exacting as the Consort. It’s natural to want people to be binary, Del. Good or evil, right or wrong. But people are like pivots—at any given moment, there are a million possibilities in play. Their choices illuminate who they are.”
“So the ends justify the means? They can manipulate kids and sacrifice dads and abandon families, and we’re all supposed to say, ‘Well, it’s for a good reason’?”
She looked out the window to the garage. “I ask myself that every day. I don’t think they do it lightly. The Consort adheres to a single rule: the Key World above all else. Everything else is insignificant. They don’t even have to think about it—fighting entropy is their sole consideration. The Free Walkers don’t have the luxury of indifference. They believe each life matters, Del. Walkers, Originals, Echoes. Balancing the needs of the three means every single choice puts someone in danger. There are no perfect solutions.”
“Only less horrible ones.”
She inclined her head.
“Enough philosophy,” said Original Simon. “You wanted to talk, so talk.”
I hugged Amelia carefully. She looked better than the last time I’d seen her, but she moved gingerly, as if the world was filled entirely with sharp corners and hard edges.
“I’m glad you’re safe,” she whispered, and released me.
“Ladies first,” Original Simon said mockingly. I reached for the closest pivot and held out my hand. The brush of his fingers against my palm was gentle, but when I turned back, his face was stony as ever.
The Walk was smooth, depositing us in an empty kitchen with a lightly trilling pitch. “We shouldn’t stick around here,” he said. “In case I come back.”
I nodded, and he led the way outside. “What did you want?”
“Did you know the Free Walkers drugged me?”
His eyebrows lifted. “Glucose solution. To rebalance your brain chemistry after the frequency poisoning.”
“Sugar water doesn’t knock people out.”
He considered this. “I wouldn’t put it past them. But they didn’t do it when I was there.”
Memory stirred. “When you brought me to base camp, what did you do?”
He slid his hands in his pockets, as if he was sulking. “Brought you in. Decided I’d stick around to make sure the medical team stabilized you. Then I left.”
Not according to my Simon. “That’s it?”
“That’s it,” he said. “So, you and Rose are butting heads, huh? Wish I could have seen it. What’s the problem?”
“She wants to send me to the First Echo.” He didn’t break stride. “Which you knew.”
“We’d discussed it,” he said.
“And you agreed I should sit at the little kids’ table?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Can you cauterize a world?”
“I can tune. How different can it be?”
“Can you fight Consort guards in hand-to-hand combat?”
I flushed, but responded, “I did okay during Monty’s escape.”
“Can you fire a gun? Have you ever touched a gun?”
“Do Tasers count?”
He threw up his hands. “What did you expect? You’re a newbie, Del. You’re a newbie with an impulse-control problem, and they’re not going to let you in until you earn it.”
So I was an outsider. Again. An outsider among outsiders, and I was beginning to wonder whether Simon and I should stay outsiders. We could leave both the Consort and the Free Walkers and try life on our own. I couldn’t tell if the skip in my pulse was fear or excitement.
We’d arrived at my Echo house, either by accident or design, and the familiar sight brought a wave of homesickness down on me. Before I could get too nostalgic, I forced myself to remember why I’d come back. I sat on the front steps, leaned my head against the pillar.
“I’m guessing you’re in on the plan to take over CCM.”
He sprawled out next to me. “Yeah. Finding the First Echo was the last piece of the puzzle.”
“It’s going to be a bloodbath,” I said.
“Not if we get our message out.”
“Can’t you talk to Rose? Convince her there’s another way?”
“Why would I?” He stared at me, aghast. “You seem to be confused about the goal here, Del. The Consort are the bad guys. They’re the mass murderers. They kill their own people rather than allow a whisper of dissent. They killed my dad. If you think I’m going to beg the Free Walkers to go easy on them, you need more sugar, because you have scrambled your goddamn brain.”
“What if it doesn’t work?”
“Then we’ll go after the other Consorts.” he said. “Seventy-five people control the Walkers and the multiverse. Seventy-five. How many Echoes do I have? How many do the other hybrids? They can’t fight all of