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But Connor was shaking his head.
“No?” Ithan asked.
His brother nodded to Ithan’s clenched fist, clutching the black bullet. Connor opened his mouth, but still, no sound emerged.
“Oh, please,” Jesiba said, and turned to Hypaxia. “Order him to speak already.”
Hypaxia’s brows rose. “Speak.”
Connor blew out a breath, distinctly audible. Hypaxia was truly the mistress of this place. Ithan marveled at it.
And it was his brother’s voice, the voice he’d known his whole life, that insisted, “Don’t send us off into the ether.”
“Connor …,” Ithan started.
Connor held Hypaxia’s stare. “Don’t miss this opportunity.” He began walking down the stairs—nearly running—and it was all they could do to follow him. With that strong, sure grace, his brother stalked down the empty avenue flanked with strangely carved obelisks. All the way to the Dead Gate, its crystal muted in the dimness.
Only when they stood before it did Connor speak again. “That bullet,” Connor said, nodding to where Ithan held it, “was made by us—the dead. For Bryce.” A soft, pained smile crossed his face at her name. “To use with the Godslayer Rifle.”
“What’s so special about it?” Jesiba demanded.
“Nothing yet. But it was crafted to hold us. Our secondlight.” As if in answer, the Gate began to glow. “We had planned to make contact with Jesiba—to ask her, through her role in Flame in Shadow, to get in touch with one of you.” Connor shrugged with one shoulder. “But when you appeared earlier, Ithan, with the Under-King distracted … Well, it was a little earlier than we’d planned, but everyone was ready. I think Urd made it so.” After all Ithan had heard and experienced, he didn’t doubt his brother’s claim. “So they began the exodus through this Gate. They were finishing when I was summoned to you.”
A conduit, like the one Bryce had drawn from in the spring.
“All of our secondlight, from every soul here,” Connor said quietly. “It’s yours to put in that bullet. Use it well.”
Ithan’s throat constricted. “But if you … if you turn into secondlight—”
“I’m already gone, Ithan,” Connor said gently. “And I can think of no better way to end my existence than by striking a blow for all our ancestors who’ve been trapped and consumed by the Asteri.” He nodded to the bullet, the glowing Gate illuminating his face. “Look at the engraving.”
Memento Mori. The letters gleamed in the Gate’s pale light.
Jesiba let out a quiet laugh. “Got the idea from me, did you?”
Connor’s mouth quirked up at a corner. Ithan nearly broke down at that half smile. Gods, he’d missed it. Missed his big brother.
But the Dead Gate glowed brighter—as if the time had come. As if it couldn’t hold all those souls, the secondlight they’d become, much longer.
Connor said to Ithan, “You do make me proud, you know. Every day before now, and every day after. Nothing you do will ever change that.”
Something ruptured in Ithan’s chest. “Connor—”
“Tell Bryce,” Connor said, eyes shining as he stepped toward the glowing Gate, a wall of light now shimmering in the empty arch, “to make the shot count.”
Connor stepped into the archway and faded into that wall of light.
He was gone. And this time it was just as unbearable, as unfathomable to have had his brother here, to see him and speak to him and lose him again—
The light began shrinking and contracting, pulsating, and Ithan could have sworn he heard the hissing of Reapers rushing toward them in the distance. The light shivered and imploded, condensing into a tiny seed of pure light.
It floated in the Gate’s archway, thrumming with such power that the hair on Ithan’s arms rose.
“Put it in the bullet,” Jesiba ordered Ithan, who unscrewed its cap and gingerly approached the seed.
All the souls of the people here … the dreams of the dead, their love for the living …
Ithan gently slid the bullet around the seed of light and replaced the cap. He lifted the bullet between his thumb and forefinger, its point digging into his skin.
