Kane’s heart felt cramped yet powerful, as though a second heart beat within it. Out there, among the chaos, he could hear a solemn ringing. A hope, as clear as bells and as bright as lightning. His sister’s grace and strength. She was still fused to the fibers of this collapsing world, still alive and defending him. Even after he’d tried to hurt her.

Kane gave himself fully to his tears, but then remembered one by one the strengths of the people who had fought for him. He couldn’t return their sacrifices with only tears. He had to show them he had always been worth it.

“Where is Sophia?” he asked Dean.

“Below, somewhere. She and Poesy are vying for control of the reveries. Your sister must be very strong to have lasted this long.”

“And Adeline?”

“With Poesy. We need to help her and the Others. Adeline is…fading.”

Kane’s breath caught. The last time he’d seen Adeline, her body was broken. How long could a person last like that?

“Listen,” Dean said, focusing Kane. “If you have the chance to kill Poesy, you have to take it. I have lived my lives in worlds built by the pain and misery of other people. Poesy has a dream, and even if it is a lovely one, it is only hers. You can’t let her make it come true for everyone. You have to stop her.”

“But what about—”

“You have to stop her.”

Dean held Kane in his stare. Dean, the mystery personified, the paradox made man. Kane could see clearly how Dean might have been his whole world once upon a time. He thought maybe if they survived this, they could build something better after all. Kane hugged him tight. There was the scent of ash and sweat, and there beneath his armor, his cologne. Pine, or something close. Kane kissed him—their lips brushing only long enough for Kane to feel his breath pulled up from his lungs—and then it was time to make his choice.

Evade? Or interfere?

“I have an idea.”

Kane told Dean, and between the two of them, his idea formed into a plan. Dean gave him a stoic salute, then teleported away.

Alone in his nebula, Kane had space to breathe. He observed the unraveling world. Planets exploding and stars falling. Horizons fracturing and oceans boiling. Earth breaking and air rending. The city of Everest, rocked by its slow demolition, peeling apart in drowsy chunks as big as mountains.

Kane was small within the chaos. A simple pinprick of glittering defiance, all the way at the top of a busy, senseless oblivion. It was scary as hell, but there wasn’t any room left in him for fear. All his worst nightmares had come true, one after another, yet here was he was—exhausted and scared, yes—but alive. Hopeful. He had survived, and he would keep surviving.