Beyond the End of the World by Kaufman Amie & Spooner Meagan

Author:Kaufman, Amie & Spooner, Meagan [Kaufman, Amie & Spooner, Meagan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Young Adult, Science Fiction, Romance, Adventure
ISBN: 9780062893369
Amazon: 006289336X
Goodreads: 40622777
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2022-01-18T08:00:00+00:00

Eighteen

North

My hands are fists. For a long moment, that’s the only detail I can focus on, my brain shying away from everything I’ve just seen, everything I’ve just heard.

But as always, my gaze is dragged back to Nimh, and her expression answers the terrible question that’s stirring in my gut.

She told me the gods left her people to flee to the clouds.

She didn’t tell me that she thought I was a very specific god. That I had some part to play in the insanity of this place—that the murderers who came for her would come for me too.

She didn’t bring me here to help me find a way home. She brought me here because she thinks I’m someone worth killing to possess.

Wrathmaker.

Eater of Worlds.

Destroyer.

Lightbringer.

I’m not any of those things. I’m no part of this. I want to run as far and as fast as I can, but I’m frozen in place.

The hectic clash of my thoughts is interrupted when Inshara speaks again on the other side of the wall.

“There is an easy way to settle this,” she says into perfect stillness—the musicians have trailed off and the crowd draws back. “Bring me your false goddess, and the boy as well.”

The high priest draws his robes around him, straightens his back. Nimh was right—he’s a formidable man. He has his voice under control when he replies, “The Divine One is not here. And if she were, not a one of us would hand her over to you.”

Inshara clicks her tongue at him like he’s a naughty child. “I think she is here.”

Daoman’s thunderous expression darkens. “You are a dark magician and a blasphemer—your kind is not welcome here! Go now, and do not return.”

Inshara lifts one hand, fingers twitching in a quick gesture, and I hear Nimh gasp beside me, a small, frightened sound.

And where she stands between Inshara and Daoman, Elkisa slowly lifts her knife, hand trembling, to press it to her own throat. The whites of her eyes showing, she tilts her head back, trying to avoid the blade. Beside me, Nimh’s whimpering now, small involuntary noises escaping with each breath. I fight the urge to reach out for her, despite everything she’s done to bring us to this place.

“If you insist,” the false goddess says casually, “I will kill you one by one until she reveals herself, or one of you directs me to her. The choice is yours.”

Nimh’s eyes are closed now, and by the piecemeal light that makes it through the wooden cutouts, I can see the tears streaming down her cheeks, leaving behind gray lines as they track the kohl from her eyes over her skin.

I’ve been trained for moments like this, and I’m sure she has been too. I hated every second of it as I sat listening to my teachers. I vowed that whatever they said, I’d give myself up in an instant for my grandfather, my mothers, for my friends.

But now I find myself here, I know the answer. I know what she has to do—what she can’t do.

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