Chapter 63
CHAPTER
THAD
Charley was gone.
I’d lost her, and yet I’d won.
“I beat you!” I screamed at Nil. Stoke shot through me like I’d posted a perfect run.
Only it was Charley who’d swept the heat; it was Charley who’d caught the gate.
It was Charley who’d live—and that was the rush.
I’d embraced my destiny: I’d protected Charley to the end, made the ultimate bodyguard move. I’d rolled the dice, and I’d won.
Me, not Nil.
Laughing, I punched the Nil sky. My laughter echoed over the endless black rock, Nil laughing back at me.
That’s when it hit me. I should be dead.
I’d never been with anyone on their last day. I’d assumed that a gate came and went—or didn’t come at all—and then you just keeled over. Checked out. Done.
But I was still standing. And feeling sick, I suddenly knew how it would all shake out: I’d have to wait for midnight, suffering without Charley. I’d have to weather the twilight of my dying day alone, every minute a biting reminder of what I’d lost—and could never have.
“Why?” I shouted, pissed and bitter, fighting to keep my Charley-made-it high. In the distance, I heard Rives shout my name, but I was too wrapped in Nil hate to answer. I tilted my face to the Nil sky, choking Nil air in my fists. “WHY?” I screamed. “Tell me!”
The grizzly roared, the ground shook—and then I knew. Because this is Nil, and she’s cruel. And because she’s not done playing with me.
Then she whispered, RUN.