Page 25 of A Single Thread Of Hope

Clio screamed. Everything was slow motion, almost supernaturally so. The old myth of your life flashing before your eyes was kinda bullshit, but that dream where you couldn’t run, no matter how hard you tried? This felt a little like that.

But everyone, including the Fates, was so focused on that golden knife, we missed the monster. In those indeterminable moments before death, I saw a horrifying specter rise up behind the Moirai.

I saw Typhon grip Lachesis by the head.

Saw him lift her into the air.

Saw him drop her into his wide-open maw and eat her.

Good.If I was going to die, so would one of those bitches. With my death, the babies would live. That’s what Apollo’s prophecy had said. This was meant to be.

Like the snap of a rubber band, time reverted back to normal.

Because I wasn’t dead. Morrigan stood in front of me, the knife embedded in her hand where it was thrust in front of my chest. The golden knife turned black as her blood dripped down it.

The remaining Moirai stared at the empty spot beside them, where their sister had once stood, turning around to see a huge monster with coiled snakes for legs and a visage so horrendous, it turned my blood to ice. Typhon looked furious, even as he chewed on the bones of Lachesis with an audible crunch.

I was going to vomit.

The screams of the remaining Moirai joined Clio’s banshee wail, a truly horrifying sound. Atropos gripped the arm of her remaining sister, Clotho, and disappeared in a blink.

Then it was just us, and the monster.

“Typhon,” Demke whispered, fear in his tone.

Oh, shit...He was going to be mad that I’d kind of killed his wife, right?

Something dripped on my feet and cooled, and I realized Morrigan’s hand was still in front of my chest, her blood pooling on my feet. She’d saved my life. I looked up at her, my eyes feeling like they were about to bulge out of my head.

The Valkyries gave a yell, ready to launch themselves at a beast that had justeatenone of the Fates. But Morrigan held up her hand. Yeah, the one with the knife in it.

“Hold!” She stepped from the invisible barrier of the ward, toward the snake monster-man. “Does this satisfy you?” she asked softly, and Typhon, who was literally the size of a four-story building, dipped his chin.

“Yes.”

“I will negotiate on your behalf with the God of the Underworld. You’ve been lied to. You have vindicated your wife until you can join her.” Her tone was lulling—part promise, part spell.

An earthquake rocked the area around us, and Milo appeared behind me, draping his body over mine as loose stones from the walls rained down. When a chasm appeared before Morrigan, I worried that she would fall into it, but her face didn’t change. She didn’t back away. She stood there, feet spread, still with an impaled hand in front of her. She watched nonchalantly as Typhon disappeared into the cracked earth, then turned back to us, a grin on her face.

“Well, that was satisfying, wouldn’t you say?”

“Milo?” I breathed, the giant man’s arms still around me protectively. “You’re going to need to catch me.”

Then I passed the hell out.

Chapter 14

WREN

“Milonos, you must put herdown.” Teron’s voice sounded firm and kind of peeved in the darkness.

“No.” The sound of the word vibrated against my cheek, and I smiled.

A huff, and a growl, echoed in the room. “I need to check her and the babies. Please lay her down over there, and I promise, you can continue to hold her hand.”

A rumble deep inside the chest I was pressed against told me it was probably time to swim my way out of this in-between consciousness before there was a fight. I was clutched tightly in Milo’s arms, and there was so much of me, it wasn’t particularly comfortable. But it was warm and safe, and I loved him more than anything at that moment.

Patting his chest to get his attention, I wasn’t surprised he went from noticing I was awake to kissing the ever-loving hell out of me, all in the time it took me to gasp out a breath. Into that kiss, he poured all his worry, fear, love, everything.

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