Velli

Okay, think. We have a decent list of enemies. Most of what we do is secret, though, so our enemies don’t know. Yes, and they chose to attack Dream’s house. That means they aren’t afraid of Dream’s sister, Rose. Who in Division’s Hand could we have made mad that isn’t afraid of Rose? Okay, one of the World-Conquering Cliques? The Twenty-Eight, the Family, the Nephilim, the Brood, and there’s more. That makes this challenging. The powers of the World-Conquering Cliques are vast. Any one of those cliques could make this house turn to rubble in seconds. But to make that move against Rose? That’s the start of a war.

Well, we all know a war is coming, whether we like it or not. The Heirs’ reign is ending.

Okay, so this could be a political hit? She’s the little sister of a soon-to-be Heir. That’s attacking royalty. A message? Then why is Anne here? What is she about to do? And her kid? No, the kid’s the key!

“I don’t think you’re a good person. I just think you’re lucky,” Anne accuses Dream for a reason I can’t decipher yet.

“I am not a good person,” Dream says and surprises the whole room. I glance at her. Does she mean it?

Anne’s jaw wiggles.

Dream stutters another reply. “I-I-I try. I’m really trying.”

“Do you know my Curse?” Anne tugs on the beast’s chain twice.

The moose knows something is coming. Its blue cheeks puff up with glee, and its drooping red Adam’s apple quavers. Above me, the webs stretch downward, close to tearing. The weight of the eggs is too much. They now look like stretched, melted marshmallows filled with living specks of pus. I can already feel spiders crawling on my skin.

Dream takes a step closer to Anne. “Yes!” she stammers. “Yes, Fear Walk, right? If someone makes you scared enough, you have to obey them. It’s like your body’s on strings.”

Anne swallows hard and nods. “I couldn’t find the coin in time. Yeah, that’s my fault. I get it!” She yells the last sentence like we were arguing with her. “It’s my fault I couldn’t stop them. But does that mean they have to take everything?” She’s screeching now. “He made me kill my husband! He could have killed Davie, and he made me do it! My hands were covered in Davie’s blood, then I had to hand my baby to him. He didn’t have to do that.” Her voice drops off, raspy again. “He could have at least killed Davie then killed me if they wanted my baby. Why is it fair that because I made one mistake, they could take everything from me? Your sister is a god, right? So you’re a god, right? If you were me, would you be okay with having everything just taken from you? Your own child?”

“I-I-I don’t know what I’d do.”

Anne smiles chillingly. “Me either. I’m screwed either way, right?”

Screwed either way? She’s just like you, Velli! Listen closely. I think I know how this will end.

A piece of Dream’s ceiling falls in front of me.

Every word Anne spits causes her to shake. “If I work hard and do the right thing, someone will just take everything from me, and if I do the unspeakable to get ahead, I couldn’t live with myself.” Still smiling, she stares at her beast. It doesn’t notice her. One of its pencil-sketched eyes is on me, the other on Dream.

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Wait, if she’s just like me, I understand. I see exactly what she’s saying. She’s not strong enough to go get her baby back. She doesn’t even know how. Perhaps she could bargain to get him back in more nefarious ways, i.e., kidnapping someone like Dream and hoping for a trade. However, she couldn’t live with herself if she did that, and she can’t live with herself for letting her baby go. Perpetual misery.

She’s not here to hurt me or Dream. She’s here to end her life. She wants to go out in a blaze of agony before she dies, to be seen and understood before she’s wiped from existence. Anne has a desperation to be remembered. Her final act of kindness is for her death to be burned into Dream’s eyes so Dream will remember her name and understand people like her. I get it. I’ve been there. I still might be there. Where life is so bad, death is the logical medicine.

Anne tosses the coin in the air and sticks her hand out so it will land on her palm. Dream, still in shock, stares. Dream’s clever, but she’s not me. Dream’s too naive to understand the gravity of the situation. She won’t blame me for my inaction. A sick smile forms on the beast’s face. Anne drops the beast’s leash. With a callous heart and a mind evolved for safety, it’s easy to watch the coin land on her while I do nothing. As the creature Anne brought devours her, I won’t flinch. I’ve seen worse this month. I can’t interrupt her attempt to end her life and risk my own. I have my mom and Dream to keep safe, and nothing matters more than them.

That’s all a lie not even I believe. Leaping, reaching, and screaming at the same time, I dive for the coin, knocking Dream out of the way. I refuse to let anyone to die this miserably. I refuse to allow anyone to die feeling how I feel. I reach the coin and smack it toward the TV.

The shot of Michael Corleone switches to Apollonia right before the coin smacks the TV. And that’s all I have time to see. Every white egg bursts, and thousands of spiders crawl over us. Tiny feet run over every inch of my skin, an ocean of spiders. My shoes aren’t safe. My pants are invaded. I blink them out of my eyeballs. I shut my mouth and still find one walking across my tongue. One crawls in and out of my nose on the way to its target. Every one of the spiders attacks the TV. Maybe a million holes form in the thing. The beast charges into the well-defeated TV. Glass, wires, metal, he eats it all, tearing it apart with claws and a fang-filled mouth. It’s like watching an artist of predatory skill at work.

It finishes slurping up an electric wire and leaves, twisting the doorknob and shutting the door behind him. The spiders go belly up and die.

Anne sits on the floor. Dream joins her. Anne’s in tears. Dream, ever the empath, cries as she hugs Anne. I stand above them both, and before I speak, I ask myself, Who would kidnap a child? I go through my memory to find the most depraved in all five fingers of Division’s Hand. My answer arrives with an unfortunate finality.

“Anne,” I say, careful to keep my emotions out of it. “Mogvaz Main took your baby?”

Anne looks up at me with red eyes. She nods, this time not breaking eye contact. Her pupils swim in a pool of desperation to hear the next words.

“I know where he is tonight, and your baby is fine,” I tell her.

“You do? How could you? He could…? Why’d he take him?”

“Pure cruelty. That’s it. Don’t worry. We’ll go get him back right now.” That’s a lie. The real reason would add another layer of misery to her life. I refuse to let anyone living feel as dismal as I do.

I know for a fact that Mogvaz Main is at the Conference of Desires. I do not know the current state of the baby. I only know Mogvaz Main has him. However, I do know she’s right. Because we have Weaknesses, we can lose everything we love, and we can do nothing about it. I won’t let the same happen to me. You’re getting your wish, Fate. I will be purchasing powers tonight at the Conference of Desires, and once I have my powers, I’ll make a whole new world. The kind where a woman like Anne Graves would never fall victim to having her baby snatched.

Fate does not speak. Perhaps he grins inside my head.

It is odd, though. That a woman would burst into the house I’m in and give me an excuse to go to the exact spot where I need to go, and this time, with Dream’s help. What are the chances? It’s eerie. It feels like an invisible hand is pushing me somewhere important, to a feast where I’m unsure if my role will be in a seat to dine or on a plate to be dined on.