i
i can’t
i CAN’T
Ethan studied the little god. He saw the way that even as Te’lo’hi wailed and wept, there was something else in those silver eyes, a strange sort of shudder in his pale flesh. Ethan felt a stirring of understanding.If anyone can figure this out, it’s you.
Ethan said to Te’lo’hi, “You can’t, or you won’t?”
The moans of pain continued, but the god somehow seemed to hesitate. He lifted his silver eyes to stare at Ethan.
what?
Hunter had been right. As Ethan watched the way the silver eyes trembled, the twitch in Te’lo’hi’s small fingers, the flicker of doubt at the corners of his mouth, Ethan realized that a god wasn’t so different from a person. Or at least not a god who had spent so long with the human race.
Te’lo’hi had the same little tics and tremors as any person. The same clicks and rumbles of an engine, all betraying the motor of the heart.
Ethan said, “You’re afraid to be alone.”
Te’lo’hi’s moaning softened. It didn’t end, but it calmed enough for Ethan to know he’d touched a nerve.
i’m
what?
“You’re afraid of being left alone. You already lost your own people. Now you’re afraid of losing everyone. You’re afraid to be by yourself in this big, empty universe. I can’t blame you. I was too afraid to leave home by myself too.”
Kyla looked from Te’lo’hi to Ethan and back again. “Is he right? Is it really that simple?”
Te’lo’hi said nothing, but the beam of light was growing more unstable by the second. A crack spread through the stone platform beneath their feet. Sarah Powers stirred in her pool of blood.
“Please. Do something. Don’t kill my boys.”
i don’t want it
i don’t want it
I DON’T WANT TO BE ALONE
Every time Ethan thought this creature couldn’t get any louder, he was proven wrong. It released a sound that defied definition. Ethan and Kyla doubled over in pain. The column of silver light started to expand.
Sarah spoke. It sounded like it took the last of her strength. “Why don’t… one of you… go with him?”
Ethan looked at Kyla. Kyla looked to Ethan.
“Go with him?” Kyla said.
Ethan looked at the corpse of Frank O’Shea’s mother, the dead Attendant. He said, “I guess we could become like her.”
Kyla didn’t look any more thrilled by the idea, but she gritted her teeth, nodded to Te’lo’hi. “We could leave. We could take you away. We could make sure—”
“No.”
The voice that spoke was calm. Dignified. Effortlessly in command.
Two figures rose from their place on the platform. One was Adeline, who approached the screaming god-child without a scrap of fear. She put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a shake. “Hush. You’re being a baby.”
Fernanda crouched down next to the girl with a smile. She looked Te’lo’hi in the eye. She said, “Have you heard the story about the little god who made new friends?”
