“No,” my August protests. “I’m key to this. The next rift, to the next world, the tear—it opens wherever I am. It follows me.”
There’s a sweet sympathy about Shashi when she answers, “You’re the friction point, the thing that doesn’t belong. But you, personally, can’t hold back the tide. The wave is too powerful, and without your existence creating a weak spot between worlds, it will just rip one open elsewhere. It will keep inflating, punching into one universe after another, destroying them as it tries to find stasis.”
“Stasis?” I throw the word out like it might solve the whole problem.
But August’s voice when he responds is apologetic. “That’s basically what I’ve been searching for. The coffee cup big enough to hold all the coffee.”
“That’s exactly where you’re going wrong,” Shashi says, and his brow shows both irritation and intrigue while he falls quiet to let her speak. “What you need is an equal and opposing force. Something that will push back against the wave you’ve created.”
“I mean… I have thought of that…” The other August steps forward, leaning over my August’s shoulder to look at the calculations. My August grimaces at him and talks on. “But with nowhere to go, I’m pretty sure it will just create an enormous explosion, fuck the whole thing up even worse.”
Assassin August nods down at the paper, referencing one of Shashi’s calculations. “Not if you have somewhere for the energy to go. If you could smash it back through, back the way you came…”
My August hisses out half a laugh. “I can’t open a new portal back the other way. I mean… in theory, I could, but you’d need a particle accelerator. I’m not sure even the one you’ve got in Switzerland in this world is up to the job. That’s if we could get enough time with it, rework it to isolate Blackthorne particles.”
Assassin August slightly shrugs his shoulders. “Can someone untie me?”
“No,” August and I both reply at the same time, and I wonder if he’d also forgotten Assassin August is still restrained with Jon’s belt.
Jon, who’s been quietly by Assassin August’s side the whole time, suggests, “I can hold your tea for you to drink.” He accompanies the frankly bizarre suggestion with a grasp of the still-hot cup.
“No.” August pulls back from the sloshing drink, yet finds the time for a half smile at Jon. “That’s very kind. But the belt kind of hurts. And my shoulder’s itching. But also, I have a particle accelerator in my pocket.”
“You have a what?” August cries.
Meanwhile, Amber makes a choking sound, Jon’s and Amber’s eyes lock, and the two make a pretty pathetic show of trying to hide their laughter at the comment.
I’m somewhere in the middle of this. It is kind of funny. Also,what the fuck?
“I have a particle accelerator in my pocket,” August repeats, evidently not seeing the humour. “How do you think I got here?”
“Rode my coattails?” August jibes.
“You wish,” Assassin August snipes. “My science is so much more advanced than yours.”
“Only because you were literally born in a lab,” August returns childishly.
“Can I see the accelerator?” Shashi asks.
“Can I get it for her?” Jon asks.
“I will,” I suggest. He is, after all, me.
But Assassin August’s head turns towards Jon with another smile. “He can do it. Front right pocket.”
“Should I scratch your itch first?” Jon’s already rubbing a hand over the rise of August’s shoulder.
Assassin August lets out a groan that makes most of us blush. “Ahhh, that’s so good. Back a bit.”
“Here?”
“Down.”
“Here?”
“Yeaaaaahhh, that’s the spot.”
Jon sucks his bottom lip under his teeth while the new August sighs over his fingers, and this is fucking appalling.
