Scarlett had no love for Marcello, but as much as Scarlett hated him, if Paradise never married him, then Tella would never be born. Scarlett quickened her steps as her mother disappeared around the corner.

Scarlett knew she wasn’t supposed to interfere. The Assassin had warned her not to change—

Her back slammed against a brick wall of a dead-end street, as Paradise placed a knife to Scarlett’s throat.

She fought to take a ragged breath. Seeing Paradise like this was like peering in a threatening mirror. This was the mother Scarlett had originally expected to meet. But she couldn’t feel triumphant about it; if this encounter went the wrong way it could destroy the entire future Scarlett knew, or end Scarlett’s life.

“What’s a pretty little girl like you doing following—” Paradise cut off abruptly. She must have seen the resemblance as well, though her response was to hold the blade closer to Scarlett’s throat.

“Who are you? Why are you trying to look like me?” She spoke even faster than she had in the shop. “Tell me in the next ten seconds or I’ll slit your throat and walk away before your body hits the snow. One. Two. Three.”

“I’m not here to hurt you,” Scarlett said.

“Not the right answer.” Paradise flashed a vicious grin. “Four. Five.”

“I’m here because your family is in danger.”

“Don’t have a family,” she sang. “Seven. Eight.”

“Yes, you do, in the future.”

Paradise didn’t even bother to respond to this claim. “Nine.”

“You have a daughter,” Scarlett said. “You’re pregnant with her right now!”

Paradise stopped counting.

“How did you know that? I’ve only told one person that, and he wouldn’t say a word.” Her eyes narrowed on Scarlett and then went wide. “Where did you get those earrings?” She dropped the box she’d been holding and touched her own ears, where a matching pair of jeweled baubles rested.

“They were from you,” Scarlett said. “You told me my father gave them to you because scarlet was your favorite color. It’s also what you named me.”

Paradise stumbled back, but continued to hold out the knife. Gray mist swirled around her; she was confused but no longer feeling hostile, though on the outside she kept her expression severe.

“You also change your name to Paloma,” Scarlett said. “You leave this identity and turn into something close to a legend.”

This made a hint of her grin return, but it didn’t meet her eyes the way Scarlett’s grins always did. “All right, say I do believe you, why are you here?”

To save the world. To stop a monster. To see you. “I’m only here to steal a dress.”

Paradise laughed, softening a little more. “Then you’re a terrible thief. I must not have raised you very well.”

Scarlett was tempted to tell her the truth, to tell Paradise that she’d been a dreadful mother, that she’d left when her daughters had needed her most and she hadn’t come back. But Paradise wasn’t that woman yet, and Scarlett wondered if maybe she’d never actually been that woman.

Somewhere along the way Scarlett had come to believe her mother didn’t love her, or really love anyone. If she’d loved her daughters she wouldn’t have left them or hurt them—people didn’t hurt the ones they loved. But until Scarlett had appeared, her mother had been bursting with love. She’d been full of so much love she was going to ask a man to marry her. But she didn’t. In Scarlett’s world she went on to betray him instead, and Scarlett wondered if Paradise did all of this because Paradise loved her.

Even now Scarlett could see the love taking over Paradise’s emotions as her eyes continued to dart from her earrings to Scarlett’s face. In this timeline they’d only just met, but Paradise was already choosing to love Scarlett.

Scarlett could scarcely comprehend it. Whenever she loved, she loved fiercely, but it never came this easily, and she wouldn’t have expected it to come so effortlessly to Paradise.

Clearly, Scarlett had never really known her mother. But there were a few things she did know about her.

“You were the best mother you could be,” Scarlett said. “You sacrificed everything for my sister and me.”

“You have a sister?” Paradise’s entire face lit up, making her look even more magnetic, and Scarlett wished Tella could have seen how happy their mother was to hear she was having a second daughter. “I can’t wait to tell your father about this.”

“No! You can’t tell him. Whatever you do, don’t tell him.” Again, Scarlett almost left it at that. The Assassin had warned her not to interfere with the past, but maybe Scarlett had been part of the past all along. Maybe she wasn’t just here to steal a dress, or to see a mother she’d never understood. Maybe Scarlett was here to help make sure her mother made some of those choices Scarlett had never understood. Because she understood them now.

If Paradise married Gavriel and raised Scarlett with him, the future would change—Tella would never be born, and there was a good chance that all the Fates would be freed from the cards very soon.

“Gavriel is not what you think he is,” Scarlett said.

Paradise took a harsh step back, some of the sharp edges returning to her expression.

But Scarlett didn’t stop; either she was wrong and she’d already changed the future irreparably, or she was right and she needed to press forward, to stop her mother from making an irreversible mistake.

“I don’t know how much I’m supposed to tell you, or if I’m supposed to be saying any of this. But you don’t marry Gavriel. He’s not the father of your second child. Gavriel is a Fate. He’s the Fallen Star and he was trapped inside the Deck of Destiny that you stole from Empress Elantine. He wants to find the deck again so he can free all the Fates and take over the empire. You stop him from doing this—you trap him in a card again. But then you still have to hide, because his church—the Church of the Fallen Star—comes after you for running with the cards. So you marry Marcello Dragna and go away with him.”

Paradise laughed, but it held none of the amusement of her earlier laugh. “No, I would never marry Marcello.”

“But you do,” Scarlett said. And it struck her that out of all the impossible things she’d just shared, this was the one Paradise remarked on. It made Scarlett wonder if deep down her mother was already aware of Gavriel’s true goals and identity.

Scarlett tried to read her mother’s colors. There were competing emotions warring each other, but Scarlett could see that Paradise was in love and uncertain, and despite her calm exterior, she was terrified of what Scarlett had just said.

“I’m sorry,” Scarlett said.

“Why are you apologizing?”

“Because I know you love him.”

“Criminals don’t love.”

“If that were true, I don’t think I would be here. But I am. I’m here because you did whatever it took to take care of me—the daughter you’re pregnant with right now. That’s part of what makes you so remarkable. You leave Valenda, but people still tell stories about you. Even Empress Elantine talked about you before she died. She told my sister that when you loved, you did it as fiercely as you lived. You were willing to do whatever it took to protect the ones you love, even if it hurt you or them in the process.”

And Scarlett realized then—she was the exact same. Everything she’d just said would cause Paradise and Tella and herself a world of pain. But if Paradise took a different course, then the future would change; everything Scarlett cared about might be lost and the Fallen Star might never be defeated.

Paradise was shaking her head, as if she could clear her muddled emotions. “And I thought you were just here to steal a dress.”

“Like you said, I’m not a very good thief.”

“I might have been wrong.” Paradise reached down, picked up her box from the dress shop, and held it out to Scarlett. “Take it, you earned it with your story.”

“Does this mean you believe me?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t think I’ll be getting engaged tonight,” Paradise said, careless and flippant. She sounded a lot like Tella when Tella was pretending not to feel.

“I’m sorry,” Scarlett said.

“You don’t need to keep apologizing. But there is one thing you could do for me.” Paradise gave Scarlett a trembling smile. “Put the dress on. I didn’t get to try it on today, and I want to know if it would have looked as fabulous as I’m imagining. I’ll watch the other alley to make sure no one unwanted pops in.”

Paradise darted around the corner.

Scarlett wanted to protest; she didn’t feel like stripping in a frozen alley once again. But after all she’d told Paradise, this was the least Scarlett could do for her. It was the last thing her mother would ever ask of her. And it turned out to be the last thing her mother would ever say to her, as well.

When Scarlett finished dressing and turned the corner, Paradise was gone.