Page 29 of The Infinite Glade
Writing all of this down . . . will anyone even understand? Will anyone even read this or will this get thrown into the Flare Pits like a body that used to be a person. A mind that used to be its own . . .
The Flare takes things away, but bloody hell is it giving certain things back. Things that feel like I’ve always known, but I don’t remember from where. There’s numbers I can see in my mind. So many numbers floating.
—The Book of Newt
CHAPTERNINE
Griever Alive
TheMaze Cutterleft a wake through Alaska’s cold, blue waters. Alexandra closed her eyes and breathed in a lung full of ocean air. The Goddess never imagined, not even in her nightmares, that the very home above Alaska’s Maze would catch fire. Never mind it all.
The Evolution would rise from the destruction. Of this, she was certain.
“Stop, knock it off,” Sadina’s girlfriend was laughing, very gaily.
Alexandra winced.Why must they laugh at nothing?Their acts of simplicity were a mark of stupidity. The Goddess tried to crack her neck to release tension, but ever since she’d ordered Nicholas’ head removed, her own head felt heavier. A weight that she felt—from pressure behind her eyes all the way to the pounding in her ears. Her vision dispersed to red static again. Her feet shuffled below her. She turned from the railing of theMaze Cutterand spotted the cabin steps and door to the lower level. She needed to sit in the Infinite Glade. She hadn’t had a single moment to herself since the war started; surely that was the source of all the dizziness. Her thoughts needed a moment to catch up with themselves.
Steps to the cabin creaked, and the cold air from below reminded her just how frigid the waters of Alaska were at this time of year.Ugh. The lower level of the ship smelled like a Hollowing. She pulled her cloak over her nose. Her feet on the wooden floor echoed—in her mind—the sound of Flint’s knees hitting the ground when he collapsed. Destruction . . . she once thought she was immune to it, but seeing everything happen so quickly and so out of her control infuriated her. She sat underneath a small window in the cabin. She remained the only living Godhead, exactly what she wanted . . . and yet she had never felt more powerless.
She closed her eyes and rubbed the back of her neck with both hands. She inhaled for three seconds, held her breath for three seconds, and exhaled for three seconds. The Goddess concentrated on nothing, nothing except clearing her mind of the way things should have been, forgetting all that ever was, including the war.Mikhail be damned.She breathed in for three seconds, held her breath for three seconds, and exhaled for three seconds. A ritual as important as the digits. She . . . entered the realms within her own mind. In the open, empty, vast space of nothingness and everythingness, she floated inside that place in her mind where anything was possible and all was revealed.
The Infinite Glade.
Colors and shapes swirled around her within the Infinite Glade as if to ask herwhat would you like to know?
She needed to know more about the book Sadina held. Nicholas had always hoarded his knowledge from her, but now the Evolution would bring information back to everyone. The sun would illuminate all that stands; knowledge would soon become visible to all.
It starts with the Cure.
It started with Newt.
Her mind spun with images of the Goddess herself holding on to the book. Pages flipped in front of her. A feeling of power rushed over Alexandra with every glimpse of Newt’s book. Greater than any feeling, even more overwhelming than the Cure Nicholas had injected into her at Crank Palace all those years ago.What is in that book?
The sound of footsteps descended into the cabin, and Alexandra watched as theBook of Newtclosed and dropped out of her vision . . .
“Excuse me . . . Mrs. Goddess. I have a question.”
Sadina.
Alexandra opened her eyes. Had it not been the girl, the one she needed most, Alexandra might have snapped. But it was Dear Sadina, the one whose very own blood held elements of Newt’s blood. “Yes, Dear Sadina, bring me all your questions and I’ll give you fitting answers.” Alexandra straightened her back as her head pounded with more pressure. The red heat of war warmed her face. The Goddess felt her forehead.
“Are you okay?” Sadina asked.
“Oh my, yes.” Alexandra answered. “Was that your question?”
“No . . .” Sadina looked at the Goddess as if she was unsure. “You just seem sick or something.”
“The Godhead has evolved past sickness, my dear.” She pulled Sadina’s hand into her own. “Ask me what you really want to know.”
“What’ll happen when we get to the Villa? Can they talk to the other Villas?” Sadina moved closer to her, sitting on the edge of her cloak. Alexandra tried not to let it bother her but the Goddess wasn’t used to people being so close that they sat on top of her garments. She pulled the cloak from under Sadina’s thigh. “Oh, . . . sorry,” the sweet girl said.
“Don’t you worry. When we arrive at the Villa, there are three women scientists who are at the very top of what they do. And they will, with your permission, draw some of your blood—the bloodline of Sonya and Newt—to help with a Cure and the Evolution.” Alexandra couldn’t help but smile thinking about this sacred lineage. She kept her smile to a tiny grin.
“But they talk to the other Villas?” Sadina asked quietly.
Other Villas weren’t something Alexandra worried about. Or cared about. Her neck tensed at the idea of more Villas, more Remnant Nations, more Mikhails and Nicholases out in the world somewhere. Heat pulsed behind her eyes and pain traveled at the base of her head.
Sadina looked up at Alexandra expectantly.
