Fate's Surrender (Eternal Sorrows Book 3) by Sarra Cannon (android based ebook reader txt) 📕

The boy was scared that this time, she might actually succeed.

Nothing had gone according to their grand plan here.

Over a thousand years of resetting and rewriting their own minds and powers in order to keep this world sealed away from the Dark One’s power. A thousand years of sacrifice as their powers lay dormant.

A thousand years of Tobias hiding the stone and keeping it safe from this world, and him returning it once in their lifetimes so that they might find each other and gather on the island to reset once again.

A thousand years of trying to keep everyone safe, and when they had finally needed to use their powers and the power of the stone, something had gone terribly wrong.

Instead of coming back to train them and reunite them, Tobias must have been killed. It was the only explanation the boy had been able to come up with. It was the only way the fatalis stone could be here in this world without him.

But none of that mattered now.

All that mattered now was coming together as a group of five and getting to the island to reset the seal on the Dark One’s magic before she grew strong enough to break free.

The boy could feel the stone calling to him like a beacon in the darkness.

He could sense that they weren’t too far away from him now, but with the state of the world, it was a difficult distance.

He’d been thinking of going to get a map from the bodega down the street. He was pretty sure he’d seen paper maps there for tourists.

But honestly, he didn’t have much hope of finding a way for them to get off this island by flying across rooftops. He had learned to go quite a distance when the buildings got sparse in some places, but to get fully out of New York, they’d have to travel across bridges and into areas where there were no tall buildings. Only houses and roads where the rotters would easily get to them.

Of course, he could run faster than any rotter could, so maybe they would be okay.

Maybe they had a better chance of getting out of the city than Parrish and the others did of getting in safely.

If he could just tap into their consciousness the way he’d somehow managed to do yesterday, maybe they could have a conversation about it. He could tell them he and Zoe were together.

Most of all, he longed to talk to his old friends. He knew they wouldn’t remember him the same way he remembered them. That was also part of how the reset worked. He would always be the first to remember, because it was supposed to be his job to activate the stone each time.

Then Crash would dream of them, and they would go about the business of finding each other as quickly as possible.

There was a whole protocol in place, but it was a mess now. The Dark One had somehow managed to mess up all their plans, even from her icy prison inside the earth.

And right now, she was attacking them again.

He’d felt the guardians’ distress in the past, but it had never been this clear.

He guessed it was because of the connection they’d shared. It had closed a circuit between them, but it still wasn’t enough for them to talk openly to each other the way he could to Zoe.

Still, he had to at least try to give them hope.

To give them a clue into how to use their powers against the Dark One.

“What is it?” Zoe asked, standing up from where they had been sitting together on the floor by the coffee table, putting together a puzzle.

He had loved putting puzzles together with his parents. It was one of their favorite ways to spend a Sunday afternoon, short of walking to the park, and even though he knew now they had only been his parents for a short time in this one lifetime out of hundreds, they had been so good to him.

He had loved them.

And he missed the simplicity of their life before this. They’d never had much when he was growing up, but they’d always had love and that was the most important thing a family could have.

The boy motioned for Zoe to join him on the floor in the middle of the room.

Zoe scratched absently at her left arm and pulled her sleeve down over her hand.

“Are you trying to reach Parrish again?” she asked softly.

He nodded, and she smiled a little.

He sat cross-legged and rested his hands on his knees, palms facing up as if he was about to meditate. Zoe sat across from him and imitated his position, not questioning him but rather following along and understanding what he wanted her to do.

“She’s okay, isn’t she? Because when you stood up, you looked worried,” she said. “You can sense her, can’t you? That’s how you knew to come find me? You thought I was her?”

He opened his eyes wider. They hadn’t really spent any time talking about this, but she had figured it out on her own.

She was smart for someone so young, but he guessed he was, too.

He nodded again and pointed to the infinity sign necklace she wore.

“She saved my life,” Zoe said, tears shining in her eyes. “A bone marrow transplant when I was very young. I think that might be why. I always knew she was special, but I couldn’t explain it. I don’t think she’s ever really seen herself that way, but she is special, isn’t she? Like you?”

He smiled.

That was why he could sense Parrish’s power inside her sister. She was more than just a sibling. She had taken on a piece of Parrish through the transplant.

He wanted to tell her Parrish was the most special, even if she would never admit that to anyone. She had always been humble.

Or maybe humble wasn’t the right word for it.

She had always been blind to her own greatness, and it was