Page 8 of A Fate Unwoven
Don’t say it,she thought.Please.
But if Finæn could sense her need to pretend for just a while longer, he showed no sign of it. He knew the truth as surely as her own heart did.
She was the reason the Empire’s Fist was here.
“No.” She shook her head, taking an unsteady step back. Away from Finæn. Away from the truth.
“They’re here for you,” Finæn said, and Lena could see him putting the pieces together. The raids on villages in the Wilds, as if the Fist were searching for something—someone.The appearance of a creature that should have only existed in stories. A creature that had listened to Lena when she’d begged it to stop.
She took another step back, inching toward the safety of the tree line. If the Fist found her here, she’d be trapped, forced to serve the son of the man who had left her people to rot.
As if sensing what she was about to do, Finæn’s eyes widened. He reached for her, hands that had once held her with such tenderness now wrapping around her wrist in an iron grip.
“Finæn,” Lena whispered, her voice steady despite the thundering of her heart. “Let me go.”
The moment stretched before her, and for a second Lena saw the flicker of silver threads, encasing her and Finæn in a web of glistening silver. Then he released her, his expression crumpling.
“Will someone tell me what in the Sisters’ name is going on?” Maia snapped, fierce even with her chattering teeth and blue-tinged lips. Her golden curls were weighed down with frost, and a strand was stuck to her cheek. Lena’s fingers twitched with the urge to brush it away. To hold her close and tell her that everything was going to be alright.
“I—”
“She’s the next Fateweaver,” Finæn said before she could find the words. He cast a glance over his shoulder, to where the flickering light of the Fist’s torches moved at an alarmingly quick pace.
Lena was running out of time.
Maia blinked up at her with wide, glimmering eyes. “Is that true?”
“No,” Lena said, even as her heart whisperedyes.
It was impossible to deny it. The dreams of the past she’d always had, the ones she’d always known were due to herbodenancestors, hadbeen increasing over the last few moons, the details of them steadily becoming more and more vivid. Dreams Lena would wake from with an ache in her wrist she couldn’t explain.
“It’s true. Why else would you have that mark?” Finæn asked.
When Lena didn’t reply, he took a cautious step toward her, as if he were approaching an animal that might flee at any second. And Lenawantedto run. From him, from Maia, from the truth.
“The empire will never stop hunting you, Lena,” said Finæn. “You know that. If you go with them, maybe you can use your power to do some good. To … to help our people.”
The hope in Finæn’s expression was enough to make Lena’s heart ache. She wanted to share it. To believe, just for a second, in a world where the Fateweaver could be a force of good. But she couldn’t. Because as long as the Fateweaver’s power was bound to the empire, it would be nothing but a weapon.
“I wish I could believe that. I really do,” Lena said, her fingers closing around the hilt of her mother’s dagger. The sensation was an anchor against her fear, a reminder of all she had to lose. She took a deep breath, the copper tang of blood in the air coating her tongue. “They can’t find me here.” If they did, they’d assume the villagers had been hiding her all this time. Lena’s gaze darted to the woods at her back, and then to Maia, who gave a fierce nod.
“Go,” she whispered, tears lining her eyes. “We’ll handle the Fist.”
Finæn made a low noise of protest. “Maia—”
Maia whirled on him. “This isLenawe’re talking about.”
His expression softened. “I was just going to tell you to go find Estryd; I’ll deal with the hunters.” Maia hesitated for a heartbeat, her gaze finding Lena’s one final time.
Lena was used to goodbyes. As a storyteller, she said them often, traveling from village to village, leaving the people she cared for behind. This time was different, though. This time, she wouldn’t be coming back.
Lena looked away before her grief could take hold. And then Maia was gone, disappearing into the shadows, and she was alone with Finæn once again.
“I can’t convince you to stay, can I?” he asked quietly.
Lena shook her head, blinking back tears. “No.”
“Where will you go?”
