"And who's fault is that?"

  "It was your decision."

  "You didn't give me a choice, Nimien. Not really. You cornered me in a trap. You gave me a choice like a fox can choose between meeting the hunter or gnawing off its own leg."

  "And you grew a new leg in its place. Became something bolder, more powerful, more incredible."

  "Or I'm still standing in that damn trap, talking to the jerk who put me here. You know what? I'm leaving."

  "What? You said you would stay—"

  "You sound like a child, Nimien. I am not your plaything. I'm going home. I need a latte and a nice, warm bath."

  He snapped his fingers, and a monk with a clipboard came running. From where, I didn't know. No guns, no weapons, just a single clipboard and pen. He was bald, his monk's robes high on his neck. Once again, I was reminded of the child Nimien once was, but then, that was gone because the asshole he was now rambled.

  "Latte, done. We can get you the best latte in the universe. Have you had the ones from Silrunias Octo? No, you haven't yet, have you? They're divine. The milk comes from this creature, like your cows on Earth, but it can only be milked when it is serenaded by a horned snail. The thing is the cows have terrible hearing, so the snails have to perch on the cows’ ears, and the snails have to be incentivized to sing really loudly, which helps produce this milk which is like—"

  "Nimien! I don't want a fancy alien latte. I want to go back to the Jitterbug and get a coffee with my best friend, and I want you to not be stalking me when I get back. You need to stop following me. Get out of my life."

  "You don't mean it." He shoved a hand at the clipboard, knocking the young monk over.

  "Yeah, I really do."

  "After all I did for you?" The smile faltered, his lips lowering, curtains falling on a scene. "I made you what you are. I elevated you from your small life and gave you the universe on a plate, and now you won't even listen to what I have to say?"

  "We're just going in circles now, Nimien. Can I go home or are you going to keep me here against my will?"

  "I will keep Zander and Blayde here until the end of time. You mark my words."

  "Oh, wow, now you're threatening my friends again. What are you trying to achieve at this point? It's over. You've tarnished any memory I ever had of Matt and Nim. I've said no, and now I want to go home. Can you do that for me, please?"

  He shook his head—not no; he wasn't saying anything. He was just confused, lost. Shaking his head in complete desperation.

  "I don't get it, Sally. I really don't. I've had the entirety of space and time to think this through, to prepare meeting you. Today was supposed to be the best day of my life, and trust me, it's been a long life. I have a room in the library prepared for you, a suite on this ship where you would be more than a princess or empress or queen. I have a collection of rare books curated for you, based on everything you love. I can't tell you how many freaking table settings I had to pick through to decide how to fix up the mess hall for our grand celebration. I took everything into account, except you saying no."

  "Well, sorry, I guess? I don't like big events, and you should know that if you stalked me my entire life. Also, you should know that I was a goddess once, and it wasn't all that it was cut out to be, so I don't quite want a rerun of that."

  "I literally made you who you are today," he continued. "I set up everything to help cure you of your depression, and I haven't heard a single thank you."

  I couldn't help it; I burst out laughing. This was the most psychotic thing I had ever heard, and it was coming from my dead ex after I had just turned immortal, so life was a little hectic today anyway.

  "Cured me? Of my depression? You messed with my head! And I don't know what you thought you did with the whole pushing-me-to-be-immortal thing, but the stupid voice is still there! Except now, it's forever! So yeah, thank you, Nimien, for giving me an eternity with myself."

  "I made you my perfect girl."

  "Well, apparently your perfect girl is one who says ‘no’ to you."

  "Maybe I just wanted to make it harder for myself."

  "Wait, so now you think there's a chase? Trust me, there isn't." I took a step toward him, my mind made up, more determined than ever before. "I'm sorry, Nimien, that I left you for dead in the aftermath of the Youpaf invasion. I really thought you were gone forever. I mourned you, grieved for you. Zander and Blayde were never the same after your death either. But you, you've had Hubble time to get over this. You've had since the Big-freaking-Bang, before matter itself existed, to think this through. You’ve created the greatest repository of knowledge the universe has ever seen. You pulled it out of time to keep it safe. And what did you do with it? You created a trap for the only people in the universe who truly cared for you. If you had told us you were alive, we would have been the ones throwing the party. But, no, you wanted to torture my best friends and take me for yourself, which is so disgusting and weird I don't think I can ever wash it out of my mind. Your anger festered and rotted you to the core. I guess Nim really did die that day on ancient Earth because I'm not seeing him now. Goodbye, Nimien. Good luck with your library."

  I turned on my heels and stormed off down the corridor in the direction Zander and Blayde had been taken. My mind raced, and my tongue was numb from having spoken sparks. I turned the corner, realized I had no idea where I was going, and decided to keep walking forward, knowing every step took me farther away from the monster Nimien had become.

  My chin collided with the gray carpeting. The blow had come from behind, stronger than anything I had felt before, but there was no pain, only shock. I rolled over onto my back, only to see him standing above me, the slick silver clipboard in hand and a corner dripping with bright red blood.

  I felt my head. Crap. The bastard had hit me.

  "Don't you turn your back on me!" he hissed, bringing his foot down to squash my ribs, only somehow, I was faster. I grabbed his shoe and pushed him upward and away.

  He jumped, his balance regained. I pushed myself to my feet, too slow. He grabbed my hair and pulled back again, sending prickles down my spine. I reached up and gripped his half-charred shirt, tugging hard. This only served to rip off the buttons, but his grip on my hair relaxed, and I was on my feet again, running.

  I ran faster than I ever had before. He couldn't hurt me, no, but he could do much worse. Zander and Blayde had been in the mind prison for days at least. Who knew what else he had prepared within these walls.

  Chambers fit for a queen were still a prison cell if I was never allowed to leave.

  I didn't know where I was going. The white-on-white signposts gave no clear path, and he knew the library like the back of his hand. Still, I kept running.

  He appeared in the middle of the corridor, grinning as if waiting for me. This was fun for him, another game. I was just a rat in a maze. I spun around and flew in the opposite direction, forcing the tears out of my eyes.

  All the times I had been terrified flashed before my eyes, but this new fear eclipsed them all. Back then, my only fear had been of death. When death was the least of your worries, true terror came from places that were much, much worse.

  I took a staircase, taking the stairs three at a time. He couldn't catch up with me, he couldn't, he couldn't.

  I opened a door to a landing, and there he was, waving. I slammed it shut and ran upstairs instead, to confuse him, but he knew and was waiting for me there as well. Each time, smiling wide, like we were long-lost friends. I ran back down the stairs, my bones faster than my own skin.

  I threw open a door, and there he was—again.

  "Why are you doing this to me?" I screamed. "Why won't you just let me leave?"

  Then I realized nothing he could ever say would make me go “Oh, that makes sense. None of this was creepy at all,” and I slammed the door back in his face.

  There had to be something I could do to stop him long enough so he couldn't follow me.

  I patted myself down. I was still wearing the wire Felling had given me, a microphone and a battery pack, full-on 90s mode. Other than that, I only had my phone with me, though there was no cell service in a library outside of time. Blayde had taken her pointer back, and I wasn't one for knives or guns.

  I saw what I had to do and threw up in the corner of the stairs.

  The next time I opened the door and saw his face smiling back at me, I looped the wire around his neck and pulled tight.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  I Used to Think Being Trapped in a Library Was a Dream

  Sally

  He didn't jump. He didn't even struggle, not right away. First came the shock, the look of pure surprise as he realized I wasn't running away. That I wasn't crying anymore. Then, the anger, the redness in his face as oxygen cut off and he started to truly choke. I pulled tighter, tighter than I ever had before, letting the wire cut through my hands, tear between the digits. I wanted to be strong enough to snap his head clean off.

  But it was the last look that caught me off guard. As I pulled tighter, he started to smile. He looked—of all things—proud. Content. And as he crumpled to the ground like a used tissue, he actually looked happy to be there.

  I threw up again.

  I hadn't really killed him. He would come back in five minutes or so, hopefully enough time for me to find Zander and Blayde and hightail it out of here. But I had still pulled the cord around the neck of a man I had once loved, and it had felt ...

  It had felt good.

  The rest of my last meal ended up on the floor beside him. He was right; he had changed me. And something like this? I would never lose it again.

  So, I went back to the one thing I was consistently mediocre at and ran.

  I found Zander and Blayde in the hangar bay. They could have left without me but instead were milling around a large pressure-sealed door, like they were waiting for a Black Friday sale to start.

  I didn't even have time to see Zander standing there before he jumped to my side, wrapping his arms around me. I fell into them, welcoming their warm embrace. I wanted to burst into tears. There was too much inside me that needed to come out, but first we had to get out of this cursed place, away from Nimien.

  He wasn't truly dead.

  I had killed him.

  He wasn't really dead.

  I had killed a man.

  "Right." Blayde pointed finger guns at me. Weird, I kinda liked it. New dynamic with me dating her brother, I guess. If you could call it dating. "We gotta go. The library's on fire. I'm not sure if Nimien did anything about that yet, but let's get away from this place."

  "Nimien just let you leave?" asked Zander.

  "We had a really good talk," I replied, "and I made it very clear I don't appreciate my life being yanked around like that. Then I left."

  "And he was all right with that."

  "I don't really care what he thinks."

  "Ah, so I'm right, and we're doing my plan," said Blayde. Of course, she looked excited. She rubbed her palms together, grinning.

  "You have a plan?"

  "Well, we had to do something if Nimien turned out to have completely lost his soul," she said. "And we came up with something quite clever. Where is he now?"

  "I kinda ... well"—my voice dropped to a whisper—"choked him to death."

  "Woah, badass!" Blayde let out a low whistle. Zander's grip slacked for a split second and was twice as tight the next. This meant two things: one, they took the news way better than I would have, and two, maybe they weren't that great an influence.

  "The idea is quite simple," she continued, as if I hadn't just admitted to killing a man. "This library contains so much information, it would create an anomaly if it contained any information about itself. Simple quantum information theory. We came here through one of the nodes, where that information is stored. My plan is to upload the information here, as we travel back to Abryria, and ... well, I'm not sure what would happen to the library once it contains itself, but it'll either implode, turn into a black hole, or become a Denny's."

  "A Denny's?" I balked.

  "A distinct possibility."

  "The fast food chain? The one on Earth?"

  "If Denny's have arrived on Earth, then you are truly and royally screwed. But anyway, ready to get away from this wretched place?"

  I nodded slowly, extracting myself from Zander's arms. I immediately missed the warmth.

  I didn't deserve the warmth. I was a murderer.

  "What about Nimien?" I turned back toward the library's grand entrance. "If we leave him here during the implosion? And the Berbabsywell monks who work for him?"

  Blayde nodded. "I'm sure there's an emergency release. This library exists outside of time. There must be a way to eject everyone at once. I'll see if I can control that when I start the upload. And as for Nimien? He'll make it."

  The harshness of her tone was palpable, sharp as her namesake.

  "He'll either end up ejected with them or wake up at the Big Bang again. He can't die. In danger, he'll just jump away. Natural instinct." Zander reached out for my hand. "Come on, Sally."

  I didn't know if he was trying to make me feel better or if that was what happened to him—to us—when death wasn't easily reparable. Leaving him to die would be murdering him. I thought the guilt was bad now, but knowing I could take his life entirely was a whole new level of shame.

  "Sally, it’s going to be okay."

  I looked up at Zander, forcing a smile. He didn't smile back. He said nothing. I said nothing. There was nothing that could be said that made any of this okay.

  To me, it felt like we were abandoning Nim all over again. My heart broke, while my gut filled with nausea. Trying to keep these two thoughts in line was like trying to get two cats to work together. I wanted to be free of Nimien, but I didn't want to kill him. I didn't want to abandon Nim the way we had on ancient Earth, but I couldn't very well save him when he was hell-bent on keeping us trapped here.

  At least I wasn't alone in making this decision. Blayde had already stormed through what I thought had been a pressurized door, taking over the control panel near the center of the bright white room, doing who knew what with the commands. By the time I had processed what we were about to do, she had somehow conjured a beam of light and held it suspended in the air like it was no big deal.

  "All aboard the light beam! Next stop, Abryria!" She swiped her finger across the digital board.

  "This is very ... Peter Pan, I guess." I followed her lead toward the beam.

  "Oh, you know Pan?" She grinned. "Now that's a messed-up dude. Hella fine wine, though."

  And with that, we walked into the light, and the library toppled behind us.

  Unlike jumping, this voyage was bright, explosively so. My eyes saw nothing but white as the universe wooshed by me, which I guess shouldn't have been possible at all, seeing as how we were traveling faster than light ever had a right to. All in all, though, 10/10 would recommend traveling by light beam: We arrived at our destination in the blink of an eye, and there was no vomiting involved, which was a nice step up for me.

  "Oh, veesh," said Blayde, stepping out of the landing pad. Around us were the bones of long-dead aggressors, knives jutting out of their remains, along with things that really shouldn't have been used for impaling. One skeleton was entirely wrapped in a trail of post-it notes, which was simultaneously odd and rather eye-catching.

  "What happened here?" I asked, trying not to let the spookiness overwhelm me. There was no sound other than our own footfalls, nothing but death all around us. I shivered, though the room wasn't all that cold.

  "They were fighting over who got to kill us," said Zander, reaching for my hand again. I wanted to tell him I didn't need reassuring until I realized he wasn't doing it for me. "I guess no one did, in the end."

  "It's better than what happened to Kizkim." Blayde shuddered.

  "What happened to Kizkim?" I asked. "Wait, who is Kizkim?"

  "Nothing good."

  "Wait, what part of my question was that answering?"

  "Both."

  Not quite the answer I was hoping for, but it was something.

  We walked through the long-abandoned halls of an ancient museum, seeing no one, hearing nothing. Though the lights remained off, our eyes adjusted quickly to the gloom, allowing us to see our way through. Another new skill I would have to get used to.

  The siblings seemed to know where they were going. We made our way through a hall that looked like an airport terminal until they broke down a door and led us outside, where we emerged on a rooftop airstrip occupied by a single ship.

  It was an ugly thing. Part of it looked like the hopper we had used back on Nim's home world, something lovely from vintage Star Trek, but with more windows. That and the giant turbojet thing that was strapped to its roof, threatening to crush the ship any second. The engine was bigger than the ship itself, tied together with slack ropes and wild bolts. A child could have done a better job.

  "Dave from Accounting!" shouted Blayde ecstatically, rushing forward to wrap her arms around the hull. "Davey boy! I missed you!"

  Before I had a chance to ask what the hell was going on, the ship lit up. The massive engine made a sputtering noise as the internal lights flickered on, the ship seemingly awaking from a long slumber.

  And none too happy about it.

  "Do you have any idea what time it is?" the ship scolded, its voice warbling, reminding me oddly of my grandfather.

  "Hey, the library was held out of time," Blayde explained, patting the ship as one would a horse. "We had no way of knowing our return wouldn't be when we left."

  "That's what took so damn long?" the ship called Dave spat, which was an impressive sound for a ship to make. "You made me wait decades, and that was your excuse? Go to your room, young lady, and no friends for a month."

  "Dave, I have neither friends nor a room here," she said, pulling away. "Not to mention, you are not my father. Or grandfather. You don't get to ground me."

  "And you! Young man, you were out of line as well!" the ship said to Zander. "You march your ass over here for a paddlin'!"

 

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