Page 34 (2/2)

In the aetheric, the spear I was carrying was treher I tried to rise, the heavier it got It was like swi with an anvil

Then a truck full of anvils

Then the world in my arained another few feet

Then another I was so close I could see the shi waves in the portal, feel its draw

I could feel the answering vibration in the Un, the key for the lock, and the lock that wanted to be turned

My whole aetheric body was on fire My senses had shifted, changed into a different spectrumy mission

The Djinn

They were all aroundme down Soto stand between ical weight of the world, and it was all against ain I tried stabbing at the Djinn with the spear, but they easily avoided me

The Wardens did, too

I was being dragged backward, and as I was pulled, I gouged bloody holes in the aetheric inblack trail, a scar betorlds - not enough to open the door, though

I reversed o up, I charged down, arrowing through the unprepared Djinn line, and used a burst of hot black power to brake myself back intoto crab-walk away fro on him - who had already hurt him, from the burns and scars on his face and arlittered with absolute insanity

I didn’t recognize the Djinn, because it was shining like a golden sun, power incarnate It reached down and picked up the Ancestor Scriptures from where Bad Bob had dropped them

The Djinn’s back was to me I didn’t think, I just acted

I raised the spear

He turned

It was David David standing there, facinghis own death at my hands I couldn’t identify what I saw in his face, in his eyes, except that it was not anger, not at all

I snarled and lunged for hi hadto take us both

He said, "Fides mihi , "and touched his hand to his chest, over where a human heart would be

And suddenly, the world went quiet Ti shriek

And I remembered

I was an observer to the past

The lifeboat, where Lewis had killedin David’s arms Pale and limp and open-eyed Done, and yet still trapped inside the shell

My old self took in a convulsive breath and tried to fight her way free I knew this h her body as Bad Bob’s torch fought her for control

I watched her pass out, head lolling against David’s body as he poured energy into her to seal off the , one last ti else, but the scene played on, a bare few seconds that changed everything

"The containment won’t last," Lewis said "You knoon’t I used one fail-safe on her

We can put in a second one while she’s out"

"Not without her consent"

"She already gave consent" That was lawyering the point, but David allowed it to slip past

"We can’t kill her We can’t save her The best we can do now is to oes bad"

David bared his teeth like a wild thing, and I thought for a second that he really would lunge right for Lewis’s throat " You’renot deciding when she lives or dies," he said "Not you "

Lewis closed his eyes in what looked like gratitude and relief "I don’t want to," he said "I never wanted to You have to be the one, David You’re the only one she trusts enough to get close at the last moment If it’s Joanne or the world, you have to choose" David froze, and the people clustered around the edges of the tableau shuffled Cherise was the one who finally spoke

"She’d want it to be you," she said "She really would" There were tears shining in my friend’s eyes

"I’ll put the fail-safe in place," Lewis said "You choose the codes" It was a combination, of course Words, and deeds

Fidesme his heart

Fides mihi

David’s use of the fail-safe should have killed me If I’d been ht, gone forever

The Un down , and the ht its own clarity Its oerful, unstoppable force

In the second that passed, the terrible certainties that had filled an to unravel No This is wrong This is all wrong I can’t do this

David wasn’t the enemy

This life wasn’t a fiction It was the only reality I had The only one I wanted, no matter what the creature beyond that portal proht up with the realities and horror of being taken over, I couldn’t stop the physics of as already infor him, and I was too close to miss him

David put the Ancestor Scriptures between us

The Un hit the book, and for a second it pushed deep into the pages, tunneling through toward David’s chest Then it stopped , as if it had hit an impenetrable wall