Chapter 70
CHAPTER
THAD
The ground rocked under my feet.
“Thad!” Rives’s voice was muffled by the quake. “On your left!”
I spun, and expecting the bear, I was shocked to see a gate rising twenty meters out.
RUN. Nil giggled. Nil says RUN.
I ran.
Everything wavered but me. The air roiled, the ground blurred.
My feet flew over the shifting rock, but my eyes stayed locked on the gate.
On my one last shot. Adrenaline pumped through my veins and death nipped at my heels; my quads burned and I made them burn more; I wanted them to burn like the gate I was dying to catch because the burn said I was still fighting.
RUN.
The noise was deafening, roaring like an avalanche as a massive quake shook the island. The gate glittered ten meters away, but the window to catch it was closing; I sensed it.
Noon was fading, like me.
RUN!
A giant crack split the black four meters out. Barely moving, the gate hovered just on the other side.
Come to me, I begged.
The gate crept closer, drifting toward the crevice. The seconds ticked in my brain, counting down. Three … two … one …
I ran for me; I ran for Charley; I ran away from the Reaper and toward the lazy gate, praying that I beat the odds, just this once. I ran without breathing; there was no time left.
I ran—and then I leaped. Because now the gate hung directly over the abyss: to fall meant certain death, but I was dead anyway.
For one instant, nothing shook.
Nothing trembled.
Time stopped; the air wrapped me in peace. I was flying and floating; I had nothing left. Then I was falling, and when the heat hit, I laughed.
And then I blacked out cold.