Page 115 (1/1)

Eventually, I had no moreto get as h the portals and off this planet as we could

Our situation grewday

There were two holes we could no longer even excavate: the one near Chester’s, and the one near the church Their ergospheres had becoet within twenty paces without being sucked in We’d tried tunneling up froround caverns and tunnels carved long ago by the River Liffey, but the osphere inhaled everything we’d loosed and grew exponentially, forcing us to concede defeat

Ryodan tried to send h to another world with the first wave of colonists, but they refused to leave until the lastwith the decline of our planet, the True Magic was declining, too Using it becaather humans to save At times the power inside me was a radioactive radiance, at other tilow I’d tried repeatedly to return to the planet where I passed my initiation to ask the vast sentience questions, but I wasn’t able to complete the journey there

Barrons suspected we had a week left, at most Then one of the two black holes would touch the Earth, and when it did, ould find out the hard as going to happen

When you only have one week to live, the pressing question becomes: how do you want to live it?

JADA

I slow- my bike out front The place was dark, the chairs were up on the tables, and it was so silent I could hear the faint hueothermal power that fueled Ryodan’s demesne

"Closing Ti I watched a couple of Semisonic concerts on TV when I was a kid and by then the faed on started to feel like my family You took it where you could find it So I’d watched the about hoas going to be when I finally got let out into the world School, dates, prom, those ideas had all seemed so exotic and out of the ordinary,to me I’d wondered if I would ever be like normal people Sometimes it seemed I felt so s should be

I glanced at the dance floor and s a red dress How Ryodan had looked at me People on many of the worlds had found me attractive but his eyes said: Beautiful by any standards, in any century, on any world, woer than life when I was a kid, and even now I still felt young around hiht be the only person who ever really understoodthe last feeeks with, working on the song, going for insanely fasthih a filter He polished me up where I had no shine I loved that about him

Ryodan’s cool, clear eyes had no filters where I was concerned I didn’t need any with hi at Chester’s today, but each time I’d blown past the club in the past feeeks, on e to park my bike and walk inside, I’d finally realized he’d put soain

He could do that So, today when I felt it, I decided to call hi his black arts on me and leave me alone No more Dani-come-hither spells I was surprised he hadn’t huntedat Dancer’s every night

Not that kind of sleeping Each night, e buttoned up the day and returned to his penthouse, I’d gone cautiously further with hiaveoff whenever I wanted to, happy for the intimacy we shared These past feeeks had been exotic for s, kisses, and physical affection than I’d ever known, and a sense of belonging All that affection was hts had been incredible, stretched out next to , lean body We did everything, round against each other with red-hot desire and young, hungry bodies But each tiht and held it, started a conversation, talked to hi until he finally fell asleep As long as my jeans stayed on I felt safe

Then I’d lie awake next to hi, wondering as holding et rid of whatever was stopping me

I trusted hi or when I’d be back He had his own life and interests and they wholly engrossed him, and ent our separate ways and had separate adventures but caether and shared our new parts, then hadwith hi so much from each other!

From the day I found him, I’d considered Dancer mine That hy I’d been so shocked to discover he’d had his oorld all along that hadn’t included irls who crushed on him hard

I loved hie because once litch in