18
ADDIE
My soul tumbled out of my body. From a distance, I watched my body crumple in Maddox’s arms. An invisible force dragged me away from the room. I crashed through thread after thread. All were fragile, like cotton candy that dissolved at the hint of water.
Was I dead?
Had fate grown tired of waiting for me to die? I had things to do. I couldn’t fix the torn fate threads if I was dead. I had to get back to my body.
My feet somehow seamlessly touched solid ground. One moment, I was falling. The next, I was walking. Once I realized I had autonomy again, I broke out into a run through the gray world of the afterlife. I wasn’t sure how I knew where I was, but a gut feeling screamed the truth.
The city was dismal and colorless. Nothing moved. I heard no sound. It made my ears ache. It wasn’t always like this, though. This couldn’t be right.
“Perse?” I shouted, concerned for my friend. “Hector?”
Of course, no one answered. They weren’t here. No one was here other than me. This strange limbo heldnothing.
Something else bothered me. There was a nudge in the back of my mind. It was as if the world was blurring right before my eyes even though the ground beneath my feet still seemed solid. I paused to get a better look and realized something horrid.
Tiny threads were coming undone. The weave of the world around me separated like a threadbare sweater worn too many times. I could see through the gaps into the nothingness beyond. I quickly glanced down, aware of my steps now. A gap yawned right in front of me.
I didn’t want to know what would happen if I fell into it.
“One mistake, one human with too much hubris, and the world comes apart.” Hel appeared at my side.
I glared up at her as I recalled our last meeting. She’d openly tried to manipulate me and everyone else present. I wasn’t all that happy with the old goddess.
But she was right. The world was falling apart. While I wanted to believe this was contained to limbo, I’d already seen broken threads in the world of the living. It was only a matter of time before holes started to form there, too.
“Maddox isn’t responsible for this,” I grumbled with my arms over my chest.
Hel closed her one good eye and sighed. I lifted a brow, pleased that I could irritate the goddess that had been causing me so much strife lately. While I wanted to work with her to save the world that I was living in, she wasn’t making it easy.
“What do you need me to do?” I asked.
“Find the one responsible for this.” She lifted her head and looked out over the crumbling landscape.
I fought the urge to sight, too. That’s what we were trying to do. If she asked me to kill Maddox, I was going to scream.
“This one you’re hunting,” she said, softly. “I have a feeling that he is the one responsible for what is happening. I am not sure that he knows, though. This is the result of soul magic, as you know. The wolf did not do this to himself. A witch spins soul magic, which means he is but a victim.”
“You’ve never had sympathy for victims before. What’s new? Why the sudden change?” I put my hands on my hips.
“Do not get it wrong,” she said in a fumbling attempt to use modern mannerisms while addressing me. “I am here to tell you to put him down. The wolves circling you are both trouble, however it seems that you will need your wolf a bit longer. Maddox will be of some use while you fight the soul-torn one.”
Soul-torn?That was an interesting way to put it. I didn’t see how someone with a compromised soul could tear reality apart like this, though.
My breath rushed out of me when I remembered what Maddox had said about his own soul. The infection from the soul-torn wolf’s bite couldn’t find Maddox’s soul because there wasn’t one there.
I debated asking Hel about it. Surely, she knew already. If she didn’t, I wondered how it would affect her opinion of him. She already wanted to kill Maddox. I couldn’t imagine she would be any happier.
“If you have questions about the undead wolf’s soul, then I can set your mind to rest,” Hel said.
I jerked, startled that she’d read me so easily. My skin crawled. I couldn’t get privacy with ghosts around, and now there was a goddess who could find her way into my mind. It was eerie and unsettling.
“Your wolf’s soul is safe with—”
The ground beneath me unraveled. I yelped as I plummeted into the expanse. The threads of fate tangled around my legs and arms, but they didn’t stop me as I fell. The darkness rushed in around me. I scrabbled to grab onto anything I could reach so I could get back to Hel and what she’d been about to say.