Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 144277 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 721(@200wpm)___ 577(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144277 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 721(@200wpm)___ 577(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
“Just a baby, you are. But so, so desperate to break free. I almost had you, didn’t I? You liked it, didn’t you? All the girls I bring up here are the same, and you are no different, Jasina Bell. You’re all a bunch of little down-city whores who grew up with nothing but big dreams of pretty dresses, and accounts filled with coin, and lazy days where your every whim is satisfied.”
Finn gets to his feet, but he doesn’t look the least bit recovered. He’s gasping for breath, hunched over, barely able to stand. And he’s pulling on me.
Looking for spark that isn’t there.
“The offer stands,” Xi says. Then he pans a hand at the bodies all around him. “This is the Game of Gods, after all. Players gonna play.” Then he laughs. “You and Finn just took out all my rivals. I will rule the Medians like a tyrant from now on, thanks to the two of you.”
I am gathering my strength, just about to respond, when Finn says, “I’m not done yet.”
Xi laughs.
And I’m thinking the same thing. Yes, Finn. You are. Because I’ve got nothing left to power you.
But Finn raises his head, looks Xi in the eyes, and spits blood onto the now less-shiny black-glass platform. “I still see one last piece of shit standing.”
He pulls on me again, looking for power. I can feel his desperation. Hear his thoughts. Just a little more, Jasina. Just a little bit more—I got this.
I try, I really do, but there’s truly nothing left but drops.
Finn takes them, just as he takes a step towards Xi.
“SHUT DOWN,” Xi commands.
Finn takes another step, spitting out more blood. “User response blocked,” he whispers. “Override request denied. Operator remains conscious.”
“Jasina!” Xi yells. “Listen to me now. This was a very good demonstration of power, but the test protocol is over! I will disable him,” he threatens. “I will turn him off, and put him away, and you will be all alone in this world.”
Finn takes another step. Growls, “No, she won’t,” and takes one more. Still pulling on me. It hurts now. Bad. I feel like I’m unraveling from the inside out. Like I’m literally about to come apart.
Xi backs up two steps. “You, and that baby of yours, will live penniless, lonely, and painful lives in the Factory Dimension. Forever regretting the day you crossed the great god, Xi.”
And the moment I hear that word, ‘baby’, things shift.
A light inside me. A tiny glimmer of life. Something… created.
Something… female.
Someone who, even at this tender age of less than zero, has spark inside her.
I will burn in Hell for what I do next. Burn for all eternity.
But I will do it anyway.
Because there can be no baby if there is no mother.
And I will not—will not—live as a factory slave to a god in any tower, let alone one I don’t even have loyalty to.
I’d rather die trying than be that.
So I do the unthinkable.
I steal her spark.
Push it to Finn.
And Hell answers back with open arms.
42 - CLARA
Icome out of the emptiness to chanting.
Please. Please. Please.
It’s a prayer in my head.
Begging.
Then, I open my eyes.
Haryet stands before me. Floating in a mist of cyan-blue spark. Made entirely of spark threads, the chain of Maidens behind her. Her hand, reaching for mine.
Please.
I am empty. But I don’t have to be.
This is the message that Haryet delivers. She points to my arm, floating up next to me until she can touch it. Immediately, a symbol appears. The same symbols that first showed up on my hands when I was nothing but a Little Sister.
First, my palms. Then the backs of my hands. Then my wrists, and finally, on Imogen’s Extraction night, before any of this madness ever started, the spark inside me leaked out as light all the way up to my elbows.
Once I met Tyse, this went further. Sometimes, they cover my whole body.
When she pulls her finger off my skin, the mark disappears.
“What are they?” I ask Haryet. “Do you know?”
She smiles, nodding. Then points to herself. I’m shaking my head, not understanding. Then she holds up this same finger and spark spools out of her like thread.
I hate that word now. Needles and thread!
But I shake that feeling of dread off, and try to concentrate on what she’s telling me. She’s got a message. That’s why she’s here.
Her thread hovers in the air, weightless. Then begins to come towards me. As soon as the thread touches the skin on the top of my wrist, there’s a hissing sound. Then intense burning as Haryet sears a mark into me.
The same mark she just showed me a minute ago.
The same mark that tagged the Factory women.
A mark that has always been there—under the right circumstances.
“They’re names,” I say. “I get it now.”