“Your lightning disrupts magical frequencies,” he tells me, flipping straight into battle mode. “Throw as much as you can up at the dome. I’ll scatter the heat with wind. Then I’ll count to three, and we’ll strike.”
I nod slowly and reach for my magic. It’s there, waiting, silver electricity crackling to life across my skin.
“One.”
Logan’s hands rise, wind spiraling around his palms.
“Two.”
Evie’s heat shield gets brighter and hotter, and my lungs are starting to seize.
“Three.”
My lightning erupts outward in a crackling web of silver, tearing through the thermal barrier, creating gaps in the shield.
Logan’s wind rushes through those gaps and scatters the heat, pushing it away in a concentrated blast that makes the shield sputter and die.
Evie stumbles, the dome collapses, and just like that, I can breathe again.
In. Out. In. Out. You’re alive. You’re still alive.
The deck goes quiet.
Evie’s standing with her hands raised and smoking. Her chest is heaving, tears streaming down her face.
She’s looking at me like she realizes what she almost did.
No—what shediddo, in another timeline.
I open my mouth to say something. Her name, maybe. OrI’m sorry,even though I know she won’t accept it.
Nothing comes out. Because I’m looking at my best friend, and all I see is the girl who killed me.
“I’ll never forgive you,” she says, steady and quiet, calm in the worst possible way. “I don’t care if we survive this. I don’t care what happens after. I willneverforgive you. Ever.”
She turns and walks to the far end of the boat, not looking back. Kieran sheathes his blade and follows her, moving with the kind of certainty that tells me Evie will never be alone in her grief, whether she wants company or not.
As I stand there watching her go, Logan’s words replay in my mind.
She killed you. In another timeline, she killed you.
And I know I’ll never be able to look at her the same way again.
30
JADE
“Mortals.”
The Seer of Consequence steps forward, his ancient eyes sweeping over our broken group.
“The truths have been spoken. Judgment is complete. None among you chose death for another, which means you have passed our trial, and the gate will open.”
Relief should hit me, but it doesn’t, since apparently we only passed the trial because none of us murdered each other after being pitted against each other by the Geryon.
That’s not a victory. That’s a baseline for being human, and half of us barely cleared it.
“But before you pass...” The Seer’s eyes find mine, and my stomach drops. “A final observation.”