Page 103 of A Liar's Twisted Tongue

“Are you in the void?” I have to know. She looks at the hand that I’m holding. “Can you feel me?” I ask.

“Yes,” she says. “Yes to both.”

“The Arcanes are real?” my voice cracks.

“You can’t come for me,” she says.

“Is this what we were running from?” I ask, my entire childhood flashing before my eyes. Every time we ran, leaving our entire lives behind just to do it all over again. I cough quickly, then say, “I was supposed to ask you about a weapon you made.”

She looks up fast. It’s almost like she could be looking at me. “Who’s asking?”

“The prince of Soma.”

“What does he know?” she asks softly.

“I’m not actually sure,” I say, coughing again. Mom looks away, eyebrows scrunched down, lips turned around. “Mom? What does the weapon do?”

She blinks like she is in pain. “If we had powered it properly, we predicted it would be able to shred the fabric of whatever universe we used it against.” She looks up, almost at me. So close to my eyes. “But it wasn’t, and it never will be.”

I cough again, and this time it’s hard to catch my breath. “That’s why we always ran?”

“Yes.” Her head jerks up. “Desdemona, go back. Now.”

I clutch onto her hand tighter, only to realize that I can’t feel it anymore. “I miss you,” I say. Our time is running out. “I miss you so much.”

“And I miss you,” she says. “But you can’t come looking for me.”

“Mom—”

“Promise me!”

My hand slips through hers entirely and water gurgles up my throat, dribbling out my mouth and over my chin. “Mom?” I try to say, but the words are muffled.

“Aibek!” Liquid keeps coming from my mouth, and I keep coughing until I can’t breathe and my lungs burn. “Aibek?” I try to call for him, but it sounds like I’m talking underwater.

Because I am underwater.

Chapter 21

The Things That Break Are Never Fixed

LUCIAN

Physical strength can and will be reduced to nothing without the strength of the mind. Mental strength is what you will rely on in the end.

– THE RECORDED ACCOUNT OF KING LABYRINTH

They made a weapon that can destroy a universe.

Sickening, and exactly what Cynthia and I need.

What does it do now? They were on design number twenty-seven four years ago, and are still working on it from what I saw. It’s not what it once was.

How have they powered it?

Or have they not?

The entire image of Desdemona and her mother flickers out of my mind and I am left staring at the lunar lake. Perhaps Desdemona pulled herself out of the projection, because she’s not tethered to me anymore. I can’t feel her in my mind.

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