DAVID’S POV
Pepper stared at me, her nostrils flaring very much like my Pappy does when she’s thinking or mad.
I knew better than to interrupt her, so I leaned back against a counter for this frail body to rest. How could he have let this body become so undisciplined? Didn’t he understand what was at stake? I cursed. I despised weakness.
Pepper began to pace slowly in front of me, one heel pivoting on the floor after the other.
“So…let me recap, and see if I have this straight. This God, the Spider—“
“Goddess. She is the Creatrix,” I corrected.
“This Goddess,” she accepted, “She hates Emma and is going to destroy your world to find her?”
“To root her out. She is a disruption in…”
“The Great Cloth. Yes,” Pepper cocked her head and thought for a moment. “And Emma, of this world, is tethered to you—the you of your world.”
I nodded, unsure where that labyrinth mind of hers was twisting.
Pepper stopped pacing to look at me, “So why isn’t she here, now?”
“I’m not sure I understand,” I said.
Pepper looked at me like I had just put a dirty thumb in our son’s mouth. “If you are the anchor to her soul that is keeping her from returning, why didn’t she come back when you did?”
“Maybe she is back. It’s not like her body transports to this room. Her soul rides the body like a parasite. Wherever the body wonders…” I explained.
Pepper took this in but her shook her head, no. Then cursed David, I’m assuming the other one, under her breath.
“And where does Gabriel come in in all this?” she snapped her pretty emerald eyes at me.
My face hardened with anger at the sound of his name. “Gabriel comes in wherever and whenever he likes…”
“Who was the Emma of your world?” Pepper interrupted.
“Emma Rath?” I asked, “She is Gabriel’s wife, his second. She is the most vile, cruel—“
Pepper started to laugh until her shoulders shook.
“What is so funny,” I asked, not imagining the reason. Untold lives were being destroyed in my country; the entire world was on the verge of being crushed by a monster!
“Disruption to the Sacred Pattern my ass,” Pepper spat. “I know a jealous woman, Creatrix or not, when I see one.”
“And you would be the one to know, my dear,” a man’s voice interrupted Pepper’s laughter.
We both turned to see Atticus, at least the Atticus of this world, standing in the doorway, leaning on his cane, and sporting a devilish smile.
***
Emma’s POV
I could feel my soul lifting from this body but dug in tight. The kiss, the kiss with David, had confused me, lose grip on this reality. I needed to stay rooted; I needed the soul to stay united with the body…the mind to touch…
I fell to my knees and started to feel the floor with the palms of my hands, rubbing the rough texture of the concrete into my skin.
The Ancient One’s closed in around me on three sides. I could feel Verðandi behind me and Urðr and Skuld flanking my sides. I ignored them, and kept digging at the concrete with my palms, now bleeding. Blood is good, it has memory; my DNA spilled on the floor will be the sacrifice…
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All Your Fates (Currently editing/updating)
Science FictionThey say in life there are no second chances. But what if you had blown it with the girl of your dreams? What would you do knowing that she was out there, in other realities, realities you hadn't screwed up? That kind of thing could really mess you...
