The idea of picking up a bag from my apartment made me nervous. I half expected to see Calen waiting on me when I arrived, but there was no one. I packed a duffel in peace and called an Uber to the park since I didn't have a car. I had a license, but not a car. I could usually get where I need to go on a bike, but that wasn't exactly convenient with a big duffel, so I needed a better ride.

My plan was decently simple: get to the park as fast as possible, cross the Veil, and inform the Sylvan Council that I planned to take them up on their offer of sanctuary... but only if they didn't require me to use the Threads to their advantage. I refused to let anything or anyone force me to use my magic, and they'd just have to take that settlement.

It was that or worry I'd turn on them entirely, so to me, it sounded like a good deal.

I got out of the Uber and slung my bag over my shoulder, trying to walk quickly without moving at a pace that might alarm anyone.

A dizzying wave of déjà vu washed over me, and I walked faster, trying to outrun time itself. Panic reared its ugly head as I raced the clock, finally losing my composure and taking off at a run.

As predicted, though, I wasn't fast enough.

I was about halfway to the crossing point when I suddenly felt a sharp yank on my duffel bag from behind. Someone dragged me backwards, and I found myself falling, but I landed against a firm surface, my bag pushed to the side and arms around my waist.

"This has gotten out of hand, Sunday."

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

I didn't need to look behind me to know who was holding me. I could tell from the voice, from the smell, from the automatic, involuntary physical response that begged me to relax and give in, to just fall into the arms of someone I knew.

Yeah, I knew him, but I didn't want to do any falling.

"Let me go, you sick fucker!" I shouted, kicking out my legs to try to break away from Calen's grasp.

"You know, I really wasn't sure if you planned to align with the Sylvans or not, but one of my scouts did report the little prince passing through the Veil crossing earlier today," he said. "I thought you might be close behind."

"You tried to kill him!" I tried to yell as loudly as possible, hoping someone else would hear, but no one came running. The park was suspiciously empty, like Calen had a chance to plan this.

Or, perhaps, a chance to rewind it.

"An unfortunate misstep," he snapped. "My own fault. I got a little cocky with that one, and I didn't check to make sure he was dead. It's a pity, really. I'd been so careful the other times."

It occurred to me, somewhere in the back of my mind, that he didn't know I was the one who helped Dante. He didn't really understand how much I knew. He only thought I'd chosen the Sylvans over the witches.

But... What did he mean by "the other times?" When had he tried to—

Wait. Shit.

"You... tried to kill me, too." Sudden, horrifying realization crept up my spine.

All those attacks, all those times that I almost died... It was Calen. Well, it may not have been him actually throwing fireballs, but he'd orchestrated it all.

"I would never!" Calen snapped. "I needed you to trust me. I created situations for that to happen. If anything at all had happened to you, I would immediately rewind."

He did try to kill me.

It felt like the world was spinning around me, the sound of my own blood roaring in my ears as I struggled futilely against Calen's hold. I wasn't sure which way was up anymore, wasn't sure how my legs managed to hold my weight without collapsing.

"I have been looking for you a very, very long time," he practically purred. "Longer than you know. I pulled Time itself apart to make it to this moment. To make it to you."

I hated that I was right. For once, I didn't want to be.

"You're the Hourglass," I said flatly. "I did figure that out."

"Smarter than your predecessors, then," he scoffed.

I didn't know what to say to that.

"I've been chasing youthrough all of time, through every life you've lived, just waiting for thechance for us to finally be together," he continued. "Don't you see? This is our chance, Sunday!"

"Chance for what?!" I gasped, struggling anew against his hold. He had definitely killed at least one of my past incarnations when they were already together. "H— how old are you, anyways?"

"I've long since forgotten," he said, shrugging nonchalantly. "It doesn't matter, though. I am the Hourglass, and I will keep finding you in every single lifetime, my little Weaver. And we will cycle again and again till the end of time, remaking the world in our image."

Terror flooded all of my senses in a way that I'd never felt before. Things moved too fast and too slow as I thought about a bond with Calen over centuries. How long had he chased me through time?

The answer was clear, though: His magic was tied to mine. He chased me here all the way from the beginning.

"Why don't you just go back to the beginning, then, you ass?" I kicked out again, and this time my heel made contact with his shin. He groaned, but he didn't let go of me.

"Unfortunately for all of us, my power has limits, as does yours," he grumbled. "My power developed as a response to Ataraxia's abilities. I'm not sure if the Moon Goddess intended that result, but here we are. I was her lover, her other half. It only made sense that I developed the magical balance to her gift."

As he spoke, I tried to think of any weapons I had on me. My duffel bag was still slung across my chest by the strap, throwing me off balance, but if I shifted very carefully, I could get at the jackknife I'd taken from the safe house and stashed in my jeans pocket. I wondered briefly if this was what superheroes thought about when villains started monologuing, but I pushed the thought aside, slowly and carefully sliding my hand towards my pocket.

"At my strongest, I could rewind a full year, but it's a bit pointless the further back you go. Too many branches," Calen muttered, waving his hand. "It's much more useful to plan what you want and rewind in the moment. For example—"

Calen reached out and grabbed my wrist in a twisting, bruising grasp before I could even reach for my pocketknife. I cried out, my body contorting awkwardly to ease pressure on my poor wrist.

"Please don't stab me with that tiny blade. It's mostly annoying, and it just gets blood everywhere," he sighed.

I screamed, hoping that someone might hear me, but the park was strangely empty. I distantly wondered if Calen  managed to put wards around the area beforehand. If he could rewind time, he had infinite chances to set up the scene exactly how he wanted.

A cold feeling of dread settled in my chest as Calen spun me around, hauling me in so our chests were pressed together. I barely caught a glimpse of his face in the process, and his expression was somewhere between obsessed and murderous.

My heart beat wildly in my chest, and this time I knew it was from fear. There was no love or lust left in me for him. I needed to run.

"You are mine, Sunday Waters," he whispered, bending down so his lips were next to my ear. "You always have been, right from the beginning, and you always will be."

"I'm my own, but thanks for the offer," I snapped, bringing my knee up to ram into his testicles, but he anticipated that and swiped to the side, knocking me off balance so my duffel dragged me backwards. I fell on my ass in the dirt, wincing. It was a little late to slip out of the duffel strap, but I did it anyways.

"It's not so bad, I promise. Does it make you feel any better that I'm meant to be yours, too?" he asked, and for a moment, it genuinely sounded like he thought it was a peace offering.

It didn't make me feel better. I didn't like the idea of anyone belonging to anyone else, even in a romantic sense. It made me bristle in a strange way, like an animal in a cage, pushing at the bars until it killed itself in its attempts to escape.

It really made me bristle because Calen was a murderer, and probably a few things much worse than that. I didn't want to be tied to him in any way.

"You've been mine since you were Ataraxia," he continued. "And you'll be mine long, long after."

"You knew the whole time," I said through gritted teeth, slowly scrambling away from him. "You've been manipulating me this whole time!"

"I'm sorry, would you have taken it well had I walked up to you and immediately explained that we've been together across countless lives?"

That really, really wasn't the problem, but I didn't have time to explain that.

It dawned on me at that moment that we'd been together across countless lives not because our souls kept meeting over and over by chance. We'd been meeting because Calen intended it. He'd hunted me down across countless lives.

That wasn't a soul mate. That was an obsessive stalker.

"What do you even want?" I tried, eyes narrowing. He took a step towards me, and I took one back, maintaining the safe distance between us.

"I want to shape this world for us. I want to make it better," he said softly, almost pleadingly. "We can do that. You and I— the power between us is limitless. The changes we could make are infinite. The lives we could save are countless!"

I wanted to throw up.

This was exactly what the Fae court was afraid of. This was exactly what they wanted to know about me and my intentions. It was very clear in this moment that it wasn't me they needed to be afraid of, though.

"You want power," I said, voice shaking as I finally got to my feet. "That's all."

"Not true. I want you," he said, reaching out, but I took a step back.

"No. You want me to follow orders." I scowled, trying to subtly put distance between us. "Was it like this with Ataraxia, too? Did she realize she'd misplaced her love? Is that why—"

"Ataraxia lost her mind!" Calen roared. "She took all that power, all that magic, and instead of using it to its fullest potential, she chose to hoard it. Conceal it. Save it."

"Sh— she loved you!" I shouted. "Ataraxia loved you, and you murdered her!"

"Interesting," he said slowly. "Your soul mate visions seem to be coming along rather quickly."

"You killed her!" I cried, unable to keep the tears from slipping down my face. "You killed me!"

"Ataraxia would have ruined everything for us!" he snapped, taking my chin in one hand and forcing me to look up at him. "She would have taken my plans and dashed them into the dirt for the sake of her own false sense of free will."

"People deserve to have a hand in their own destinies!" I protested, struggling against the magical bonds. "We don't have the right to interfere with that!"

"There is no free will, Sunday," he scoffed. "There is only chaos and fate, and between the two of us, we can control them both."

Calen put his hand on the back of my head and pulled me towards him, forcing his lips on my mouth in an awful kiss. I opened my mouth and bit down hard, satisfied when he cried out and I tasted iron.

He let me go as he wiped the blood from his mouth, but I knew it was only temporary. Desperation rising in my chest, I called up my magic once more.

I hated that I could see the energy flowing through that braided thread. I hated that I could tell exactly what bound us, that I could see the connection right there, and that my will had nothing to do with it. I hated that I knew nothing about him. I hated that he wanted entirely different things than I did.

I hated the entire system that bound us together. I hated that I never felt, even once, that I had a chance to really choose. I hated all the dates I'd ditched, all the fantasies I'd ever had, all the things that made me think that the only person who would ever have me was Calen.

I didn't even want him.

My head swam with another round déjà vu, some kind of impulse that I'd done this a time or two before. I probably had. Calen was probably rewinding as many times as it took to get the situation to go his way.

"Don't try to run, pet. Please," he said, almost kindly. "I've done this before. I know every move you could make. This is a chess game that I will win."

Tears came to my eyes, and I let them fall, as frustrating as it was. Emotional release might bring me clarity, and the best thing for me right now was to let Calen think I was weak and broken. I let me shoulders slump, my voice broken as I spoke.

"Why the attacks on the Sylvans beyond the Veil?" I pressed, reaching out with my magical sixth sense. There had to be something there, something I could exploit, some line of defense he hadn't thought of. "Those were you, too, right?"

"What better way to prime a community for their new saviors to sweep in than to prove that the people leading them now can do absolutely nothing to protect them?" Calen offered.

It was an unfortunately sound and plausibly successful strategy... but only if I couldn't get there to warn them. Now that I knew what was happening, I just had to get out of here long enough to spoil his plans.

"Plus, it's given me the opportunity to get rid of some of the more annoying thorns in my side. All I had to do was loop things a few times before I was able to get through the barrier without any trouble at all."

"Why do you even want this? What the hell is the point, Calen?" I scream

"The point is that once we are in power, the Sylvans will never, ever have power over humans or witches again! All of them, every single one, will be gone!" he cried, expression contorting in rage.

My mouth dropped open. The surprise wasn't part of my plan. It was true, genuine shock at the cruelty.

"The Moon Goddess created the Veil so humans and Sylvans could live in peace," I spat, "not so you could commit genocide!"

Calen rushed towards me, grabbing onto my arm like he thought I would run, and I couldn't deny I'd been debating it. I had a better plan, though, if only I could calm myself enough to get a solid hold on the Threads.

I very, very rarely had used them to scry, but if I could focus enough, they might be able to show me a way out of this.

"You don't know. You don't remember," he growled. "Sylvans used to hunt humans for sport before the Moon Goddess created the Veil. It wasn't for them— the Veil was created to protect humans from them!"

"I've seen enough of that out of my own head, thanks. It's not that way any more—"

"It will be again if we don't do something to change it permanently!" At this point, Calen was yelling in my face, and I felt spit on my cheek. It was enough to stop my tears from sheer rage.

"We did. Ataraxia did!" I wasn't about to discredit all the work my past incarnations put into the process.

"Not enough," he hissed. "Please. You have to see, you have to understand. We can build a perfect world if we put our magic together. Infinite tries to change things, infinite chances to get it right—"

"It can't be infinite. You just said that it can't be infinite," I countered.

"My magic does have limits... imposed by your magic," he whispered, breath tickling my ear in a way that made me want to vomit. "Together, we are unstoppable."

As he spoke, my magic finally took hold on the Threads.

Pushing my consciousness through those lines of energy, I forced them to show me what was to come. I was looking for the immediate future, for a way out, for a solution to the problem, but I didn't get one.

Instead, I saw a vision of his future— our future.

I saw the two of us standing on the balcony of a massive, sparkling castle. At first I couldn't tell where or what it was, but eventually I recognized it as the vision came into focus.

It was the Sylvan Court, and we stood on the balcony. Both of us wore entirely black, including pointed, black witch hats. Both of us looked... terrifying. I didn't see the future from my own eyes, but from a distance, and I could tell that my face was entirely devoid of any emotion. Calen held my hand, looking out over a place that I could no longer recognize as Sylvan land.

It looked as though all the magic had been drained from the earth itself, all concentrated on the palace instead... on us.

He didn't want to save witches. He didn't care about humans. All he wanted was power, all he wanted was to have the entire world at his fingertips, all he wanted was to have the ability to control everything... and he wanted to use my power to do it.

I saw myself seduced by the prospect of a guaranteed love, given over to something that I never wanted to be just because I'd chosen to believe in the guarantee of a soul mate bond. I saw all the life and care drained from my eyes, and all the dreams I'd ever had thrown out the window for the sake of Calen.

I saw the very bond he wanted so badly twisted beyond love, beyond obsession, into an all-consuming passion that eradicated everything in its path. It cared for no one else. It destroyed anything in the way. It let the world crumble at its feet for the sake of power and greed and narcissism, and it justified every action by calling it love. By calling it a soul mate.

"All you need to do is submit to our future together. I'll take care of you. You know I will," he crooned, and the feeling of his hands on my waist was almost gentle.

It was repulsive.

I didn't want that future for myself. I didn't want that future for anyone. My heart was pounding in my chest as my knees tried to give out. Calen caught me, supporting my weight in a way that just made more bile rise in my throat. The pull towards him was intoxicating, like an instinct I couldn't fight against for long, no matter how much I panicked inside my mind.

The thought crossed my mind that I might pass out soon, that my wine might have been drugged after all, that I couldn't mentally take the shock of the moment. So, in a last burst of adrenaline, I did the only thing that I could think of that he might not have anticipated.

I grabbed the braided Thread that ran between us, and I pulled.

It hurt. God, it hurt. It felt like a spear through my chest, stealing my breath and stopping my heart. My knees buckled under me as the shimmering, crystalline line of energy went taut between my hands, but I kept pulling. The energy resisted me, the buildup already stronger than any fate I had determined I ever wanted to try to alter again.

Rule Two: The bigger the change, the higher the price.

I didn't care.

I would pay the price. I would pay it a hundred times over to keep that future from happening. I would not watch the rest of the world burn because of a predetermined bond that I had no say in. I would take my fate in my own hands, and damn the consequences.

Tearing apart a Thread that hefty was a job, and it was tiring, but I didn't stop. It was like the whole world slowed down as I worked, like trying to move through tar as it solidified, but I kept going.

One by one, the Threads started to fray. It was a slow process, or at least it felt slow. It also required a lot of energy, more magic than I'd ever used at one time, but finally the strands began to give way. Once I made enough progress, they started to unravel by themselves, recoiling and moving away as though they were repelled by magnets on opposite poles.

And then the Threads snapped, and then they were just gone.

In their place, there was only pain.

Time sped back up again, and I wasn't quite sure how long it had taken me, but Calen had let go of me. I'd fallen to the ground and hadn't even noticed. My elbow and forearm stung where I hit the ground, and my head, too. That was a drop in the bucket compared to the full body burning I felt, though, centering on my chest.

It centered on my heart.

Calen's eyes went wide as he roared in agony, clutching at his chest. I could barely see him as my vision swam, but I could tell he was struggling as much as I was.

"Wh— what have you done?" he gasped. "Wha—" he cut off again as he screamed, falling to his knees as I had.

"Check mate," I gasped, forcing myself to my feet.

My legs were numb, but I had to run—

And I was down again, crashing on top of my duffel bag in a blessed coincidence that kept me from injuring myself more. Calen couldn't get up, either, it seemed. I was fading quickly, but I couldn't just stay here. If there were witches from the Collective nearby, they'd just come and pick up both our unconscious bodies.

I had to get out. It would be helpful if I had a teleportation spell, but those were niche and hard to cast... though I might be able to improvise it if I could call up the Threads again.

They weren't as solid as before when I focused, flickering in and out of my vision, and it felt like my head was splitting open when I reached out. This one was a damn stretch, but I had to give it a try. It might be my only option.

I wanted to scream as I searched for the Thread I needed. For this to work, if it even had a chance to work, I needed a relevant Thread. I needed the one that connected me to Dante— and there it was!

... I thought so, anyways. It was hard to tell when it felt like my skin was burning and Calen was screaming, and finally I could hear approaching footsteps and yelling from somewhere. It was now or never.

Vision blurring, I wrapped the Thread around my wrist, yanking on it as hard as I could.

"Amici badisso festinater," I mumbled.

Oh, fuck, that was a bad idea.

The world absolutely blurred around me. It felt like I was pulled by the wrist through space and time, and I probably was. My only idea at the moment was to MacGyver a teleportation spell using only the Threads and some hastily conjugated Latin, and to be fair, it wasn't a bad idea... but it did increase the already overwhelming pain.

As soon as the world stopped blurring around me, I collapsed to the ground. I wasn't really sure where I was, but I didn't care, and it didn't matter. I was losing consciousness.

I could only hope that I was hidden well enough that when I woke, it wouldn't be back in Calen's clutches.