The Rift Coda
Page 32
“But, Ryn,” Levi says grimly, “it’s not just about the truth. Every single government on Earth was complicit in recruiting child soldiers. The whole system has to be dismantled. You get that, right? That we’re the ones that are going to have to enforce this change and most people are not going to be down with that idea. At all.”
I lift my head and stare into the Rift. “Oh, I know. That’s why I already had Doe hack into every secure government mainframe so they can’t just nuke us all. They can’t even do anything actually. They’re locked out. They’d have to use carrier pigeons to move their own troops.”
Levi looks long and hard at me. “So what you’re saying is that we actually run the world right now? Like, for real?”
“Yeah, but you’re still thinking about this from the outside in. The change has to start right here. From this place.”
“What do you mean?”
I let go of Levi completely and take two steps forward. “We take people through. We show them. Not just the scientists and historians and anthropologists and journalists, but the poets and priests and the imams and rabbis and the skeptics. We prove how incomprehensibly huge the Multiverse is and how our teeny part takes up just a fraction of it. That’s how we get things to change. By offering something more, something incredible.”
I don’t need to look at Levi to know he’s folding his arms. I can tell by the tone his voice takes. “You’re putting a lot of faith in mankind.”
“But it won’t just be mankind, will it? Who’s going to argue with an angel?” I say cheekily. “We don’t have to do this alone.” I turn to him. “We can’t. We shouldn’t. We need our allies. We have Navaa and Cosmos and Henry and Zaka—Varesh can fuck off, but we ask for help and we make things better.”
Levi looks thoughtful. There is still daylight, but the sun is so weak that the neon green of the Rift illuminates his face. “Yeah, but better for us isn’t better for everyone. Human immigrants, from other countries on this Earth have a hard time. Maybe all this enlightenment is too much to ask.”
I walk into his arms and hold him. Or, rather, I let him hold me. “Probably,” I say as I look up at him. “But just imagine, an Earth where no one suffers, no one gets sick or goes hungry or kills each other over land. We can give that to the world. I mean, we have to try.”
“And if people don’t like it? If people like the world the way it is now?” I realize he’s playing devil’s advocate, but now he’s just being annoying.
“Then we send them to another one,” I say with a smile (although, really, I’m not joking).
I can feel Levi nod his head. “Okay. It’s not perfect, but let’s try it. Together.”
I look up at him, deep into his eyes, and kiss him on the lips. “Always,” I whisper. “You’re stuck with me and, full disclosure, I might not be completely sane.”
“It’s too late,” he tells me, his face breaking into a wide-open grin. “I already love you.”
At that, my heart seems to settle a little deeper into my chest. “I love you, too,” I whisper back.
It feels so good to say those words out loud, without a caveat or a “one day”—without worrying that I don’t deserve it, that I’m not good enough or the things that I’ve done have made me despicable. Love isn’t something that you have to earn, although perhaps it is something that you have to be worthy of. I know now . . .
I am worthy.
I look to the shimmering ripple of the Rift. I wanted my freedom and I got it, or at least a version of it. Because it’s never going to be complete. I am tethered to this towering, luminous doorway. Forever. And I suppose that some might not see that as liberation at all, but I do. The Rift is a choice now and a privilege. I turn to Levi. “Let’s start right now. This doesn’t need to be here anymore. We get to decide where and when to open up the door,” I tell him gently. I keep hold of his hand, though, and walk him closer to the Rift. I stare into its swirling emerald waves. I can hear its song, spilling out from every direction and seeping into my skin. It doesn’t tug at me. It knows it can’t have me that way anymore. The Rift that almost killed me, almost killed us all, is now our greatest hope of surviving. “Doe!” I shout with pure glee. “Shut this thing down.”
There is a slight lag and then it is simply gone, without a trace, and the battleground is empty.
Acknowledgments
It isn’t easy saying good-bye to Ryn. I’ve lived with her in my head and in my heart for years now. I’ve watched her grow, mature, evolve, and step up to become a fearsome defender and thoughtful leader. Just as it is with my own children, I had no idea what she would become but I always knew what she was capable of.
I have to thank, first and foremost, my incredible agent, Yfat Reiss Gendell, who had to wait five whole years until I managed to deliver a manuscript that she could sell—and sell it she did, like a total rock star. The entire team at Foundry Media is amazing, but I have to give a special shout-out to Jessica Felleman for her patience and many, many discussions about Ryn and her world.
David Pomerico at Harper Voyager is just about the best editor a girl could ask for. David believed in the Rift way before it was even called the Rift. He has stood behind me and beside me to help me build this incredible world. There are so many others at Harper who have been instrumental in this journey. Notably, Priyanka Krishnan, another incredible editor (and SDCC partner in crime), Caroline Perny, Kayleigh Webb, and Pamela Jaffee.
A lot of people have helped me sell this trilogy, so I’d like to thank the teams at Wunderkind, BookSparks, Section 101, and Sneak Attack Media.
Personally, I’d like to acknowledge my Ride or Dies: Lisa Rockower (who has read every iteration of every single one of these books; whew, that is real friendship), Sam Brickman, and Claire Coffee, who is just about the most amazing book narrator in the world and a dear friend. I would also like to thank Kiki Teal Littlestar, life coach, friend, and badass entrepreneur. She made me a Perlena once I joined her co-working space, and that has been such a gift. To know that as a woman I have a safe place where I can always go to write, vent, learn, and be part of a community is such a blessing for me as a writer. In fact, I’d like to thank all the ladies of the Perlene for sharing so much of their fantastic energy with me and for giving me such unwavering support.
I’m also part of a greater writing community at large. So, I would like to give a shout-out to some fellow writers who along the way have shown up for me. Sam Maggs, Danielle Page, James Dashner, Margaret Stohl, Melissa de la Cruz (and the Yallwest folks in general), Tamora Pierce, April Henry, and my sometimes con husband, Richard Kadrey.
A final thanks to my parents and the rest of my very large and wonderful family. Finally, I want to say thank you so very much to my husband, Matt, who is not only an excellent beta reader but who gives me the space emotionally, physically, and practically to write every day. And to our kids, Mike, Eva, and Vaughn, who inspire me every day. I love you all.
About the Author
AMY S. FOSTER is a celebrated and award-winning songwriter, best known as Michael Bublé’s writing partner, and has collaborated with Beyoncé, Diana Krall, Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban, and a host of other artists. She is the author of the Rift Uprising trilogy and When Autumn Leaves. When she’s not in a studio in Nashville, she lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family.
www.amysfoster.com
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By Amy S. Foster
The Rift Uprising Trilogy
The Rift Uprising
The Rift Frequency
The Rift Coda
When Autumn Leaves
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
the rift coda. Copyright © 2018 by Amy S.
Foster. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Harper Voyager and design are trademarks of HarperCollins Publishers LLC.
first edition
Title page background texture by Nik Merkulov/Shutterstock, Inc.
Cover illustration by Larry Rostant
Cover photographs © Shutterstock
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
Digital Edition October 2018 ISBN: 978-0-06-244325-0
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-244323-6
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