Page 15 of Reign of Stars and Fire

Forbi tapped the center of her chin with one finger. She closed her eyes for what seemed like a thousand breaths, then, finally, snapped her eyes open. “A familiar darkness.” She spun around on her sisters. “Is this the part where it begins?”

“Where what begins?”

Forbi looked over her shoulder, a vicious smirk on her lips. “The end.”

Chapter6

The Raven Queen

“What do you mean the end?”I flicked my fingers at my sides, my pulse racing.

Forbi shuffled around the table to her sisters. “This is the part where the third gift returns, and lies hide the last.”

“Stop muttering amongst yourselves and speakto me,” I said, practically pleading by now. “Tell us what we can do.”

There was a piece of my heart that believed these three lunatics were utterly a waste of time, but another piece that kept my feet planted in the dust and cobwebs. As though this was the place I needed to be.

“This is the part where you give two bloods,” Forbi muttered, holding out one hand.

The old woman handed Calista a knife and held her stare on the storyteller before she flicked a finger to me in a gesture.

Two bloods. I glanced at Calista. The girl grumbled a few curses, but understood, and sliced the tip of the knife over the meat of her thumb. She winced when a bubble of dark red blood split to the surface.

“You’re up, Raven Queen.”

I took the knife and cut a gash over my palm.

Forbi swiped her finger over the blood on our hands. I swallowed a bit of sick in my throat when she slid her bloodied finger over her tongue. Next, her sisters each did the same.

Danna crossed the room and took a crooked beeswax candle off the shelf. The stick in which it was placed was tarnished and chipped. Oviss knelt on the rug, her joints cracking and popping with each movement, and she reached beneath the table. In her hands was a wooden box with an engraved image of the gods’ tree on the lid.

Once the sisters were gathered around the table, Danna lit the candle, and Oviss opened the box. Inside were wooden pieces engraved in runes, much like the ones Yarrow had used to return Davorin’s name to my memory in the Court of Serpents.

The difference between Yarrow’s runes and the Norn sisters was the way the chips glowed the instant the candle was lit.

I stumbled back. Stefan caught me by the arm.

In the same breath, the three sisters clasped hands, circling around their runes, and began to hum. A slow, steady tune that brought a thickness to the room. Like too much air gathered in one spot and pressed against my chest.

A choked scream slid from my throat when Forbi’s eyes opened; the paleness was sharp and consuming now. The whole of her iris, her pupil, was swallowed in the swirling white.

“Many fates align as history repeats,” she whispered, dark and low.

Her eyes closed in the same instant Danna’s opened. The same as her sister, Danna’s eyes were swallowed in a ghostly paleness. Her even voice filled the room. “A foe threatens the present with the vengeance he seeks.”

Oviss took the lead when Danna closed her eyes. “Misery awaits within defeat.”

They repeated the cycle with new words each time.

Danna began to sway when she spoke again. “A falcon’s game for which he plays brightens deep your heart of pain.”

“You mentioned a falcon,” I whispered.

Calista shook her head. “Means nothing, Rave—”

“Shhh.” Forbi glared at the two of us.

I snapped my mouth shut and let the sisters go on.