Page 29 of The Oracle of Dusk

“Do you want to know what I see when I stand in the Tapestry?”

“What? What do you see?” she hissed. His eyes terrified her. They were the eyes of monsters who tore empresses to pieces, who ensured innocents died like dogs. They saw all a person’s hidden things. All their ugliness. All the horrors that had touched them. Yet she refused to show him her fear. Phaedra glared back.

“I see Fate’s thread connecting us, one steeped in the colours of Passion and Death. I see someone destined to find me across lifetimes, for good or ill. You are my fate, Phaedra. And I am yours. Always and forever.”

“No,” she whispered, horrified. She couldn’t be tied to a monster for all eternity. Why would her fate be so cruel?

“My sentiments exactly,” he snarled, his eyes returning to normal.

Anger replaced her despair. If she were in any shape to do more than fume, she’d have snatched his breath for such an insult.

“How dare you!”

“You think I wanted this?”

“You should be so lucky. I’m aprincess.I’mthe one who got the raw deal here, not you!”

“Lucky?! You’re as much my boogeyman as I am yours,princess.”

“So we’re fated to be enemies then, chasing each other across the cycles, like Aurora and Drakon? Then why won’t you promise to save Aurora? Do you hate me so much that you would let her die just to spite me?”

“Damn it, Phaedra!” He pounded his fist on the side of the cart, sending a painful jolt through her broken bones. “We don’thave tobe enemies!”

“What else is there?!” she shouted, heedless of the agony it brought her.

His face was a kaleidoscope of emotions. Fury. Resentment. Mortification. Vulnerability. Hope.

“Oh no. No, no, no. No!”

If their bond was not one of mortal enemies, destined to slay each other, that left only one other possibility. Death’s gemstone was garnet. A deep, nearly brown-red, like blood just beginning to dry. Passion’s was a ruby, a deep crimson, like blood that had just been spilt. To the untrained eye, the colours were too close to distinguish. If they were not meant to kill each other, then their bond was one ruled by Passion.

“I…forget it.” He scowled, turning away.

“Forget it?!Forget it?!Why the fuck would you tell me that? Why wouldn’t you just keep your thrice-damned mouth shut?!” Goddess, she wanted to rage properly instead of being paralysed and weak. It was too much to bear sitting still. She should be screaming at him, pummelling him with fists and blade, tossing him around like a ragdoll with her magic.

He rounded on her then, his face barely a handspan from hers.

“Because maybe I hoped there might beone personin my whole fucking life who knew who and what I am anddidn’twant to use me or kill me! You of all people should be able to understand that much!”

He held her gaze, anger bleeding into hopeless sorrow.

She understood it all too well. As close as she was to her family, duty always came first. A disposable princess, she’d been her mother’s pawn, or her eldest sister’s, ferreting out disloyal courtiers, her rebellious nature and unserious mask used to lure in the unwary. Every noble house wanted to befriend her or behead her, be betrothed to her or mire her in scandal—not because she was Phaedra, but because she was a princess. Phaedra had her one true person in all the world—Aurora. She didn’t need him, even if she understood that loneliness. It only made her hate him all the more. How dare he make himself pitiable—make his sorrow hurt her heart? Why did that monster’s sorrow affect her at all? Was this some trick of his foul magic? Some ugly twist in the thread that bound them? Could she trust her feelings at all, now that she knew her fate? She’d hated him from the moment she’d seen him. He’d come into her life to steal the best part of it away. Now he refused to take care of the person she treasured the most.

“If you want me to be anything but your enemy, then swear you’ll save Aurora. Swear you’ll choose her life over mine.”

“I can’t—”

“You will. Because if she dies and I survive? There’s no power in Trisia that’ll save you from me.”

“Then you’ll make your own promises. To me.”

“Name it.”

“If we survive, you swear to keep my secrets.”

Phaedra all but growled. Damn him. How was she supposed to get rid of him all by herself? He’d held back before in his tent. He could have easily killed her had he used his wild magic. And he was the avatar, a goddess’ wrath waiting for any who spilled his blood. She pursed her lips. Phaedra supposed riskingoneperson with divine eyes running around unchecked was worth Aurora’s life.

“You have my word.”

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