Page 17 of Godslayer
He nods, then slowly kneels down, bracing his back against the wall of the new dimension, still cradling me in his arms as he situates me on his lap.
I look around—trying my best not to move my head too much—I realize this room looks no different from the place we started. “Are you sure this is the new place? It looks the same.”
“It is. It’s 702. The overlay says so. It’s understandable that you’re tired. It took twelve minutes to make the change.”
“Twelveminutes?” I say these words way too loud, causing a ringing in my ears. “That’s… not possible. It was seconds. Mere seconds.”
“No,” Tyse sighs. “It wasn’t. It took a very long time. I think you were just… out of it, if ya know what I mean. So you couldn’t tell how much time was passing. I’m hoping we’re just really bad at this, and we’ll get the hang of it. Because if that’s how it’s gonna be, we’re stuck here, darlin’. We’re not gonna do it again. We won’t go back. I won’t be burning you up for a job.”
I close my eyes again, smiling now. “You’resofuckin’ romantic.”
Which makes him laugh, because it’s a little bit of a joke. But not really. Not from my point of view.
Tyse is the opposite of Finn.
Finn, who left me standing all alone on the God’s tower stage.
Who insisted he didn’t have a choice.
Who gave up on me before we even got started.
Tyse will do anything for me.
Anything.
And I would do anything for him. Even if it involves…this.
I would give him all of me—every last glowing ember of spark inside me—to save us.
And if it came down to it, I’d do that just to savehim.
Sacrifice.
It’s kind of a thing where I come from.
But Tyse Saarinen is worth it.
5 - TYSE
Clara Birch falls asleepin my arms with a tiny smile on her face. Like she just had the best day of her life. But if she could see herself in a mirror, her heart would be beatin’ as fast as mine is right now because she looks like crap. Utterly pale. No color at all in her cheeks.
I took all the spark inside of her to make this jump across worlds. Her body is limp, like I stole every bit of energy in her muscles.
And I’m just not sure it was worth it. For what? To stop Lover Boy from blowin’ up god towers on a train line? I mean, it’shisworld. Maybe I should just let him?
But then I think about Tau City.MyTau City and how the veil was so thin that Anneeta could see the phantom towers. The threat is clear. It’s bleedin’ through. Clara’s world and my world. And even though it doesn’t appear that she comes from a place like the Outlands, there’s no tellin’ what might go wrong back in 1440 if it bleeds through with 702.
And this world hopping? It feels like a break. At the very least, a tear in the membrane that separates the worlds. Did I have to rip open every world between 1440 and 702 to get us here?
And if so, what effect does that have on the worlds we just passed through?
Maybe this is how the Outlands started? Some augment was jumpin’ worlds and broke them.
It’s too early to know, I tell myself. It was our first time. We’re just figuring things out. We don’t know the limits yet, that’s all. We just need a little time. A little bit of practice.
I want to believe it, but then I look down at the woman in my arms and all the hope fades. She looks likeshit.
And I don’t know what to do about it.
