Anomaly (Causal Enchantment #4)(30)
Author: K.A. Tucker

“Yes, it is. We thought it might help you as you have to make your choice,” one of the two male Fates said as he stepped forward. It was the one who had granted my wish for immortality, his gold-spun hair flowing around his shoulders as if weightless.

Can you still read my mind?

Yes, came the answer, followed out loud by, “Hello, my child. My name is Incendia. I’m glad you remember me.” His greeting sounded like a lullaby. But knowing who I was facing, I didn’t feel at all soothed. I certainly didn’t trust them.

“You can trust us,” Incendia tsked, picking through my silent thoughts.

The hairs along the back of my neck stood. Much like Viggo must have felt when I rooted around in his head. Though, I didn’t have any sinister plans.

“You have changed since we last saw you.”

“Why did you give me these powers?” I blurted out.

Incendia’s paper-thin eyebrow arched. “Do you not like them? Would you like them taken from you?”

“No, they’re great,” I answered truthfully. “I just don’t understand why.”

His lips twisted with displeasure before smoothing out. “Let us discuss more important things with you.”

“Okay …” If I’d learned anything, it was that the Fates were conniving creatures and I should be suspic—

All four sets of eyes narrowed, telling me they were reading my thoughts and not at all amused. “Why am I here?” I asked aloud.

Incendia smiled, but the mirth never touched his eyes. “Because she brought you.” His long fingers stretched to point at Sofie.

“You liars! I did not help you bring her here!” Sofie’s sudden shriek sent a flock of birds rushing from the trees.

A clucking sound filled the air. “Do you not stop lying to the poor girl, ever?” Another Fate—this one female—stepped down from the platform, earning Sofie’s scathing glare. “The last time you were here, you asked for two requests, and you agreed to a catch.”

Sofie growled. “Are you telling me Evangeline was the catch, Terra?”

If Sofie’s demeanor bothered them, they didn’t let on. “To be honest, we didn’t know what the catch was when we made the deal. If you haven’t noticed, we like to make open-ended decisions. Thankfully for us, it worked out rather well,” the one Sofie called Terra explained.

A chorus of spine-chilling laughs made me shudder.

“What do you want from me?” I said, feeling like a mouse about to be batted around by cats.

“It isn’t what we want from you so much as what you will want from us,” the second male said, hopping onto one of the narrow walls that divided the marbles into various sections. He moved with the grace of a tightrope walker, stopping at a pedestal in the center to pick up the lone marble set on top. With a grin and a bow, he spun around and headed back the way he’d come. “Do you want the chance to go back to your world—” He held up the marble and the blue and green swirls caught my attention. My eyes widened. My world. He held Earth in his fingertips? Dropping my gaze to examine the giant bowl, the thousands of tiny colorful marbles divided into sections, I finally comprehended what I was looking at. Worlds! All of them were worlds!

As if waiting for my internal thoughts to slow and my shock to even out, the Fate continued, “And live out eternity however you want, with your friends … your beloved …” With a wave of his hand, a thin layer of water formed and shimmered over the giant bowl. Suddenly, faces appeared within. Julian and Amelie, Veronique and Mortimer, Bishop and Fiona … Max … Caden. Everyone we’d left back in the office building in Manhattan. “They’re all very worried about you.”

The image shifted again to show the sky full of helicopters, descending upon the miracle city, the bridges flooded with tanks and Humvees rolling in to investigate. “It doesn’t look like a very safe place, does it?” Incendia said with a pinched face. “And I doubt they’ll be willing to leave anytime soon, waiting for you.” A pause. “You can see them again. Right now, if you want. Rescue them from possible danger. Rid that boy of his agonizing heartache.” As if to emphasize his point, a close-up of Caden’s face appeared again, showcasing the hollowness of his jade eyes.

“What do I have to do?” The words rushed out of my mouth without thought. I would do anything for them. Anything.

“Choose them.” Incendia glided around the bowl toward me, his feet never touching the jungle floor. I had to tip my head back to look at his face, looming high over me.

“That’s all?” That seemed easy. Too easy.

Choose.

A choice.

A difference between this or that.

“Choose them over what?” I asked, stealing a glance at Sofie, hoping she understood what was going on.

Sofie’s expression twitched for only a second and then, with a nod of comprehension, a sad smile curved her lips. “Let’s make this easy, Terra.”

“No!” Incendia barked. “My player will be victorious through fair means.”

“You call this fair?” Sofie yelled but her words were quickly lost to me, Incendia’s statement stealing my attention.

“Your player?” My brow tightened. “I’m your player? What does that mean?” Again, I looked at Sofie for answers.

She smoothed her scowl, closing her eyes. She was trying to calm herself. “When I told you that this was all a game to the Fates, I meant it quite literally. They each choose an unsuspecting pawn as their player. There were two more but I don’t know who they were. They are dead. Now the Fates have pitted us against each other.” A long exhale escaped her lips. “I’m offering to end this game for them.”

It finally clicked.

We were both players, against each other.

They wanted me to choose everyone else over Sofie.

They wanted Sofie to die.

“I won’t do it!” I yelled.

“You will.” Incendia stuck his hand out and the other male Fate placed the marble—Earth—in it. Letting it roll around his palm momentarily, he finally held it between his forefinger and thumb. When he spoke again, the pleasant tenor was gone. “Or I will crush this world and every soul within it and you will have nothing.”

An ultimatum. That’s what they were giving me. It’s Sofie or the entire world. Ironic, really. Hadn’t Sofie faced this same situation—either Amelie or the world? She’d had to make a choice, and she did.

But how could I make this choice? This was Sofie!

“It’s okay.” Sofie’s voice cracked. “I will gladly sacrifice myself for your happiness.” Her smile dropped as she turned her attention back to the wall of faces, waiting for me to condemn her to die. “But first, I have to wonder what the rush is? Why does this game need to end now?”

“Because we decided that it must be so,” Terra threw back. “Do not question us, mortal!”

Sofie’s eyes narrowed. “Do not trust them, Evangeline. They will lie to get—”

Sofie’s words were cut off with shrill screams as flames erupted around her, swallowing her entire body.

Burning her alive where she stood.

I didn’t think. I simply reacted. “No!” I shrieked, shattering the watery surface over the bowl of worlds.

The flames extinguished instantly and Sofie, unharmed, again stood in the conjured setting of the jungle.

The Fates exchanged a panicked look before settling eyes on me again.

A look of understanding filled Sofie’s face. Her words came out in a rush. “They didn’t give you these powers. Fight them, Evangeline! You can—”

She vanished before I could hear her last words.

“What have you done with her?” I screamed, turning to the four faces that no longer held any beauty or serenity.

“She is where she belongs,” Terra spat, her features curled into a hideous sneer as she pointed toward the pool. The layer of water I’d shattered reappeared and displayed a fresh scene of Manhattan, one where Sofie stood surrounded by Caden and the others. Caden’s eyes burned with hatred as he shouted at Sofie. As he threw her against a wall. As Mage jumped in to stop Caden, only to have Sofie attacked by Amelie and Fiona, all asking the same thing. “What did you do to her?”

That spine-chilling laughter once again filled my ears. “Not exactly what we planned but it will still work. One of them will surely kill her and then you will be victorious. You have avoided making the difficult decision. We both win,” Incendia smiled. I was about to snap at him, to tell him that watching my loved ones kill each other over a game was not winning, when Incendia brushed his willowy hand across my back.

And voices suddenly filled my thoughts.

How long will this take? A female asked.

Not long, I expect. Look at their rage, a male answered.

We must send her back immediately after. This is dangerous, another female demanded.

She will go back immediately. And then I will crush her world and she can be no more harm to us.

I gasped. The Fates could communicate telepathically with each other and somehow, with that one touch, I was now eavesdropping on them!

I knew their plan. Sofie was right; they had lied. They had no intention of letting me live my life in peace.

Their faces contorted with panic. They had figured out that I could hear their private conversation. But, how was that possible?

Sofie’s words hit me.

Because I shared their same power.

And they didn’t give it to me. I was somehow harmful to them.

“We should not have brought her here!” Terra screamed. The ground shook as she lifted her hands. A wall of thick, black soil suddenly formed behind her, bursting from the ground with force that would swallow anything in its path.

Each Fate quickly followed suit, forming walls of scorching fire and turbulent wind and a whirlpool of water, expanding until their borders joined, the deafening sound rattling my entire body, crippling my ability to think. A united front, they glided closer, deliberately, as if capturing a dangerous threat.

Even against the earsplitting noise, Sofie’s last words demanded my attention and I fought to latch on to them. I could fight them, she had said.

But how?

My chest constricted but then released as their walls closed in, as I began to feel the heat of fire on my back and the suffocation of soil over my head. They were going to consume me with their power. I was going to die here. I would not get to live out the peace I so desperately wanted, or say goodbye to my friends. I would die, and Sofie would die. And for what? A game?

I closed my eyes as that intoxicating feeling still lingering within me began to bubble, thriving off the fear that the Fates had created in this vacuum of power, driven by an even more commanding need: revenge. I’d suffered at the hands of Viggo and Rachel, of the Sentinel and the witches, even at the hands of Sofie. But none of them were the real threat.

The Fates had always been the true threat.

I didn’t want to fight them. I wanted to choose my own fate.

I wanted them gone.

The noise suddenly vanished.

I inhaled deeply before I dared open my eyes …

I was surrounded by a white nothingness. The large bowl stood before me, thousands of tiny worlds quietly waiting.

The jungle was gone.

As were the Fates.

A moment of alarm hit me until I zeroed in on the pedestal to see the marble sitting atop it again. With merely a thought, I stood before it, marveling at its size, wondering how it was possible that something so small could contain everything that I could ever want within it.

I was just about to touch it when something fluttered behind me.

I turned to find hundreds of butterflies appear out of the nothingness, their iridescent wings glimmering through rays of sunshine, though where the sun was, I could not see.

Iridescent like the Fates’ eyes. Was this a trick? False hope?

I watched with suspicion as one landed atop the pedestal, unfolding its wings to stand tall.

I gasped.

“Hello, Evangeline,” the miniature woman greeted.

Glancing around, I saw that each butterfly had a tiny, human-like body hiding within the expanse of her wings. Faeries?

“You may call us that,” she said. A musical giggle carried and multiplied as each mimicked the sound, until a beautiful, calming melody filled my ears.

“What are you doing?” I asked as I watched them dive into the bowl, plucking worlds and flying away, disappearing into nothingness.

“We are removing the worlds that the previous wardens let die. Do not despair. As new warden, you will have fresh worlds.” Gesturing above, I looked to see more faeries appear, colorful marbles within their grasp.

I didn’t understand her words. “Warden?”

Another giggle. “Yes, you are the new warden of this realm, which is under my dominion. I have deemed it to be so. You will protect and serve as my last wardens failed to do.” Her pretty face pinched. “With the almost limitless authorities granted and long periods of time, wardens sometimes lose sight of their true roles. They behave badly. That is why I gave you all four elemental powers to destroy them. A rather fitting end to their game, would you agree?” She leapt up in the air and twirled before landing again. “Their time had come. As single warden, there will be no need for power struggles or games in the future, correct?”