Page 112 of Unraveling Fate

“Oh, don’t sell yourself short.” Pearce waved a piece of paper in Thomas’s face—Cadenza’s wedding invitation. “I think I can find a use for you yet.”

A curveof orange hovered above the western sky, a brassy song trumpeting the sun’s descent as Cadenza waited by the Ferrari. Her heart stuttered out of time like a broken metronome.

“Maybe twenty minutes?” Reyna watched the sky from the other side of the car. The sunset gilded the lines of muscles in her arms. She’d accessorized her bridesmaid pantsuit with her tuning fork and smith hammer hung on a belt.

Earlier in the evening they’d decorated the trees around the field with fairy lights. Half a dozen folding chairs formed a short aisle for Cadenza to walk down. Drostan and the boys were in the field now, finishing an arch for the ceremony. Taran’s formal kilt waited in her apartment. He’d change after he woke.

Cadenza ran a hand over the roof of the F12. Her other hand found the cool ridges of car keys in the pocket of her wedding dress. After the curse was gone, she planned on gifting the keys to Taran. To throw away.

“If this works, you’re gonna have to get a new ride,” Reyna joked.

Cadenza gave a short laugh. “That’s the plan.” She glanced at the text thread open on her phone.

Thomas, the wedding is in two hours. See you there?Sent an hour and a half ago. He hadn’t responded. Same as when she left the invitation on his desk.

“We’ve got time. He might still come.”

Reyna watched her, face somber. “He might.”

Thomas wasn’t the only one who wasn’t there.Miss you, Babbo.Cadenza’s stomach turned somersaults. Babbo would tell her to pay no attention to the stage fright. If she wanted it, make it happen.

That’s what I’ve been trying to do the whole time.Build an opera career. Find how to break the curse. Convince Thomas to come back. So far none of her actions had borne fruit. Her relationship with her mother was worse than ever. Thomas ignored her pleadings. She didn’t know if the handfasting would work. If it was the way to break the curse, Thomas had given nothing away to confirm it.

The Fates aren’t just a pretty notion for poets,Taran had said.They weave the destiny of every person on earth.

They wanted her to Spin, and of all the things she’d worked so hard for since arriving at Norroway Automotive, that was the only thing she’d managed. Outside of her time with Taran, Spinning with Elspeth had also been her most peaceful moment in months.

She stamped her foot, still unwilling to believe that everything in her life was predestined. The wrongness of that idea clanged against her bones.

On the other hand, if the Fates had nothing to do with the pattern of her life, that meant her return to Sonora and meeting Taran was a complete coincidence. Her friendship with Reyna, a fluke. Meeting Thomas and Elspeth, all completely random. No. That felt just as wrong. The two wrongs clashed and brayedagainst each other. She couldn’t make those two extremes—all Fate or all chaos—meet. They were like two notes on a keyboard waiting for a third to resolve them into a chord.

Where was the resolving note?

The earthsong rose with her agitation. The brass of the sunset, the windchime of the first stars, cello in the wind and the trees. Sun, wind, and stars surged in her chest, burned her throat. But she knew how to handle it now. She found the heartbeat deep in the earth and anchored. Her fingers brushed the frame of the Ferrari—a few more minutes and Taran’s heartbeat would be there for her too. Cadenza Spun the earthsong into Thread, looping it around her wrist.

“It’s beautiful.” Reyna gazed at the Thread with a smile.

“You can see it?”

She nodded. “It looks like how I imagine my will to look when I fill the tuning fork.”

Cadenza tilted her head, thinking. “That makes sense.” All the possibilities and patterns. She and Reyna organized them differently, but possibility was possibility. Did that make Reyna a Guardian—and a Spinner? So many questions. Maybe eventually she’d find all the answers.

A car engine, quieter than the cars she usually heard on the estate, came from the road. “Do you think that’s Thomas?”

Two Audi A8s surged up the estate road and braked hard. A knot of men jumped out to block the garage door, long daggers gleaming in their hands. Their feet made no noise on the pavement. Their faces were devoid of expression.

“In the car!” Reyna dove in the Ferrari’s passenger seat.

Cadenza followed and jammed the keys in the ignition. The Ferrari snarled to life, and she smashed the gas pedal to the floor scattering the group of Silence worshippers.

“Go, go!” Reyna urged.

“Call Drostan.” Cadenza steered the Berlinetta towards the racetrack and the field. The Audis followed.

“He’s not answering.” Reyna leaned sideways as they took a corner. “I’m guessing they’ve got visitors of their own.”

One of the Audis abandoned the road to cut through a corner of grass, and headlights glared at Cadenza in the rearview mirror.