Page 32 of Polar Fates
Eleven
Clotho helpfully hands me a new robe – don’t ask me where she suddenly got it from – and I wrap myself in the soft fabric, glad I’m no longer standing here naked. In the one or two werewolf books I read, they never had to deal with that problem. If only the bear shifter magic had thought of shifting clothes along with thebodies.
“What happens if Arcas decides he wants to live?” Lachesis asks and I’m tempted to throw something at her. Alis is still raging and I’m worried she’ll shift us again if she becomes too angry. Even though shifting doesn’t hurt, it gets exhausting if done too many times in oneday.
“Then we’ll persuade Van Deen to separate from Arcas,” I say more confidently than I feel. From what I’ve heard about him, Van Deen will never dothat.
“You don’t even believe that yourself,” Atropos smirks. “Don’t pretend it isn’ttrue.”
I sigh. “Yes, I don’t think the chances are high, but we need to try. We need to do something that’s better than killing Alis’sson!”
“Slight practical question,” Finn interjects. “That guy is in Canada, right? How are we supposed to get there? I don’t think our friends’ fishing boat will get us thatfar.”
Lachesis shrugs dismissively. “We’ll open a Portal foryou.”
“Wait, so we’re going to travel there now? Soon?” I ask, completely dumbfounded. A second ago, I thought this was still hypothetical. That it would take weeks or longer to actually planeverything.
“Yes, as soon as we’re done talking, Airlea will take you through the Portal. Then you’re on yourown.”
Torben frowns. “So we’re doing all the dirty work for you? What’s your role in allthis?”
“We observe,” Clotho says coolly. “And cut your threads, ifnecessary.”
“No thread-cutting necessary,” I mutter. “But aren’t you supposed to spin our threads? Make our decisions for us? Couldn’t you just let everything gowell?”
Clotho blushes. “It’s not thateasy.”
“Want to expand onthat?”
“No, Idon’t.”
If looks could kill, I’d be one dead Isla. How did I think Clotho was the nice one at the beginning? Maybe just the least obvious evilone.
“Are you ready?” Lachesis asks and I look at mymen.
Are we ready? What did we get ourselvesinto?
They all look just as unprepared as I am. Hours ago, we were looking for a Portal that would get us to the Fates. Now, those very Fates want us to travel to Canada and confront a madman. This has to be a dream. A very crazyone.
“Could we have another moment to ourselves?” Torben asks and the Fates’ disapproval permeates the room. It’s clear they don’t like it, but eventually, Clotho nods and turns toleave.
“You have five minutes, then Airlea will come and bring you to the Portal. Goodluck.”
I breathe a sigh of relief when the door closes behindthem.
“What now?” Húnn asks, and I wish I had an answer forhim.
Torben clears his throat and rubs his chin. “We’re going to end up in a place we don’t know with shifters that seem to be feral and dangerous. They’ll probably want to attack us, but we need to avoid killing them. Somehow, we need to find a man called James Van Deen and capture him. It’s probably safest if we get him out of there before we ask him to separate from Arcas. If we’re lucky, the Portal will still be open and we can bring him here, or wherever else it leads to. We need to ask that girl, Airlea. Then, after Arcas is free, we can abandon Van Deen on some island, or let the Fates deal with him,whatever.”
Torben sighs deeply. “Sounds easy,right?”
“When you ignore all the things that could go wrong, yes,” Finn smirks. “How do we avoid them killingus?”
“Can we blend in among them?” I ask, but I already guess theanswer.
“No, they all share a scent, they’d recognise that we’re different immediately,” Ràn replies, making me think back to the story he shared with me. How his father recognised Ràn wasn’t his son because of hisscent.
“We have no idea how their compound looks like and if it’s guarded,” Torben muses. “If it’s in the middle of nowhere, maybe they don’t have guards and we can approach unseen. Even so, it’s likely someone will smellus.”
