Goddess of Fate. Alexandra Sokoloff

hair and flounced off, back toward the guardhouse and the bridge.

      Lena watched her, her face troubled. Then she sighed and turned to Aurora, with her soft dress rippling in the wind. “I really do think...”

      Aurora shook her head. “Oh, please, Lena, don’t lecture me. I couldn’t let Val take him. Why should he have to fight and die so young? I know it’s not right for him.”

      “You mean, she’s not right for him?” Lena suggested gently. Aurora didn’t have to speak; her scarlet cheeks were all her sister needed for confirmation. “And you are? Aurora, he’s a mortal.”

      “That never stopped half the gods,” Aurora retorted.

      “Aurora,” Lena chided.

      “You know it’s true,” Aurora muttered.

      “It is true,” Lena admitted, fair as always. “But that kind of thing generally doesn’t end happily. For anyone,” she added with a slight emphasis. “Does he even know what you are?”

      Aurora squirmed. “I tried to tell him,” she said, but her voice didn’t sound convincing even to herself.

      “Well, what do you think is going to happen when...” Lena stopped herself. “No, never mind that now. Just tell me what I can do.”

      That was Lena; no matter what, her sister was always supportive. Aurora felt a rush of love for her.

      Her sister knew the intricacies of the past, and the past was where Aurora needed to go.

      She looked out at two swans gliding on the pond, nuzzling each other with long necks. So happy, so peaceful...mated for eternity.

      “I’ve been thinking,” she said hopefully. “There is something you can do. I think if I can take Luke back to where it all started to go wrong—I mean, where he started on this path—I think he’ll be able to choose with a clear head.”

      “And when was that?” Lena looked suspicious.

      “High school,” Aurora admitted.

      “Oh, Aurora...” Now Lena’s face was troubled, and Aurora knew that Lena had not forgotten what had happened.

      “I know,” Aurora said defensively. “But I’m older now.”

      Not that she was much older; the difference between sixteen and twenty-eight didn’t mean much in terms of infinity, but she had been living as a high school girl at the time and it had always amazed Aurora how quickly you could get wrapped up in the emotions of the age you were portraying.

      “But it nearly destroyed you,” Lena said gently.

      “It will be different this time,” Aurora insisted. “And that’s when it happened, so that’s when it has to be.”

      Lena looked across the emerald grass of the field toward the guardhouse, where Val had disappeared in a huff. “You know that...”

      “She’ll be there, yes, I know. Lena, I have to.” She looked at her older sister with wide, appealing eyes. “I don’t want him to die.”

      Lena sighed. “Remember, it’s his choice.”

      “I’ll remember,” Aurora promised.

      “Then come,” Lena said, and held out her hand, and they stepped into the wind.