Page 61 of Godslayer
It’sher.
Delta knew this. Maybe he was confused about what Clara was. But he’s a god. He’s got the power of probability on his side. He took a good guess—that’s why he deployed us together.
All gods need food, Tyse.
Good luck and Godspeed.
He knew.
16 - CLARA
Tyse is standing next to oneof the giant crystals when I open my eyes. He’s looking at it like it’s a puzzle that needs to be solved when I get up and put my clothes back on.
The sex was nice, but it doesn’t change anything. I need answers. I need to know what is on his mind. I need to know why he’s afraid. Because he is. I can feel it. Not of those men back in the tunnel, though. He’s afraid of something else. Which scares me more than those augments, to be honest. Because Tyse Saarinen is not the kind of man who scares easily.
Spark can trigger it, though. That first time I gave him a shock of spark back in his old room in the tower, I scared him. Not because it hurt, but because he knew what it meant that I have this power.
Powerful people are a threat.
And really powerful people are aproblem.
Tyse knows I’m expecting an explanation because he didn’t turn to face me as I dressed, even though I wasn’t trying to be quiet.
When I join him, he simply slips his arm around my waist and pulls me in close.
“They’re pretty,” he says, indicating the crystals.
“They are,” I agree.
“And they’re full of power.”
“I can feel it.”
He turns to me now. “They fill ya back up. It’s like a recharge for you.”
I can tell that he’s choosing his words carefully. That this is the explanation I’m expecting. “OK,” I say. “So what’s it mean?”
“Well, it means you’re good now.”
“I just wasn’t good before.” It’s not a question and he doesn’t answer.
He redirects to the point. “You’re here…” He sighs. “You’re here to power me, Clara. That’s why Delta sent us on this mission. Your spark is how I have the power to move through worlds.”
I think about this for a moment. It’s not exactly a revelation, which means, this isn’t the important part. “So what went wrong?”
He huffs a little laugh here. “Well. First of all, I didn’t know. I’ve been… I’ve been stealing spark from other dimensions since the train ride into Delta. We ran out of jumps. You almost died. But the spark is so thick in the Alphas that once we came out of the tunnel, it was enough to… I don’t know what it did. But I could see other people in the car with us. People from another dimension. So I stole their spark to give it to you. That’s how I saved you and Anneeta. I killed an entire family to keep you alive.”
I have no words for this. I’m not sure which part of that admission hits me hardest. The idea that people died to keep me alive or that Tyse is the kind of man who will kill a whole family to have my back.
“Say something, Clara.”
“What else?”
“What?”
“There’s more. I know there’s more. What happened today when you started taking me through dimensions after the ambush?”
“Yeah. I was getting to that. You don’t seem to be able to live in most of them. You can’t breathe the air, for some reason.”
