The stunning Threads That Bind & Hearts That Cut duology is complete, and we are feeling EMOTIONS! But while we’re recovering from the twists, heartbreak, and THAT ENDING(!), we asked author Kika Hatzopoulou to share some of the things that almost happened to our favorite characters.

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The Threads That Bind duology was inspired by all the things I love: the Greek Fates, detective characters, noir urban settings, complicated sister dynamics, soulmate romance, post-apocalyptic worlds. But while I had these tropes in mind as I set out to write, the story didn’t come to me fully formed—there was a lot of trial and error, of dismissing ideas and alternatives until Io’s tale solidified in what it is today. Here are a few of the things that almost happened in the duology, and be warned: spoilers ahead!

Alante was almost an island.

While building the city of Alante, I was inspired by an image of a girl standing on a rooftop above the flooded streets of a big city. That naturally made me think of Venice and its canals, and I began brainstorming on creating a similar city, but I quickly realized the Gothic style architecture in Venice didn’t fit what I was aiming for. Instead, I decided to draw elements of cities in Greece like Athens and Thessaloniki, which felt much truer to the world and story I was writing. I’m very glad I made that choice because Alante now feels like an amalgamation of the cities I grew up in, albeit in a post-apocalyptic setting!

The prophecy almost didn’t exist.

In the very first draft of Threads That Bind, there was no prophecy whatsover. Only after I had signed on with my agent and working on edits with them did we discuss adding some urgency to the Muses’ motivations in the scene at the House of Nine. As I was working on the scene, the prophecy just poured out of me and turned out to tie together all the threads (pun intended) of Io’s character arc, the world’s apocalyptic past, and the future of the city. It was one of those lightbulb moments that completely transformed the book—of course, I had to have a prophecy in a book about destiny and the threads of fate!

Nico almost died.

I know, I know. How could I ever have considered killing off the sweet cinnamon roll that has become readers’ favorite side character? But when I first conceived Nico’s character, he was supposed to be a casualty of the wraiths that further targeted the Fortuna gang. Instead, Nico blasted on the page with a bubbly personality and an utter defiance of the grim world he’s grown up in that made it impossible for me to go through with my initial plan. And a good thing I didn’t—he’s one of my favorite characters now, too!

Thais was almost killed off.

I always knew Thais was going to be the villain in Threads That Bind, and I also knew that Io wasn’t going to forgive her in Hearts That Cut. But I did want to explore Thais’s past in the sequel, and how their mother’s personality affected Thais’s aspirations and actions—in a morally grey world such as this one, villains and antagonists need to have reasons for their evil decisions. (Even the big villains, the goddesses of time, have reasons: they’re quite literally trying to save the world.) For some time, I considered killing Thais off in the fight with the goddess at the Assembly, but ultimately, I decided that death wouldn’t absolve her. She needed to be present in the final showdown with the gods and actively make the right choice this time. If that exonerates her or not is up to the reader to decide.

Io and Edei almost didn’t end up together.

Blasphemy, I know. The moment I wrote down the Nine’s prophecy, I knew that the thread Io cuts that will end the world is her and Edei’s fate-thread. It seemed fitting to me, that this rare and important thread that Io has cherished for so long is the sacrifice she needs to make to bring down the gods. While thinking what the lack of a thread would mean for Io and Edei afterwards, I briefly—very, very briefly, like barely a thought—considered erasing the love they share completely and leaving them in an open ending, uncertain of whether they would grow to love each other again or not. But that didn’t feel true to the characters or the story I wanted to tell. The duology discusses the age-old question of destiny versus choice, and I really wanted these two characters to choose to love each other, despite what may be fated. The final paragraph of the series, where this choice takes center stage, is one of my favorite things I’ve ever written.

Threads That Bind and Hearts That Cut are on shelves now!