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“Oh, Glass, no!” Kaz’s voice. “Attica…”
A shape moved past me toward the altar. I wasn’t looking.
I’d seen far too much already.
“Kaz, we have to go.” Draulin? Of course. They’d left her at the base of the pillar, unconscious, but she’d have woken up too. The antidote …
“Alcatraz.” Bastille sounded exhausted. “Who was up here with you? A ship flew down and carried them off. Why did they leave you? Can you hear me?”
No.
I didn’t want to hear.
“Pick him up, Bastille,” Draulin said, her voice hard. “With Leavenworth and Attica dead, Alcatraz is now the last member of the direct Smedry line. We must get him to safety.”
“They’re scattering quickly,” Kaz said, his voice tense with grief. “I think the Librarian leaders must not have turned off the detonation that Pop set up. Why would they abandon so much? The Highbrary itself? And my brother … What is going on here?”
Too many people saw strange things here, I wanted to whisper. So Biblioden is going to sacrifice them.
I couldn’t say it. Not with the sound of my father’s screams in my ears. I squeezed my eyes shut.
And let them carry me away.
Author’s Afterword
Yes, that’s it.
I tried to prepare you. I told you this was the ending, and that you weren’t going to like it.
The self-destruct device went off about an hour after we escaped. The Highbrary was destroyed, though it was passed off as an earthquake, as most of the destruction was underground. It did cause chaos in Washington, DC, which was already suffering from the battle that had taken place in the skies.
But the Librarians rebuilt it. Covered it up with some renovation project or another. They carefully went about interviewing people and finding out if they’d seen my speech. Then the Librarians wiped their memories of the event. It took forever, but they managed it.
Everything went back to normal.
I failed.
I can sense that you want more. I can sense that you’re expecting this story to continue. It won’t; I’m done. I’m no hero, and the truth is now out. That’s why I wrote these books.
In that moment when I could have sacrificed myself, I told them to take my father instead. My father, the man who could have stopped Biblioden. The man who understood more than anyone else about Lenses, the Incarna, and the nature of our enemies.
I let him die because I was too much of a coward to take his place.
With this, I end my autobiography. I won’t thank you for reading it. This was something you needed to read. Just like it was something I needed to say.
It is finally over.
I’m sorry.
THE END
