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I unfolded the parchment on the bottom, the most worn and battered. A simple line was written across the center of the sheet:
Live and live again, until death at crimson night.
With a tremble to my fingers, I hurried through each parchment. Days, perhaps weeks of the same line, the same ominous prophecy Riot said when he cast his fate curse was scratched over the parchment again and again.
When I reached the last sheet, the ink was fresh and vibrant, and three new words were scribbled below:
Live and live again, until death at crimson night.
…the first bond
“I’ve been writing the same thing for weeks. Before you even came to me,” Calista said. “You want to know what bothered me, Saga?” She paused for a drawn moment. “It’s not that I might be a descendant of your brother’s line. Our power is similar, so it makes sense. What bothers me is I am where it ends. That ugly worduntil, and all. I’m the end of fate tales, of stories, of twists. Perhaps the Norns have grown tired of us.”
“You don’t know that’s what it means.” I folded the parchment and tossed them onto the bed. “I know about seidr, I’ve seen it used my whole life; I use it myself when I speak to the land. You know just as well as I, prophetic words can mean many things.”
I’d lived quietly, a silent raven in the shadows, but I yearned to be bold like Elise, sure like Malin. I yearned to be as protective and fierce as Ari.
Ignoring the uncertainty in my head, I trapped Calista’s cheeks in my palms and held her stare. “I have lived turns thinking I was all that was left of people I loved, but you and Stefan are pieces of them. If you think all you are to us is a tool to have fate on our side, you’re wrong. You are more than your power to us. What matters most is that you keep meeting every sunrise, understand me?”
Calista’s lashes fluttered. A tear dropped onto her cheek. “I tried to stay out of everything. But . . . I’ve always known I couldn’t hide forever. Even when I got snatched and tossed into the North, want to know what my first thought was?”
“What was it?”
“Finally.” Calista chuckled, but it was a broken sound, almost desperate. “Twisted thought for a child to have, don’t you think? It faded to fear soon enough. Until I found Lump, and the same thing happened. Then, again, when I first saw my kind heart in that ballroom. The cursed king was there too, you know. I could feel something, a connection burning within me; I couldn’t keep my words from spilling out when he saw his future queen that night.
“The guards heard me muttering and pulled me away. But something changed. I saw a new story, I saw these paths I didn’t know, but felt like Ishouldknow. Like I’d heard this tale before. It grew when I spoke to Lumpy that night. You just saw it in the Golden King’s dream. There was power enough to remind him, even for a moment, that he loved once too. It felt so right. Like I knew this would happen.
“I’ve tried to avoid it all ever since I got free, but it keeps growing. Tales, words,whisperskeep growing. Fate is hunting me, leading me to the end. This might be the end from which I’ve been hiding, Raven Queen.” Calista hiccupped and dropped her chin. Broken as the rest of us. “How am I to face it after . . . after all this time?”
I wrapped her up in an embrace and whispered, “With us. You’re not alone, Calista. You never were. You saw it, we are all tied together in different ways.”
Slowly, Calista wrapped her arms around my waist. How long I embraced her, I didn’t know. When she eased back, she looked away sheepishly. “Look, if the Norns are out to get me, I’m not going without a fight.”
“They’re pesky anyway,” I said. “Teach them a lesson and fight back.”
“I plan to.” Calista reached into her pouch again. “This came too. Not for me. It’s for your king.” She handed me another parchment and shrugged. “Might help us figure out how to win whatever battle is coming, and how not to lose me when I play the bait.”
The tent flap turned back again. Unbidden, I cracked a knuckle from nerves when Elise and Malin stepped inside together.
“May we join you?” One corner of Elise’s mouth tilted.
“It is your tent, Queen.”
“Cal.” Elise faced the girl. “I overheard a few things you said. We’ve been through a lot, you and I, and I stand with what Saga said—you are ours. You’ve aided every one of us, but I have particular love for you. Not only did you save Sol from slipping away completely, but you protected Valen twice from bloodlust; you killed a man to save me at Ravenspire. Do you remember?”
“I remember sobbing like a tiny babe. Stupid of me. He was a bastard and cruel for serving that cousin king of yours,” Calista whispered.
Elise smiled. “A sign you have a heart. That is not a weakness. Nor is fear. Malin, by the hells, how many times have we confessed our fears to each other?”
“Usually every time we speak,” Malin said. “Hard to keep them secret around Kase. Might as well voice them.”
“Saga, I have no doubt, has been terrified these weeks,” Elise went on. “But none of us will face this alone. If you are the blood of the first fate king, then you are powerful. More powerful than this bastard we face.”
Calista’s cheeks heated in pink. “I suppose we’ll see. I fear there are parts of this tale we don’t know.”
“I’m sure there are, but fearing the unknown does not mean we give in or give up. It is then that we stand closer together and brace against the storm as one.”
Calista stood eye to eye with Elise. There was an unfettered admiration the storyteller held for the Northern Queen. After a moment, Calista dipped her chin in a soft nod and squeezed Elise’s palm.
