Page 57 of A Fate Unwoven
Time runs short. The bond must be severed before the Fateweaver Ascends.
May Fate Be Your Eternal Guide.
Lena was almost certain her heart stopped beating as she recalled Iska’s words.Your Rite of Ascension will take place at months’ end.
If that’s what the note was referring to—and Lena was frustratingly certain itwas—then she had just over a fortnight left to sever the bond.
The heavy knock of the guards at her door had Lena shoving the book beneath her pillow. The mystery of who was behind the cryptic note would have to wait.
She’d just about managed to force the frustrated frown from her face and openImperial Etiquettewhen Yana, one of the guards assigned to her room, strode into her chambers.
“Lady Lenora,” the guard said, her pale cheeks flushed, “I’m sorry to bother you, but you have a visitor.”
Lena didn’t have time to ask who it was before a familiar figure stepped into the room.
Finæn.
He looked nothing like the boy she’d known; his rough tunic and oversized cloak had been replaced by a tight-fitting guard’s uniform,and the stubble on his jaw had been cut away. He looked … comfortable. Relaxed in a way she’d never seen him before.
It should have made her happy, but it only made the sting of his betrayal worse.
“Lena.” Finæn didn’t move toward her, but his gaze traveled down her arm, stopping at the mark on her wrist. His throat bobbed. “Can we talk?”
She shrugged, looking anywhere but at the threads shimmering around him. “You’ll have to ask my guard.” She didn’t bother to hide the resentment lacing her words.
“Yana, could you give us a minute?” Finæn asked, his gaze never leaving Lena.
Yana gave him a glare that could have rivaled the fiercest of warriors. “Five minutes,” she said, “and then I’m escorting you back to the barracks myself.”
Lena cast her gaze down at her hands, trying to focus on something,anything,but the boy standing before her.
When the door to her chambers clicked shut and Lena didn’t look up at him, Finæn let out an exasperated sigh. “How long are you going to stay mad at me? I was only trying to keep you safe.”
Lena scoffed and rose to her feet. “That’s a lie and you know it. Nice uniform, by the way.”
She was being childish, but it was hard to care when the sight of him was a reminder of everything she’d lost, of the people she’d left behind. Perhaps she’d never belonged with them, not in the way she wanted to, but she’d promised her mother that she’d carry on her legacy. There were only a handful of storytellers left, and without them, the old stories would be forgotten. There would be no one to bring hope to the hopeless. No one to make people believe their lives might be somethingmore.
“Lena, please—”
“You knew.” The words left her mouth before she could stop them. She didn’t care if the guards outside her door were listening. Didn’t careabout anything but making Finæn understand just how much he’d hurt her. “You knew what being the Fateweaver would do to me, and you betrayed me anyway.”
“Toprotectyou! To protect Maia.” He shook his head. “I didn’t make you the Fateweaver, Lena.”
“No,” she said, her throat tight. “You just helped make me a prisoner.”
Silence hung between them, as taut as the threads around Finæn. Pain shot through her at the sight of them, sharp enough for her knees to buckle. She held her ground, refusing to let him see how fragile she really was. How close to the edge.
“I won’t apologize for doing what I thought was right to keep you and my sister safe,” he said, voice thick. “I’d rather have you alive and hating me than dead.”
Lena bit her cheek to stop her tears from falling. She wanted to forgive him, to believe he’d only been doing what he had to in order to save his sister. To saveher.But she didn’t have the strength.
Yana’s entrance saved her from having to reply. The guard cleared her throat. “Times up, Æspen.”
Finæn held her stare for a heartbeat longer. The moment felt too similar to the one they’d shared on the outskirts of Forvyrg, when she thought they’d been saying goodbye for the last time. His words from that night rang in her ears, as clear as if he were speaking them now:May the threads of fate bring us together again.
Had they been a coincidence, or had he been planning to betray her even then?
He was gone before she could gather the courage to ask him, Yana escorting him out and leaving Lena alone in the darkness of the Fateweaver’s rooms. Barely a heartbeat passed before the sob she’d been holding in escaped: it was like getting caught in a snowstorm. Once inside, there was nothing to do but try to survive.
