Finale (Caraval 3)

Tella scowled, hands fisting the cloth she’d been holding as if she could turn it into a weapon. “Even if you convince him you’re Paradise, what if he just kills you?”

?

??He won’t.” At least, Scarlett hoped he wouldn’t. “Not if I convince him that I’m Paradise when she was first pregnant with me.”

“Crimson, there has to be another way.”

“He’s right,” Tella pleaded, “I don’t think you’re hearing yourself—this is a dreadful idea.”

“No, it’s not,” rumbled the Assassin. “I’ve seen it work before.”

Every head in the room turned his way. He hadn’t moved from his position by the pillar, where he stood collecting shadows, or maybe he was creating them. Scarlett had been living with a Fate, but the Assassin’s power was far more potent than the Lady Prisoner’s. When he spoke, the room shuddered at the sound of his gravelly voice.

Yet, Tella still had the audacity to glare at him. “If you’ve seen all this, why didn’t you just tell us this is what we needed to do?”

“In my experience, humans don’t like it when I say I visited their futures and know they will die very painful deaths unless they do what I say. It only works if I let them figure it out.”

“Though sometimes people need guidance,” the Maiden Death added.

“They’re right,” came Anissa’s voice from the other room.

Tella’s frustrated scowl deepened. “Scar, this isn’t our only option. I have the Ruscica from the Immortal Library. If we can get some of the Fallen Star’s blood, then—”

“I tried to get his blood,” Scarlett said. “That plan didn’t work out.”

“She ended up in a cage like hers.” The Lady Prisoner nodded to the Maiden Death.

Everyone went quiet.

Tella looked as if she’d briefly forgotten how to argue. Julian looked as if he wanted to lift Scarlett off the bed and hold her in his arms forever—but that would have to wait.

“This is our best chance,” said Scarlett.

“You’re overlooking only one thing.” The Maiden Death inclined her head toward Julian and then Tella. “If this plan works and Gavriel feels a moment of love, one of you will have to kill him. If Scarlett tries to kill Gavriel, he might stop loving her and then he won’t be human.”

“Why can’t you or the Assassin do it?” Tella asked.

“The Fallen Star wanted to ensure that none of us ever killed him, so the human witch who helped him create us worked a spell. If one of his Fates tries to kill him, they will die instead.”

“Then I’ll do it.” Tella’s fiendish smile could have rivaled one of the Fates’. “I’ll gladly kill that monster. If he’s still in the throne room, I can sneak in and do it.”

“That’s not going to work,” Jacks drawled as he strode into the bedroom. “You’ll never get near him. But I can get you close enough to kill him.”

54

Donatella

“What are you doing here?” Tella demanded.

“It’s lovely to see you too, darling.” Jacks looked only at Tella as he tossed a black apple back and forth between his long fingers as though he didn’t have a care in the world. His lazy gaze grazed over her elegantly layered dress; she hadn’t gone to the coronation but she’d wanted to be prepared in case she needed to blend in. The gown was all deep-water-blue ribbons mixed with sky-blue lace that made her look like a package that could easily be undone with the right tug.

He, on the other hand, hadn’t changed from the awful night before. There were bloodstains on his shirt. He looked as if he’d just buttoned it up over his wound after she’d left—as though she’d not stabbed him in the chest last night and ended an immortal bond. She’d thought he was letting her go too easily, but clearly he hadn’t really let go.

“How did you find us?” Tella asked.

“The Fallen Star has been holding your sister here for a week. This isn’t exactly a brilliant hiding spot, and I’ll always be able to find you, Donatella.” He took a bite from his apple before dropping it to the floor. It thumped against the marble and rolled out of the room and through the open doorway until it disappeared under the Lady Prisoner’s gilded cage. “We might not be connected any longer, but what was between us will never be fully undone.”

“That’s why I want you to leave!” Tella tried not to yell; Jacks always seemed to enjoy it when he was the one upsetting her. But the thin control she’d had over her emotions fled the moment he appeared. “I’ll never trust you again.”