Chapter 160 The Needle of the Source
The hardest thing about a key is knowing which door it was meant to stay locked.
The locket felt heavy against my skin, pulsing like a second heart. I pried at the hidden seam. It clicked. Inside, resting on a bed of velvet, was a needle. It wasn't silver. It was made of a material that looked like frozen light.
"The Pure Source," I whispered.
"Cassia, look out!" Sarah screamed.
Evan or the thing that wore his face swung the silver spear. The liquid metal hissed through the air. It sliced through the stone pillar next to my head as if it were butter. Dust and grit rained down on me.
"Evan, stop!" I cried, holding the needle up. "I know you're in there!"
The girl in the white dress perched on his shoulder. She looked at the needle, and for the first time, she looked afraid. "That is the tether, Cassia. If you use that, you'll snap the thread that keeps him in this world. He'll be a ghost. An echo."
"He's already an echo!" I shouted.
The lead wolf lunged again. He didn't care about the needle or the girl. He wanted to end the threat. He slammed into Evan, his teeth sinking into the shadow-flesh of Evan's arm.
Evan didn't bleed. He radiated a cold, black smoke that made the wolf yelp and fall back.
"The city is falling," Sarah said, grabbing my arm. She pointed upward.
The white tile of the laboratory ceiling was spider-webbing with cracks. The sound of Manhattan's traffic above was being replaced by the sound of grinding stone. A subway car from the line above crashed through the roof at the far end of the hall, half-buried in the floor.
"If we don't leave, we die here," Sarah urged. "And the Primordial walks out in Evan's body."
"I'm not leaving without him," I said.
I didn't run away. I ran toward the chaos.
The girl in white raised her hand, and the white roots of the Great Oak burst through the floor tiles. They twisted like snakes, trying to trip me. I jumped over them, my wolf instincts guiding my feet.
Evan looked at me. The gold in his eyes was fighting the black. "Cass... run..."
The girl slapped him across the face. "Silence, vessel! The merger is almost complete."
I reached the cage. I leaped, my claws digging into the metal bars. I climbed until I was level with them. The needle was between my teeth.
"Get away from him!" I muffled the words.
The girl lunged at me, her fingers turning into sharp, white thorns. She raked them across my cheek. I felt the heat of my own blood.
But I didn't stop. I grabbed her by the throat. She felt like cold marble.
"You don't belong here," I growled, spitting the needle into my hand.
"If you stab him, he forgets you!" the girl hissed, her face contorting into something ancient and terrifying. "He becomes a blank slate! Every kiss, every memory of the valley... gone!"
I looked at Evan. He was staring at me. In that split second, the black shadow receded from his eyes. He looked at the needle. He knew what it was.
"Do it, Cassia," he whispered. His voice was his own. Raw. Human. "Save the boy. Save yourself."
"I can't lose you," I said, my heart breaking.
"You won't lose me," he said, a small, sad smile touching his lips. "I'll just be waiting for you to tell me our story again."
The wolves were screaming. The ceiling was coming down in giant slabs. Sarah was fighting a Board construct near the exit.
The choice was a knife in my chest.
I looked at the girl in white. She prepared to dive into Evan's heart, to vanish into his blood forever.
"I'll remember for both of us," I whispered.
I lunged. I didn't stab the girl. I stabbed Evan, right through the center of the shadow on his chest.
The light that erupted from the needle was blinding. It wasn't white; it was violet, the color of the Source. It filled the laboratory, the tunnels, and my very soul.
The girl in white let out a high, thin scream as she was ripped away from Evan. She dissolved into white petals, scattered by the force of the light.
Evan’s body arched. The silver spear turned back into liquid and splashed harmlessly on the floor.
Then, the world went dark.
I woke up to the smell of salt and old wood.
I wasn't in the Subterra. I was on the deck of a boat. The city skyline was a distant, glowing line on the horizon.
"Cassia?"
I turned. Sarah was standing over me. She looked tired, but her eyes were kind. She held a blanket out to me.
"We got out," she said. "The tunnel collapsed. The Board... the Investors... they're buried under half of Fifth Avenue."
"Evan?" I scrambled to my feet. "Where is he?"
Sarah pointed to the bow of the boat.
He was sitting on a crate, looking out at the water. He was wearing a simple wool coat. He looked healthy. He looked human.
I ran to him. "Evan!"
He turned around. He looked at me, and my heart soared. Then, he frowned.
"I'm sorry," he said. His voice was polite. Empty. "Do I know you?"
The needle had worked. The Primordial was gone. But so was the man who had loved me in the rain.
"I'm Cassia," I said, my voice shaking. "I'm... I'm a friend."
"Cassia," he repeated. He tasted the name like it was a foreign language. "It’s a beautiful name. Why are you crying?"
I wiped my eyes and looked at the horizon. "Because the storm is over."
"And the baby?" he asked, looking at the bundle in Sarah's arms. "Is he yours?"
"He's ours," I said.
Evan looked at Leo. He reached out a hand and touched the baby's golden fuzz. He smiled, the same smile he had in the valley.
"He's a handsome little fellow," Evan said. "What's his name?"
"Leo," I said.
"Leo Thorne," Evan said, nodding. "It has a good ring to it."
Sarah walked over and handed me the baby. She looked at me, a silent question in her eyes. Are you going to tell him?
I looked at the city we were leaving behind. I looked at the man who had given everything to save me, even the memory of who I was.
"We have a long journey ahead of us, Evan," I said. "Would you like to hear a story?"
"I'd love to," he said, sitting down beside me. "Where does it start?"
"It starts with a photographer, a violin, and a secret hidden for a thousand years," I began.
But as I spoke, I noticed something.
A black car was waiting on the pier where we were heading. A man in a top hat stood next to it. Mr. Vance.
He wasn't looking at me. He was looking at the baby.
And in his hand, he held a small, silver whistle.
Has the Board really been destroyed, or have we just moved the game to a new board?