"No," I whisper under my breath. "No, you’ve lost your mind. That has to be a demon."
I glance back and see that the rubble stretches out at least a mile now, if not more, the terrain flattened all the way. And it’s not over, the shockwave keeps rolling deeper into the city. In the distance, I see buildings and skyscrapers collapsing. My Fate, this is the catastrophe Moon was talking about! There’s no way it’s anything else. He warned us…
And if that’s true, then Bay arrived too late.
Did I stop him?
Did I slow him down?
Those precious few seconds…
Suddenly I see Bay grab the demon by its blackened throat.
Wow. That’s what courage looks like. Bay is strong, but this is something… else he’s up against.
I stare at them. I’m far away, at least fifty yards, maybe more, and with all the roaring destruction around us I can’t hear what they’re saying, but Bay seems to be shaking the demon slightly, like he’s trying to force something out of him.
My Fate, did the world really just end? How did this happen? Everyone is dead? Ennio, Snow, and now the people in the city, millions of them…
I turn back toward Bay and blink hard because I think I see something behind him, a kind of illusion.
What is that?
When I blink harder, sometimes I see it and sometimes I don’t, like a flickering afterimage.
Are those wings?
Huge, shimmering white wings rising behind Bay…
But then I blink and they’re gone.
Then I blink again and they’re there!
Like they’re some kind of mirage, or like they can’t fully materialize. Only their outline, only a faint glow visible in the dust-filled air swirling around them.
I stare in disbelief.
Who is Bay?
Is this why he was sent here, what Moon was hinting at?
To save us, to save the people in the city?
"Save us Bay," I whisper, "Bring us back to life!"
I squeeze my eyelids, repeating almost like a mantra, "Bring us back, bring us back…"
And then…
In a fraction of a second I feel a strange pull around me, like a wave of blue energy shooting through everything.
Stunned, I squeeze my eyes shut.
When I open them…
I’m standing next to Ennio’s car, holding on to the open door, and behind me I hear his tense voice.
"If you go in there, you’ll die. They’ll shoot you."
