The Leveller - Julia Durango Page 0,49
glancing at the Black.
Wyn ignores this. “We’ll go together on the count of three,” he says, taking my hand.
“No way,” I argue, pulling him away from the hole. “I’ll go by myself. If it does work and I get out of here, I’ll come right back for you, I promise. If it nukes my noggin instead, well, at least one of us will still have a working brain to figure out Plan B.” Wyn doesn’t think this is funny. “I should be the one to take the risk,” I insist.
He holds my gaze. “I don’t want . . . you shouldn’t have to do this. Not for me.”
I know he’s trying to say more than the words coming out of his mouth.
I shake my head and try to pull off the same magic trick, to say the things I want to say, but don’t have time for.
“There are only a few people I would do it for—and since you’re the one I happened to be trapped here with—”
“But, I—”
“Think, Wyn,” I say, cutting him off. “What if I do get kicked back to the Landing? I know exactly how to get through the Maze now, exactly how to defeat the enemies. I can be back in a flash. You? It will take you forever to fight your way through, and I don’t have that kind of time.”
Wyn finally rewards me with a small smile. “Hey now, pretty full of yourself, aren’t you, Nixy Bauer?”
“Only when I know I’m right.”
Wyn rubs his lips together, then nods. “Okay, I concede. But go slowly, and if anything feels wrong then come right back out.”
“Roger that,” I say, swallowing the last bit of fear that’s been camped in my throat. No reason to be a scaredy-pants at this stage of the game. Not after everything I’ve been through.
Wyn is still holding my left hand, so I mentally brace myself and stick my right hand into the Black. I expect it to feel gelatinous inside, but instead I feel nothing, like I’ve just put my hand through a cloud. I wave my arm around for a second, feeling, reaching for I-don’t-know-what. A button would be nice, a big fat GAME OVER button, but I know that’s wishful thinking.
“All right, I’m going in,” I say. “You wait for me right here in Mama Beti’s house, okay?”
Wyn nods. “Good luck,” he says, but he doesn’t let go of my hand even when I try to tug it away.
“You’re going to have to let go of me at some point,” I say, smiling.
“I know,” he says, returning the smile, “but not until the very last second.”
This time it’s my turn to give him a good-bye wink, which I hope comes off as jaunty, and I step inside the Black.
UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE
HarperCollins Publishers
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THE WORLD GOES PITCH DARK. I CANNOT MOVE.
Terror seizes my heart.
The Black is all around me.
A single thought pulses through my brain.
Don’t breathe it in, can’t breathe it in, don’t let it get inside me.
I feel it, like a dense fog pressing up against my face.
I hold my breath, but it is no use.
I can feel it invading my body, creeping in through my nostrils, seeping through my pores.
I try to call out but my face is stone, unable to make a sound.
Dread.
The feeling floods through my brain.
I can’t move.
I am stone.
Every muscle, petrified.
And now the pain begins.
It starts in my lower body, like someone is holding a match to each one of my toes. I want to thrash, move away from the fire, but I’m paralyzed.
The burning licks up my legs.
I scream and cry. I beg for help.
No sound comes out of my mouth.
The fire is in my torso now. The heat is melting my organs, incinerating my bones.
The pain consumes me.
NO! Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop!
I am burning alive.
Another moment and the heat will reach my brain.
And I will be dead.
UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE
HarperCollins Publishers
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“NIXY!”
I am stone, I am dead.
“Nixy, wake up! Please, look at me!”
I feel a hand on my face, stroking my cheek.
“Please . . .”
I see color through my eyelids. The darkness is gone. I try to open my eyes, but the lids are so heavy, leaden, I can only lift them a sliver.
“That’s it! Come back, come back to me.”
The hand is running through my hair now. I remember someone doing this to me when I was younger, when I was alive. Someone who loved me.
Mom?
I come back to myself in a rush, a tidal wave.