THE WORLD AROUND THOMAS blinked off, then on, then he was standing on the white sand, facing a bright blue horizon in perfect silence.
Here? Alone? Like a fist milking his veins, his heart throbbed. Time seemed to have stalled.
But he knew he couldn’t be alone. The boy . . .
The boy had to be here.
He turned ever so slowly. The boy stood twenty feet away, arms crossed, lips flat and gaze steady. Behind him, a green lake reflected the clear sky, like a shiny mirror.
“You want to save your son?” the boy asked.
“Yes.”
“You want to save Samuel?”
His lover’s face filled his mind. “Chelise . . .”
“Is with me,” the boy said.
Which could only mean Samuel was not.
“I . . . I can’t live without him.”
The boy looked at him for several long seconds, then shifted his eyes to the horizon. “I know how you feel.”
“I know this is within your power,” Thomas said. “If you would save all of Sodom for ten souls, you could give me the chance to save my one son.”
“I did save him,” the boy said, looking back.
“I’ll take that risk. I . . . You did?”
“But he turned his back. This isn’t just about you and your son. If I were to send you back you might help your son, but at what cost? The cost of saving even one is beyond you.”
He hadn’t thought of it in those terms.
The boy uncrossed his arms. “Walk with me.”
Thomas hurried forward on weak legs. He joined the boy, who reached up and took his hand as they walked along the shore of the lake behind.
“Will I ever see him again? Samuel.”
“Perhaps.”
“This isn’t the end, then.”
“The end? There is no end. Think of it as more like a beginning.”
“Will it be better or worse?”
“It depends.”
“On what?”
“On whether evil is embraced again. As long a humans remain human with a free will they will have the right to choose. Although the old beast has lost for now. For a time.”
They walked ten paces in silence. The boy’s fingers felt so small in his hand. Thomas looked at the water and for a few moments considered withdrawing his request to join the others. Chelise and Mikil . . . Kara. He could only imagine their pleasure now, dancing and tearing about like children.
“The others are waiting.”
“Where?”
The boy looked at the water. “Past the pool. In a new world.”
Thoughts swirled in Thomas’s head but his longing to dive deep pulled at him. This was his destiny now, to dive. Samuel had made his choice, he would leave his destiny up Elyon.
The boy stepped to one side and winked. “Are you ready?”
Thomas faced the glassy pool. “Dive? In here?”
“Dive deep,” the boy said.
Thomas took one last breath, nodded at the boy, and dove deep. Very, very deep.