but for all of us. I can.
“All I have to do is dip into the river of the cosmos, and I can describe the entire path of your life from start to finish. Solve all the mysteries, answer all the questions. If I dip in, I won't even need the cards to tell you exactly when, where, and how you'll all die.
“Can you imagine the cost of that? To have your entire life mapped out along a single road, never deviating down the stony path that might have led you to the greatest love of your life?”
Ivy felt rooted to the spot by Astrid’s stare. By her gaze that spoke more than her words ever could. “The one where you were kicked out of school and forced to live like a human, working without magic, never having considered straying from that safe, steady path to take a risk, break the mold of what was expected of you, and move to New Hampshire? Or the road that was fraught with pain, suffering, and isolation that resulted in the birth of the child you so desperately wanted?”
Astrid gave a strangled sound of utter frustration, swiping angrily at the tears streaking down her cheeks.
“When I map out definitive points in the map that is your life, you go on expecting to make those moves, like a token on a board game. Or, if you don't like the points on the map, you do everything in your power to avoid them.
“Even if it means killing someone you think is standing in your way, preventing you from avoiding that plotted map. So what if I say yes, that Ivy is going to be a sacrifice, and we do everything we can to avoid it, but everything means Uriah dies in Ivy's place?
“Or I say ‘no, of course she won't be a sacrifice’, so she goes forward thinking she's untouchable, and while Uriah and Ivy survive, the rest of us die in the most horrific manner possible?”
Until that moment, Ivy hadn't ever truly considered the burden that came with Astrid's power. To know everything and be forced to sit by with all those answers and watch someone she cared for suffer, because it might lead to everything that person could have ever wanted.
Knowing if she expressed the depth of suffering, that person might do exactly what Astrid said, and avoid it, thereby missing out on the greatest thing to ever happen to them.
“You mapped out someone's life, and they died trying to avoid it,” Abel stated gently.
Astrid gave a ragged, mirthless laugh in answer, drawing both feet up onto her chair to hug her knees.
“No, they killed to avoid it. My mother introduced me to my very first client when I was seventeen years old. I was so excited, so ready to take the training wheels off and do what I knew I could for this man. I ignored all the lessons she taught me, bypassed all the rules I heard in school from my professors.
“It was easy for me to step into the river of knowledge and pick out all the answers. Too easy. I sat across from him and mapped out his whole future like I was reading it straight from a book.
“The more information I got, the more I realized what a horrible person he was. A killer for hire who would go on to do unspeakable things for an obscene amount of money. I had the power to alter his fate and save the hundreds of people he would eventually murder.
“I told him to be careful, that one of his daughters would find out things about him she shouldn't have and come to him with questions.
“I didn't tell him her discovery would lead to his arrest, and I withheld her name on a hunch. Unfortunately, the fear of discovery was enough. He had six daughters, and he managed to kill five of them before his eight-year-old son shot him in the head to protect the sixth daughter.
“Coincidentally, she was the one who would have turned her dad in. Mother brought me the newspaper article the day after it happened, and we discussed the dangers of screwing around with free will and fate.”
Not even a second later, Astrid's phone trilled. She picked it up, brushing the tears from her cheeks with a trembling hand. Astrid smiled crookedly, tipping the phone so Juliet could read the text aloud.
“'I'm glad you've finally shared your burden, Starlight. Make the first move, ask for the truth and