Hades’ face blurs out, and I go under.
“No!” I scream as I watch him drop.
The fall takes forever.
Boone’s horrified eyes never leave my face, even when he hits the spikes.
“Boone!” I shout again.
“Lyra!” Hades is calling me, pulling me back to him.
Hades, who has been here with me every time I come out of the nightmare into a different one. Hades, who hasn’t left my side.
I stop thrashing in my sleep, still breathing hard, but the worst is over. I don’t know how many times I’ve relived it now. It feels like a thousand. And, gods, I feel like shit.
“Boone is dead,” I manage to whisper around a throat as dry as the Mojave Desert.
“I’m right here, Lyra-Loo-Hoo,” Boone says from somewhere close by.
I whimper at the sound of that voice saying that name. My heart tumbles over itself. I’m dreaming. Hallucinating. Or Morpheus is playing a cruel trick, taunting me.
“I’m real,” Boone says. “Don’t be a coward. Open your eyes and find out.”
It takes gargantuan effort, as if my eyelids are welded shut, but I manage to pry them open. I’m in a dimly lit room. Mortal machines are hooked up to me and beeping. My body is still on fire—not the good kind—and still hurts like hells, and generally I feel like the walking dead. Or supine dead, as the case may be.
But I don’t care.
Hades is sitting beside my bed, holding my hand.
And Boone is standing at the foot…looking right at me with that big, cocky grin of his. “Hey,” he says.
79
Try Everything
A laugh bursts out of me, somewhere between relief and shock and joy. Only it sends a jagged pain through my belly, and I wince. “Don’t make me laugh.”
He snorts. “All I said was hey.”
“And grinned.” My face twists all up, holding back tears. “I didn’t think I’d get to see that again.” I glance at Hades. “Did you get Zeus to make him a god? I don’t have to win now?”
The look I get in return is a thousand layers of regret. “I asked. He wouldn’t do it. The Daemones said it was interfering in the Crucible,” Hades says.
I frown. “But—” I look closer at Boone, and… Oh gods… He’s see-through. Not like dream Boone. This is different. He’s a ghost. A soul.
He’s still dead.
“You said it wasn’t good if he saw me now.” The whisper comes out harsh, an accusation aimed directly at Hades, but I don’t take my gaze off Boone.
“You needed me.” Boone tips his head. “You kept calling out for me in your sleep. So I came.”
“But what if you get confused? What if you want to go back and get trapped?” I need to get up and push him out of the room.
“I’m fine,” Boone says.
Hades makes a gesture off to the side—hiding it from me, I think—and Boone glances his way. “I can’t be here much longer. I need you to listen.”
After a moment of fighting back my overwhelming tumult of emotions, I manage to nod.
“I need you to do something for me, Lyra.”
I nod, the movement making my head spin. “I know. Win.”
“No.” He shakes his head. “I need you to fight, for you. I don’t want to see you down here with me. Not yet. Do you hear me? Stop worrying about me. I’m fine.” His smile is both real and forced. “Better than fine. But you’re going to die if you don’t let me go and try to live.”
“No—”
“Let me go. I’ll see your face again in about eighty years, after you’ve had a long life.” He’s fading away.
“Boone—”
“Promise me you’ll live, Lyra.” His voice is coming from far away. “Promise.”
“I promise.” I swallow. “And I’ll see you sooner than eighty years. I’ll win the Crucible. It’s in the bag.”
