Allegiance (Causal Enchantment #3)(92)
A crunching sound attracted my attention to the left, to a grove where a pair of deer grazed on the fern leaves, seemingly unbothered by the unusual texture of their meal.
I could’ve spent hours mesmerized by the peculiarities around me—the two-headed owl settled on a crystal branch, the patch of rainbow-colored four-leaf clovers, two squirrels prancing along the ground on their hind feet, holding hands as a loving couple would—but the four figures now standing beyond the bowl were more than enough to occupy my attention. Two men, two women, dressed in gauzy white gowns. That much I could tell. They had the typical human traits—noses, eyes, limbs—but there was nothing typical about them. Four sets of perfectly round irises like stained glass windows studied me as I stared back at them. Their noses were long and excessively narrow, their lips thin and wide and tinged with blue, their cheekbones high and angular. They all had identical long blond hair, only the strands looked like spun gold and floated around their shoulders as if immersed in water. These creatures were both hideous and hypnotically beautiful.
The Fates.
One of the females stepped forward, her soft white gown billowing around her. “You called?” I shivered at the sound of her high-pitched voice, like chimes in the wind.
I cleared my throat, buying myself some time. My mind was a pool of scrambled questions, and grievances. I hadn’t thought this through. I hadn’t ever expected this chance. Now that I had it, what did I say? “My name is—”
“Sofie,” all four finished in unison in that same fluid sound.
My lips pressed together as I silently admonished myself. Of course they know your name! But, then again, they would also know why I’m here, wouldn’t they?
“To ask us to reverse our answers,” the speaker answered. An inkling of worry lanced me. Can she read my mind?
“Yes …” A smile stretched those thin lips.
My breath caught as I took a turn around the circle, studying the rest of the faces, all similarly peculiar. Can they all read my mind?
“Yes,” the chorus of voices confirmed, their laughter ringing out again, their brows arching into half-moons. Were they enjoying this? Bile rose in my throat. I hated having anyone in my head. I had despised Nathan for it when I was human and I loved him! Now I had all four of them dissecting my thoughts.
I felt my shoulders hunch under their inspection. In my world, I was at the top of the food chain. Here, though, in their arena, I was a vulnerable, weak mortal …
And a sitting target, balanced on this pedestal, I realized, as I surveyed my situation again. “Would you mind if I come out of this bowl so we can talk?” I kept my voice controlled as I peered down at the marbles again. They weren’t typical marbles, I could see that now. I squinted to get a closer look. Some had swirls of burnt orange and red, others were a pale yellow, and others brown. But the ones with small patches of green, blue, and wisps of white swirling around caught my eye. There was no mistaking what these little balls were now. Tiny worlds! My jaw dropped as I scanned over the giant vessel, at all the tiny worlds resting there. There had to be thousands!
“Yours is here.” The female Fate pulled a blue and green ball out of her pocket and held it up between her index finger and thumb. My heart jumped as she tossed it up in the air and deftly caught it, as if it were no more precious than a quarter. With a toothy grin displaying slightly elongated canines, she slid the tiny orb back into her pocket and gestured with a hand. “Come forward, please, but be careful. These worlds are fragile.”
To demonstrate, one of the male Fates leaned into the vessel and picked up a marble. Holding one hand below the other, he squeezed the tiny ball between his fingers. I heard a soft popping sound and then watched dust drop to his outstretched hand.
He obliterated a world. A world of living, breathing, loving humans. Little boys and girls, devoted families, the innocent. Just like that. I gaped at him, trying to quash my rising alarm. If he could do that to a world without a blink of an eye …
“Does that bother you?” His brow quirked as if genuinely surprised. “But there are so many others,” he offered, passing his hand in a sweeping direction over the other worlds.
When I didn’t give him an answer, he closed the outstretched hand that held the destroyed world dust and reopened it to show the tiny world perfectly whole once again. “Very well then,” he said and placed the tiny ball back into the pit.
We are all-powerful. That’s what they were telling me. They could give life and take it away, and give it back again. With the clench of a fist, a quiver of a thought, a sour mood.
I looked down again at the bowl before me. With my vampire traits, I could sail over these worlds with no effort. But I was certain those traits were paralyzed here. Without them, I would crush dozens of planets, kill billions of creatures with an awkward shift of a toe. Would the Fates recreate them if I did? My eyes grazed over their expressionless faces, harder to read than an ancient script. They were reading my thoughts right now. They could answer me if they wanted to, to alleviate my worry, and yet they didn’t answer. They wouldn’t give even a hint.
No, I’d stay right where I was.
“We wondered when you would request an audience with us,” another of them said. “We so rarely grant them.”
“Request … that’s one way to put it,” I answered sarcastically, adding, “Why’d you do it?”