Finale (Caraval #3)(97)

In the background Scarlett heard her sister objecting to something, but all the words turned into white noise as Scarlett finally saw how she could defeat him. The idea was extreme and possibly preposterous, but if love was Gavriel’s only weakness, then she needed to become the one person he loved. “Assassin? Can you take other people with you when you travel through time?”

“What do you need to travel through time for?” Julian asked as Tella simultaneously said, “We’re wasting time.”

Scarlett barely heard the Assassin’s soft “Yes. But if you go back in time and make even the smallest change, you may not be able to return to this timeline, and those you love here will never see you again.”

“What if I just went back in time to steal a dress and observe someone in order to imitate them?”

“You may not change anything,” said the Assassin. “But time travel rarely goes as planned—you may end up doing more than just stealing a dress and observing.”

“Who is it you want to observe?” Tella asked.

But from the shake in her voice, Scarlett could tell her sister already had an inkling of what Scarlett had just figured out.

“I want to go back in time and see our mother.” Scarlett’s words should have sounded impossible. But she was standing in a room full of impossible people—three Fates, one boy who didn’t age, and a sister who had died and come back to life.

Scarlett’s idea was possible. It was just extremely dangerous. If she failed, the Fallen Star could kill her the way he’d killed her mother, he could put her in another cage, or he could keep the promise he’d made earlier and torture everyone she loved. But if it worked, she could save them all, along with the entire empire.

“I know how all of this sounds, but I really believe our mother is the key to killing the Fallen Star. Remember the secret you shared in your letter? The secret that told us he loved her? I’ve seen it in the way he looks at me sometimes. He sees her in me, and it changes him. If I can go back to steal some of her clothing and observe her, then I might be able to convince the Fallen Star that I am her. If I do this, I think he’ll become human enough to kill.”

Tella shook her head. Scarlett had never thought that blond curls could look angry, but Tella’s appeared furious as they bounced around her face. “She’s already dead, Scarlett. The Fallen Star killed her.”

“That’s why I need the Assassin’s help. He can bring me to the Fallen Star and say that he’s taken Paradise from the past.”

Tella scowled, hands fisting the cloth she’d been holding as if she could turn it into a weapon. “Even if you convince him you’re Paradise, what if he just kills you?”

“He won’t.” At least, Scarlett hoped he wouldn’t. “Not if I convince him that I’m Paradise when she was first pregnant with me.”

“Crimson, there has to be another way.”

“He’s right,” Tella pleaded, “I don’t think you’re hearing yourself—this is a dreadful idea.”

“No, it’s not,” rumbled the Assassin. “I’ve seen it work before.”

Every head in the room turned his way. He hadn’t moved from his position by the pillar, where he stood collecting shadows, or maybe he was creating them. Scarlett had been living with a Fate, but the Assassin’s power was far more potent than the Lady Prisoner’s. When he spoke, the room shuddered at the sound of his gravelly voice.

Yet, Tella still had the audacity to glare at him. “If you’ve seen all this, why didn’t you just tell us this is what we needed to do?”

“In my experience, humans don’t like it when I say I visited their futures and know they will die very painful deaths unless they do what I say. It only works if I let them figure it out.”

“Though sometimes people need guidance,” the Maiden Death added.

“They’re right,” came Anissa’s voice from the other room.

Tella’s frustrated scowl deepened. “Scar, this isn’t our only option. I have the Ruscica from the Immortal Library. If we can get some of the Fallen Star’s blood, then—”

“I tried to get his blood,” Scarlett said. “That plan didn’t work out.”

“She ended up in a cage like hers.” The Lady Prisoner nodded to the Maiden Death.

Everyone went quiet.

Tella looked as if she’d briefly forgotten how to argue. Julian looked as if he wanted to lift Scarlett off the bed and hold her in his arms forever—but that would have to wait.

“This is our best chance,” said Scarlett.

“You’re overlooking only one thing.” The Maiden Death inclined her head toward Julian and then Tella. “If this plan works and Gavriel feels a moment of love, one of you will have to kill him. If Scarlett tries to kill Gavriel, he might stop loving her and then he won’t be human.”

“Why can’t you or the Assassin do it?” Tella asked.

“The Fallen Star wanted to ensure that none of us ever killed him, so the human witch who helped him create us worked a spell. If one of his Fates tries to kill him, they will die instead.”

“Then I’ll do it.” Tella’s fiendish smile could have rivaled one of the Fates’. “I’ll gladly kill that monster. If he’s still in the throne room, I can sneak in and do it.”