“Then you should marry him.” Paradise laughed. “He’d probably be much happier with you than he’d be with me. Marcello only thinks he could handle me. I believe he wants to tame me, like a caged tiger at a circus, so he can show off to his friends.”
“That sounds sort of like what you’re trying to do with Gavriel,” mused Minerva.
“No, I like Gavriel outside of his cage, and I don’t have any friends to show off to, except for you, Minerva.”
Minerva muttered something too low for Scarlett to hear before slipping back into the door she’d been about to go through as Paradise had entered. A moment later she reappeared with a creation in her hands that was far too extravagant to be called a gown. It was a riot of cream and black and rose and pink with splashes of flowers and lace and stray gold leaf. Long sleeves attached to a decorative bodice that was fitted through the hips, until the skirt flared out in ruffled tiers that ended in a train of gold and rose flowers with lacy black leaves.
It didn’t look like Scarlett’s idea of love, but she could see how it could have been her mother’s, and Gavriel’s.
Paradise gasped. “It’s sublime.”
“Each of these layers can be easily removed with a quick tug, if you need to run.”
“Or if I want to have some fun with Gavriel,” chimed Paradise.
The twirling girl turned red as berries, the lady with the ribbons broke out in a laugh, but Minerva didn’t crack a smile. She looked as wary as Scarlett was feeling.
Scarlett knew her mother went on to marry Marcello Dragna, not Gavriel. But the entire exchange still left Scarlett with a deep, heavy feeling of dread as the conversation between the women ended. The ill feeling remained with Scarlett as she followed Paradise from the dress shop back into another icy alley.
Scarlett had no love for Marcello, but as much as Scarlett hated him, if Paradise never married him, then Tella would never be born. Scarlett quickened her steps as her mother disappeared around the corner.
Scarlett knew she wasn’t supposed to interfere. The Assassin had warned her not to change—
Her back slammed against a brick wall of a dead-end street, as Paradise placed a knife to Scarlett’s throat.
She fought to take a ragged breath. Seeing Paradise like this was like peering in a threatening mirror. This was the mother Scarlett had originally expected to meet. But she couldn’t feel triumphant about it; if this encounter went the wrong way it could destroy the entire future Scarlett knew, or end Scarlett’s life.
“What’s a pretty little girl like you doing following—” Paradise cut off abruptly. She must have seen the resemblance as well, though her response was to hold the blade closer to Scarlett’s throat.
“Who are you? Why are you trying to look like me?” She spoke even faster than she had in the shop. “Tell me in the next ten seconds or I’ll slit your throat and walk away before your body hits the snow. One. Two. Three.”
“I’m not here to hurt you,” Scarlett said.
“Not the right answer.” Paradise flashed a vicious grin. “Four. Five.”
“I’m here because your family is in danger.”
“Don’t have a family,” she sang. “Seven. Eight.”
“Yes, you do, in the future.”
Paradise didn’t even bother to respond to this claim. “Nine.”
“You have a daughter,” Scarlett said. “You’re pregnant with her right now!”
Paradise stopped counting.
“How did you know that? I’ve only told one person that, and he wouldn’t say a word.” Her eyes narrowed on Scarlett and then went wide. “Where did you get those earrings?” She dropped the box she’d been holding and touched her own ears, where a matching pair of jeweled baubles rested.
“They were from you,” Scarlett said. “You told me my father gave them to you because scarlet was your favorite color. It’s also what you named me.”
Paradise stumbled back, but continued to hold out the knife. Gray mist swirled around her; she was confused but no longer feeling hostile, though on the outside she kept her expression severe.
“You also change your name to Paloma,” Scarlett said. “You leave this identity and turn into something close to a legend.”
This made a hint of her grin return, but it didn’t meet her eyes the way Scarlett’s grins always did. “All right, say I do believe you, why are you here?”
To save the world. To stop a monster. To see you. “I’m only here to steal a dress.”
Paradise laughed, softening a little more. “Then you’re a terrible thief. I must not have raised you very well.”
Scarlett was tempted to tell her the truth, to tell Paradise that she’d been a dreadful mother, that she’d left when her daughters had needed her most and she hadn’t come back. But Paradise wasn’t that woman yet, and Scarlett wondered if maybe she’d never actually been that woman.
Somewhere along the way Scarlett had come to believe her mother didn’t love her, or really love anyone. If she’d loved her daughters she wouldn’t have left them or hurt them—people didn’t hurt the ones they loved. But until Scarlett had appeared, her mother had been bursting with love. She’d been full of so much love she was going to ask a man to marry her. But she didn’t. In Scarlett’s world she went on to betray him instead, and Scarlett wondered if Paradise did all of this because Paradise loved her.
Even now Scarlett could see the love taking over Paradise’s emotions as her eyes continued to dart from her earrings to Scarlett’s face. In this timeline they’d only just met, but Paradise was already choosing to love Scarlett.
Scarlett could scarcely comprehend it. Whenever she loved, she loved fiercely, but it never came this easily, and she wouldn’t have expected it to come so effortlessly to Paradise.
Clearly, Scarlett had never really known her mother. But there were a few things she did know about her.
“You were the best mother you could be,” Scarlett said. “You sacrificed everything for my sister and me.”
“You have a sister?” Paradise’s entire face lit up, making her look even more magnetic, and Scarlett wished Tella could have seen how happy their mother was to hear she was having a second daughter. “I can’t wait to tell your father about this.”
“No! You can’t tell him. Whatever you do, don’t tell him.” Again, Scarlett almost left it at that. The Assassin had warned her not to interfere with the past, but maybe Scarlett had been part of the past all along. Maybe she wasn’t just here to steal a dress, or to see a mother she’d never understood. Maybe Scarlett was here to help make sure her mother made some of those choices Scarlett had never understood. Because she understood them now.
If Paradise married Gavriel and raised Scarlett with him, the future would change—Tella would never be born, and there was a good chance that all the Fates would be freed from the cards very soon.
“Gavriel is not what you think he is,” Scarlett said.
Paradise took a harsh step back, some of the sharp edges returning to her expression.
But Scarlett didn’t stop; either she was wrong and she’d already changed the future irreparably, or she was right and she needed to press forward, to stop her mother from making an irreversible mistake.
“I don’t know how much I’m supposed to tell you, or if I’m supposed to be saying any of this. But you don’t marry Gavriel. He’s not the father of your second child. Gavriel is a Fate. He’s the Fallen Star and he was trapped inside the Deck of Destiny that you stole from Empress Elantine. He wants to find the deck again so he can free all the Fates and take over the empire. You stop him from doing this—you trap him in a card again. But then you still have to hide, because his church—the Church of the Fallen Star—comes after you for running with the cards. So you marry Marcello Dragna and go away with him.”
Paradise laughed, but it held none of the amusement of her earlier laugh. “No, I would never marry Marcello.”
“But you do,” Scarlett said. And it struck her that
out of all the impossible things she’d just shared, this was the one Paradise remarked on. It made Scarlett wonder if deep down her mother was already aware of Gavriel’s true goals and identity.
Scarlett tried to read her mother’s colors. There were competing emotions warring each other, but Scarlett could see that Paradise was in love and uncertain, and despite her calm exterior, she was terrified of what Scarlett had just said.
“I’m sorry,” Scarlett said.
“Why are you apologizing?”
“Because I know you love him.”
“Criminals don’t love.”
“If that were true, I don’t think I would be here. But I am. I’m here because you did whatever it took to take care of me—the daughter you’re pregnant with right now. That’s part of what makes you so remarkable. You leave Valenda, but people still tell stories about you. Even Empress Elantine talked about you before she died. She told my sister that when you loved, you did it as fiercely as you lived. You were willing to do whatever it took to protect the ones you love, even if it hurt you or them in the process.”
And Scarlett realized then—she was the exact same. Everything she’d just said would cause Paradise and Tella and herself a world of pain. But if Paradise took a different course, then the future would change; everything Scarlett cared about might be lost and the Fallen Star might never be defeated.
Paradise was shaking her head, as if she could clear her muddled emotions. “And I thought you were just here to steal a dress.”
“Like you said, I’m not a very good thief.”
“I might have been wrong.” Paradise reached down, picked up her box from the dress shop, and held it out to Scarlett. “Take it, you earned it with your story.”
“Does this mean you believe me?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t think I’ll be getting engaged tonight,” Paradise said, careless and flippant. She sounded a lot like Tella when Tella was pretending not to feel.
“I’m sorry,” Scarlett said.
“You don’t need to keep apologizing. But there is one thing you could do for me.” Paradise gave Scarlett a trembling smile. “Put the dress on. I didn’t get to try it on today, and I want to know if it would have looked as fabulous as I’m imagining. I’ll watch the other alley to make sure no one unwanted pops in.”
Paradise darted around the corner.
Scarlett wanted to protest; she didn’t feel like stripping in a frozen alley once again. But after all she’d told Paradise, this was the least Scarlett could do for her. It was the last thing her mother would ever ask of her. And it turned out to be the last thing her mother would ever say to her, as well.
When Scarlett finished dressing and turned the corner, Paradise was gone.
Scarlett picked up the bottom of her new dress and ran to the end of the alley, hoping to catch her mother. She looked up and down the street at all the people in their bright coats walking through the falling snow. If Paradise was among them, Scarlett didn’t see her. All she found was a broken lamppost and a dropped knife.
Her mother had left again. Scarlett couldn’t be surprised, and she didn’t let herself feel hurt, not this time. Paradise might have been her mother, but she was also just a pregnant girl who’d been told she’d have to make a terrible choice. Scarlett couldn’t blame her for running, and maybe Scarlett shouldn’t have blamed her so much before. Scarlett loved Tella and Julian despite their imperfections; it was time to start loving her mother the same way.
And when the Assassin appeared an instant later, Scarlett imagined that this was how it was meant to be all along, and that her mother really had done the best she could. She might have run away from Scarlett just now, but Scarlett believed that when she went back to the future, she’d find things unchanged.
“Did you do what you needed to do?” he asked.
“Almost.” Scarlett picked up the knife her mother had dropped. It was a white dagger with a star-shaped stone in the hilt. Scarlett wondered if it had been a gift from Gavriel as she used the knife to cut off her silver streak of hair. Months ago, that little streak had felt like such a great cost to Scarlett, but it was nothing compared to what her mother had sacrificed. “I’m ready now.”
As soon as she said it, the Assassin took her hand and then they both were standing in the candlelit court of the Fallen Star.
56
Scarlett
Tella had always been more dramatic than Scarlett. As a young girl, she’d played at being a mermaid, a pirate, and an assassin while Scarlett had just tried to make sure Tella was safe. Scarlett was not an actress. But it was time for her to put on the performance of her life. She needed to become Paradise the Lost, or she might not survive the night.
Scarlett schooled her features into the edged expression her mother had worn when she’d pulled the knife on Scarlett. Then she struggled against the Assassin’s grip as he roughly dragged her past Jester Mad’s forsaken stage, tables of half-eaten food, and goblets left abandoned on the floor. The party was over, but perhaps Poison had turned all the maids to stone, because the mess remained.
The Fallen Star leaned back in his bloody throne, playing with the flames at the tips of his fingers while drops of red trickled over his shoulders, as if he’d already grown bored with his kingdom.
The humans were gone, but a few Fates remained.
Scarlett saw Jacks, lingering near the foot of the throne and chatting with Poison as if they were old friends. But she forced herself to not pay close attention to Jacks or her sister. Scarlett was pretending to be Paradise, and young Paradise wouldn’t have known who Tella was or been concerned about the adoring way she gazed at Jacks. At a glance her emotions appeared to be a blissful shade of pink, but every few seconds they flickered with rotted hints of brownish-yellow, as if they were infected; she’d sacrificed too much. Tella didn’t even appear to notice Scarlett’s entrance, or Legend—who was trapped in an iron cage to the left of the throne.
Legend’s grim cage was so much smaller and harsher than Anissa’s, with a mockery of a swing that was covered in spikes. He looked miserable and weak and he couldn’t tear his eyes from Tella’s dreamy face. He appeared to be shouting to her, but there must have been an enchantment on his prison, like the one on Anissa’s cage that dimmed her powers, because Scarlett didn’t see any illusions, and his voice did not break through.
“You might want to fight even more,” the Assassin whispered.
They were almost at the throne.
Scarlett ripped herself free from the Assassin’s grip. “Let me go!” She brandished the white dagger that Paloma had dropped.
The Fallen Star finally saw her. His gaze went from the hooded Assassin to Scarlett, golden eyes widening as they caught on her dress—the dress he’d bought for Paradise—with its splashes of cream and black and rose and pink and flowers and lace and stray gold leaf. The flames at his fingertips died. The blood from the throne stopped flowing and for a moment the chamber was entirely silent.
“What have you done,” he breathed. His eyes left Scarlett’s to narrow on the Assassin. But Scarlett couldn’t tell for certain if he was upset because he believed that she was actually Paradise, or he thought that she was Scarlett.
“I took her from the past for you.” The Assassin shoved Scarlett forward with the flat of his hand.
Paradise wouldn’t have stumbled, so neither did Scarlett. She took a firm step, then she cringed and made a look of disgust. Paradise shopped in the Satine District and liked pretty things. She might have been a criminal, but she would have been revolted by the bleeding throne Gavriel sat upon.
“Why are you sitting on that thing? And who are these people?” She spoke with the same rapid tone her mother had used, and wrinkled her nose as she made a show of looking around, but she didn’t allow herself to appear too bewildered. Paradise hid her true emotions. “What’s going on here, Gavriel?”
The Fallen Star held her gaze, his golden eyes flickering like match-flames on the v
erge of starting a wildfire. As if he was seeing a ghost. The lie was working; he believed she was Paradise. But he didn’t appear to be in love with her.
He addressed the Assassin through gritted teeth as turbulent emotions writhed around him. “Please explain to me why you’ve brought her here.” The knuckles gripping the throne turned white as he said the word her. “Last I heard, you wanted nothing to do with me.”
“I changed my mind, but I doubted you’d be satisfied,” the Assassin answered roughly. “So I brought her as a gift.”
“I am no one’s gift!”
The Assassin ignored her, grabbing her arm again and shoving her closer to the throne.
“Let her go!” Gavriel thundered.
The Assassin dropped her arm. “She’s pregnant with your daughter. I know you’ve had difficulties with the child. I thought you could fix it, if you raised her yourself.”
“What—” Scarlett sputtered. “How does he know this? I haven’t told anyone I’m pregnant except for you.” Scarlett held the Fallen Star’s eyes again, trying to remember the way her mother had looked when she’d talked about him in the dress shop. But mimicking a look of love wasn’t going to be enough to make him love her. And just then she was less worried about him loving her, and more concerned he might do something rash, like kill everyone in the throne room. The fire still hadn’t gone out of his eyes.
“All of you, get out!” he ordered, and every Fate obeyed. Poison glided to the nearest door. The Assassin bowed and turned. Her Handmaidens, who Scarlett hadn’t even realized were still there, evaporated like smoke. Jacks, who was closest to the throne, began leading Tella by the elbow, but Tella stopped as they neared Scarlett. Her face snapped toward her sister and her hazel eyes regained their focus, as if she’d been suddenly yanked out of a dream.
“Wait—” Tella tugged at Jacks’s arm. “That’s my mother. She’s alive—”
“Get her out of here!” the Fallen Star bellowed. His throne burst into flames, filling the room with heat.
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