Page 149 of The Midnight Knock

Still, Hunter held him. “I’m going to go now.”

Ethan said, “All right.”

Hunter said, “I love you, Ethan Cross.”

Ethan met his gaze. “I know.”

Hunter closed his eyes for a moment, let out a small smile. He nodded, probably because this was the best he was going to get. He let go, stepped away, and raised the knife again. He approached the Jack Allen that been stupid enough to grab Te’lo’hi, to ever think he could control a god. There was a mangled stump on the man’s arm where the hand had been hacked away. A look of horror in his dark eyes.

Even frozen in space, Jack Allen had changed. He looked small and outplayed, pathetic in a way that was almost painful to fathom. In that moment, Ethan felt something he’d have never thought possible.

He was grateful his mother had died. He was grateful she would never have to see what her father had become.

Hunter slashed open the man’s other wrist. He ran the blade along Jack Allen’s neck. He buried the blade in the man’s weeping eyes and dug them out, one by one. He sank the knife into Jack Allen’s chest, deep in his heart.

Hunter thumped his own chest with his fist. He was wheezing bad. He looked at Ethan one last time. He opened his mouth, thought better of it. He gave Ethan a nod.

Time surged forward, all at once. The Jack Allens around the platform fell to their knees, clutching their slit throats. The one to whom Hunter had given special attention was screaming, blood jetting from his wounds.

Hunter moved fast. He grabbed the man by the arm and heaved him forward, across the platform, and planted his shoulder against Jack Allen’s back. The man in the gabardine suit was powerless to stop him as Hunter pushed them both right to the edge of the column of silver light. Even through his pain and his blindness, Jack Allen seemed to realize what was happening. He dug in his heels. He tried to stop it.

With a wheezing roar and the last of his strength, Hunter slammed himself against Jack Allen, hurling them both into the air.

When the two men struck the silver column, a boom ripped through the air. A boom, and a flash of light, and the echoes of two voices amidst the noise.

Jack Allen was saying, “Love me. Love me. Love me.”

The other voice was calm. Grateful. Sad. “Thanks, Ethan. For everything.”

There wasn’t time for any sort of sentiment. With time moving again, Kyla was at Ethan’s side, staring down at the wailing god, saying to Ethan, “What the hell just happened?”

“I’ll tell you later.”

there is no later

there is no tomorrow

THERE IS NO NOW

Sarah Powers lay in a pool of blood, struggling to stand. The Attendant was dead. The column of silver light was glowing brighter than ever.

And Te’lo’hi was screaming.

Kyla shot Ethan a panicked look. She said to the little god, “Why don’t you justleave?”

The child looked at her.

leave?

“You can exist anywhere, right?”

i don’t

i don’t know

“She’s right,” Ethan said. “If your full power is awakening, then doesn’t that mean you can travel anywhere now? Go find some corner of the galaxy where nobody lives. Just go and release all your energy there?”

i