raised—siphons cocked, as it were—aiming at Ziva, standing across from them.
Sloane coughed.
They were alive. They were safe.
Matt kept his siphon trained on Ziva, and Esther turned to point hers at Sloane.
“I can explain, obviously,” Sloane said once she could breathe again.
“You better fucking start,” Esther replied.
EXCERPT FROM
STORIES OF THE MULTIVERSE
by Rufus Egerton
Chicagoan, August 11, 1994
A man leaves his universe in search of adventure, and the unfiltered light of the sun through a torched atmosphere blinds him instantly.
A man leaves his universe in search of adventure, and he turns into a pile of ash because the heat of the parallel universe (at least three thousand degrees) causes his body to spontaneously combust.
A man leaves his universe in search of adventure, and he drowns in an ocean-covered planet. His body is devoured by opportunistic sea creatures.
A man leaves his universe in search of adventure, and he finds himself on a planet ravaged by nuclear war. He drinks contaminated water and dies.
A man leaves his universe in search of adventure, and he is murdered by cannibalistic post-apocalyptic scavengers for the meat of his flesh.
A man leaves his universe in search of adventure and he never finds his way back home.
41
NERO IS THE DARK ONE,” Sloane said. It seemed like a decent enough place to start.
Esther and Matt didn’t react at first. Sloane kept her body between them and Ziva, her arms held out from her sides. The river walk was empty, the sun only just setting. There was still time to get back to the Hall of Summons and document the internal mechanism of the siphon for Mox, still time to escape without Nero finding them. All she needed to do was convince her friends.
“Edda—who has a dislocated shoulder, by the way—said you were under some kind of . . . enchantment,” Matt said. Guilt surged in Sloane at the sight of him, though she didn’t want it to. There was no reason for it—she hadn’t betrayed him, hadn’t done anything she wouldn’t have done again given the chance to go back—but she felt it anyway. His eyes had a sharpness to them that they wouldn’t have had a few months ago.
But that, Sloane now recognized as an inevitability. Matt and Sloane had been living in a moment of held breath. The exhale had always been coming.
“And who told Edda that?” Sloane said. “Nero, obviously. Who, as I previously mentioned, is the Dark One.”
Esther was tilting her body so she could get a better look at Ziva. Her hair was up in a high ponytail. “Is that a zombie? Is it in your thrall or something?”
Ziva cleared her throat, making a sound like a rock polisher. “It’s rude to talk about someone like they aren’t there, flesh-bag.”
“Holy shit,” Esther said, eyes wide. She was shiny—quite literally; silver thread woven in with the black fibers over cowl-necked jacket, polished chrome in the siphon over her throat, a silver line on each eyelid.
“How do we know you’re not under the influence of something?” Matt said.
The pieces of the Needle made her hands, in fists at her sides, throb with energy. She still felt like she was underwater, and everything was close, right up against her.
Sloane didn’t know what to say. If they believed the Resurrectionist had warped her, then they’d think everything she said could be the result of it. Nero had ensured that they wouldn’t believe her. But she had to try.
“Last night, Nero sent me a message,” Sloane said. “It was my boots. From . . .” She gave Matt a pleading look. “You know when. The Dark One is the only person on two planets who could possibly have had them. I don’t know how he brought them here or why, and I don’t know how he survived and jumped into another universe when we supposedly killed him, but that seems to be what happened.” The doubt in Matt’s eyes made her scowl. “You’re the one who says that if you want to know who a person is, look at what they do,” she said. “Nero helped kidnap us and then lied about it. But Mox—the Resurrectionist, I mean—didn’t hurt me, even when he thought I was trying to kill him, and he took me to meet the prophet—”
“Wait,” Esther said. “Hot Praying Mantis is the Resurrectionist?”
“Hot what?” Matt asked.
Esther flapped a dismissive hand at him. “Was he following you or something?”
“Not exactly,” Sloane said. “Nero keeps summoning these Chosen Ones from other universes to fight him. He thought we were just