“Is Lucas,” I said.

Eve elbowed me. I ignored her.

“We need Lucas. We left him—”

The woman shook her head. “He can’t go, child. He died. He must stay here.”

“No, he didn’t—”

“We know you don’t want to believe that, but—”

“Wait,” I said, lifting my hands. “I’m arguing the fact, not the interpretation. The bullet hit Lucas and he fell into the portal.”

“We know what happened.”

“Then you know it takes longer than that split second to die after being shot in the chest. Therefore, when he fell through the portal, he wasn’t dead.”

The woman shook her head, smiling. “Always the logical one, aren’t you? I’m afraid it’s a matter of semantics, child. The shot would have killed him. We know that.”

My heart seized in my chest, but I pushed on. “Okay, you know that because you know it was his time, but—”

“His time?” the old woman said as she appeared. She swept a hand at the yarn jungle behind her. “It’s never anyone’s time, girl. We don’t make that decision. What happens happens, and what happened was that Lucas Cortez died—”

The middle sister cut in. “Which is a tragedy, of course. But here he’ll be able to continue his work. There’s good and evil in this world, too. We can use Lucas here and, when you die, you will join him. You’ll be together. That’s already been determined. That’s why you came through to the same dimension. You just have to wait—”

“I won’t wait. If he stays, I stay.”

The woman’s lips curved in a sympathetic smile. “That’s not a choice you really want to make. It won’t go the way you hoped.”

“I’m not hoping for anything. I’m making a statement of fact. Lucas stays, I stay.”

“Don’t do this,” Eve hissed in my ear. “You can’t trick them.”

“It isn’t a bluff.”

The crone appeared. “Whether you go or stay isn’t your decision to make, girl.”

“But if you send me back, I can make it my decision. You’ve said there’s no predestination, so I can choose my own time of death.”

“Doesn’t matter. Even if you kill yourself, there’s no guarantee you’ll ever see him again.”

“Of course there is. You said so yourself. It’s been decided—we’ll be together. I suppose you could change things, but that would be petty, and you said you’re never petty.”

The woman appeared with a sigh. “I do so prefer the ghosts who cower and quake in our presence.”

“Oh, she’s awful, isn’tshe?” Eve said. “Been like this since she was a child. Always questioning everything and everybody. No respect for authority. My advice? Send her and Lucas back and spare yourselves sixty, seventy unnecessary years of grief.”

“Thank you, Eve, for considering our feelings in the matter. However, your bias in the matter is well known. You want Paige for your daughter’s guardian.”

“Have you considered that, Paige?” asked the old woman, popping back to fix me with that soul-piercing stare. “If you stayed here, you’d abandon Savannah, after all you’ve—”

The middle sister cut in. “No, that’s not fair. We won’t make you choose, child. The decision must be ours. That is the only truly equitable—” She stopped, head tilted. “Yes, sister, that’s an idea.”

The woman vanished, then the child appeared, then the crone, then the three began flipping so quickly I couldn’t tell who I was seeing. Snatches of conversation flew past, meaningless, out of context. Then the middle-aged woman took over.

“Eve, you want Paige and Lucas as Savannah’s guardians. Would you be willing to barter for it?”

Eve lifted her chin, meeting the other woman’s gaze squarely. “I am. You want me to obey the rules, right? Send them back—both of them—and I’ll do it.”

The woman smiled and shook her head. “Obedience without acceptance is meaningless. When you understand the rules, you’ll obey them. Until then—” She shrugged and waved at the yarn hanging behind them. “You make your own mistakes. You determine your own fate. We don’t do that for you.”

Eve frowned. “Then what’s the price?”

“You will owe us a favor. A chit, which we may call in whenever we wish.”

“I’ll do it.”

“Are you sure?”

“No, but I’m agreeing anyway. Do this for me, and I’ll owe you one. Now, we left Lucas—”

The Fate cut Eve off with a wave. “We know.” She closed her eyes and the three forms flipped past in a blur, then returned to the middle sister. “There. Lucas is back in the living world. Paige, we’ll see you again someday, hopefully after a long and—”

“Wait!” Eve said. “Don’t I get to say good-bye?”

“Yes, after I do. Now, Paige, turn around.”

I did. Twenty feet away, the air shimmered, like heat rising off hot asphalt.

“That’s the portal. When you’re done with Eve, just walk through it. Be quick, though. I’ve sent Lucas back to where he left, and he’ll likely be disoriented. There was no danger there a moment ago but—well, be quick.”