“Is that… Clara, Finn? Kissing some man?”
It is. But not. It’s… like an outline of Clara made of spark. And she is kissing a man, also just an outline of blue spark—in fact everything is blue spark down there. I’ve processed this for barely a second when movement above draws my attention to a bubble of spark rising up past the dome of the Extraction Tower. There is a man floating in the middle of this bubble. The same man who is kissing my Clara in the apparition down below. Only he’s not an outline, he’s… likereal.
We lock eyes. His narrow. Then they suddenly light up—like there’s spark inside him.
And then, even from all the way up here and from behind glass, I begin to hear the crowd.
Dozens of people have gathered and all of them are watching Clara Birch kiss a man who looks nothing like the god I imagined inside that tower.
Who isn’t a god. Can’t be a god. Because my father just told me that there are no gods in the tower.
Did he actually say that? It’s… life-altering, this revelation. And yet, it’s like it hasn’t hit me yet. I can’t seem to make any sense of things. Especially thismanfloating out in front of my tower.
But he’s not a man, either.
My father made that clear as well. And even though his speech didn’t come with a picture of what this man is, I don’t need a picture.
Iknow.
Men who aren’t men, but something called augments.
He’s anaugment.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
Iknow it’s Anneetaat the door before Clara calls out, “Who is it?” and Anneeta answers, “It’s me.”
I know because the moment I open my eyes, the overlay is back. Not like it was the first time, but like it was last night when Clara and I were kissing outside the tower.
The spark is floating all around us like snow. It has a fairy-tale quality to it, but not the fluffy kind of fairy tale. Not the prince on a horse with a happy ending kind of fairy tale, but the dark ones. The ones where you know there’s witches in the forest and wolves waiting to eat you.
“Hold on, Anneeta.” Clara turns to me. Smiles. “Good morning.”
But I’m still in the overlay. Reliving last night when I was floating above the kiss Clara and I had outside in front of the tower ruin and the town down below wasn’t mine, but hers.
I saw him. Her Finn. He was in the top floor of the missing tower. Only, of course, it wasn’t missing in Clara’s city. He and a redhead girl were looking out the window that was tinted blue.And then I looked down and saw that the hundreds of people who were there in our world had dwindled to dozens in theirs.
And they could all, every single one of them,see us.
They saw us.
He watched us.HerFinn. As I kissedmyClara.
And then his eyes came up and met mine. He saw me too. Both of me. The one kissin’ her and the one floatin’ in the air looking down.
We looked right at each other. And I saw it in there. Themeanin him. I saw it.
That’s why, when Clara started telling her little story about how he treated her that last day, I went all hot with anger.
He wasmeanto her.
I thought he was a dick from the very beginning, but…meanto her? How the fuck could anyone be mean to this woman? She’s like a fuckin’ lion cub. She’s got power inside her that could probably destroy a fuckin’ city and she’s got no clue. None at all. It’s never even entered her mind that she might…dosomething with that spark that pours out of her hands like magic.
“Tyse?”
I blink and the overlay goes with it. “What?”
“Anneeta’s at the door. We should… get dressed?”
