I gasped, whirling around.
The City of Lockes burned.
The dark man was gone.
But I wasn’t alone.
Vadoma. Or an approximation of her. She was younger here, even more so than she’d been in the desert with the star dragon. She was vibrant and beautiful, looking so much like my mother that it knocked the breath from my chest. But where my mother’s eyes were warm and kind, Vadoma’s were hardened like steel. It was disconcerting, seeing that difference.
“Why are you doing this to me?” I asked her, voice shaking. “Who are you?”
“Your grandmother,” she said, looking at the remains of the City of Lockes. “A gypsy. I have lived a long, long life, Sam. Longer than you could possibly imagine. I have seen things come to fruition that were shown to me in the shadows. There have been times the shadows have lied, that the light between the screaming stars showed a path that was eventually averted by a thousand possible choices. But this… this, Sam. All paths end in this. Unless you accept your destiny.”
“I don’t have a—”
“You do,” she said. “For the dark man will not stop until he’s seen this world burned beneath his feet. Haven’t you ever wondered why you were given the magic you have? Why, out of everyone in the world, the gods chose you as they did?”
“No,” I said. “Because I learned not to question the gifts I’ve been given. Because any day they could be taken away.”
“Dilo,” she said. “You foolish man. Life is about questions.”
“Life is about living,” I said.
“Which you will not do,” she said, trapping me neatly. “Unless you accept your fate and face what is coming. You don’t ask the questions you should because you’re scared of the answers you will get. He has touched you. Can you feel it?”
I could. The warm heat of his hand on my skin. “Who is he?”
She shook her head. “I know not. Much is hidden from me. You heard the star dragon.”
“Of course it’s hidden,” I said, irrationally angry. “Because that’s the way it works. Is that all it is? Smoke and mirrors? Is he even real? Or is this just some twisted game to you, allowing you to fuck with my mind? I don’t have time for this.”
I turned to go somewhere, anywhere that wasn’t near her. I’d only made it seven steps when she spoke again. And though her words were few, nothing else she could have said would have scared me more.
“He will die, Sam. The one you love.”
I stopped, heart racing. The City of Lockes had been devastated by something. And she… she was playing this game.
I didn’t want to say anything else to her. But of course I did.
“Who?” Though in my secret heart, I knew.
“I have seen it.” And she sounded desperate now. “No ma
tter what happens.”
I turned slowly. “Are you threatening him?”
“No,” she said, and in that, I thought she was being honest. “I have no need. Especially if it’s the truth I see.”
“You’re lying.”
“Not about this.”
“You’re lying.”
“Your eyes are not open, Sam of Wilds.”
I took a step toward her and—