risks when I embarked on this course. I thought it was worth it. What is life without love? But now, I fear that the sacrifice might have been for nothing. There is a vast nothingness inside me. Who am I if not a Radical?
Luc closed the book and the voice fell abruptly into silence. The longing, the pain in Rhys’s voice was too much. Rhys spoke about cold—was that why Luc had been driven to this freezing world? Had Rhys’s book somehow guided him here, to this vast and empty place?
What is life without love? A good question. Luc thought of the bittersweet kiss he and Corinthe had shared, their first and last. How her eyes had lit up like two suns. How finally, at last, he’d felt a sense of belonging.
Failure was not an option. A popular mantra that Coach had them repeat before every game.
Luc flipped through the pages, hoping there was something about the tunnels of time, about how to go back.
Time does not move forward. It moves in different directions and can be created, manipulated, and altered. A single change can ripple across the whole universe, generating change in every world.
It is power like nothing I’ve ever felt. I’ve succeeded where even the Unseen Ones have no control.
Controlling these combinations however, is next to impossible. I did it, but it cost dearly. I am only a shadow now, cast out, weak.
My love lives on, but each day I grow weaker, closer to death.
Luc swallowed against the wedge of emotion lodged in his throat. Rhys had seemed happy when they met, sailing the Ocean of Shadows, tending to the needs of the Figments—but it had been only a mask.
Did everyone have secrets? Luc wondered. Corinthe had hidden behind an idea of Fate. His mom had hidden within the comfort that drugs could give her. His father had chosen the bottle.
Luc flipped through the pages. He knew that going back in time was possible—the book proved that Rhys had done it—but it didn’t say how.
Blank pages rustled in the quiet, but Rhys’s voice had stopped speaking.
“Come on,” Luc muttered.
“That doesn’t belong to you.”
The voice came out of nowhere. For a split second, Luc thought the book had spoken in a voice that was not Rhys’s. Then Tess moved out of the shadows, becoming solid as she approached him. He could tell she was tired. Her form seemed more fluid than it had earlier, as if she couldn’t bother to keep it together.
But her eyes were dark. Wild. Urgent. Wounded, too. Maybe she’d been hurt in the fight with whatever those things were—those shadow figures who’d attacked in the library.
“It’s not yours, either.” Luc slowly pushed to his feet, never taking his eyes off Tess. He shut the book and tucked it under his arm. Wind howled through the trees, picking up snow and swirling it around them. It was as if Tess’s presence had attracted the wind.
“It’s mine more than anyone’s,” Tess said. “Rhys gave me life. His energy created me, and now that energy is all that’s left of him and it’s in that book. I want it back.”
Now Luc understood the wounded look. She was grieving, like he was. “If you’d just help me, I wouldn’t need it,” he said. His breath condensed in the air. Slowly, he tucked the book back into his backpack and zipped it closed. The only way she’d get the book was by agreeing to help him or taking it by force. Tess watched him like a predator, her muscles tense like she was waiting for him to try to escape. Like she would pounce and tear him to shreds at the slightest movement.
But she didn’t move. She only said, “I can’t help you, because you don’t understand what you’re trying to do. This isn’t a game. Time is not a toy to be played with. By changing one small thing, it could ripple outward and disrupt the universe. Are you willing to take that chance? And what do you think will happen to your world? The safety of everyone you know would be gone, because you think you’re in love.”
“I am in love,” Luc corrected her. “And yes, it’s worth the risk. I’m not scared.” Luc hoped he was doing a good job of bluffing. He was deathly afraid. But he wouldn’t screw up. Failure was not an option. He would bring the universe back, restore it to what it had been before Corinthe died, in balance and intact.
Everyone wins.
Tess