Epilogue

Epilogue 3.32

---Em---

     We all stand by the rim of the volcano. None of us say a word. Gail is leaning against me. She feels fragile... weightless. I look around, and all I see is defeat. I try not to think about Colby, to think that I let him die when he didn't even... I shake my head. Somebody needs to be strong.

     "Why are we here?" I say, my voice cracking a little. Gail and Eloise continue to sob. Martha crosses her arms. Ace and Liluye keep a tight hold on Crawford, who's tried once already to toss himself into the volcano.

     Melody gives me a sympathetic look, placing a hand on my shoulder. I'm going to have to be the strong one, I realize.

     "We're here because we survived," I say. "Our worlds ended. We were the ones that made it. We're standing here now because... we're the ones who survived." I look at each of them, even though they don't look back at me. "Those of us who didn't make it... it's thanks to them that we got this far. They'd want us to see this thing through to the end. So that's what we're going to do."

     I walk up to the ledge and close my eyes. The rip is down there, somewhere. I just need to feel it out. I'm still not used to using ply. But with the siphoned off piece of Melody's soul, I should be able to...

     But there's nothing. If the rip is down there, I'm not able to sense it. And if I can't sense it, I can't open it.

     "I'll do it." Liluye steps forward. She's had to pick up my slack for some time now—ever since we left Valynar. I don't know what we'd have done without her. "I can feel the rip. We'll have to jump for it. If I go down first—"

     But before she can finish, a grinding screech fills the air. Strips of the sky tear away, as if the air were being shredded by a set of invisible claws. A putrid black goop dangles through the tears. The goop drips down, each drop wriggling and contorting until it has taken on the shape of a glowdark.

     Within seconds, we're surrounded by a swarm of them. They spin around us like a tornado, walling us in. Some of them shoot down into the volcano, pooling together into a swirl of glowing shadows that hovers just above the lava, the occasional claw poking through the amorphous mass.

     Melody screams, and I feel her aura ripple outwards. But that only annoys the glowdarks; they falter for a second and then tighten the circle, pushing us closer to the edge. I look at Liluye, but she shakes her head.

     "They're in between us and the rip," she says. "We can't—"

     "We have to!" Martha shouts. "We haven't got a choice!"

     Eloise clutches my leg, whimpering. A few of the glowdarks break free of the writhing mass, darting towards us.

     "It doesn't matter if we swallow a few!" I shout, remembering Comma's near brush with death. "They won't survive the jump to a live world!"

     "We don't know what's on the other side of that rip!" Melody shouts back. "We can't risk it!"

     But, suddenly, the glowdarks all come to a stop. One of them flies down to us and then spins around. A slit opens up along what I think is supposed to be its head, and it lets out a deafening, primordial screech, its voice occupying every possible pitch all at once, as if somebody went and hit every single key on an out-of-tune piano.

     The glowdark then dives down into the volcano. There's another screech—I have to plug my ears to keep my mind from shattering just at the sound of it. The volcano starts to shake. The lava churns below, and then a fountain of it erupts. A wave of heat hits me, and I feel as though I'm about the melt. The fountain of lava pushes the glowdarks up into the sky.

     The lava jet shoots up high above us and then just hovers there—there isn't any gravity left to bring it raining back down on us.

     Liluye and I stare down into the volcano. There aren't any glowdarks left hovering between us and the rip. Of course, there's a distinct possibility that the rip is submerged beneath the lava. But I'm trying not to think about that.

     The glowdarks start to torpedo towards us again, but the screeching glowdark—the one with the slit mouth—intercepts each one, deflecting them back into the cyclone. It wails at them, and some of them wail back.

     And then Gail starts to walk towards it, her eyes wide.

     "Gail! What are you..."

     She stares at the glowdark that saved us, her mouth hanging open. "Topher?" Has she lost it? But... no. There is something oddly familiar about that glowdark...

     "Come on!" Liluye shouts. "Now's our chance." She doesn't wait for confirmation that we've heard her—she dives headfirst into the volcano. The rip won't stay open for long. I grab Gail and drag her over to the mouth of the volcano. She doesn't fight, but she keeps her eyes locked on the glowdark that may or may not be Topher.

     One by one, we jump. Ace with Crawford. Then Martha. Then Melody.

     One more step...

     I leap over the edge, dragging Gail with me.

     The heat surges up all around me. The flames rip through my skin. I can feel my body burning, crumbling away into ash. The heat intensifies, and even my soul starts to burn. The heat continues to rise until my entire being is in flames.

     And then it's gone.