Page 77 of Tangled Threads Of Fate

Griff let out a blood-curdling screech and attacked the appendage. Claws and beak shredded the hand, magic swirling around it, until the pained shout of whatever the hell was out there shook the walls.

The hand was back now, angrier, flailing wildly. It had to be a giant—we were three stories up.

GO, WREN! To Milo’s room. Block the door!Teron’s shout in my head was punctuated by Griff’s snarls, and I didn’t second-guess him. I just ran. Out through the doors, I ran as fast as I could, holding my stomach and the railing as I took the stairs as safely as I could while not losing momentum.

A steady thump on the door was in time with the frantic pounding of my heart.THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

We were fucked. I was fucked.

Still, I ran past Tryp’s room, then Teron’s. Demke’s door was wide open, and I could see straight through it to his private courtyard. I stopped dead, my feet rooted to the ground.

In the courtyard, completely motionless, was Demke.

No.

I felt around for the bond to him in my chest. They’d said I would’ve known if one of them was dead, but I couldn’t feelanything. Not if they were hurt or injured, nothing. Griff was going to be so mad, but I couldn’t leave Demke. What if he was hurt?

What if he was dead?

Turning, I sprinted through the room. “Demke!” Maybe he was just sleeping. I skidded to a stop in the soft moss beside him. “Demke, please wake up!” I shouted, shaking his cold, lifeless shoulders.

He was dead.

“No. No, no… Demke, please…” I brushed his hair from his face, searching him for injuries. He was a fucking God; he couldn’t be dead. I searched for a pulse, but there was nothing but icy skin beneath my fingertips. This wasn’t right. Hecouldn’tbe dead.

“Please, don’t take him too,” I whispered to someone. Anyone. Who did you pray to when your Gods either abandoned you or wanted you dead?

Tears streamed down my cheeks and onto his chest. But this wasn’t a Disney movie; my tears wouldn’t bring him back to life. I pressed my forehead to his heart, feeling my soul break. Wailing softly, I let numbness enclose around me like the darkness.

“Vessel.” The sound of the voice sent shivers down my spine. I knew instinctively this creature meant me harm, but I couldn’t lift my head to look.

Instead, I buried my face deeper into Demke’s silent chest. “She’s not here. I’ll take a message.”

A grating noise, like two rough fabrics rubbing against each other, echoed through the courtyard. Some part of me recognized it as laughter. I looked up at the monster before me, far too large for me to defend myself against. She was beautiful, or at least, her top half was. Like a Greek statue of some goddess.Her bottom half was a dragon, with large wings and a long serpent tail.

“Ekhidna, I assume?”

The monster inclined her head regally. “I am.”

Straightening slightly, I didn’t bother to stand. Defeat made my limbs feel heavy. “Why? What did I, or my children, ever do to you?”

She looked down at me with pity. “I too birthed offspring destined to die. I understand your feeling of helplessness.”

“ThenWHY?” I screamed. I screamed it not just to the monster before me, but into the universe too.

She sighed, and the sound was like an ancient yawn, filled with exhaustion and helplessness. “Because, like you, I do what is best for my family. The Fates have promised to free my mate, resurrect the last of my children. We could live and be happy once more in this modern world.” She looked wistfully at the sky, like one of her children was trapped there in the stars. “You won’t ever understand, because you’ll be dead, but when you look down at your young, you know you’ll do anything for them.”

I threw my hands in the air. “You’re working with the very same people who killed them in the first place! I might not be an expert on Mythic politics, but that seems pretty fucking stupid to me.”

Another scraping laugh. “I like you, little human. But I won’t let my children be written out of the weave. I won’t let them be forgotten in this turn of the Ouroboros. You must die. I will make it quick and painless.”

She really believed that she was giving me a compassionate ending, and I guess in comparison to the Lamia, that was true. Despite the exhaustion that weighed down every inch of my body, I wouldn’t let Demke die in vain.

Grabbing the dagger that winked at Demke’s hip, I jutted it out in front of me. “Then you’ll understand that I won’t justlet my children’s story end before they’ve even taken their first breath.”

Ekhidna nodded, something that might have been respect glinting in her eye. “So be it.” Then she lunged. I scrambled backwards as her talons reached for me, slashing wildly at her hands, or claws or whatever. When it sliced through her toe, she glared down at me. “A God-blessed blade? So many surprises on this island of the weak.”

She lunged again, but then a dog was there, its bark echoing loudly through the hills.

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