Distracted by my internal stress, I don’t shift upward fast enough, and one of the beasts catches my leg, biting down hard.The pain radiates upward, and I cry out.
In that same moment, the walls-that-aren’t-wallsshudder and cracks run up the sides of the entire construct.Chunks begin to fall, one of them smashing the cursed-blessed that’s currently clamped onto my leg in his ugly face.He releases me, thankfully, and I spring backward, barely avoiding being struck by a similar chunk of...nothingness.And that’s when I hear her.
Azar!Where are you?We need to get out of here,now!
I’m here!I scramble backward, avoiding another large chunk of debris.What do I do?Where do I go?
Azar!!
The entire world around meshiftsin a very uncomfortable, very unsettling way, and then I’m beside her.“Liz!”I reach for her, and she collapses in my arms, sobbing.Her clothing—the only clothing she has to fit her new wings—is spattered in red.“What happened?”
She’s sobbing against my chest, a hard, bright, strange object clutched against her belly.“I—Azar.”She looks up into my eyes.“Axel!It’s you!”She freezes, her eyes widening.“Do you—” She swallows.“Do yourememberme?”The hope in her face—it’s heartbreaking.
I kiss her then, pressing my mouth against hers too hard—too insistently.But she doesn’t shy away.If anything, she presses harder, her fingers digging into my arms, pulling me closer.Our mouths move against one another’s frantically for a moment before she pulls away.
“Hyperion,” she breathes.“Time isn’t the same here, but we have to get out now, or I won’t be able to.”She shakes her head.“And Axel, Azar, whatever, I don’t know—you clearly remember me now.Right?”Her eyes are so terribly hopeful.
It hurts me, and I nod, desperate to kiss her again while I can.
“I’m not sure if you’ll remember me when we get out, and I’m not sure if you’ll be able to shift either.”
“I know,” I say.“I know.I’m sorry for being angry.I didn’t understand.”
“You do now?”Her mouth is soft, her eyes frantic.“Do you really?”
I pull her tightly against me, sohealedby feeling her body against mine.But the large, hard thing’s digging sharply into my side until I release her.“I do—I know why you did it—I might have done the same if I’d been forced.But whatisthat?”
She glances down, trembling slightly.“It’s the heart.”She offers it to me.
I back up a step, blinking and shaking my head.“It’s—that’s it?”It’s the reason we came here in the first place.Now that we’ve found it, we’ll have no reason to stay.I almost...I almost want to chuck it into the nothingness that’s falling apart all around and leave it here in the rubble.
If I have the heart, what will I do with Liz?What excuse can I use to stay, especially if I don’t remember how much I love her once we leave this place?
“You should know.”She chokes up, tears welling in her eyes.“I had to kill your mother to get it.”
My eyes snap up to meet hers.“You had to?—”
“I’m so sorry.”Tears roll down her face.“There was no other way.It’s—Freya—sheisyour mother.I’m not sure what went down between her and your dad, but I don’t think it was good, and now she’s...”She glances backward, and I see it—the bloody, broken body of a human woman with a massive, gaping chest wound.
That’s the red on her body.My mother’s blood.
Liz is sinking to the ground, the stone clutched to her chest.“I’m so,sosorry.If there was any other way, but Coral.”Her voice catches.“And Hyperion.”
My eyes widen.“Yes, right.We need to get out there and save them.”But I’m still staring at the dead woman.I feel like I should recognize her somehow, if she is my mother, and like I shouldcaremore than I do.“Let’s go.”I force my eyes up.“Do you know how to do that?”
“Do you—do you want to...”Liz shakes her head.“I don’t even know what I’m asking.What could you possibly do?She’s dead.I’m just so very sorry.I wish—I tried to pull you to me then, before, but I didn’t have the stone.I think I could only do it once I took it, and it wasinside of her.I really liked her, Azar.We were friends, back when I was Gullveig, and I wouldn’t have killed her if I could have...”She cuts off again, clenching her free hand at her side.“I’m sorry.”
I step toward her, dragging her against my body again, tightening one arm around her, and pressing our bodies together from her shoulder to my hip.“I know you had no choice.I’m sorry you had to do this.”I press a kiss to her forehead.“Thank you.”
“I don’t know how to get out of here,” she says.“But the last time...”She closes her eyes and inhales, and then...
“Wait.”I press my free hand to her cheek.“Liz.”I drag one finger down the side of her face.“When we get out?—”
“I released them all,” she says.“I killed your mother, and that freed all the beasts she’d trapped.They’re escaping even now, as this place crumbles, and...”She exhales.“I got the heart your people need, but I’m afraid I’ve destroyed the earth in the process.”
Sky or earth.
She had to choose, and she chose me.
