Hecate had been defeated, her army of demons was dead or in hiding, and her allies were gone. Ambrose was at a meeting, so Talbot and I spent the morning cleaning up Eternity Road. The store was a mess. Tria Prima symbols were sprayed all over the outside of the building, the windows were shattered, and most of the stock was gone. They’d emptied the cash register, but left it. It was probably too heavy to move.
Harvey the bear still stood in the corner. He was bedraggled and smelled like wet bear, but was otherwise untouched.
“The store wouldn’t be the same without Harvey,” I said. I took a hair dryer and brush to the bear’s fur. “Much better.”
Talbot handed me a pointy wizard hat embellished with stars.
I put it on Harvey and then stepped back to survey my handiwork.
Talbot looked around the store. “Almost like it never happened.”
“Almost,” I replied. I looked at my watch. “I’m sorry, but I have to go. I’m late for the meeting.”
I pulled up in front of Hell’s Belles, which sported a fresh coat of paint and new windows. Bernie had reopened for breakfast the day after Hecate was defeated.
Since Parsi Enterprise’s assets consisted of a destroyed corporate office and Hell’s Belles, we held our first corporate meeting in my favorite booth at the restaurant.
I was late for lunch. My family was already huddled in a booth. Naomi had an untouched salad in front of her, Rebecca sipped her tea contemplatively, and Claire doodled something in the Book of Fates.
Naomi scooted over to make room for me in the booth. Bernie slid a pot of coffee in front of me. I poured a cup and chugged it, ignoring how it scalded my throat on the way down.
“How’s it going, Bernie?” I asked.
“Better, son of Fortuna,” she replied. “Much better.” There was almost a smile in her sad basset hound eyes.
“Rough night?” Rebecca asked.
“The roughest,” I replied. “I watched a chick flick with Talbot and Naomi.”
“What happened with Wren?” Naomi asked. “Did you let her go?” I hadn’t had time to tell her what I’d done before we’d been attacked.
I shook my head.
“But I didn’t cut her thread,” Naomi said.
“You didn’t have to.” I hadn’t even thought of that possibility. I was doubly glad I’d let Wren live.
“So she’s alive?” Claire asked. I gave her a sharp look. She and Wren had spent months together in the underworld, but she seemed disappointed that Wren wasn’t dead.
“It’s done,” I said. “She won’t bother us anymore.” At least I hoped not. Sometimes, even kindness had a cost.
My sister gave me a round of applause, but Naomi wiped away a tear. “I know it had to happen,” she said. “There’s no chance she’ll break free?”
I shook my head. Wren was alive but frozen. Hecate was dead. There was no one left who would free her, not even her own sister, especially if I didn’t tell Naomi where she was.
“What now?” Claire asked.
We’d been so busy fighting for our lives that none of us had given any thought to the future. Probably because we didn’t think there would be one.
“It can’t be like before,” I burst out. “The Fates thought they knew better.”
“It won’t be,” Naomi promised. “We’ll make sure of it.”
“We need to figure out if the job of Atropos can be reassigned,” I said firmly.
“I’ll do it,” Rebecca said.
Everyone stared at her.
“I’m the daughter of Hades, after all,” she said. “And Johnny said he’d help me.”
“You’d do that for me?” Naomi asked. Her eyes filled with tears.
“Don’t get all teary-eyed,” Rebecca replied. “We haven’t even figured out how to make it happen. Or if it can happen.”
“It’ll happen,” I said. “We’ll make sure of it.”
“Promise me one thing,” Naomi said gravely.
“What?”
“That we’ll do better than they did.”
“We can try,” Claire said.
“We can succeed,” Rebecca corrected her.
“When I first came to Minneapolis, I was alone.” My mother’s face came to my mind, but instead of the image of her as she lay dying, I saw a picture of her smiling and at peace.
“And now?”
“Now I have a family,” I said. “I am truly fortunate. Together, we can change the way the Fates operate.”
We sat at the booth and made new rules. After all, we were a new generation of Fates. It was time to do things differently. It was time to do it our way.