Fate's Revenge (Twisted Fate, Book 4)

Chapter Twenty-Five

"Think of your favourite memory, Alyssa," Lachesis said, speaking in a monotonous voice until the sound droned in my ears. "Picture it in your mind."

Ten minutes after I agreed to allow her to show me what would have happened had I died, she had me lying on the black leather couch in the living room with my eyes closed. It was meant to be relaxing, with my feet raised on the arm of the couch and my heartbeat slowed. But with her pacing and less-than-soothing voice issuing orders, it felt stifling. How was I supposed to relax? Just the sound of her voice, even when she was trying to be gentle, reminded me of the person who'd done so many things to me without bothering to explain. It made me think of everything I didn't know.

"Keep your eyes closed."

"It's not working!" I looked up at her and sighed. "Just tell me what it is you want to show me, and we can stop wasting our time."

"You just need to follow direction."

"Is that what you call ordering me around?" I almost had to roll my eyes into the back of my head to see her standing over me from her stance behind the couch. "Direction?"

She looked down and sighed. Then she walked around and sat on the coffee table in front of the couch, leaning forward to rest her elbows on her knees, clasping her hands over and over again. For a moment, if I didn't have the unfortunate opportunity to have met her before, I would have thought she was sincere and... wary. It almost looked like her main mission was to help me, though it wasn't quite right. I couldn't believe anything she did was anything but an act. Lachesis had a goal in mind and I knew that it involved me, so I couldn't think that she would do anything that didn't revolve around reaching it.

"I can help you only if you let me. If you don't try, this won't work," she said. "You read thoughts when you want to. You can't control it yet, but this is the same thing. You've agreed to let me show you, but you're blocking me."

"Like you can't get past... whatever you just explained."

"Not without my sisters."

"Right." I rolled my eyes. "Then how do you get anything done?"

"Do you want to see or not?"

"I'd love to meet your sisters." I shrugged. Maybe if I forced the issue, intentionally avoid following her directions, I would finally get something I wanted. Would she give up or go get Atropos and Clotho so she could make it happen against my will? Because then I would cooperate.

"No."

"Then just tell me!" I started in a high voice and then petered off, losing my fight. It was like the harder I pushed, the more ornery that she became. What will it take?

"I can't." Lachesis looked at me without emotion, not even blinking.

"Why?"

"Because even Fate has rules," she said after a pause, finally looking away towards the empty hallway. "If we break them, the consequences take our powers away."

That sounded ridiculous. She was Fate. If Fate had rules, they weren't very effective. The role was clear: they spun, proportioned, and then cut lifelines of the souls they were charged with overseeing, all of which was done at the time of conception. Nowhere in the tales about Fate had it explained how they could kill someone, turn back time and bring people back to life, and use angels to trick Death from taking the soul they'd already set an expiration upon.

I laid back and closed my eyes. "Let's try again. Just... don't start pacing or it'll never work." Not I understood how it was supposed to happen—just enough to grasp the gist of it—I might be able to relax enough to listen to her enough to see what she wanted to show me.