Page 58 of Drop Dead Gorgeous

Finally Atropos speaks.

“You know the cost.”

“Name it.”

“If she remains among the living, she dies.” She lifts the glowing thread between elegant fingers. “If she enters your realm, she will never age, never die, and never again be entirely mortal.”

Understanding settles over me with astonishing clarity.

“She would become like me.”

Clotho inclines her head.

“Bound to your realm.”

“Bound to your eternity.”

Lachesis watches me carefully.

“She must choose it willingly.”

“I understand.”

“You cannot decide for her.”

“I never would.”

Another long silence passes before Atropos lays Lavinia’s thread across my palms. It hums like a living thing, warm and impossibly fragile.

“You have one day. If she chooses you, the thread will never be cut.”

“I accept.”

There is not even the space of a heartbeat between the offer and my answer.

Clotho studies me with something that might almost be pity.

“I never imagined Death would fall in love.”

“Neither did I.”

Snow is still falling when I return.

Lavinia is exactly where I left her, curled beneath a mountain of quilts with a book resting forgotten in her lap. She looks up the moment I step through the door, relief washing across her face.

“I thought you’d gone.”

I cross the room and kneel before her, taking both of her hands in mine. When I open them, the thread rests across our joined palms, glowing softly between us.

She stares at it, then at me.

“What is it?”

“You.”

Her eyes search mine.

“My life.”