fate of the agathos to us. Too much was undone for us to possibly redo.”
Okay. Okay, that wasn’t what I wanted to hear, but it also wasn’t necessarilybad.
For me, at least.
“Could we fix it ourselves?” I pressed. “Tie the threads back together on our own, to whoever we choose?”
Atropos leaned forward, and I could have sworn that behind the bandage, she narrowed her non-existent eyes at me. “Do you think you are better qualified to choose who should be bonded than we are?”
“I mean, no offense, but yeah, I think I’m better qualified to choose whoIshould be bonded to than you are. That every individual personshouldget to choose who they tie their life to.”
I thought of Grace’s parents—of the dad who’d helped me into the agathos temple when they’d snatched Grace away, and helped us escape when I’d gotten her out. How could he possibly be a perfect match for Grace’s wretched mother? The other dad, the one who’d come to Grace’s apartment and found me there, nowthose twoseemed made for each other. Chance wasn’t like them, though.
Atropos sniffed, unimpressed, but Clotho looked thoughtful. “It would save us a job. In fact, any mortal would be able to form a bond—agathos, daimon, or human—if we passed the gift on to them. They wouldn’t know their soul’s perfect counterpart—orcounterparts, as it were—”
“—but howfun,” Lachesis interrupted, sounding gleeful. Atropos moodily snipped at a few more threads. “We do so love when some plucky mortal twists their thread in an unexpected direction. Imagine the possibilities if they could set their own bonds—irrevocably tying themselves to the most unsuitable of partners in a fit of short-sighted lust. We shall never be bored again,” she declared triumphantly.
On the one hand, this was what I wanted. What I’d come here for. On the other, these three were bad vibes, and it sort of felt as though I was the one who’d been caught in a trap.
“Not that anyone asked me,” Atropos said bitterly because she was obviously the grumpy, morose one out of their trio. The Riot of the group, so to speak. “But mortals find a way to abuse every small piece of power we’ve ever given them. Do we really need to give them yet another thing? They’ll use it as some kind of entrapment to bind unwilling lovers to them, I guarantee it.”
Such little faith. Also a very valid consideration.
Lachesis waved away her concern. “The bond already can only be formed if both parties are willing.”
“It will be weaponized,” Atropos insisted. “Those with material wealth will use it as an incentive. Soul bonds will bepurchased.”
“Ach, you are so pessimistic.” Lachesis huffed in irritation. “So we add a few extra steps to make the process more complex, more intimate.”
“Like what?” I asked hopefully. This sounded good.Possible. All I wanted was Grace back, our bond strong and brilliant and permanent. I’d never ask the gods for another thing if I could have that.
“Hush,” Atropos said, glaring at me. “We are discussing things far beyond your intellect. You could not evenbeginto understand the complexities of souls and the way they connect.”
She was probably right, but she was also an asshole.
Clotho kept spinning, quiet and thoughtful, even as both of her sisters turned their full attention to her, waiting for her to speak. “I will side with Lachesis in this instance.”
Atropos aggressively clipped a thread, and I winced in sympathy. Did it hurt more to die when she was so rough with the scissors?
“Fine. Don’t complain to me when it all goes poorly,” Atropos grumbled. She hung the scissors off the belt at her waist, and Clotho did the same with her spindle. The three of them began twisting their hands through the air in movements that were synchronized but not quite the same.
More threads appeared in what I’d thought were gaps, the entire web illuminating gold in flashes so bright and sudden, I had to close my eyes before my head exploded.
But still, it was happening.Somethingwas happening. Mr. Mediocrity might have actually come through—maybe I could go back to Grace with my head held high and beg her to be my bonded again.Hold on, Gracie. I’ll be there as soon as I can.
