Release(51)

“We are too entwined.” There is fear in her voice now, and this shakes the faun more than any of the other cataclysms this day has contained. “I do not know where she ends and I begin.”

“Time will finish, my lady. This world–”

“This world’s walls will dissolve. And this world along with it.”

“And ours.”

She looks up to him, a regal set to her jaw that gives him hope, a resignation in her eyes that contradicts this–





–and there is a moment where she seems to vanish, to become as insubstantial as a breath of air, and she sees their home again, not just the lake, but this world entire, all the souls beating within it, all the longings and the lonelinesses, the spirit wrapped to her, the spirits who circle out from that one, the spirits spinning out from those and beyond and beyond and beyond, this world that thrums with a life constantly consuming itself and regenerating anew, this world she has been Queen of since before the memories of all but herself, she sees it all, past and forever, every soul that lives and could, the ones she killed, the ones she saved, and this soul, this soul, this spirit bound to her and of her and with her and in her, this spirit who pardoned her own murderer, this spirit who said no to that chain of destruction these creatures so regularly set themselves upon, and at the end, she sees herself, all of herself, in a single drop of blood, a single drop of blood on a day where destinies changed, a single drop of blood that started this all–



–she knows what to do. The only option left to her.

“Let us return to our home,” she says, certain that this is right. “Let us greet the end there.”

“My Queen–”

“I am your Queen,” she agrees. “And this is my wish.”

Time is so short that for a vertiginous moment, the faun considers arguing with her, demanding that she try harder, try to see all that is at stake–

“Will you take my hand?” she asks.

An offer never made in all the eternities he has served her.

It really is the end.

“Yes, my lady,” he says. “Let us return to our world and greet the end there.”

He takes her hand.





RELEASE





“So what’s going to happen?” Angela said, as they dipped their feet into the lake at the end of a small pier the party had expanded to accommodate.

“Always a million-dollar question,” Linus said on the other side of Adam. Little fish darted around in the frankly freezing water, even in late August. Frome wasn’t a town where a lot of open-air swimming got done.

“Which part?” Adam said. He was still holding the rose, had held it when he kissed Linus in the middle of the party, held it when the party kept spinning and the world didn’t end. He hadn’t even tried to catch Enzo’s eye, and that felt right, too.

“With your parents first,” Angela said. “You can always stay with mine if things get black. Always.”

“I know,” Adam said. “And I might. I’ll have to see. Maybe Marty will keep his word and be on my side.”

“Maybe he got an eyeful of what being the Prodigal Son actually looks like,” Linus said.

“But you’ve always got a place,” Angela repeated. “I mean it.”

“I know. Thanks.”

“What about the rest?” Linus asked.

“Well,” Adam said. “What have I got? I’ve got a few hours until I have to go home and face that mess. I’ve got a few days until I’m supposed to go back to work if I’m not fired. And I’ve got a week before Angela goes to Europe. Those aren’t the worst slots of time to live in, are they?”

“How about right now?” Linus said, nodding at the sun, setting on the horizon in front of them. “We’ve got a few minutes until the sun goes down.”

“And this day is over,” Adam said.

“And something new can begin?” Angela said, sceptical. “Am I the only one here who doesn’t live in a Mickey Mouse Club song?”

“Sometimes, Ange,” Adam said, “you just got to eat the corn and enjoy it.” He pulled his feet out of the water and stood up between them. “Anyone want anything? Cold pizza? More beer?”

“I kinda want a water,” Angela said.

“That sounds good,” Linus agreed.

“Look at us,” Adam said. “Teen party animals.”

“I think we’re pretty typical,” Angela said, nodding back to the party. Adam looked, too. Small groups of people talking, an odd sense of relief gently misting through everyone that the party was a friendly one, no one going over the top, or at least not in any way that didn’t seem right. He saw Renee and Karen talking to JD McLaren and laughing in an unguarded way. Enzo, in fact, was the only one who’d drunk too much and was looking miserable next to Nat as she, possibly with purposeful obliviousness, laughed with what Adam guessed were friends of hers.

“Wow,” Linus said, also looking. “Am I the only one who thinks Enzo’s new girlfriend–”

“I know,” Angela said. “Creepy, huh?”

Linus shrugged. “Maybe he’s just lost. Maybe we should feel sorry for him.”