The Windhaven Witches Omnibus Edition : Complete Paranormal Suspense Series, Books 1-4 by Carissa Andrews (graded readers txt) 📕

little to him because he knows what the rest of eternity looks like, I can’t imagine a time when he’d consider just…opting out.

“Yeah, but you should want to protect this chance. Don’t you think? Not waste it?”

“It’s a lot easier to put things into perspective when you know one lifetime is all you get.” He flashes me a quick smile and leans back. “I mean, I know most people believe that, or at least worry about it, but they’re so disillusioned. They don’t think in terms of a whole lifetime anyway. They just see what’s happening right now. When things go wrong, they think it’s the end of everything.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like, when they can’t afford something, or they lose a job…”

“Or a girl,” I add, shooting him a pointed glance.

He ignores me and continues. “But for me… I don’t care about all the stupid stuff—money or jobs…” He catches my eye and holds it for a beat. “…Or rules.”

I narrow my gaze, but I can’t think of anything to say to that. There’s a certain amount of sense hidden in those words and I could feel them taking seed in the back of my mind, if I’m not careful.

“Sometimes rules keep us safe,” I say breathlessly.

“Not when they don’t make sense,” he responds. “That’s when I make my own rules.”

“And on that note…” My gaze floats to my laptop and I tap the top of it with my fingertips. “We should really get this assignment done.”

“All right,” he says, smirking slightly. “Let’s bring on the Fates, then. Maybe they’ll back me up here.”

With the tip of my head, I lift open my laptop and pull my notebook out of my backpack. This afternoon’s conversation has my mind spinning in a thousand directions, and none of them are focused on this research project.

Wade stands up, pulling his chair over to my side and setting it down inches from mine.

I shoot him a look of surprise, but he sits down, holding his hands up innocently. “I need to see the screen, too. No laptop over here.”

Nodding softly, I turn back to the laptop and type ‘the fates’ into Google. It brings us to a page on the Moirai. For some reason, this name rings a bell, but I can’t quite put my finger on why. I’m fairly certain I’ve never heard the name before and we didn’t even get this far when Wade had come over.

I lean forward and scan the result. “It says here they control the thread of life for every mortal from birth to death. One sister is the ‘spinner,’ another the ‘allotter,’ and the last is the ‘inevitable.’ I suppose that means death?” I say, chancing a sideways glance. Wade’s close proximity makes my pulse race and his scent does absolutely nothing to clear my head. If anything, it cracks my resolve and makes me question what in the hell I’m thinking.

“Well, it might mean the one who calls upon death, but she wouldn’t be death itself. We know that already,” he says with a tip of his chin.

“Good point,” I nod, turning back to the screen. “Ah, it says here she merely chooses the manner of a person’s death and the time frame it happens in.”

Wade tips his head, reading. “So, while the other sisters create and maintain the thread of life, this last one—Aisa—she cuts the string with some sort of magical shears.” He leans back a bit, his eyebrows furrowed.

“I know that look. What is it?” I ask.

“I dunno. It just kinda seems a bit ludicrous, doesn’t it? I mean, who writes these things? A thread? Shears?” He chuckles. “It’s like someone asked a kid to explain the ways of the universe and then just wrote down what they said.”

“I take it this doesn’t jibe with what you know?”

“Not exactly. But then, who am I? Sure, I have access to this school for now, but I won’t unlock any of my family’s gifts until much later. So everything I know could be bunk. But this…it sounds like a fairy tale gone wrong. Don’t you think?” he asks, meeting my gaze. “I mean, if it were really that simple, why hasn’t someone tracked down the Moirai and stolen those damn shears? Hypothetically, it could mean they’d live forever, right?”

“Well, maybe it has nothing to do with the shears per se, but more about the entity wielding them? For all you know, any shears she holds becomes magical,” I say, playing devil’s advocate. “Heck, maybe she could even bite the damn thread and it would end a life? As long as the cord is cut, that’s the end of that, so to speak.”

Wade shrugs. “A fair point.”

“You don’t look convinced?” I say, lowering my eyebrows.

“It’s not that.”

“What then?” I ask.

“It seems like an awful lot of fuss for each mortal life. You know? Three larger-than-life entities, all working to balance the lifespans of humans. I mean, as the population grows, so do the number of Angels of Death, for example. How in the hell could three sisters manage all of that?” Wade says, scrunching his face.

I shake my head. “Don’t look at me. Until last year, the strangest things on my mind revolved around whether or not forensic scientists could really figure out a death by blood spatter.”

Wade snickers. “Yeah, things have gotten significantly more outlandish.”

“Well, regardless, we need to learn what we can so we can pass this presentation. Then, whether or not they exist becomes irrelevant, I suppose,” I laugh.

“Yeah, unless one comes knocking on your door,” he says, leaning over and bumping his shoulder into mine.

“Let’s hope not. At least, not for a very long time,” I say, shuddering.

We spend the next two and a half hours digging through all of the known history archived at the Windhaven Academy on the Moirai. By the time we’re done, I have more questions than answers in terms of who the Fates are and whether or not they’re even real or simply a metaphor. Separating fact