Finale (Caraval, 3)

Scarlett stared in the mirror that rested above her marble-pink vanity and tried not to cry at what she saw. Tella wouldn’t have cried. Tella would have willed her pain into power and used it to find a way to fix everything—no matter the cost.

Scarlett could do that, too. She could do it for her sister, for Julian, for everyone in the empire, and for herself. Even if it felt impossible at the moment.

At least her sister and Julian couldn’t see her right now.

Scarlett continued to stare at her new reflection in the mirror, as her thoughts took her back to the night before, after she’d delivered her last note to Tella and Julian, when everything had gone so awry.

Once a day, since Scarlett had first arrived in the Menagerie, the Lady Prisoner’s purple eyes turned milky-white, letting Scarlett know she was glimpsing a fragment of the future as she told Scarlett, The only way to defeat the Fallen Star is to become what he wants most. But all the Fallen Star wanted from Scarlett was for her to conquer her powers, and control the emotions of others. And her original plan had been to do just that—to cultivate her powers to change his feelings and make him love her, so that he would become mortal.

But over the last couple of days the Fallen Star had made it clear that if Scarlett mastered her abilities, it would be the catalyst that would turn her into an immortal Fate.

He’d told her this to encourage her to conquer her powers. But Scarlett knew that once she was an immortal, she would no longer be able to love. Love was such a fundamental part of what drove her, she didn’t even know who she’d be without love. What if it made her like her father, who only wanted power?

So, despite Anissa’s warning, Scarlett had planned to get the blood that Tella and Julian needed for their Fated book.

“Are you certain you want to go through with this?” asked the Lady Prisoner. “I can’t lie, so if I make a threat, I have to be willing to follow through. And if he catches you, your magical key won’t get you out of one of his cages.”

“I know,” Scarlett said. “But if this works, neither of us will have to worry about being caged at all.” Which was one of the reasons she’d chosen to trust the Fate. Scarlett didn’t believe Anissa’s concern for her was genuine, but she did believe that Anissa wanted out of her cage. “I think this will work, but if you’re having second thoughts—”

“Gavriel and I have had skirmishes like this for decades.” The Lady Prisoner hopped off her perch to move closer to Scarlett. “I can handle whatever he throws my way.”

“So can I,” Scarlett said, feigning confidence she didn’t feel as she dropped the wineglass from her hand, shattering it against the marble floor. Sharp shards of glass landed around her feet while garnet wine spread out, staining the hem of Scarlett’s pink dress as the Lady Prisoner reached through her bars and picked up the largest glass fragment.

A moment later Scarlett cried out, loud enough to alert the guard outside her door. He clattered in an instant later. One look at Scarlett, forced against Anissa’s cage, as Anissa reached through the bars to press a shard of glass against Scarlett’s neck, and a moldy green cloud of fear formed around the guard as he reached for his sword.

“I wouldn’t do that, unless you want me to kill her.” The Lady Prisoner tilted her spike of broken glass to the most defenseless part of Scarlett’s throat.

“Now,” she went on conversationally. “Fetch Gavriel. Tell him what you’ve seen and that if he doesn’t come here right now, I’ll slit his daughter’s throat.”

The guard immediately did as he was told. Like Scarlett, he knew the Lady Prisoner couldn’t lie.

“I hope this works,” the Fate whispered once he left. “I really wouldn’t enjoy killing you.”

“I don’t particularly want to die,” Scarlett said, hoping she hadn’t overestimated her value to the Fallen Star. Scarlett knew that he didn’t care for her, and he certainly didn’t love her. But based on the amount of time he spent each day working with her to conquer her powers, she knew that he very much cared about her abilities and what she could do for him. And yet her palms began to sweat as he stepped inside.

Scarlett didn’t know, and didn’t want to know, what the Fallen Star had been doing, but there was blood spatter on his bone-white shirt and fury in his eyes. The room grew hotter as it filled with the violent red sparks surrounding him.

“Use your fire on me and I’ll kill her,” the Lady Prisoner called from behind her bars. “If you want her, come get her yourself.”

Scarlett didn’t have to pretend to tremble at the words. Because of the Lady Prisoner’s inability to lie, if the Fallen Star did use his flames, then she would be compelled to follow through with her threats. But both Scarlett and the Lady Prisoner had agreed on the risk. If the Fallen Star used his fire, then he would defeat Anissa before she was able to stab him with the broken glass and collect the blood that Scarlett needed.

Gavriel’s sparks disappeared and he crossed the room faster than Scarlett could blink.

She stumbled to the side as the Lady Prisoner shoved her out of the way and sliced the Fallen Star’s throat with her glass.

The cut was bloody and perfect.

Too perfect. But Scarlett wouldn’t realize that until later.

She ran to the Fallen Star as he dropped to his knees and pressed her handkerchief against his bleeding throat to collect his spilling blood as he closed his eyes and died.

It was the ugliest thing Scarlett had ever done. Was this what it was to be a Fate? It lasted less than a minute, but it felt like an eternity before his golden eyes closed and his body went limp. Scarlett couldn’t stop her legs or her hands from shaking. She knew they hadn’t killed him forever, though he deserved it. He’d killed her mother and countless others. Still, it felt wrong.

And Scarlett was already imagining what the Fallen Star would do in his fury when he did come back to life. She needed to move quickly.

She dripped blood across the marble floors as she ran to the bathing room with the bloodied cloth to squeeze the Fallen Star’s blood into a vial. Why, why hadn’t she thought to hide the vial somewhere on her person to have right at his throat?

Drip. Drip.

It was taking too long to fill the vial.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

“What are you doing with that, auhtara?”

Scarlett’s eyes shot up to the bathing room mirror, her trembling limbs turning to liquid. The Fallen Star stood behind her like a bronze statue that had been sliced open. His skin was pale as the dead and his neck was still bloody, but he was very much alive. Had he been pretending? Or did he just recover that fast?

He knocked the vial to the ground, shattering the glass, and wrapped a hand around her throat, choking off her air. “Disappointed I’m not dead?”

“Please,” Scarlett rasped. “I—I only took the blood because I thought if I drank it then maybe it would help me finally conquer my magic.”

“Then you should have just asked. I would have given it to you, auhtara. But now I have to give you something else instead.” His fingers squeezed her throat again and her world went dark.

When Scarlett woke later on, her head felt too heavy to move, and there was something tight around her neck, grating against her skin.

“The cage will probably take a while to get used to.” The Fallen Star’s voice held a hint of diversion.

Scarlett’s eyes flashed open to a world of red. There were vertical rows of ruby-red beads fitted around her head—he’d imprisoned her in a cage. A sob shook her chest. She tried to rip it off; her fingers tore at the gems, tried to bend their bars and rip them off, but they were ineffectual, and soon she was weeping too hard to do anything else.

The Fallen Star reached in between the ruby bars to stroke Scarlett’s damp cheek. “Don’t betray me again. My punishment won’t be so kind next time.”

The memory faded as Scarlett looked in her vanity mirror. The ruby cage encasing her head looked like the bloody cousin to the cage worn by the Maiden Death. But rather than looking powerful like that Fate always did in Decks of Destiny, Scarlett thought that she looked entirely powerless. She hadn’t been able to sleep wearing it, so there were deep circles beneath her eyes, and since her hair had been down when he’d put it on, strands of her dark hair stuck to her throat, held in place by the unmoving collar of the cage.

Anissa had tried to tell her it was pretty, and that it matched her scarlet earrings. They’d once been a treasured gift from her mother. Your father gave these to me, she said, because scarlet was my favorite color. They used to make Scarlett think that Marcello Dragna, the father who’d raised her, had once been a better man. But, Scarlett realized, her mother must have been referring to the Fallen Star.

Scarlett tried not to think about her mother. But for once, she wished she could go back in time to talk to her and ask her what to do.

Scarlett hadn’t contacted Julian and her sister. She’d been too ashamed and embarrassed to slip them a note letting them know that she’d failed in getting the blood, and she didn’t want them to see her like this, even for a second. Scarlett knew that she had to be even more careful now. She couldn’t risk using the Reverie Key unless it was an emergency.

She couldn’t make another mistake and she couldn’t run away. If Scarlett wanted to save herself and everyone else before the Fallen Star took the throne the day after tomorrow, she had only one choice left: to conquer her power and use it to make him love her.

She took a deep breath and left her bedchamber to meet him.

Tonight, he was dressed in brown leather pants, a loose white shirt, and a pale gold cape that matched the victorious gleam in his eyes. He’d been in an excellent mood ever since he’d placed the cage around Scarlett’s head; he liked being able to demonstrate just how much power he had over her. But tonight he appeared almost boyish in his excitement.

When Scarlett took a seat beside him on the marble bench near Anissa’s cage, he grinned and stroked the curving ruby bars surrounding Scarlett’s face. “My Fates have finished tracking down the members of the royal council. Now all their severed heads are sitting on pikes at the docks. There are no more barriers to stop me from claiming the throne tomorrow night.”

“Tomorrow.” Scarlett tried to keep the panic from her voice. “I thought you were waiting another day?”

“I’ve never been good at being patient.” He jumped up from his seat. “But don’t worry, to help prepare you for tomorrow’s coronation, I’ve brought a gift that I’m hoping will aid you in finally conquering your abilities.”

The Fallen Star called for his personal guard to open the door, and a young woman who looked as if someone had taken a magic cloth to wipe away half of her coloring stumbled into the room. Her hair was a faded shade of red, and her skin was pallid white, with dull black tattoos peeking out from beneath her long black gloves. Yet the colors of her feelings were anything but dim. Vitriolic shades of rotted plum swirled around her in spiteful, enraged circles.

The Fallen Star strode toward his captive the way a hunter might approach trapped prey. “I rescued her from the Temple District when it was on fire yesterday. Unfortunately, she’s not very grateful; I’ve already had to punish her. She might be difficult for you to work with, unless you find a way to control her.” He ran a finger down the young woman’s cheek.

The woman snapped her teeth over his fingers, biting the tips.

The Fallen Star ripped his hand from her mouth before she could draw blood. “Behave.” His voice remained gentle, but his words were followed by a burst of flames that singed the ends of her hair.

“If you succeed in controlling her emotions, then I will take that cage off your head. But if you don’t, I’m afraid the results will be unpleasant.” His gaze traced the lines of rubies imprisoning Scarlett’s head. “I’ve been wondering if perhaps you haven’t conquered your powers because you’ve lacked the proper motivation. Hopefully you have it now. I’ll come back in the morning to view your progress, and for your sake, auhtara, I really hope there is progress.”