Page 112

As I speak, the words begin to change the oppressive frequency that’s been weighing me down. A strong wind sweeps through the room, just like it did in the glade, and I feel myself start to lift.

Paul’s eyes widen and then narrow.

‘You don’t know what you’re doing. You can’t jutht leave. You’ll abandon your lover to an eternity of mithery?’ He tries to manipulate me. His words feel like a rope, but his noose is useless. I slip from his hold and gather strength in the freedom I’m taking back.

‘No.’ I grab Walker by his wrist. His tattoos come to life beneath my fingers. That same green I saw in his eyes, almost lights the room as it shines beneath his skin, electric and beaming with vibrance. ‘I’m taking him with me.’

Paul crawls manically over the theatre chairs to try and reach us.

‘Why? Becauthe that’th what they told you?’

In a last-ditch effort to keep us tethered, he grabs my ankle and holds on. But the force of whatever it is pulling us away is too strong. The room fades and the winds surrounding us become a tunnel of travel. Where we’ll end up, I don’t know. But I know I’m not leaving Walker here.

‘They’ll never let you into the North Star, Roman! They’re even bigger liarth than we are! You’ll never make it there; you’ll never be at peathe!’

‘Shut the fuck up, Paul!’ This time when I kick away from him, I accidentally get him in the jaw, and he flails like a beach umbrella in a hurricane.

I grimace. ‘Sorry!’

‘It’th okay, I detherved that!’ Paul falls away into a spiralling abyss.

The winds become stronger, the waves of frequency higher, and through it all, I hold tight to Walker.

‘Don’t let go.’

‘I’m not good enough, Miller,’ he says. ‘I’ll only drag you back.’

‘I don’t care. You’re mine,’ I say. Even if it’s only for a handful of moments. I grab both sides of his face, and I kiss him like love alone will hold us. I kiss him like I can forge our souls together and bind us into one. I kiss him, uncaring if I don’t. It’s us, or it’s nothing.

Walker grips onto my waist and pulls me close, he kisses me like it’s our last. I’ve never been one for foresight. I don’t see it coming, not until it’s happening. Our eyes open and I watch the exact second he lets go.

We fall through eternity, untethered.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

The Funeral

There’s about a million and one things I’d like to do when we stop falling, but the first is…

Thud.

‘Ow.’ Walker rubs his shin.

‘First of all – you idiot.’ I could scream. ‘You could have died.’

‘Already de⁠—’

‘Don’t start,’ I warn. ‘And second⁠—’

Thud again.

‘Ow!’ Walker rubs his other shin.

‘Is it true?’

We landed in the eternal fields as messily as we’d exited them. The place is absolute carnage. Stars, what did him and Hardy do? And speaking of Hardy, where the heck is he?

‘Is what true?’ Walker pats me down, fixes my clothing and picks astrodust from my hair. I shrug him off.