“I . . . Joaquim . . .” Here he stopped, and I realized he didn’t have a last name.
“Harker,” I said. “You’re one of us.”
“I . . . Joaquim Harker,” he whispered, and I took his other hand.
“Understanding that there must be balance in all things . . .”
His voice joined mine, and we said the oath together, as the walls of FrostNight whipped and whirled around us. I could feel it constricting with me inside, felt it closing around the edges of my consciousness. I was afraid, but also calm. Peaceful. I could do this. I could save everyone. I could put Joaquim to rest, and all the souls that were part of him.
I hadn’t been able to save my family, but I could save everyone else’s.
Mom, Dad, Jenny, Kevin . . . I love you.
I felt my mind becoming one with FrostNight. It was chaotic and perfect, the answer on the edge of everything, the truth just out of reach. It was the precipice of all and nothing.
I felt my body break into pieces, my consciousness ceasing to need it as a vessel. FrostNight was my vessel now, and it was all I would ever be.
I was aware of everything outside myself, of the battle still raging. I found the threads of time connecting Avery and Acacia, and all the little stars that were my fellow Walkers. I gathered them all up like the strings of a hundred balloons, releasing them into the sky and sending them off toward InterWorld. Toward freedom.
I found the blight that was HEX, the virus that was Binary. They existed in the Multiverse like rot in wood, like decay on death. Necessary, in moderation. I had the power to destroy them. I did not.
I felt Joaquim react within my consciousness, and I felt him understand. I felt him join me as I began the process of deconstructing us, of pulling FrostNight apart piece by piece.
Then, like a ship with its tether cut, I felt a jarring sense of dislocation. I was floating, adrift, and then I knew no more.
UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE
HarperCollins Publishers
..................................................................
I UNDERSTAND NOW, JOEY. You didn’t ask anything of me you weren’t willing to give yourself. You truly would have died for everyone.
That was enough.
“Joaquim?”
“He’s awake,” someone said. It was a man’s voice, one I didn’t recognize.
I fought to open my eyes, but as before, my vision was off. All I could see were vague shapes, blurred and distorted, like looking into a funhouse mirror. My face felt strange, and all the little aches and pains I’d been suffering for the past however long (it felt like forever) were back. They were really back. I groaned.
“Hey, you,” another voice said, accompanied by a slight dip in whatever surface I was resting on as someone sat down on it. This voice, I recognized.
I turned my head toward her, managing to make out the faint shape of her head. I both heard and felt the crinkle of bandages around my head, covering my left eye.
Covering my eye. I remembered Lord Dogknife’s claws, the ripping pain and the intense burning, the blood falling to the perfect white floor. Was my eye . . . ? “Acacia,” I mumbled. “Where’s Joaquim?”
I felt her take my hand. “Joaquim died a long time ago, Joe. Remember? When FrostNight was first—”
“He is FrostNight,” I insisted. “He’s the consciousness of FrostNight. . . .”
Her hand squeezed mine. “Okay,” she said, and it sounded like she understood. After a moment, she spoke again. I could barely make out the sadness in her expression as she did. “Then you mean ‘was,’ Joe. FrostNight is gone.”
I took a breath, held it, let it out slowly. More of my vision cleared, enough that I could see her sitting next to me.
She looked like she’d been through hell. Her dark hair was tied back into a ponytail, and she was wearing an oversized sweatshirt that was so thin and worn it had to have belonged to someone else first. The faded words said Alpha-Cen Med School. It looked comfortable. The sleeves were rolled up, revealing some of her injuries.
There were a dozen little cuts and bruises up and down both arms, half-healed ones from when she’d come crashing onto InterWorld and new ones from her fight with Lord Dogknife and Lady Indigo. Her eyes were red, like she’d been crying.