Chapter 54
FIFTY-FOUR
ELAINA
Thick dark liquid oozed from the cracks between the stones. It shimmered in the dim light like machine oil. Her first instinct was to dip her fingers into the black and see what it felt like. But Elaina stayed her hand. The thing inside her thrummed in response, tempting her.
This is why we came here.
The realization struck her. The Architect had drawn them here, to this place, to this moment.
She looked up, past the canopy, past the blotches of clouds overhead, right at the stars and the full moon. Pinpricks skittered from Elaina’s fingertips, up her arms, winding tight at her sternum. Before her eyes, the orb of the moon overhead phased out, plunging the forest into blackness.
Elaina sucked in her breath as the ground beneath her feet began to vibrate—no, shake . Dread washed over her, and yet… What would happen, she wondered, at the end of the world? Was this not the perfect opportunity to find the final answer? What happens after ? And all she had to do was stay there, let it happen, let the Architect use her as its channel. With perverse fascination, Elaina watched as the stars overhead began to flicker out one by one.
No. Elaina tore her gaze away from the fizzling sky. She stumbled backward to the outer rings of the stone circle, out of the black blood seeping between the rock. As she inched away against everything pulling her in, Gaia’s satellite flicked back into existence overhead—the ground stilled save for pained aftershocks.
Destroying technology, she realized, had been only the beginning.
“Elaina!”
She spun around and he was there, standing at the edge of the clearing, sword in hand. He looked ready for battle. But this wasn’t about fighting.
“Cyan…”
“I felt it,” he said, voice low, urgent. “It’s coming. Come here. Get behind me.”
Elaina shook her head. “I can’t, Cyan. This is why we’re here.”
“What are you talking about?” His eyes darted around the clearing, chasing shadows.
She took a steadying breath. “This place… this is where the Architect wants to reclaim me. And I want it too. I want to know . I can’t stop it, Cyan. But you can.”
She took a step back toward the center of the spiral without thinking, the thing in her chest tempting her toward her rightful place.
Cyan’s jaw clenched as he lifted the sword higher. “No. I’m not letting that happen.”
“You don’t understand.” Elaina forced herself to stay in place even as everything inside her wanted to take another step toward the center. “This place… we were always meant to come here, Cyan. It’s a nexus point, where the simulation’s boundaries are thinnest. I can feel it, through the sh ard. The Architect wants to use the corrupted code inside me as a bridge—a tunnel to breach this part of the simulation. But we can use that nexus against it.”
“What are you saying?”
“The shard in here has to be destroyed,” she said, fighting the terror rising inside. “Not just removed—destroyed at this exact point where reality frays. You have to do it. And it’s right here.” She pressed a fist to her breast, her eyes falling on the sword in his hands.
Color drained from Cyan’s face. “No. I can’t… I won’t.”
“This is the only way.” Elaina stayed firm. “This is where we end it.”
The sword wavered in his hands. She saw the fear in his eyes, the pain. But there was no other way. This was the moment they had been led to, the choice they had to make.
“But I love you,” he choked.
“I love you too,” she whispered, her voice breaking, the tears she’d been holding back finally spilling over. “I think I always have. But I need you to trust me. Like when we fixed things together back on Earendel. I need your hands, Cyan. I need your strength.”
He stared at her as if his desperate gaze alone could will her to be wrong and take it back. But the truth hung absolute between them.
Slowly his grip tightened on the hilt, something breaking in his eyes. Cyan stepped forward, the blade gleaming in the strings of flickering moonlight streaming through the canopy.
Elaina closed her eyes, her heart pounding as she braced herself for what was to come.
This is how fate ends.