Chaos (Lanie Bross) - Lanie Bross Page 0,76

told him: how this was where the logic of the universe originated, the order and the time. A world laid out across a massive metal grid, hovering over an endless abyss. Only the steel grates beneath his feet kept him from plunging into the infinite nothingness below, and Luc could see gaps where the floor had already collapsed.

The fires from the Crossroad had reached this world as well. Horrified, Luc saw what Tess meant when she said he had endangered everything. Enormous gears grated and scraped with horrendous screeching sounds. Some of them stuttered and slipped before catching.

Corinthe had said Kinesthesia housed the heartbeat of the universe. If that was true, Luc knew the heart was on the verge of death.

Was that why the Crossroad had pushed him out here, to the center of everything in the universe? So he would witness what he had done?

Luc ducked behind a huge piston that pumped up and down with slow, rhythmic movements. His shirt stuck to his chest. Where was Tess? There was too much motion, too much sound. He couldn’t see her. She could be anywhere. He knew he couldn’t have left her behind. She was too fast.

The only way he knew out of this place was the door in the clock tower. Even from here, he could see it: the clock tower pointed to the sky like an accusatory finger. But the way he’d crossed the last time was blocked off. The narrow catwalk was made of rectangular metal grating: the two-by-six-foot sections soldered together formed a bridge that extended over the abyss, but it looked unstable.

He ventured out onto it. Still he didn’t see Tess. But she must be nearby. He knew she was. He inched farther down the catwalk, hoping to make it across.

“Stay where you are!” Tess’s voice rang out behind him.

He spun around. Tess had materialized, and she had her knife out now. She advanced on him purposefully. Luc backed up until he was balanced on the edge of the catwalk. White sparks spit below him. And beneath that: an endless fall.

Luc held out his hands. “Wait,” he said. His throat was dry. He needed to stall until he could figure out an advantage. “Just wait. I thought we were on the same side.”

Tess shook her head. “I’m on nobody’s side,” she said. “You’re fighting the will of the Unseen Ones, but they will win. They always win. Fighting them will just bring destruction—for you, for me, for everyone.”

“What about Rhys?” Luc said desperately. “He trusted you. Now you betray him by siding with the enemy?”

“Rhys is dead—as is Mira. None of the old alliances matter anymore. Survival matters, and we must maintain the balance.” She lunged at him then, and he sidestepped, but not fast enough.

Luc slammed against the railing of the catwalk, and the narrow section of grating they stood upon shuddered. Luc barely kept his footing. The bridge would collapse and he needed to move forward to solid ground. He turned to run, but Tess grabbed his foot and yanked him backward. He stared down through the metal grate into the infinite abyss below Kinesthesia. Tess rolled Luc over and pinned him, lowering her knife to his neck.

The metal on the far end of the catwalk creaked and bent, causing the rectangular area to tilt suddenly. Tess’s weight shifted and she fell backward. Her knife fell to the side and she scrambled for it, causing the catwalk to tilt even farther. Luc could see that the soldered portion that stitched the sections together would give soon. Sweat coated his face, matting his hair to his forehead.

If he could just kick it, would it be enough force to break it? He crouched low on the precarious walkway, looking over into the void.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Tess asked, clutching her knife. “The Tribunal imprisoned a Radical here, in a lonely cell that hung just above the abyss. The Unseen Ones sentenced him, but he escaped to Humana. He had help. Somehow, someone brought him a key.”

“Why should I care about some Radical?”

“Because your sister is with him right now.” Tess took a step toward Luc and the walkway shifted with a groan. “And Ford is reckless. He has no alliances.”

Ford.

The same name that Corinthe had mentioned in some future reality.

Ford had taken Jasmine.

A sick feeling grew in Luc’s throat. That was why Jasmine wasn’t in the future he’d found. Because this Ford Radical had killed her. Luc had to get back to San Francisco, had