Fate's Revenge (Twisted Fate, Book 4)

Chapter Forty-Two

I swallowed over the lump in my throat and looked at Gabe for help. The whole finishing each other's sentences thing? Creepy. Starting at the beginning? Well, that wasn't something I was in a position to argue with. Like Gabe said, we needed what we could get. Besides, when you don't know your destiny, it's not easy figuring out which pieces fit the puzzle.

"You want to start at the beginning?" I asked. "Won't that take... a while?"

Gabe laughed but tried to cover the sound.

Lachesis sent him a sharp glance filled with disapproval, then turned to me and said, "Not the beginning, as in Creation. Your beginning. How you came to exist."

A quick glance at Gabe confirmed he didn't know this. His laughter faded. Did I want to know? The beginning sounded like a good place to start and it was going to be better than thinking of myself as the "ball of light" Marcus had imagined me as coming from. I sat up straight and clasped my hands together under the table.

"Okay," I told her. "Explain it to me."

"You know what happens to angels once they've accepted Darkness, right?" Clotho asked.

Unlike Lachesis, Clotho's voice was high-pitched, almost irritating to the point that I wanted to tell her to remain quiet. But that would defeat the purpose of fighting for the agreement to be upheld, and I couldn't do that to Gabe after how hard he'd fought for me to get what I'd been asking for all along.

"I know the highlights. Why?" I glanced at each Sister. "The real David came to me while Darkness was in him, remember?"

"When an angel accepts Darkness into its soul, their connection to Him is severed," Atropos began, and then held up her scissors and smiled at her reflection. "The Glory they possess is... extracted, if you will."

"Not all of it," Gabe cut in.

"No, not all of it," Lachesis said, nodding at Atropos to continue.

"Whenever an angel accepts Darkness, He is alerted—"

"How?" Gabe asked what I was thinking.

Lachesis looked at Clotho and Atropos in warning, but then rolled her eyes as though giving in. "Well, I suppose we can't explain the beginning if we leave it out," she said.

"Are you sure?" Clotho asked.

"When an angel accepts Darkness, that Darkness affects Him. It's like an infection or... or a common cold," Atropos said, looking only at me. "That is why He asked for our help. Whenever this happens, I trim the Glory from the fallen angels' soul because He becomes too weak to do so while suffering under Darkness's effect. You see, all angels stem from His Glory. It's how they communicate, use their powers, live."

"How?" Gabe asked. He cleared his throat and looked at me before settling his attention back onto Atropos. "How would you make the cut? Angels aren't your domain."

"They are His domain, Brother, and you may have been created but you still have a tether tying you to this world. It isn't a lifeline like humans, but it's there," Atropos said. "When this happens, I go to Him, which is where your connections are kept. I trim the cord of its shine as close to the line as I can, and then I come home. He gets better."

I looked up in time to see her shrug and caught Lachesis staring at me. Gabe was the one they should be worried about, not me. He'd just learned a vital piece of his existence—or at least what could end it if He allowed.

"Why not just destroy it?" I asked. "If it makes Him sick, why not smite the angel from existence? That would kill the infection and keep Darkness from obtaining angels."