After a while, Kemma returned to the rest of them and sat down beside the fire. She sat by her father and stared into the flames. He could tell by the creased lines on her face that they weren’t going to like the answer she would be giving them.
“I’ve decided that I’m going to keep it and see what happens,” she said to the shock of most everyone there. “I don’t think that the Fates are always correct, and I have a good feeling about this.”
“You realize what you’ll be risking if you go through with carrying this child?” Lopt asked her.
“Yes.”
“Then the decision is made,” Brenna said. “You have our support, and we will make sure nothing bad happens to you.”
“This is ludicrous,” Helia said. She seemed almost as upset as Leif had been. “Why keep the thing? Why risk your life?”
“It’s her choice.” Brenna defended her daughter, and her voice made clear that the discussion was over. “Sometimes, the only thing we have left is our choice.”
Brandt noticed that Brenna’s face drooped as she spoke. “What is it?” he asked her.
Brenna looked up at Lopt. “I know I will die when I use my magic to cure the plague.”
“What?” Brandt said frantically as he looked between the two of them.
“Did the Fate tell you?” Lopt asked.
“No. I figured it out on my own. I’m mortal, and the cure will destroy everything mortal. It only makes sense that would include me as well.”
“That can’t be right,” Brandt said. “You have magic and power within you. You’re the cure for the plague. It can’t harm you if you cure it.”
“She’s right,” Lopt said. “The Fate shared that knowledge with me. Erik knew of it too.”
“There must be something we can do.” Brandt looked around the fire at all of the powerful immortals and gods surrounding him. No one offered up any solutions.
“Then you cannot do it,” he said as he turned to Brenna. “You can’t cure the plague.”
“You know I have to,” Brenna said.
“No, you don’t have to do anything. We can find another place to go, somewhere the dark sorcery can’t reach.”
“The dark sorcery can reach every corner of the universe,” Cai said.
“You don’t know that!” Brandt screamed. “Brenna, please, you cannot go through with it. I cannot lose you; I won’t.”
Brynlee tore her eyes from the flames to watch the impassioned adults around her as they pleaded with each other for solutions out of a miserably hopeless situation.
Brenna looked at her lover and held Brandt’s face in her hands. “Listen to me,” she said. “Everyone we love is part of the immortal realms. Everything we have fought to protect is being threatened now. The plague is getting stronger, and the dark sorcery will not cease. If there is any chance that I can stop it, then I must.”
“I cannot live without you. I won’t let you do this.” Tears ran down Brandt’s face as his jaw trembled.
“Then help me find a way to survive it. When the Fate returns, we will figure all of this out together.” Brenna looked around at everyone. “We truly are all in this together now.” She smiled, hoping that it would rally everyone to her cause of defeating their common enemy.
Kemma reached for her mother’s hand and squeezed it tightly. “Together,” she said as she smiled.
As Leif lay with the Fate on his chest, they both looked up at the moon together, unaware of anything else. Her long hair tangled around both of their ankles, and he laughed gently about it.
“How do you even walk with this much hair at your feet?” he asked her as he tilted his head toward her face.
“It is not without difficulty,” she said, smiling. “But I was not permitted to cut it. It was said that secrets to the future grew from our heads, and therefore cutting our hair was forbidden.”
“And what about now?” he asked. “Now that you have given yourself to me and lost your virginity, do your wave of locks still hold those secrets?”
“No. I can see nothing anymore.”
Leif’s face turned serious for a moment. “Are you sorry we did it? Do you regret losing your gift as a seer now that it is gone from you forever?”
“No.”
He kissed her and brought her head to lay gently against his shoulder again.
“Norna,” she said quietly.
“What?”
“My name,” she said. “It is Norna.”
When they walked back to the fire, Leif was uncomfortable for a moment upon seeing Kemma there. But he quickly pulled himself out of it. She had made her choice, and it was not one he could live with, so he had made a different choice. He sat next to Norna, who sat across the fire from Brenna. Norna saw how Brenna’s daughter and mate pressed close to her, and she figured they now knew of Brenna’s fate in the prophecy.
“I am sorry I could not tell you before,” Norna said to Brenna.
“It’s okay, I understand. I was angry at first, but I realize now that sometimes we are bound by the things we must do, even when they are the things we don’t wish to do.”
“I am bound no longer,” Norna said. “So, there is more that I can now freely tell you which I could not reveal before.”
“What do you mean you’re bound no longer?” Erik asked as he looked between her and Leif. He noticed how she sat close enough to Leif that their thighs touched, and he thought there was a look about her that seemed wilder and more mussed than before.
“Are you no longer a Fate?” Erik asked her.
“No. My name is Norna.”
“Wait,” Matt interjected. He was confused about what had changed and how suddenly the mysterious girl was able to provide answers that hours ago she had withheld. “How can you suddenly stop being a Fate?”
“Leif fucked her for heaven’s sake,” Helia said as she rolled her eyes. She still was not the best at being a mentor and sometime forgot that Matt didn’t come with the same knowledge from an upbringing as most of the rest of them did in order to understand how the immortal world worked.
Kemma’s eyes shot up and stared at Leif through the fire. He stared back. They were both hurt, and he would not avert her gaze. Her eyes eventually dropped first when she realized that it was her choice, which had prompted Leif to act as he did.
“When a Fate loses her virginity, she loses her gift of fortunetelling. She is no longer a fate, just an immortal with no special magic.”
“Is this true?” Lopt asked Norna.
“Yes, it is. I can no longer see what is to come. But I can tell you something that was seen before my gift faded, something that might be of great use to you now.”
“What is it?” Brenna asked.
“Your death was fated as you were mortal.”
“I am mortal.”
“Yes, but you need not stay a mortal if you do not wish it. There is a way to grant you immortality. It is not just a free pass to avert death, though. There is a cost.”
“Why is there always a cost?” Leif muttered.
“Because that is the balance of things,” she answered gently.