Page 21 of In Death’s Hands (The Threads of Fate #1)

“You intend to do what ?”

“Liv.”

That’s it. That’s all Nathan says. My name. As if that’s supposed to be answer enough, or a warning to keep quiet.

Well, screw. That! “No. There will be no ‘Liv’ said in a deep, stupidly mysterious voice,” I say, not missing the amusement on Atys’ face.

“Because that’s not a freaking answer to anything!

There will also be no half answers, and there sure as fuck isn’t gonna be any bait business with creepy maniacs out to kill me.

” I’m breathing fast and my voice is loud and echoing all around us, but I can’t find a single fuck to give.

“Your pet doesn’t seem to like your plan, boy.”

I turn to face Thalnus so fast I almost trip on my own feet, but I thankfully manage to stay upright to throw him a death glare.

At least I hope that’s what my eyes convey because Atys turns his back to me to hide a laughing fit, if his shaking shoulders are to be trusted. “I am not a pet, and he is not a boy!”

I don’t know why I bother defending Nathan when I’m pissed at him, but here I am. Can’t say that helps my credibility.

Thalnus looks pissed . “Do you know who I am, girl?”

“No, I don’t! I don’t know who or what you are! I don’t know where I am, what the hell happened to all of you, how you could have woken up centuries ago in this stupid place, or what the hell I’m doing standing in the middle of all this fuckery!”

“All right, that’s enough,” intervenes Atys, looking a lot less amused suddenly.

“Atys,” says Thalnus. Good grief, can’t these men stop saying names as if that’s a full sentence? It’s not!

“No, she’s right. This is a lot to take in, even for us. Imagine what it’s like for her.”

“You owe me some answers,” I tell Nathan.

He sighs. “I said I would answer what I could.” He gestures to the space we’re in, still not meeting my eyes.

“I planned on showing you.” Showing me what exactly?

There is nothing but musty walls around us.

I think my face shows exactly what I’m thinking because he quickly adds, “This is the antechamber. The space where we found out we could escape.”

“Escape what?” I ask.

Quiet is my only answer. But not the secret kind of quiet, no, the haunted kind. The kind of quiet that tells me the answer might be lodged in all their throats, struggling to come out.

Thalnus looks frozen in place, but Atys is glancing around, seeming to fight a shiver of disgust. His lips are curled as if whatever memory he has of this space has left a bad taste in his mouth.

He notes my stare and swallows once before breaking the silence.

“As he said, this is the antechamber of a much bigger cave accessed through there.” He points towards a corner, but it takes me a while to notice the sliver of space between two stone walls swallowed up by darkness.

How did they even see that? How did they even pass through?

“That place beyond strips us of our powers. We were stuck in there for…”

When Atys falls silent again, Nathan picks up where he left off.

“A long time,” he says tightly, shadows swirling in his eyes that are not of his own making, “without food, without a clue as to who we were and how we ended up here. It took weeks, months, before I wandered far enough away and found this space between the stone. It… spoke to me in a way I hadn’t yet felt. ”

I imagine it all for a second. Waking up without a memory with a group of strangers. I look around the space with a new eye and fight my own shiver. How… terrifying it must have been. “How did you survive? Without food, I mean.”

Nathan winces, and I see his hesitation before he answers. “We technically don’t have to eat, but it does give us a boost when we do.”

“You… what?”

“We don’t have to eat, sleep, fuck…” says Thalnus, finally shaking whatever memory had hounded him. “Any instinct that screams at you, girl, is a choice to us.”

“A choice you make all too willingly,” mutters Nathan.

Uhm. Okay, not going to touch that just yet.

Instead, I look around. Trying to see the space through their eyes.

It looks like any cave would look like. Rock everywhere.

Dirt on the ground. A thin ray of light coming from far above.

My eyes skim over the rocky walls as I try to process things.

My thoughts are so loud that I nearly miss it and have to drag my eyes back.

There.

A red shimmer in a far, unlit corner. As I move closer, vaguely aware of the men at my sides still arguing over one thing or another, I wonder what could have such a colour here, and my mind unhelpfully supplies images of red, human-eating spiders or deadly flowers that only grow in rock.

I realise it’s not either of those things when I notice the natural alcove in the stone, and what looks like a bundle of red strings wedged in it.

I frown, angling my head closer. As if in response, the little ball glows brighter.

I jump back, a shout on the tip of my tongue, but the glow almost disappears entirely as I move away from it.

It can’t… No. It can’t be reacting to me, can it?

I hear my name in the background, but it doesn’t really register as I step forward and once again the ball glows brighter, the red much more vivid.

A touch on my shoulder makes me jump, and I put a hand on my heart as I see Nathan looking at me with amusement.

“Have we already bored you to death, princess?” asks Atys, who suddenly appears next to us.

I shake my head and nod at the red bundle of threads and wait for their reaction.

“Are you okay?” asks Nathan, concern written all over his gorgeous face.

“What?” Frowning, I point at the shiny red ball. “Is that common for you guys?” Both men look emptily at the alcove in front of them.

“Liv,” says Nathan. “There is nothing there.”

“Of course there is!” I grow annoyed at the way he’s looking at me, like I’m finally losing my marbles after everything.

The worst thing is the compassion in his eyes, the absolute conviction that my poor human mind is losing it and finally breaking down as he was expecting. “You can’t see it? The red threads?”

Nathan’s frown turns to shock. Complete, utter shock as he looks around without focusing on anything because he doesn’t see what I see.

Atys looks at me strangely but thankfully doesn’t say anything.

I feel Thalnus join our little circle but focus on the strange ball that keeps getting brighter.

It feels warm and inviting. I take a step towards it and the light shimmers with joy.

I take my first full breath since I stepped into this cave and a smile touches my lips.

“Liv, don’t,” says Nathan urgently, but he’s too slow.

I reach for the ball that seems to be calling me, and as my hand gets closer, one thread detaches itself from the mass.

It wraps itself around my pointer finger and I suddenly can’t breathe.

I gasp around nothing, clawing at my throat with my other hand as my right hand is still locked in the hold of that one tiny thread.

I hear shouts around me but all I see is the shining red thread. My body stops moving, stops fighting, and I hear one word that makes it past my panic. Breathe , a voice says.

I want to scream that I can’t, that it won’t let me.

Breathe , it says again. And I do. I gulp down air that’s finally available and breathe and breathe and breathe until I feel like throwing up.

Until my heart slows down and I realise with a start that the air tastes different.

Fuller. Brighter. More. The thread still holding my finger grows warmer.

It tightens briefly before loosening slightly, as if to say, “Well done.” I feel hands on my shoulders and an arm wrap around my middle to pull me away, but I don’t move.

A tug in my heart has me folding my finger to lock the thread firmly in my hand.

Another tug tells me to pull, to free that one thread from the shining mass.

And so I pull.

And the three men beside me fall to the ground, unconscious.