Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 144277 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 721(@200wpm)___ 577(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144277 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 721(@200wpm)___ 577(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Wow. I might be on the verge of my own demise, but my whole body is responding to all that loyalty he just professed. I feel swoony, and tingly, and excited. But in a weird way. Like it’s spark feeling all these things.
“Is that a yes?” he asks
I nod. “Yes. Do what you have to. We need to figure this out before anything else. I trust you.”
“Good. And I trust you as well. I’ll count it down so you know to expect it. Ready?”
“Ready.”
“Three… two… one.”
When he says one, the excitement of my spark suddenly explodes. It shoots out of my hands, and comes out the top of my shirt, and heat fills my entire body. I feel time passing, but I can’t concentrate. It’s hovering—here, but not. Part of this, but away from it as well.
All around me the room shimmers, flickers, blinks.
Tyse is pressing the button again, and again. Because the spark inside me gets more and more excited until I’m at the point where I fear I might pass out. I close my eyes, willing myself to stay conscious. Don’t let it take over, I say in my head. Don’t let it take over. I say this over and over again, maybe a million times.
And it works.
My body calms, the spark still shooting out of me. Heating me up in a way I’ve never experienced before. My body is so hot, I begin to sweat. I close my eyes, repeating my new mantra. Don’t let it take over. And when the heat evens out, I open my eyes—getting the surprise of my life.
I’m floating up in the air, twirling in a slow circle. But down below, I’m standing on the ground too. Arms out, head back, spark flying out of my fingertips and my mouth. Tyse looks worried, but I can also tell he’s working. His eyes are lit up bright blue and they’re moving back and forth that way they do when he’s accessing that overlay thing.
I watch, fascinated. Every couple of seconds, his hands make little gestures. A flick of his fingertips. A pushing motion, like he’s moving things on his overlay out of the way.
Then he goes still—the spark humming all around me now, not just around my hands and my head, and he says, “Got it.”
Everything stops.
I fall back into my body with a sudden jolt and then I’m collapsing down to the floor. Tyse catches me before I hit the ground, his arms wrapping tightly around me. Then he’s cradling me in his arms. “Clara? Can you hear me?”
I nod, groggily, even though it makes my head spin, because I don’t want him to worry.
“Good. We’ve done it. We’re through.”
Which makes me smile, eyes still closed.
“Was it bad?” he asks, clearly concerned.
The sigh comes out before I can stop it. I don’t want him to know all the details. It will worry him. But he deserves to know what it costs to cross. So I force my eyes open and find his so close, I can see tiny sparks going off deep inside his soul. “I feel… spent. I don’t think I can walk. My legs are all jiggly. My head hurts. I feel like I need to sleep for a week.”
He nods, then slowly kneels down, bracing his back against the wall of the new dimension, still cradling me in his arms as he situates me on his lap.
I look around—trying my best not to move my head too much—I realize this room looks no different from the place we started. “Are you sure this is the new place? It looks the same.”
“It is. It’s 702. The overlay says so. It’s understandable that you’re tired. It took twelve minutes to make the change.”
“Twelve minutes?” I say these words way too loud, causing a ringing in my ears. “That’s… not possible. It was seconds. Mere seconds.”
“No,” Tyse sighs. “It wasn’t. It took a very long time. I think you were just… out of it, if ya know what I mean. So you couldn’t tell how much time was passing. I’m hoping we’re just really bad at this, and we’ll get the hang of it. Because if that’s how it’s gonna be, we’re stuck here, darlin’. We’re not gonna do it again. We won’t go back. I won’t be burning you up for a job.”
I close my eyes again, smiling now. “You’re so fuckin’ romantic.”
Which makes him laugh, because it’s a little bit of a joke. But not really. Not from my point of view.
Tyse is the opposite of Finn.
Finn, who left me standing all alone on the God’s tower stage.
Who insisted he didn’t have a choice.
Who gave up on me before we even got started.
Tyse will do anything for me.
Anything.
And I would do anything for him. Even if it involves… this.
I would give him all of me—every last glowing ember of spark inside me—to save us.