Yama dragged Kale from the cave sometime after Rufus stole Vera’s body. When Kale finally made it back to the meadow, he didn’t need to inform anyone of what had happened. Jemma had watched the entire scene play out in her mind. Mother intercepted him with tears on her cheeks and Braxas at her side. He wondered if this was Susie’s plan all along, if Marianna knew, and if she’d told Mimi and Addamas. The news would destroy Mimi.

“I’m going after Marianna,” was all Kale said and stumbled toward the gate to Heliopolis.

“You can’t,” Mother argued.

Kale whirled around. She would not dare refuse him.

Braxas stepped forward, but the witch put a hand on his arm. “It’s okay,” she murmured. To Kale, she said, “We will end this and put the world back together as Vera wanted. But if we are going to avenge Vera and get Mimi and Addamas back, we have to be smart.”

“I don’t care about being smart.”

“I know,” said Mother. “But the genies in Heliopolis are missing. We believe they are helping Marianna. If you aren’t smart, you won’t get revenge. You’ll die. And we won’t get Mimi and Addamas back either.”

Kale closed his eyes, breathing deeply through his nose. “What are you suggesting then?”

“We need to gather our supporters—Vera’s supporters. We need as many people as we can to help us take back our world,” she answered. “And then we’re marching on a fate.”

“I don’t think I can wait that long,” Kale admitted.

I can take over until it’s time, offered Ferrox.

I need to kill her.

I promise I will let you, and I will cheer you on as you do. But let me take the reins for now.

Kale wanted to scream and rage, but instead, he let go. He let himself fade into nothingness.

Vera blinked away the blur of sleep.

“Thank the gods,” said Mimi, leaning over her. “I wasn’t sure you would ever wake again.”

Vera attempted to sit up, but the pain in the center of her chest pinned her to the mattress. She lay back, breathing shallowly through her teeth.

“A centipede speared you through the chest. Do you remember?”

Everything flooded back. “Kale,” she gasped.

Mimi held her gently. “Marianna said he’s fine.”

That’s when Vera realized she was in Marianna’s house. “How’d I get here?”

“Diyu’s Infernal host sent you here once he made sure Kale believed you were dead. Only you nearly did die. Marianna was not happy.”

“Are you okay? And Addamas?”

“We’re fine.” Mimi rubbed her belly. “All of us.”

“Do you know what she’s planning? Or how to stop her?”

Mimi hesitated. “I’m not allowed to tell you anything.”

“What will happen if you do?”

Mimi winced.

“Can’t tell me that either, huh,” Vera guessed. “Can we leave?”

Mimi shook her head. “Sorry. But I can confirm that she’s psychotic.”

“I’d already figured that one out. And don’t be sorry.” Vera braced a hand to her chest and sat up slowly, scrunching her face from the pain. “This isn’t your fault.” She peeked down inside her shirt at her bandage-covered chest. “I’d hoped I’d dreamt that too.”

“Too?”

“Diyu was…eventful,” Vera said. “Now I need to figure out why I’m here and what she wants from me.”

“I’d love to explain,” said Marianna from the doorway. “I told you that you should come to visit and hear some of my stories.”

“I didn’t realize you would go on a rampage and destroy the world if I didn’t,” Vera said through clenched teeth. “Or I would’ve skipped class.”

Marianna smiled. “Sometimes things need to be a little broken before they can get better.”

Vera raised a brow. “Yeah, that sounds sane.”

“Mimi, can you go make sure that satyr hoodlum doesn’t destroy my kitchen?”

Mimi squeezed Vera’s hand and then slipped out.

“We will stop you,” Vera informed the weaver.

“You can’t stop me.”

“You’re a fate, aren’t you?”

“A half-breed one. Although my people called ourselves weavers. I never hid that truth from you.”

“You deceived Kale and all of us.”

“Deception is about being selfish and wanting to hurt someone.” Marianna shrugged. “I never wanted to hide anything from any of you. I never wanted to hurt anyone. All I’ve wanted is what’s best for everyone, with no cares for myself. I never actually deceived anyone.”

Vera’s brain shorted and then raced. Holy basket of crazies. The way to beat Kale’s deception markings is by being a sociopath. “But you knew we would get hurt anyway. You saw it, and you arranged it.”

“I didn’t actually,” Marianna corrected. “Suzie did.”

“How did you know Suzie?”

“She was my daughter.”

Vera was speechless.

“She was my greatest joy.” Marianna’s face softened at the memory. “She took after her father—my little daayan half-breed. But she had a special weaver tell—she was born with the ability to read the threads. It’s something that only one in a thousand weavers could do. So while I wove the tapestries of the world, she could read the stories in them.”

A half-breed. Of course Talia would make the distinction between a daayan and a daayan half-breed. “Suzie had the Fate Eye,” Vera concluded.

Marianna nodded with a smile. “She loved Earth’s tales of our kind. She thought they were hysterical.”

“She could see the present as a daayan, and all the futures with her fate sight.” Which filled in many of the pieces that had been missing from the puzzle.

“One day, she started making connections between the two. She studied my work until she could match up what she saw in the present with what I wove. Eventually, she could predict how things would end up.”

“When did Suzie start manipulating things to get the future she wanted?”

“We started with small things. She directed my hand because she could read the threads, mind you. I would pull and reweave new threads until she saw the outcome we wanted.”

“But it’s wrong to change the future,” Vera said.

“Even when the future leads to the end of our entire world?”

“Okay, yeah, I plan to change that future,” Vera conceded. “But I only have to because you guys wove it.”

“No, we didn’t. We watched it happening, helpless like everyone. An oracle can try to intervene, change little things like stopping a woman from falling down the stairs, but they have no idea the repercussions of their actions until it’s too late to go back. Suzie saw all the ripples for every change. She helped me weave precisely what we wanted for the world’s future—with a few thousand contingencies built in just in case anything went sideways.”

“She chose whose lives were important,” Vera interpreted.

“Sometimes. But only when those lives brought the world back on track,” said Marianna. “When Suzie first read the threads, she found that every single one led to the end of our world. Except for one single thread. You were our chance to save the world.”

“So you manipulated me into doing what you wanted.”

“No, deary. Everything you ever did was because you are you. We never made you do anything. We only created opportunities and then watched you act according to your beautiful nature.”

“What about Noah, Gage, and Leah? You sacrificed them.”

“Oh, many more than that, I’m afraid,” said Marianna. “Kuwari’s guard, the horde’s victims, the thread-bearers of Summartir, and so many more.”

A knot formed at the base of Vera’s throat. “You did that?”

“We made sure all of that happened. If we hadn’t, they’d all be alive, and the world would be doomed.”

“I can’t.” Vera blinked away tears. “How can you choose some lives over others?”

“Not easily, I assure you. Knowing that my Suzie would have to sacrifice herself just about made me decide to let the world end. I decided I’d rather that than to see her die.” Marianna swiped away a tear. “In the end, she was a stronger and better woman than me. And here we are.”

Vera’s mind flew over everything that had brought her to this point. “Errock?”

“I brought him forward from the past. That was a tricky bit of weaving. He made sure you ended up in the meadow, that you went to Summartir, and that Kale went to the horde.”

“But you killed him. Or you had Fred kill him, anyway.”

“His usefulness was over. Plus, I needed that portal back for later, didn’t I?”

“The eggtooth poison? The packages sent all over the place?”

“All me. Although Kale wasn’t the first person I poisoned,” Marianna smiled. “You were. On multiple occasions.”

Vera sputtered. “Why?”

“To give your magic a little nudge.”

“What else did you manipulate?”

“I have a couple of friends who owed me favors. Alalana for one. I helped her bind her lover to the sea once. In return, she made sure you gave up just the right thing while you were in Po.”

“What was the point of that?”

“You needed to grow through loss and hardship. I couldn’t have them take away your ability to love, though. That’s what pushes you to help others at the risk to yourself. A witch, a nymph, a spider, a siphon, and so many more. So we made sure Alalana used just the right wording when the time came.”

“And you sent her to Diyu to screw with my head too.”

“That wasn’t my doing. I knew Alalana would be there, but I didn’t arrange it. She’s just a rather great person for one of the Cloud Children—once you overlook the cannibalism. But otherwise, she’s a great woman.”

“Does she know everything?”

“The end goal, yes. The same with that rascal from Diyu.”

“You’re manipulating Yama too?”

“Manipulating is a harsh word. I just made sure I was there for him when his games got a little rough, and his dear Rufus ended up a casualty. The poor creature was the only one of his kind, and Yama was devastated. So I weaved him up a Rufus-two. When it comes right down to it, though, Diyu is that Infernal’s playground. He’s not interested in seeing the world end and having all his fun end with it. So we arranged a little show for Kale at just the right moment.”

“Kale thinks I’m dead.”

“And he’s in bad shape because of it,” Marianna informed her. “But as you needed to go to Nibiru and learn you could be your own champion, Kale needs to learn he has value other than being your protector. Otherwise, he’ll never be what he should.”

“Where is this all leading?” Vera asked.

“Where all things lead,” Marianna replied. “War.”

“War is how you plan to save the world?” You’re bat-crap loco, lady.

“War is how I plan to bring people together. Saving the world will be up to them afterward. That will only happen if you are there, though.”

“You’re going to send me back to get ready for a war?”

“No my dear, the war is coming here.”

“If war comes here, Mimi’s people will die.”

“Come here and look at something.” Marianna waved Vera over to the window.

Warily, Vera complied. They were on a bluff overlooking a sheltered valley. Below, swarms of people gathered in what looked like a pop-up city of tents and hovels. “Who are all those people?”

“Those are the people who want Earth gone once and for all. They’ve been gathering in this corner of Heliopolis for over a year—building support and strength.”

“How are they getting here?”

“The genies finally figured it out…with a little help.” Marianna winked.

Of course. Vera pointed at a figure weaving through the tents. “Is that Yama? Wait, there’s another one of him… There are like five Yamas down there.”

“More than that. I think he has himself split into at least a hundred at the moment.”

“I thought you said he’s doesn’t want the world to fall.”

“He doesn’t.”

“Then what’s he doing down there?”

“I’ve built up quite a network of spies. After Suzie was gone, I needed eyes and ears everywhere to make sure everything went as planned.” Marianna sat tiredly on the edge of the bed.

“You have a lot of blood on your hands,” Vera told her. “None of your whacked good intentions will take any of that away.”

“There was already more blood on my hands—before any of this began—than you can ever imagine,” Marianna revealed. “It is my people’s fault that the Unraveling came to be. All of those lives lost, and souls turned evil, are on my hands too. A few more lives lost to right that wrong can’t hurt me now.”

“Explain how the Unraveling could possibly be your fault.”

“My people were from the kingdom of Mu.”

“I’ve heard that. There was a book.”

Marianna waved a dismissive hand. “Yes, you had a chance to get answers, but you didn’t. Once this is over, you can share that record with the world. For now, let me tell you an abbreviated version of my people’s history.” She took a deep breath and began, “We were the weavers and kirin. Weaving the histories and futures of the world while the kirin went out and wove the hearts of the people together. Where one wove cloth and reality, the other wove tolerance and compassion.”

“What happened to them?”

“They became disillusioned. We all did. Our tapestries were becoming riddled with strife and cruelty. The kirin were heartbroken every time they came across another soul who’d been shoved aside. There were so many people abandoned on the outskirts of civilization for the sin of being a mixed-breed. My people finally decided it was too painful, that they would be better off sequestered among their own. Unfortunately, the world followed this example. Communities closed off. Races secluded themselves. Everyone forgot the benefits of living and working and caring together. By the time they forgot how to awaken their children born with voids, most people chalked our kingdom up to myth.”

“Is Mu really gone?”

“Yes, and it is our fault that it is. We choose to fall into oblivion so we could keep our peaceful home for ourselves, and so we wouldn’t have to face the problems outside our kingdom. Only, when the world finally unraveled, we had no idea it was happening. And no one knew that our kingdom was there.”

“No one knew to stitch it to the meadow,” Vera concluded.

“Mu fell away. My father smuggled my sisters and me out just before. He knew something was happening, but the rest believed we would remain safe in our bubble. My sisters went to Earth—the seat of unrest—as my father instructed. I was sure he’d gone mad, but my sisters wouldn’t listen. They went as Father told them. When the world unraveled, they were trapped in Earth. I was making my way back to Mu but only made it as far as Shangri-la. That’s where I stayed for hundreds of years.”

“You are old.”

“Older than most dragons. Even older than Kale by a few years.”

“Is that normal?”

“No. I was determined to find a way back to my people even after the Unraveling. I was sure they had found a way to survive, but one lifetime was not enough time to figure out how. I pulled my strings from the tapestries and set them aside. As long as they remain that way, I cannot die. It is considered an unforgivable crime to my people, but as you are aware, I never was one for following the rules.”

“Obviously, you figured out how to move around the world unrestrained. Did you try to find Mu?”

“Of course, but they are not there. Mu is gone. Then I had Suzie. Being a single mom in Shangri-la was difficult enough. Having magic that people did not recognize meant having to hide from the wielders. It was nearly impossible, so I found some woods in another realm and made a home for us there. On occasion if I ran into a witch, my magic didn’t seem as odd to them. They seemed to think I was simply from a coven they’d never met before.”

“What about your sisters?”

“By the time I figured out how to move through the realms without detection, they were long gone, and so were their children and grandchildren.”

“There is weaver blood in Earth.”

“You would not be kirin without it.”

“We’re related?”

“You are my many-times-great niece. Suzie would have been a cousin—many times removed. All very distant.”

“This is…” Vera searched for the right word.

“Insane.” Marianna nodded agreeably.

Vera rubbed at a spot on her temple where she was developing a dull ache. “And now the people out there are planning to attack Earth, which will be that much easier now that you’ve destroyed the meadow.”

“The meadow needed to fall. Otherwise, the realms would’ve remained separated until they all died out. Now people will have no choice but to figure out how to exist together again. And right now, your friends are gathering their own army. Earth will not be destroyed easily.”

“They know about the attack.” Well that’s a relief.

“They are building an army to come against me. They have no idea that they will come face to face with an army.”

No. “They’ll be killed.”

“Some,” Marianna confirmed. “Others will live. And even more will start to question what they’ve always known to be true.”

“Marianna, I understand what you’re trying to do, but we need to stop this war.”

“That’s your job,” Marianna informed her.

“So I will stop this?”

“I don’t know.” Marianna shrugged. “There’re no more contingencies in place for the rest of this. You’ll either do what the threads predicted and save the world, or screw something up and the world will fall.”

“What are the odds I screw something up?”

“You’ve managed to go off script once, so it’s possible. But as long as you and Kale hold true to yourselves, you’ll be fine.”

“How about you read me your playbook, and then I’ll make sure this all ends well. And by ends well, I mean no one else dies, and there most certainly isn’t going to be a war.”

“I can’t tell you how anything will go,” Marianna told her. “Self-fulfilling prophecies and all. Knowing what will happen will ensure it all fails.”

“Then let me go to my friends. Let me warn them and stop a war.”

“I can’t do that, dear,” said Marianna. “You will stay here until the time is right.”

“I’m not going to just sit here.”

“You will if you want Mimi, Addamas, and their child to live.”

Vera glared. “You would kill them to keep me here?”

“Not me. I’m just telling you what’s in the threads. And if Mimi dies, her people will turn sides. You will not be able to stop the war, let alone win it. So many people will be slaughtered, and in another thousand years, the world will be gone. Earth won’t make it another hundred years.”

Vera put her hands over her face, trying to come up with an answer.

“You have a choice,” Marianna told her. “Save your friends now and watch them die later, or try to save them all, along with the rest of the world, once the armies face off.” Marianna rose to leave. “You don’t have to like what Suzie and I have done, but you cannot undo it. All you can do is move forward.”

This was not what Vera had expected when she faced off with Marianna. Maybe some de-brainwashing and a fight with some cats, but not this. Not armies and war. She watched Yama playing a dice game with a man below. There had to be a way to get this war stopped. And if it wasn’t by alerting her friends back at the meadow, then maybe she could stop it from this side.