half-paying attention. “All I did was love. Loved Rose, loved Del. Recognized the way Gil loved his boy, because it’s as much as I loved my Winnie. You wouldn’t know anything about it, because all you’ve ever loved is power, and the more you got, the greater you hungered. You destroyed entire worlds, Randolph, because it made you feel powerful. It wasn’t enough to touch the multiverse and listen; you had to control the strings.”
“And I do.”
“You forgot something,” Monty said. “Or maybe you never learned it.”
“What’s that?” Lattimer smiled, indulging him.
“We’re stewards, not gods. We don’t control the strings. They control us.” And with that, Monty’s hands curled and spasmed. Some kind of attack, I thought, until Lattimer fell to his knees, gasping.
“Turns out the boy is a weapon, Randolph. If it weren’t for his Echoes, I never would have figured it out.”
“Figured what out?” Addie asked.
“Grandpa?” I said.
“You can cleave a single life as easily as you can a world,” Monty said. “All you have to do is find the right string, and—”
“Montrose—” Lattimer wheezed, his own hands scrabbling helplessly in the air.
Monty twisted his wrist sharply. “—snap.”
Lattimer fell, face-first, into the concrete. He didn’t move again.
“Grandpa!” Addie said. “What did you do?”
“What needed to be done,” he said grimly. “How is he, Del?”
Blood pooled thickly around Original Simon and me. “We need a doctor. Addie, help me get him up.”
I slipped my good arm around his shoulder, but his face contorted and he slumped back.
“Hurts more’n I thought,” he panted.
“They’ll fix it,” I said. “Just hang on.”
“Can’t fix this.” He lifted a hand, shaking and ice cold, and touched my cheek.
I covered his fingers with my own, willing warmth into him. Willing life into him, even as the blood leaked everywhere. “It’ll be okay.”
“Del.” The words were soft now, slurred. I bent close, tears dripping, trying to hear him. “Rose . . . warned me.”
“Warned you about what?”
“If they didn’t believe . . . this was the only way.”
“But—”
“I didn’t mind. Not until I came here. Saw you. Saw my mom.” His lips brushed my cheek.
“I don’t understand! Simon, please. Please.”
“No time,” he said, each word painful, each word an effort. “For either of us. Cauterize me.”
“What?”
From the van there was a thud and a moan. “Del!” Eliot shouted. “We have a problem!”
“You’re not going to die,” I said, wishing I believed it. Wishing that words could make it true. If wishes were horses . . . “We’re going to fix you.”
“He’s the proof,” Simon wheezed. “An Echo without an Original. But you have to cauterize me first.”
“And then you’ll be okay?”
His laugh turned into a cough. “Not a chance. But they need him. It was always him.”
“And you . . .”
“Wished it was me. For all sorts of reasons.” He tangled his fingers in my hair. “Do it now, Del.”
Addie put her hand on my shoulder, and I looked up at her through my tears. “He’s unraveling. Your Simon. Go.”
I touched my lips to his forehead. “Don’t die.” I ordered.
“I’ll stay with him,” Addie said. “Hurry.”
I scrambled up and stumbled around the van. Simon was sprawled on the middle row’s bench seat, too tall and brawny for such a small space. I reached for him, then stopped.
“I don’t hear anything.”
“There’s a signal,” Eliot said, phone out, zooming in on Simon. “But it’s super faint.”
“Hey, you,” Simon said weakly. “Hell of a day.”
“Hell of a day,” I agreed, climbing inside. “How do you feel?”
“Not awesome,” he admitted. “Everything goes in and out, you know? Bad reception.”
His face was as gray as his Original’s, his eyes glassy and focused on something distant.
“It shouldn’t be happening this fast,” I said to Eliot.
He looked so sorry for me. “It’s because their signals are the same. Both of them are tied to this world; they’re in close proximity. It increases the rate of unraveling.”
I leaned over and kissed Simon gently, despite the silence. Felt the beating of his heart against my hand, the rhythm of my own pulse, as if we’d synchronized long ago.
“Simon, listen to me. If I cauterize your Original, it should stabilize you.”
He gave me a thumbs-up.
“But I haven’t done it before. None of us have. It’s a huge risk.”
The corner of his mouth quirked. “You love risk.”
“I love you.”
“Then who better to take a chance on?” He laced his fingers with mine. “You already got my heart. Might as well put the rest in your hands too.”
“But if I can’t . . .”
“Then you can’t. I’d rather