Page 64 of Godslayer
Tyse just stares at me for a few moments. Like he’s waiting for me to catch on to the joke.
But it’s not funny, number one. And I’m still very confused. “I’m sorry,” I say, putting up a hand. “I’m going to need some hints here, Tyse. Why the hell is he calling you God—” My face crinkles up. “Is that the mission? We were sent out to kill gods?”
“And this,” he says, “leads me to the last point.”
The only thing I manage in response is a scoff.
“Ya see, the man on the train line—the one blowing shit up?—”
“The terrorist?”
“Yeah. Him. He’s… Lover Boy.”
This time my laugh is a guffaw. “What?”
“Finn, Clara. The man we’re after? It’s Finn.”
I shake my head, unable to understand. “That doesn’t make a bit of sense, Tyse. He’s back in Tau City.”
“No. Well, I don’t really know where he is now, but I do know one thing. He blew that tower up. I saw him.”
“Saw him…where?”
“Through the veil. At the same time that my Versi exploded when Stayne threatened me, he did something to the tower in your world. Because that’s what really blew up. The explosion was so big, it caused some kind of synergy with my world. That’s why the explosion was so big. And then, when we were making our big escape, I saw him. Finn. He was running away from the explosion carrying a woman with red hair?—”
“Awoman?” It comes out before I can stop it. Before I realize how it sounds.
But Tyse doesn’t miss it. In fact, thinking about it now, this might be the reason he didn’t tell me about Finn immediately.
To protect me? Because Finn moved on after I was Extracted?
Or to protect himself? So he didn’t have to hear the desperation in my voice when I found out about this woman?
Either way, this is bad.
“Yeah,” he says. “A woman. She had red hair and she was unconscious. And I don’t know what they’re doing, but they’re blowing shit up all along the train line. Towers. It’s pissin’ everyone off, so that’s why Delta sent us out. To find Finn.”
Find Finn. But it’s a lie. Well, perhaps lie is a strong word, but that’s not what we’re doing. We were deployed to stop a terrorist. That’s quite a bit different than ‘finding’ someone.
And now it hits me. That weird feeling I got when Tyse started mentioning that we might stay here.
Here. In this cave world.
Because that’s one of the last things Finn Scott ever said to me. Our last amicable conversation. How he had a dream. How he would’ve done it different. If he were not the Extraction Master’s son and I was not a Spark Maiden.
“I’m a scholar,” he’d said.
And I had laughed.
“It is funny?”
“Surprising. I never suspected you were an academic. What do you study?”
“The ancient ruins of the desert. The tunnels below the city. I collect artifacts. And we don’t even live in a tower.”
“We’ve gone rustic? Don’t tell me we’re living down-city?”
“No. We liveunderthe city in the diggers’ camp. And our children run around barefoot and muddy. But they laugh a lot,Clara. And that’s the only thing that matters. We laugh a lot too. We don’t have any spark, except for the water pumps, and sometimes we crave the sunlight, but we’re happy. And there are cave rooms down there with holes in the ceiling where the sun shines through, where plants and trees grow, and the kids can run in the grass. And at night, when they’re all sleeping, sometimes we steal away to one of these open-topped caves and make love under the moonlight.”
