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Back A Fractured Infinity Save as PDF
Chapters (41)
  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. 1
  4. 2
  5. 3
  6. 4
  7. 5
  8. 6
  9. 7
  10. 8
  11. 9
  12. 10
  13. 11
  14. 12
  15. 13
  16. 14
  17. 15
  18. 16
  19. 17
  20. 18
  21. 19
  22. 20
  23. 21
  24. 22
  25. 23
  26. 24
  27. 25
  28. 26
  29. 27
  30. 28
  31. 29
  32. 30
  33. 31
  34. 32
  35. 33
  36. 34
  37. 35
  38. 36
  39. 37
  40. Acknowledgements
  41. About the Author

Let’s say Kaori and Figueiredo had dropped in through a second Envisioner on the moon. Two are just as probable as one in a universe, I guess, when either option is just shy of zero, unless the scientists on this lunar base had built a second one themselves. Or Figueiredo had a spare lying around. Either way, Kaori and Figueiredo had found Joel and the others he took with him when he’d exiled himself from the wolf pack. Joel told them that two other people had just dropped in there, too, according to Logan, and had made it to the hotel. Best that I can tell, Figueiredo and Kaori had already been on the moon while I’d been working with the Envisioner, thinking I was stalling them by opening dozens of portals. They’d already found me, but Figueiredo wasn’t making the same mistake twice and going in hot. He took a few days to haul in his tank and the Navy SEAL team and do a little recon before they stormed the hotel. And maybe Kaori had promised Joel—because Figueiredo would not give a flat fuck—that she’d take him and the rest of the wolf pack off this wasteland if he’d just lead them to me and Yusuf for a peaceful exchange. Because that alternate reality makes what really happened—Joel lifting an arm and shooting Logan square in the chest before he crunched through the snow one footstep closer—less awful. That someone you once loved could put you through such hell that the only relief you’d ever find was shooting him and peacing out of there.

Logan flopped backwards in the snow on his cape and looked up at the Earth as the hotel incinerated behind him.

31

GOLDILOCKS ZONE

I’d yammered on and on in my head about how I would do anything to save Yusuf. And Lady Pythia, one hand on the Wheel of Fortune, had clocked me with a wry smile and asked, Oh yeah? Prove it.

I killed to save him.

I waded out into the water of our pink sand beach and tried to cool my skin, half expecting steam to sizzle around me. The reflection of my face rippled across the water. The sunlight dazzled my eyes. No turning back now. I’d carry an echo of the Envisioner exploding wherever I went. I’d hear it when I closed my eyes. My first thought in the morning, what would hit me out of nowhere when I crossed streets would be, people are dead because of you. Yusuf shivered when I held him on the sand, even with the dry heat of the beach. We were safe now, I said, more for me than for him. His eyes crammed closed, his head replaying all the explosions and the screams. At least that’s what I figured, since mine was too.